Let’s think about the time your friend would need to spend to do a single drop in assuming they live close to you.
Your friend drives to your place, roughly 10 min, feeds and plays with the cat doing needed things 20 min, drives home 10 min. Door to do roughly 40 minutes, if further add more time. A dog add walking time.
I believe somewhere you say you are a lawyer, now if I said I would give you $20 for 20 minutes of your time and you had to drive to me, would you agree to this?
Most pay sites, do not have drop-ins for $20, they start double this.
Some parts of the world or country, you can get cheaper care than in others. Where I live, if you offered 20 bucks, even my neighbors’ kids wouldn’t come over.
Assigning a monetary value to what my friend does for me (and vice versa) is irrelevant. However, since you’re analyzing it: very few people get paid for the time it takes to travel to their place of work, not even lawyers and definitely not pet sitters! In that case, we can eliminate the 3 minutes each way that the drive would take (I said my friend lives 2 blocks from me). The cat is likely to be outside during her visit, so all she needs is to add more food and water, maybe 5 minutes.
Pet sitters in my city charge $15-$25 per short cat visit. I know, because I have used them and because I am doing some paid pet-sitting myself as a retirement gig.
Comparing lawyer salaries to those of pet sitters is specious. Comparing lawyer salaries to the time value of one friend doing another a favor is even more irrelevant. It’s not remotely comparable
Exactly!
It’s not like the sitters are forced to do anything. They do the pet sitting completely voluntarily. So there’s no HOs get more out of it than the sitters.
Wow, I would immediately decline that sit, We are fairly new to this, we are on our fifth sit right now, But I feel so fortunate after reading some of the other comments.
We have had just first class people who left us Little gratitude presents, we left them presents as well when we left etc
The worst thing we’ve had to deal with so far was a bed that had clearly been used too much–but for the most part we’ve had some amazingly wonderful experiences
I would never in 1 million years give up my ID and would be quite insulted to have a Deposit requested, that is not how this works.
I wouldn’t expect a homeowner to ask to take possession of your ID even in countries where ID is frequently used. And in such cases, wouldn’t that make giving your ID into someone’s possession even more illogical? If someone is being offered a car, it makes sense that the HO would want to see a license, but it would also be illogical to ask to keep the ID during the sit then, because why would someone drive without their license in their own possession?
Where do you live? When I lived in the DC area, the reputable pet sitting companies all required two visits per day for a cat, plus a deposit for holding keys.
When my neighbors took care of kitty, I’d give them a nice gift certificate, e.g., $50 to a grocery store for a short sit.
Great point! In Italy you have show your passport to the host its government regulations. The Airbnb host took a photograph of my passport and kept it … scary
@Andee You might want to tag the original poster for any updates as it looks like this is what @Danielsitter did as well and hopefully the OP can pop on and update the post
Yep, that would be a hard pass. Sitters from Rover in Chicago charge between $50-90. Which for a long weekend ends up being more than what the annual cost of THS premium membership costs. We’ve hired both low and high end and clearly see the difference in service, so getting a sitter through in THS always seems like a win for us. Sure there’s been a couple of let downs, but for those who have exceeded our expectations we always feel like we’ve won the lottery.
Seems crazy to me that anyone would ever ask for a deposit or ask they pay for utilities.
Our neighbors grabbed an Amazon package from our front door while we were away and when we returned we gave them a bottle of wine as a thank-you. Even that cost more than 20 bucks.
@MichelleD Can only speak to the US, but even asking for a copy of ID is against THS policy. And I believe asking for copies/phone pics of ID is questionable regardless. If you take copies of ID you have to guarantee security; most people are taking phone pics and have limited phone security.
Asking to hold a physical ID (DL or passport) is illegal in most western countries; It would be considered impounding and a criminal offense. Their request is concerning. What if they hold a passport and refuse to return it? Please do report them.
I have never asked to see a sitter’s ID or driver’s license, because I know that people, especially when they come to Germany from another continent, need a passport to enter the country. Why should I be better in verifying their identity than the border control?
I asked our current sitters if they have a valid driver’s license, because they may use my car, but I didn’t want to see it. I simply trust them.
If people feel more comfortable to have a look at my passport, ID or driver’s license, fine, they can see it, but I would never hand it over.
A copy of my passport is taken all the time all over the world when I check in at hotels so that’s no big deal for me, but I would never leave my passport in someone else’s hands. If they want to take pictures they can do it. What would they want to do with them anyway? It’s not the document itself.
