The purpose of this forum is to create a community. The forum is here to develop resources, awareness, and empathy. It’s saddening to see all the negative comments by hosts and sitters. It’s unfortunate that many people see constructive feedback as demanding or entitled.
House and pet sitting has benefits and sacrifices for both hosts and sitters and can not be compared to a five-star hotel.
A good host will:
Spends time interviewing people to find the right sitter.
Works hard to leave the sitter’s house very comfortable and clean.
Spends time prepping the bedrooms.
Often shops and buys extra things ensuring the house has everything the sitter needs.
A good sitter will:
choose to do activities with your dogs rather than touristy activities where animals are not permitted.
Spend hours cleaning your house (I usually clean 8-10 hours at the end of my stay to ensure the home is immaculate).
Spend hundreds of dollars on transportation to and from the sits.
Yes as @Lassie has stated, both sitters and pet parents pay a one time annual membership fee to use Trustedhousesitters great service. Both parties have responsibilities to each other…the sitter to the pet parent, and most importantly, to the pet(s) in the home. The pet parent has the responsibility to provide the sitter with all pertinent information as well as a safe and clean environment for the sitter.
I agree hold heartedly with most of your comments. Well said.
However, there are more and more entitled comments appearing and it can put you in a very embarrassing/awkward situation when talking with a first time user of THS who have read and taken all these comments literally.
I don’t or need a fridge and freezer full of food. An empty shelf will be suffice. I don’t want them to be so stressed about cleaning, tidying their house that they can’t sit down because they haven’t packed yet. A lovely cup of tea and a chat about your dogs at the kitchen table is what I need when I arrive. Three pages of notes about cafes, restaurants, bars and shops are not necessary. Half the fun is exploring and finding out things ourselves. This list could go on and on.
I do agree the forum in general is becoming far too negative and I suppose I’ve added to that …… sorry.
Another rainy day in Ontario but we did mange a dry five mile walk this morning with the most active of our charges. Now settling down to some knitting surrounded by three snoring dogs. Don’t you just love this life.
Hi @SunshineAndAloha , I agree with some of what you say and appreciate the point you are trying to make but unfortunately, I disagree with most of the things you say, (or maybe it is the way you say it?).
My worry is that your post may alarm any new home hosts or new sitters thinking to join THS.
A good host will:
Spends time interviewing people to find the right sitter. Home hosts do not interview sitters, the video chat should be a friendly conversation that gives the home host the opportunity to help decide whether or not they think the sitter would be a good fit for them AND ALSO for the sitter to help decide whether or not they think the pet sit opportunity would be a good fit for them.Interviews are for jobs and the power balance is very different
Works hard to leave the sitter’s house very comfortable and clean. The home host does not have to make this unusually hard work - just a ‘normal’ level of cleanliness is sufficient for most sitters
Spends time prepping the bedrooms. As above
Often shops and buys extra things ensuring the house has everything the sitter needs. There is no expectation from sitters for home hosts to buy anything ‘extra’ for their arrival
A good sitter will:
choose to do activities with your dogs rather than touristy activities where animals are not permitted. Whilst most sitters will spend much of their time with the pets in their care it is ALSO perfectly acceptable to do touristy activities where animals are not permitted
Spend hours cleaning your house (I usually clean 8-10 hours at the end of my stay to ensure the home is immaculate). It is not necessary to spend hours at the end of a sit cleaning the homeowner’s home after every sit. The amount of time needed to clean is different on each sit. It depends on how long the sit was and how dirty/untidy the sitter has made it in that time. If I do a weekend sit I can usually clean it in half an hour - for a long sit a couple of hours max
Spend hundreds of dollars on transportation to and from the sits. To be a good sitter you definitely do not have to spend hundreds of dollars on transportation to and from sits, this is entirely the choice of each individual sitter. Many great sitters choose not to travel vast distances in order to keep travelling costs to a minimum
Hi @SunshineAndAloha
I wasn’t going to reply initially as your post did rather upset me, but I was sure that @Colin would respond and have the same views as me about your post and write it much better!
Therefore, what Colin says I completely agree with as we, together with most other Housesitters I’m sure, sing from the same hymn sheet.
There have been sits where I’ve hardly explored areas at all because the pets have been ill (fortunately only one occasion) or I’ve had to walk two dogs separately which has taken up a lot of time. Not ideal, but of course I got more exercise
If I was being paid to housesit then things might be a bit different and would be expected not to go off doing ‘touristy’ things.
If I spend hundreds of pounds of travel to get to sits then that is my decision but a home owner shouldn’t expect that! By the way, whilst walking one of my charges I bumped into a paid housesitter. Besides being paid per day, she was also paid her travelling expenses.
I do hope that when you’re looking for a prospective housesitter that your profile is friendly and encouraging otherwise, with these high expectations, you could put people off.
