Thank you to everyone who replied to my post for your very helpful comments and advice. I thought I would post an update and I have one final question.
I enjoyed my holiday but spent a lot of time processing what had happened as I found it quite traumatic, as well as costly.
I arrived back on Friday. Ben, my dog, was quite happy and well looked after, but delighted to see me of course. When I got home, I opened my front door with some trepidation. The review left by the sitters made it sound as if the place was very dirty. Had I really reached an age where I would have left it like that unwittingly?
I was relieved to see it all looked clean and tidy as I expected. I then did a close inspection of every room. I found a few areas where things could be improved – bits of skirting board needed dusting, the rug my dog lies on had crumbs from the last biscuit he was given, I did find two spiders in the conservatory, etc. But it was all very superficial and would have been easily and quickly remedied by a professional cleaner, as I suggested. I doubt it would have taken them more than. an hour or an hour and a half at most – it’s a very small house. However, I took on board that probably I need help in future to ensure everything is as clean as a sitter would like.
My dog doesn’t sleep in my bedroom but, if I leave him alone for any length of time, he likes to get on my bed while I am away to wait for me. I leave a light blanket at the bottom of my bed for him to lie on. This was in the washing machine when I returned, and I realised I had forgotten to wash it when I did the sheets and mattress cover. I think this was the cause of the husband’s issue. I looked up what you should do about dust allergy and one of the recommendations is “Keep pets out of the bedroom, and preferably out of the house.”
I haven’t heard anything more from THS so don’t know if they plan to follow up my report. I’m going to contact them again as I don’t think someone with a severe allergy should be pet-sitting unless they disclose it beforehand. (My daughter is convinced that the dust allergy was just an excuse and that they had already made plans to leave but wanted to blame me. They phoned her less than 4 hours after messaging me about the dust, saying they had to leave the house in an hour due to a family emergency but mentioned nothing about this in their review.)
I have decided not to be put off but to try again next year. I probably only have a few more years when I can travel abroad before travel insurance becomes prohibitive due to my age.
I’ve learned a lot from this experience. I will get a cleaner in beforehand to make sure everything is as spotless as possible. I will also make a video that I can send to people, and will ask a lot more questions about what they expect when I do a call with potential sitters.
I think I will probably avoid young people from overseas in future, although that might be a bit unfair. The husband in this case was in the UK to attend a business meeting and they told me they wanted to follow it up with an extended stay using house-sitting and hotels. They were particularly keen to come to Cambridge and be within easy reach of London. My gut feeling is that she would have been a good sitter, but I think he expected much more luxurious accommodation than I could provide. I also don’t think they found ‘follow-up’ sits to provide the extended stay they wanted, so they may just have flown home after his meeting.
So my question now is - do you think people in the UK would be interested in a little house like mine? Almost all the replies I received were from young people from other countries who wanted to visit the UK.
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