Hi. I’ve been a pet parent since Dec 24. I have used eight fabulous sitters. I love this community so much. This week, I encountered a complicated situation and will spare the details. Once the sitter who applied and i had a wonderful conversation on Zoom, I confirmed the stay. A little later, i received a text asking me to reimburse travel expenses of $100. This person didn’t have a car and would arrive after i left, so i said I’d pick up a few groceries until they were settled. The grocery list cost $150. I know, I’m a softie. On the first day of the sit, I received a request to order bamboo toilet paper. Ever the pleaser, I did. My question is this: doesn’t TH have a no-money ask policy? I asked the sitter this question, and she said i was rude to bring this up. I’m out of town and felt nervous. I called. Our conversation didn’t go well and we agreed to end the sit. Has anyone ever experienced this?
This has come up a few times on here @KittyMom4Ever and it also happened to some hosts we sit for once they’d confirmed an experienced sitter. They reported her to THS and you should too! No money changes hands on the platform and that’s the beauty of it. Unfortunately you should have said no from the offset so she probably pushed her luck. Send screenshots of her demands and she should get a warning at the very least. #greedybleeders
Entitled is the word that comes to mind. Reimbursement for travel costs? No. Special toilet paper? No.
We are relatively new sitters but the way we see it accommodation for pet care. Getting there, that’s on us. Consumables also on us. We hope for start up milk coffee etc and make sure we leave the same for when the HO comes back. No wonder people are taking are long time to vet, might have to add to my profile 
You definitely shouldn’t have been out in that position. It is also against the terms and conditions.
Out of interest are they new to THS and did they have any reviews on their profile?
This sort of thing gives sitters a bad name.
@KittyMom4Ever
I suggest that you inform member services that you have mutually agreed to end the sit early and explain the reasons why ( include screenshots of the messages ) . This is to protect yourself from any complaints from the sitter about the sit being curtailed.
Member services can amend the sit end date .
To contact them you can the Urgent Support 24 hour Phone Line or
E-mail support@trustedhousesitters.com
Be honest in your review . Sit was curtailed because the sitter repeatedly requested money .
You may also want to raise a member dispute about the sitter asking for money as this is against the terms of service that members agree to.
“5.3. The following applies only to Sitters. You will:
5.3.1. not require or demand any form of payment for carrying out a Sit”
Providing screenshots of the messages . This is to protect yourself from any complaints from the sitter about the sit being curtailed. THS will investigate but only when you call it a Member Dispute
Information about member dispute process has been discussed here :
https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/member-dispute-process
The sitter is totally in the wrong here. You should never have paid for all her groceries, and definitely not travel expenses . Please report her to THS, and don’t pay for anything else not pet related. This sort of person gives sitters a bad name.
This is specifically not allowed. The sitter is extorting money from you.
Please report the sitter to THS by emailing support(at)trustedhousesitters(dot)com
In the email tell them you want to open a dispute so it is handled by their dispute process officially.
If you get to review them, they get zero stars for self-sufficiency, zero for organised, and zero for reliable, because it’s you that’s done all of the hard work here.
They’ve breached the rules, sitters can’t ask for any money. Report them to THS, because that protects you against anything negative they say.
You’re an angel for putting up with that. They’re useless! Entitled sitters like that need banning.
As a sitter I hope you report this to member service. It gives the community a bad name and is not allowed at all, as you yourself say.
In my opinion one should open a Member dispute (need to use those words in order for THS to actually do it) which is a formal complaint. Could be done also after reviews are given if you do not want to alert her.
Doing this on a sit is just blackmail. Not ok at all.
I would contact member services. This person needs to be removed from this platform. She is very aware that no money is to be exchanged. You went wrong to agreeing to pay her for travel, food, and buying special items. Once you said yes to the first item it gave her unwritten permission to keep requesting more and more. She would have tried to get as much from you as she could. Who knows if items in your home would go missing.
A person with her own agenda.
I’m surprised she didn’t ask for silk sheets.
Hi @KittyMom4Ever, I’m so sorry to hear this. This sitter took serious advantage of you, and that makes me really mad. Please report her, it’s so not right.
Thank you for this.
I’ll bet she did. Did she mention anything about her rude entitlements?
that’s was too high maintenance and against THS policies. I didn’t even know bamboo toilet paper existed lol. I only ask for fridge/freezer/pantry space. And ingredients to make homemade dog/cat treats if asked.
I bought some bamboo tissues, and they disintegrated after one nose blow, so i dread to think what happens with toilet paper.
Very odd. A sitter shouldn’t be asking for money. if you want to reimburse or tip than it’s a sitter choice to accept or not. A sitter should never be bring it up but in some cases like let’s say the pet was low on food the first day and the sitter rebought the food and it was pricey. Than its common courtesy for pet parent to reimburse in my opinion
Terrible sitter etiquette. Not cool, please file a member dispute.
I’m mostly here to say we use bamboo toilet paper and paper towels from Who Gives a Crap and they’re awesome. Plus septic safe, sustainable, and compostable.
Just came here to say I agree about Who Gives a Crap bamboo TP and their kitchen rubbish bags are great too! 