You can determine where sitter has access.
I am a sitter and was offered that I could use the master bath and shower if I wanted. I didn’t as I felt it was their personal space. I was fine using the guest facilities.
As a sitter myself, If a door is closed, I will not open it unless there was a need to do so. However should a HO inform me that certain areas are off limits, I will not even touch the door, unless there was no other choice, which I highly doubt. One thing I have learned living and working on a ship, is that in the event of an emergency, you should know alternate ways on how to get out of the space you’re in, but should a door be close I will try to find another way, and ask if there wasn’t.
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Honestly, sometimes the bed is too soft, and I wake up with a backache, so I just take my sheet and my pillow (My own that is, since I have always traveled with my car) and sleep on the sofa! I also have an inflatable camping pad and a yoga mat. The more I talk about it, the more I think I could just live out of my car! I wonder if anyone has done that between sits?
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Not between sits, but prior to joining THS, I traveled the US and Canda camping for many months at a time. While I now consider my tent pretty “luxurious,” I also figured out a very comfy nesting situation in my car.
To the open road!
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Traveling solo since 1979 for work and fun. What do you think?
You can do whatever you like and get as creative as you wish.
There are no rules as to how you live.
In fact, it can be a very liverating experience (not a typo).
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Funny that you should have this particular dilemma because we have actually been asked to sleep in the HO bed to keep the pets routines as similar as possible (ie sleeping on the bed with humans), when there are several other choices of rooms. Ha! Important to have very clear communication because no one is able to know what is expected without it — we are all so very different : )) Enjoy your vacation knowing your sitters will stay in another fabulous room in your home.
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No need to worry! This is why we love Trusted Housesitters! Sitters are always very respectful of our home. We have a 4 bedroom house but only 2 are truly bedrooms. The others are an office and a workout room. We lock our bedroom door and my office when we are away and advise the sitter what the rooms are when we give them a tour, but that they won’t need anything out of them. We used to keep the iron/ironing board in the workout room but moved it to the guest bedroom where the sitter sleeps so they will have access to it. We also leave a spare key at the house, but would only feel the need to tell the sitter where it is if necessary (like the time I left my anti-malaria meds at home and was going to have the sitter overnight them to us in NYC before we left the country but was able to get a hold of my doctor and get a new script sent to the pharmacy on the corner)! But I say all this to say we’ve never had an issue with a sitter going into rooms that we told them they didn’t need to access.
Plus the guest bed is like sleeping on a cloud!! 
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I know you have had a lot of excellent replies, but I wanted to add my experience as a HO. We have two bedrooms, and they are at opposite ends of our small single storey cottage. We will actually sometimes swap the bedroom we sleep in for various reasons too complex to go go into here. We usually sleep in the smaller room for convenience and it has become ‘our room’ and the sitter is offered the bigger master ensuite bedroom at the other end of the house. We do say though that once we have left, they are more than welcome to use ‘our’ bedroom, the smaller one, if they find it more convenient. Our dogs have always been used to sleeping in there with us. We change the bedding before we leave just in case they want to. We are simply very clear about which hanging/drawer space is available for the sitter in each room, and always make sure that a bedside cabinet is empty for them in each room too. We never lock a door inside (though we have some things locked away in a safe or some drawers as we run our business from our study). The whole thing is built on trust and mutual respect, and I trust that a sitter will not go sleeping on a bed we would not want them to, or rummaging through drawers. After all, I would expect them to follow my instruction when it came to the care and routine of the animals, so I can certainly trust them with the other stuff. If there was an emergency of sorts and entrance was needed into a locked room then that puts the Sitter in a difficult position. A simple “we would prefer you don’t use that room unless there is an emergency” should be enough. As you have seen here, most sitters are hugely respectful and simply want to make things work and do the right and best thing for you and your animals, and take pride in it.
Opposite to your situation, we did have one time where a Sitter was adamant that they did not want to use the bedroom we were sleeping in. When i took him in to show him where the dog beds etc were in there he refused to step over the threshold and said that he would not be entering it while we were gone as there was no need. I had to reinforce that the dogs had beds in there, it is where they spent a lot of time sleeping (he did know from my listing that they slept with us so this was not a surprise), and that regardless of him not sleeping in there he would have to leave the door open for the dogs and go in if necessary to check on them or vacuum their beds. I felt quite uncomfortable knowing he was treating our bedroom like a holy sanctuary rather than a room, but we are all different! Anyway, those are my ramblings on the subject!
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I offer people the second bedroom, which has a very comfy double.
A sitter asked to come with her two adult sons, so that would have used all the bedrooms, and I wasn’t comfortable with the idea and turned her down (though I didn’t say it was because of the bedroom thing).
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Good question… easy answer. You let the sitter(s) know in advance what the sleeping arrangements are. We’ve had all options made available to us and are happy as long as it is a comfortable bed. No respectable sitters will go against your agreed arrangements.
Hi Mollyk
I think this is a concern that we can all relate to. As a sitter I would rather not sleep in master bedroom. Sometimes it is the only room so needs must and all. I think set your boundaries and trust your sitter. Most of us are keen to please and also may have a few issues around the master bedroom and peoples privacy.
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