Am I in the wrong here?

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
1

I am a new sitter, I never used this platform before but wanted to since I like dogs and cats + it would allow me to travel in Europe where I live. I figured it was good to get some reviews before the summer, and applied for a one night/two days sit in my capital (25 minutes from my house).

The lady asked me to be there at 8 am (only left me in at 8:15 am) and she was clearly in a hurry. She quickly explained the dogs’ needs and left. She never told me anything about the household, and left no notes. I had asked her prior to the sit if I needed to bring my own bed linnen, and she said no. However, I quickly figured she slept with the dogs in bed - since they jumped on the bed whenever I diddnt close the door. I found this unhygienic and saw dirt and hairs on the bedlinnen. I removed the bedlinnen and put it in the corner of the room to be washed by her, and my friend who lived closeby brought me some spare ones. I did not take a picture.

Anyways, the next night I cleaned her kitchen a bit and broomed the corridor, I did not vacuum clean. She never told me I should and I did not know how to use the robot vacuum cleaner. her friend picks up the keys and all seemed good.

I got extremely angry messages today that I did not wash her bed linnen (I did not know I had to) and did not vacuum clean (I did not know how the machine worked). I feel I am being treated very unfairly since she left no instructions, even when I told her its my first time. I just saw the previous sitter gave her a negative review too. I am afraid now I will get a negative review, and cant get a sit anymore. What to do?

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Avoid such sits in the future, when the host doesn’t share a welcome guide, is a bad communicator and has negative reviews.

In this case, write your review factually. Like say you did what you thought best, since you unfortunately didn’t receive a welcome guide or other household guidance. And note that the bed linens were dirty on your arrival, so you used your own after stripping the bed. That’s in hospitable behavior and other hosts — at least reasonable ones — will take that into consideration.

As for not knowing how to use the robot vacuum, such instructions are usually easily findable online, so that’s not a great excuse. I mention that for consideration on your future sits. Personally, I never ask for or want directions for appliances, because I know I can either figure them out or easily find them online.

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3

That sounds like an unfortunate first experience but a good learning opportunity. Did you ask her for instructions? Did you have a call before the sit to go over expectations? While ideally everyone would be on the same page automatically it often doesn’t work out that way and it’s important to communicate to understand what is expected of you and what isn’t (ideally the owner should do that too but some do overestimate sitters mind reading abilities) eg I either ask owners whether I should just strip the sheets or put them in the wash before the sit is over or I just do it. I always vaccum the areas I frequented. If you don’t know how to use the a vaccum either ask the owner or ask google.
It is a little unclear from your post whether the linen was actually used and if you just left it balled up in the corner on the floor somewhere for her return. If you did the later I do understand why she would be a bit upset about that. While sitters shouldn’t be treated as unpaid help (and provided with clean linen) owners shouldn’t be treated like a hotel.
You could calmly clarify that you didn’t use that set of linen and maybe apologise for not putting it back on the bed (assuming that you didn’t) and thank her for her feedback re the vaccum, explain you didn’t know how to work it and say it would be great to get a quick demo next time. And of course leave factual feedback for her, and in response to her feedback if it ends up being negative.

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Hi @pollikanon
Sounds like you got a terrible first sit. Can I suggest in future you have a video chat before accepting a sit even if it’s close by. Ask lots of questions of the HO on this chat.
If you accept make sure you get the welcome guide from the HO hopefully a few days before arrival so you can clarify anything.
Onwards and upwards to better sits.

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It’s hard to know everything upfront when you are new. I ask lots of questions during the application process so that I don’t have to rely on a welcome guide. Different pet parents have different expectations. Not everyone expects you to wash their sheets so you should ask. Regarding appliances, I don’t ask questions because I can always YouTube how to use something. There are great pet parents out there so come up with your list of questions next time. Write a factual review for them. If they happen to write you a bad review, you can write a response accordingly

6

This sounds like a lack of communication on both sides. However, I personally think a one night sit should not include expectations for cleaning and laundry (other than basic cleaning up after oneself). On the last day of a sit I spend hours cleaning and washing sheets and towels, I would not take a one night sit that expected me to spend half of the sit cleaning (then the sitter is basically just housecleaning service).

@pollikanon In the future, request the welcome guide right away when the sit is confirmed. If they don’t send it within a week or so (depending on how far in advance the sit is booked), send them a message politely asking for it again. I usually say that I like to prepare for the sit and need to read the welcome guide ahead of time to see if I have any questions. Bedding is often something that you need to ask about as most HOs aren’t specific. Some prefer that the bed is just stripped, some want the bedding washed, it really varies. In this case, if the HO left dirty bedding and you had to provide your own, you should not be expected to wash the HOs.

Hopefully, your next sit will be better.

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Sitters should expect to begin every Sit in a clean home, and in just one night, how much damage can one person do?

Sitters for one night should never be expected to clean other than cleaning up any mess made in the kitchen from cooking. My opinion.

If she did not leave clear information about the linens, shame on her. You were left in a very precarious situation. Don’t feel badly. Her fault.

This Owner received 2 days of free pet care and expected you to clean her house, as well. Ridiculous.

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I would not do vacuuming for a one-night stay. I would always ask what is expected about linens. I have done sits without a welcome guide and it went okay but realize that is opening myself up to more problems. For your next sit I would go for a HO that has good reviews and read what they write about sitters first.

