Dealing with Airbnb lodgings on Non-TrustedHousesitters Pet Sits

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
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I’m in San Diego on a pet sit through another pet sitting platform (not TrustedHousesitters).

The home has an Airbnb adjacent to the living room area, i am here for 7 weeks, seems like guest stays are 2 to 4 days, the cleaners have to come in to the home to do laundry.
i can hear the guests if i am on the main floor.
I have never had a situation that was this stressful.
i have been a full time sitter for 9 months now, i keep learning new things.
I’m wondering how to set boundaries when i clearly didn’t understand how intrusive this was going to be.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Really appreciate this forum.
Kind Regards
john

Note: The title and first sentence of this topic were edited after membership services contacted John and learned the sit was through a different sitting platform. So this is not a THS membership services-type issue. It’s a request for advice about what John should do next and how he can set boundaries regarding this issue in the future.

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I would suggest you adopt a similar policy to the THS no third party policy and mention it when asked to do a sit .
Something along the lines of
“Please be advised that I won’t accept a sit where there is a third party on the property during my stay . “

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Hi John
I am sorry to hear that. I have seen sits where HO’s note they have another property they rent for AirBnB and offer to pay the sitter part of the income for helping deal with check in and other minor tasks. I personally never apply for sits like that as I don’t want to have to deal with the guests in any capacity no matter how limited. Even if we didn’t need to be involved at all, I would probably still be hesitant as if there are any issues, they would understandably probably come to us.

When you say you didn’t realize how intrusive it would be, I assume you knew ahead of time they would still be renting the property while they took their trip, and my answer is based on that.

Did they mention the property was attached to their house? Did they mention the cleaner would be entering the property to do the laundry?

If they didn’t mention these things (and we sometimes don’t know what questions to ask about a situation we have never encountered) you could let them know how bothersome it is, and if possible, could they not rent the property while you are there?

Or at the very least, arrange for the cleaner to do the laundry in her own home or a laundromat temporarily?

Barring these two changes, there really doesn’t seem to be anything else they could do to improve the situation.

To ask them to consider not renting the property while they are out might be really uncomfortable for a lot of people and they would opt not to. Or it might be really uncomfortable for you to say anything at all and you may choose not to. But if you do that, own the choice and you’ll be less stressed about the situation.

I did a sit last year where the HO said a friend rented garage space and would sometimes work on his classic car. Some of times he came there, he played music really loudly for extended periods and it bothered me, but I was able to move to another part of the house where I didn’t hear it as much.

I could have asked him to turn it down, but in all honesty I felt uncomfortable doing that. And I definitely wasn’t going to mention it to her in hopes of her saying something to him. So I took ownership of the fact I could have said something but chose not to, and that helped me feel less frustrated.

Ultimately, if you agreed to the sit knowing the AirBnB would be operating, you most likely just need to deal with it as it is, and chalk it up to a really beneficial learning experience. You can either decide not to do sits like this again, or if you are considering ones like this in the future, you know a lot of important questions to ask now to make sure it doesn’t cause problems like this.

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Please just know that THS DOES NOT allow any third party guests in a home where there is a pet sit in process. This breaks all rules and should be reported immediately. This particular situation was not through THS so it is merely for thoughts, suggestions, etx.

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I’m a new sitter and was reading through sits that interested me.
A previous sitter review said that owners son stayed the second week to work from home…I would be uncomfortable with this but these sitters were fine with it.
Is this normal?
I’m also reviewing a sit where the owners have a lodger who will be there while they are away. Again, I would be very uncomfortable. Is this against the rules?

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Yes it is against THS rules and you should report the current listing to member services . There definitely shouldn’t be a lodger or any other person staying at the property during the sit .

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Hi @MarieHuggins unfortunately not all members read the Code of Conduct or the Terms of Use, we have the same situation here on the Forum from time to time, both of the scenarios you describe are against THS policy and break the COC when any member comes across circumstances which raise questions about compliance and best practices they should always contact the Membership Services Team …

The rules are clear there can be no third party in the home while a sitter is present, full stop & no exceptions. Please connect with the Team is you are in any doubt at all.

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SNAP @Silversitters … and thank you for being so helpful

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Thank you .
What about cleaners coming in, if they are employed by the family?

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@MarieHuggins -If you read the article in the link above it states the full policy around cleaners .

( click/ Tap on box to open up the article )

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Hi @MarieHuggins as @Silversitters points out this is included in the Help Centre article.

Again it’s all down to communication and asking the right questions before confirming a sit. I have many sits where cleaners, pool maintenance and gardeners are engaged but I know this in advance and we will have agreed on what is mutually acceptable.

I have never found reason to request these be suspended and on many repeat sits I’m asked what is the most convenient timing for me … only with cleaners who need access to the home of course, although I do clean before they arrive but I do that in my own home too. :wink: :rofl:

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Thank you. Thats great. I finally found these handy tips😊
One sit i was interested in had a cleaner,gardener and a dog walker.
I love walking dogs so didn’t apply :pensive:

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I recently applied for a sit, the HO just informed me that her 20 year old daughter would be in the house too. I am not comfortable with this and was wondering if it was against THS policies.
Thanks

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Hi @KeithD. You raise a great question. It comes up in different ways from time to time here in the forum. I moved your post here, to one of those recent conversations, so you could see what others have said about it.

The bottom line is it is against THS policies. Links to the details are above in a few of the comments.

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Karen,

This is exactly what I wanted to hear. I was not going to accept the sit but now I can blame the THS policies.

Keith

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@KeithD - not sure why your topic was moved to this airBNB thread but anyhoo -

Here is the link to the THS policy which the HO may not be aware of - so they will not be able to find a sitter on THS that is able to accept this sit whilst the daughter is staying .

If HO insists daughter will be present and is still expecting a sitter from THS you might consider informing member services who could remind them of the THS policy .

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Quite honestly that is absolutely awful and a total violation. I would be appalled if someone just randomly let themselves in and terrified to say the least. Shows a real lack of trust and sensitivity

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That is outrageous to me and a real violation of privacy. I had an airbnb host do this once and he scared the ever-loving you know what out of me. Only time I’ve ever filed a complaint with airbnb (and got a refund).

It not only shows a lack of trust but an extreme lack of respect (especially if you happened to be a woman alone-- but really this could scare anyone). Honestly I think this should have been reported-- really terrible.

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What a terrifying story, I’d be so scared. But how was the son able to find the dogs in their room with no water during a previous sit? He must have shown up then as well. Doesn’t sound like the full story to me, but I might be wrong of course. If they’re happy with you and you are happy to come back, that’s awesome, and as you say hopefully it won’t happen again :slight_smile:

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Interesting- I’ve definitely seen listings where people have roommates that will be around but apparently not for taking care of the animals. We’ve never applied because we aren’t looking to have roommates, but I didn’t actually know it broke rules. Will report these as I see them. Thanks!

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