Colin & Smiley. Your points are well taken, and I was not trying to put any prerequisites for sitting or hosting. My point is that there seem to be a lot of comments on the site that suggest there is an unfair balance. And I do think there are sits where that indeed happens on both sides. I was merely trying to say that it should be a beneficial situation on both sides and should not be compared to vacationing at a fancy hotel because it is not the same experience.
I love that the forum is a resource when needed but the negativity on both sides makes it uncomfortable. I certainly feel like I should not post because someone will be offended, even though it is never my intention. I am just not a graceful writer.
I was never trying to say that doing touristy things should not be an option for a sitter. Still, in my experience, I would not have the same vacation when I house it as when I rent a hotel. I take the sit responsibilities seriously and generally decide to do as many activities with the dog as possible. I make sure that I don’t leave the house for long periods. If I were on vacation, I would travel about the country instead of staying in one place. And I also always try and leave the house cleaner than it was left to me. This is a personal choice, but I think many sitters do the same.
I think there is a misrepresentation that housesitters are there to vacation when the reality is that my vacation in a hotel and my housesit are two separate trips. I prefer housesitting because I love the animals, the feeling that I am living somewhere, and a subdued lifestyle. I generally do long sits, which require extensive travel. And when I do not want extra responsibility, I pay for lodging instead of sitting. And I find typically nice places around $30-50/night that are very nice.
You are correct that it is a personal preference and my own experience, so I probably should have written the post just to discuss my own experience.
I’m relatively new sitter with 5 sits both in the UK and abroad behind me. I don’t have the experience of many seasoned sitters on here but what I’ve learnt is the key is to discuss expectations from the initial chat with the HO. I’ve had a HO with a kitten that needed me to spend a large portion of the day with said kitten. That was fine i accepted in that basis. I have also done sits were the HO has left some great local info about the area. They both asked I was there in the morning and at night.
Anyway @Colin response was good.
Another thumbs up for @Colin’s response, though I also fully understand where you are coming from @SunshineAndAloha
I too have noticed an imbalance on the forum whereby sitters are often assumed to want a free holiday or to treat house sitting as a vacation. I believe such sitters are in the minority and the majority are conscientious animal lovers. I often read HOs saying they are offering their house for free. By the same token (if you have that approach), sitters are offering their services for free, hence the mutual exchange. It is potentially bothersome of either party to approach a sit with a sense of superiority.
While every sit is different, surely the main tenets of a successful sit are respect and communication. There is care and respect involved in looking after someone’s pets and property, and I believe sitters should be treated with respect for what they are offering, rather than it being assumed they just want a cheap holiday.
I think the key is Good Communication of Expectations from the HO and the Sitter both. If both expectations are mutually acceptable, then it’s a good fit.
Some HO posts include wording that encourage tourist travel activities by sitter, while other HOs ask for the pet not to be left alone for 2 hours. This care schedule should factored into a sitters decision if they are the right fit for the sit before they apply.
Like others have said, each sit is different. My time away from the home expectations are different depending on each sit’s home location and pets in left in my care.
Yes yes yes!
Every sit, every experience is different because each and everyone of us is different.
Even a sit with the same people and pets, a repeat is different when you go back because we are always changing, learning growing. Our likes and dislikes change. We get better and familiar with certain things, mostly ourselves but we also learn to be micro explorers and adventurers.
Each encounter is a learning experience and part of that is coming to the realization that we are different but we can be adaptable and accepting of our differences.
That is what makes things work. Harmony.
Agree completely. Good communication and setting expectations from the beginning is so pivotal to determining whether a HO and sitter are a good match.
If I spend hours a day taking care of a dog, limiting my free time, I do not think I have to spend hours cleaning. I make sure things are neat, sheets stripped, swept and swiffered. Everything in order, counters wiped, but do not clean the bathroom. And it doesn’t seem expected. They seem to want a good dog sitter. Maybe it is is different for cat sitters who have hours of time to go do things, but dog sitters do not. And travel costs is irrelevant. I am in a place where I want to be and spend what I need to get there. Except for my first sit, where I did spend a lot of money to go somewhere in Jan, where I didn’t want to be, in order to get a good review on my profile.
@Huronbase why would you not clean the bathroom? Especially if you found it clean on arrival? I don’t mean deep cleaning- just returning it as found. It doesn’t take more than 10-15 mins to leave it presentable, so the host doesn’t have to instantly clean it on arrival. Sometimes a host tells us not to clean because the cleaner is coming in after us. That’s different but even then I can’t help doing the basics! Its ingrained!
Everyone has different ideas about what a good sitter or a good host is like.
For one person to put up a list of bullet points and present it as universal truth does not make any sense to me, and I don’t see how it can help the forum. It has already turned into another collective argument… nice for people who enjoy that.