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Why did you feel you had to try to vacuum when you were only there for one night? I don’t understand why the owner would expect you to wash her dirty bedding either….
@Maggie8K has given the advice I would have given re your review, so do write it up as she suggests

10

What a horrible experience for you, and hopefully you can take from this questions to ask in your initial contact with the Home Owner.
Recently there was a topic here on what to ask before accepting a sit but I can’t find it now :frowning:
But I’ve created my own checklist, based on comments from wise sitters in that topic and elsewhere and my own experience, and if you’d like to use it to make your own you’ll find it here.

11

About whether to vacuum after one day: Some dogs shed a lot and/or bring in so much debris (depending on rain and where they walk) that daily vacuuming is needed. Of course, that can turn off some sitters for short sits.

A robot vacuum can be great, because all you do is turn it on and, if it’s been programmed previously by the owner, you shouldn’t actually have to do much else. (They tend to require help if they get stuck or jammed up.)

This host sounds inhospitable, unreasonable and rude, though. And this sitter is green and learning. A bad match, unfortunately.

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Sorry to hear your first sit didn’t go well, and it is a good learning experience that will help you in the future. Like someone else mentioned, it sounds like a bad match between someone really new to the process and a less than desirable type of HO. The bedding issue is a good example of something a new sitter might not think to ask about or take care of, and again, a good learning experience.

If she came home to an unmade bed with her sheets balled in the corner, I could understand being a bit upset about that.

If I am using the HO’s bed, I always make sure there are clean sheets on it for them when they return, whether I wash the ones I used or another set. I usually just do this without asking and it seems to be appreciated. But if you ask people directly they may tell you not to worry about it, and if so, don’t.

As for the vacuuming, if the floor was already pretty dirty and she expected that you would have cleaned it, that’s not reasonable. It is reasonable however, for a HO to expect the house to be in at least as good condition as they left it–if the dogs shed a lot ,or they tracked in a lot of dirt over those couple of days, and the floor was significantly dirtier than when she left, then it would have been a good idea to take care of it.

You really didn’t do anything wrong here. I just think there was a mix of things happening here such as lack of instructions, you being new, etc.

There is definitely a learning curve when you first start out and while it is important to get clear instructions from a HO, it is also important to rely on common sense. A HO might not specifically tell you to vacuum, but if the floor gets dirty while you are there, probably a good idea. They might not give specific instructions on what to do with their bedding, but leaving the bed bare with their sheets balled up in the corner is probably not a good idea. This isn’t meant to criticize you but to point out a very important part of being a good sitter.

And if she happens to leave you a negative review and you choose to respond, be factual and not emotional. I have seen cases where the response to the review made the sitter look worse than the review itself, and probably is doing more damage to their chances of future sits than the HO feedback.

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13

@pollikanon We all learn as go along and gain experience with each sit we do .

A homeowner with no reviews can be a warning sign that previous sitters had problems OR it can be that they are also new (in which case good communication around expectations is really important ).

There’s not much that can be done about this sit . However I suggest for future potential sits before agreeing to sit have a video or phone call with the homeowner and ask questions such as where the pets sleep , when will they be providing a welcome guide and what arrangements have they made to pay for vet bills if there is an emergency?

@anon22438636 compiled a helpful list of questions to ask in this thread Checklist for first video call to manage expectations

If the lady writes a negative review you will be able to leave a reply which will be seen by anyone reading the review.

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Honestly, I think you are both in the wrong. The homeowner should have communicated better and given you instructions and expectations. On your end, if you find dogs sleeping on the bed to be unhygenic, you should ask about that in advance. Frankly, I love to cuddle with my animal friends and would not want someone sitting for me who found them unclean.

It is unclear whether the hair you observed on the bedding was just everyday pet hair or whether the sheets that were left for you were not freshly cleaned prior to your arrival. The latter is not right. Either way, I would never leave used linens lying on the floor and I always make sure the home owner has fresh linens when they return.

I hope you have better luck finding suitable sits in the future.

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@pollikanon. When you say you left the linens in the corner, was that on the floor? Some other posters have referred to the linen as being on the floor but I am not certain that is what you meant. Thanks for clarifying

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The robot vacuum should’ve been already programmed by the owner and she can set it off remotely. Soooo clever! I wouldn’t have a clue either so I’d probably have messaged her. But it was a day…shouldn’t have been dirty. Don’t worry, just apologise for any misunderstanding.

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17

I wouldn’t want any hosts setting off a robot vacuum remotely, because I can start one when it’s convenient for me as a sitter. Like what if I’m in the middle of a meal or a meeting while telecommuting. They’re easy enough to operate that they shouldn’t require someone else starting from outside the home. And to me, if I can google something, it shows a lack of self-sufficiency as a sitter to bother a host about.

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This sounds like a terrible host but also sounds like you didn’t vet this sit properly at all. I’d highly encourage you to do a search in the forum for questions to ask HOs/how to vet a sit, etc. There are also a few TH articles about this on the site.

Expecting you to clean the entire house for them for a one night sit is ridiculous, as is leaving dirty linens on the bed. If it’s just that there was fur on the linens due to the dogs and they were clean, that’s something you could have clarified if you’d asked about sleeping arrangements.

As others have mentioned, some massive lessons learned and to answer your question, you could have vetted the sit better but also, you got a really inconsiderate and poorly communicating host by most people’s standards. Do not accept sits that do not provide welcome guides well ahead of the sit and make sure all your questions have been addressed before you start.