Thank you. I will certainly take this as a learning experience if I decide to try to get another sitter. I’m new to this and because the only other sitters I had were fine I didn’t anticipate any problems. In fact, I thought these sitters would be even better as I liked them. I think that’s one reason why I feel so let down & disappointed.
I completely understand the point about different standards of cleaning but cannot understand the two different stories or leaving my dog before he could be picked up.
I have put in a dispute email so will see what happens.
My dog is very happy where he is and I’m having a good time and trying not to think about this bad experience.
I took a look at your listing really quick and I was shocked: your house looks uncluttered, modern and very clean! They might have found a little dust, and a few spiders, but your dog looks like an awesome pup and your space is very inviting to sitters. You did nothing wrong, offered a solution that would have solved all problems they seemed to have and I really hope you get to enjoy your vacation. Nobody leaves a pet sit like that, because of dust-spider and later on, a family emergency, (what a coincidence). They wanted to leave for an unknown reason, and they found a million excuses to go. I’m so sorry this happened to you.
Your home and Ben look lovely @Cairokid and you certainly did not deserve sitters like that. Do make sure you review them within the 14 day period - honest, factual and unemotional. Glad you are enjoying your cruise a little more and Ben is being well cared for.
This is horrible and thankfully not typical of THS. Don’t cancel the sit it needs to show that they didn’t fulfill their side of the agreement. I am a sitter and a Home Owner. Every house old or modern will have spiders in October. I am a bit OCD about cleanliness but I can’t guarantee that underneath one of our exceptionally heavy sofas is dust free underneath.
Their profile should mention their allergies. Who does animal sits with these specific allergies. How do you do autumn dog walk without bumping into spiders.
Don’t cancel the sit on here, and make sure you leave an honest review. I hope these terrible and dishonest sitters get booted off the site! I am so sorry they abused your trust, but most sitters would never behave like this. Unfortunately sometimes we get unlucky through no fault of our own.
I have completed many house sits and have also come across occasional spiders. This can happen anywhere but is more expected in rural areas and older properties. If you know you have a phobia you really shouldn’t be housesitting. Also if I am sitting for elderly persons I really don’t expect the house to be perfect. In fact I find myself trying to help out and do some extra cleaning for them.
wow this is absolutely terrible and should be investigated by THS and if necessary these “sitters” should be struck off the books as it sounds like they are totally irresponsible and telling different stories to cover themselves. The spider story just goes to far. I absolutely hate spiders but whilst living in Seattle for a while I was the one who had to chase the Huntsman every evening and throw them out ( THEY are really scary) . But then adding on the sudden had to leave to go to family emergency is probably just a load of new lies as they do not sound at all responsible. The final point for me for having them struck off THS is that they actually left the sit and your dog and just called your daughter
How awful that you ended up having to make these arrangements whilst traveling and incur all these costs. ( as i get the idea that you are not covered by the THS insurance)
I do hope that THS takes this beyond serious and takes these people off the site as it sounds like they are of the new Gen THS’ers that probably only joined for free holiday accommodation
Oh, what a horrible and stressful situation for you. As a sitter who has sit in a home with a lot of spiders and dust, I simply vacuumed and dusted often. I wouldn’t dream of leaving a pet without supervision. I suspect this couple simply didn’t want to fulfill their obligation, and coming up with a later excuse of a “family emercency” doesn’t ring true.
Hopefully you’ve reported them to THS.
Please do not cancel the sit. They abandoned your pet. If it were me, I would not cancel the sit, leave a bad factual review, and raise a dispute with member services. There are good sitters on this forum
@Cairokid I read the review you left. Well done. Factual, to the point and not emotional. I hope your next sitter is wonderful and takes the best care of Ben. Onwards and upwards.
Excellent review of the sitters, @Cairokid . An ideal response to their review would be “Please see my review of this sitter for more information about this sit”.
I hope you and Ben get a wonderful sitter next time!
@Cairokid I too have read your review and commend you for this. Reading it so starkly has actually made me a little sad that someone could behave in this way.
I am also sorry to see they have left you a 3-star review. However, as someone impartial, it strikes me as odd that they would travel so far, then return home on the basis of spiders and dust (especially as there are far more spiders in their home town than in England!) I think @belluca’s recommendation for a response is perfect for the benefit of potential future sitters.
As someone with appalling arachnophobia, I can sympathise with that sitter. I’ve actually done a sit where I made some jokey remark, just as the HOs were leaving, about my arachnophobia… To which they merrily replied “Oh, that’s a pity, this house is FULL of spiders!” - and off they went.
To compound the terror, the bed I was meant to be sleeping in was a futon…! After a few minutes’ blind panic, I had a flash of extreme resourcefulness: Luckily, the sit was close enough to my own home that I could drive back and grab my tent, which is one of those pod-type things with a sewn-in groundsheet. And I spent a week sleeping in it, in the bedroom, secure in the knowledge that no evil eight-legged freak was going to jump me in the night.
It was a very good thing I did, too: When I came to strip the bed at the end of the sit (what, confess to the HOs that I’m the Universe’s No.1 wimp??) there were no fewer than three beefy spiders IN it. That would have taken twenty years off my already advanced life.
All that said… The sitters should NOT have bailed on you like that. That’s inexcuseable. As has been said, there were two of them, for crying out! Besides which, if you know you’re that phobic and dust-sensitive, you travel with a can of zapper -I know I do - and you don’t apply for sits at old houses. And then they trotted out an obvious lie. Grrr! Report them, please.
Very good review @Cairokid , factual and to the point. If I were a HO, I would not want these sitters. You can leave a response @belluca has made a great suggestion. I hope you have reported them.
I hope you are able to enjoy your vacation now!! Please do not cancel the sit yourself and DO leave a review with the whole truth – you’ll be doing other pet owners a favor by doing so.
I have had a total of 8 sits with THS and all but one have been terrific. This particular sitter freaked out about a few things but once she messaged me that THERE WERE ANTS!!! (as if it were an emergency) … I had to have a whole conversation about finding what they were going for, removing it, putting ant traps out (I don’t use sprays in my home), etc. The only star I ever lost from sitters was hers … for “cleanliness”… I have a large home with a large garden and animals in and out all the time . Oh well. Sometimes we make assumptions about people but not everyone is like us.
NOW I interview sitters and tell them that if they’re afraid of bugs or a little garden dirt getting tracked in it’s not a suitable sit for them… period. That has stopped the uber-sensitive from sitting (or, at least it has stopped any complaints). In a way, it’s good to find out the “bad” things that people think… then you can remedy it and/or bring it up to potential sitters.
So sorry you went through that. You dog is now safe and cared for and yes, it sucks about the added expense but it’s a done deal, so go have fun!!!
And do leave a review if possible! … even if you just copy and past what you’ve shared with us.
Safe travels!!
They sit as a couple. Why couldn’t the one with the problems go elsewhere and the other stay until you had worked out alternative arrangements ? There is no excuse for abandoning your beautiful dog even for a family emergency. One could have gone immediately.
This is not usual. We are not all hair brained as these two. As I think I suggested before (as a joke) we should have an A Team that swops into situations like this and shows the let down host what THS is all about. We could even have a funky van and some upbeat music!
I hope you enjoy your holiday.
I think your review is good, very factual. I don’t think anyone is going to believe hers as it’s so at odds to the previous one. A home won’t go from 5 star clean to uninhabitable in two months.
Definitely respond to her review in a measured but informative way now you know what lies she has told.
Your home and Ben look perfect. I’d be delighted to sit for you in future.
Reading between the lines (& this is based on hunch not fact), the sit didn’t turn out to be as glamorous as previous USA ones & was also their first international sit. They simply found an excuse to bail, the house pics look clean & modern and the review is fair and factual @Cairokid#happysailing
I agree but the thing is there’s no mention of family emergency in their review. If that had been the case, wouldn’t they have mentioned it as the main reason for leaving? @Cairokid, if you decide to respond to their review I think that fact would be key. Something to prove that you can’t be sure of the reason for leaving as they didn’t accept your help to solve the issues they raised and then came up with a family emergency that is not mentioned in their account of the situation.
Next sitters have to be great. Good luck.
So sorry to hear about your experience and as others have mentioned I’m thinking they saw an opportunity for another more suitable sit and thought they could get you to cancel yours, enabling them to be freed up to apply. That said, it is far from acceptable for a sitter to walk out on a pet before your back up plans have been put in place. These sitters should not be allowed to stay on this platform. Out of 17 sits that we’ve carried out both in the UK and abroad, we have never heard of such a bad experience from hosts. Please don’t let it put you off using THS again.
Yesterday we had a wonderful FaceTime meet with a THS host. She was extremely transparent and took us on a tour of their lovely home and we also got to see their gorgeous pets. We found this to be so reassuring.
On reflection I think it would be an excellent idea if THS could allow for a video tour, as well as photos for hosts to upload. Equally we could include the same as a sitter. This way both sides know how each other live, as everyone has different expectations and it avoids situations like this arising.
Onwards and upwards.