Experience with missing item and limited platform support

Owner Questions, Advice & Chat
1

I wanted to share my recent experience with TrustedHousesitters.

After a recent sit, I discovered that a valuable personal item was missing from my home. I contacted TrustedHousesitters expecting some guidance or mediation, but I was informed that because of my membership tier there is no support available and that I would need to resolve the matter myself.

What concerned me most was the lack of clarity around what happens when incidents like this are reported. It is not clear whether complaints are formally logged, whether any internal review takes place, or how future homeowners are made aware if concerns arise that are not reflected in public reviews.

As homeowners we pay a membership fee to use the platform and entrust strangers with access to our homes. If incidents are not transparently reviewed or recorded in some way, other homeowners have very limited visibility into potential risks.

In practice, if something goes missing and the sitter has already left the country, even filing a police report often leads nowhere. This experience raised broader questions for me about what the membership ultimately provides in terms of accountability and protection when something goes wrong.

2

They could track things better, but there’s no recourse possible as far as recovering stolen items. THS is not equipped to solve crimes. No company like it would be able to do that.

1 Like
3

Your experience is most unfortunate. A police report is useful for insurance claims. But local police rarely are any use in such situations so I’m at a loss to what you expect THS can or will do.

It’s been made abundantly clear that THS will not give you any information about a sitter’s real name or address. That’s a pretty big hint we are on our own and a very solid reason for obtaining and copying sitter IDs.

For future consideration, we remove all important personal or valuable items from our house before trips. Yes THS is based on trust but I see no good reason to leave temptations. FWIW, we do the same whether sitters are THS, friends or family.

7 Likes
4

Did you ask the sitter? I have moved what looked like expensive items left in vulnerable places. I always put it back before I leave. After talking to the sitter and deciding there is no way you could have misplaced this item yourself you may want to leave a hint in the review. Something like, when arriving home I found an item missing and still have not found it.

8 Likes
5

While I would love to ask for this (I am a HO) I just don’t see this starting things off right, I am sure MOST sitters will find this offensive and/or refuse. I read a past discussion here on this topic and the sitter replies are that THS vets them by ID verification, email & phone verification and sometimes background check. That’s what the HOs have to put their trust into ALONG with intuition during a videochat prior to choosing the sitter. The only reason (as a HO) i could imagine asking for a picture of a drivers license is if you re letting them drive your car.

My advice for the HO in this situation is the choose more carefully moving forward. Deep dive into the sitters profile, reviews, their reviews of HOs and do a videochat. Those steps will help avoid this situation but I suppose there is no foolproof way to prevent this rare occurence using THS. Oh, and upgrade to Premium if you can.

6

There’s an old thread about this. Some people said they found it offensive, others said they would be glad to exchange that info with HOs. Some, like myself, have no problem showing ID but wouldn’t send a copy as this could be a case of one sided trust. Like, you want to keep a copy of my ID because you don’t trust me but you’re asking me to trust that this copy won’t be used for any other purpose.

FWIW, I have never asked or been asked to show ID.

1 Like
7

Unfortunately, tinder does nothing when your date gropes you. Same here.

When thinking about it, what could THS do? When there is no proof of a theft actually happening, they can not kick a paying member out. In some extreme cases yes it has happened, but there are two things to consider: human error, and vindictiveness. THS can not jump at every host claiming that something is missing. Possibly THS could act on a police report, but even that is bit tricky: in west we are not guilty until proven.

I say that as a victim. Using one of these platforms, I was actually physically assaulted. The assaulter stayed in the platform. So did I, and will do. THS does put on a “safety first”-face, when actually offering nothing concrete, and that is super annoying. But they would not be able to provide any real security, as they are not a company that provides that kind of services. They are a company that provides limited texting with other people. They count on what I count on in life: most people are nice, and the rest of them too lazy or not personally motivated enough to really harm me.

1 Like
8

I’ve read the same logic from sitters. I can’t think of any scenario where a home owner is expected to allow unbonded individuals into their homes alone for extended time and the home owner is expected to shut up about IDs. That notion is utter nonsense. Any host who accepts it has only themselves to blame if things go sideways. Any sitter who does not understand is not a good fit for us. We’ve had no problems asking sitters for their IDs though European sitters do tend to be more wary which I believe is likely because of Europe’s much stricter digital privacy laws. Those privacy laws are similar to HIPAA in the US and plenty of people think that privacy is absolute. It is not.

As far as writing the information down or copying it, that’s simply because I won’t remember the details otherwise. Not much point of asking for information if I have no way the access that information days/weeks/months later.

3 Likes
9

I have never made a claim on my homeowner’s insurance and nothing bad has happened in decades. I’ve never needed it. Do I still have homeowner’s insurance? Yes. I wonder how the insurer would react if an accident in my home resulted in serious damage or destruction while under the care of a sitter I voluntarily left in charge of said home but whose name and address were unknown to me. I have no intention of finding out.

We’ve read accounts here of some bad outcomes. Some accidental. Some criminal. They’re rare, on the fringe and very very very unlikely. But they happen and when they do happen, not knowing exactly who was involved is not going to be beneficial to a host in any way at all.

1 Like
10

You do understand that this argument can 100% be used in case something goes sideways for you? “Why did you let strangers in your home?”

11

@DarrenB sorry to hear of your experience .

You can raise a member dispute and then THS will investigate - you would need to provide the evidence for them to investigate.

For example :

screenshots of messages with the sitter where you ask if they know where x item’s as you can’t find it and their replies .

A police report

Outdoor camera footage that shows the sitter taking the object

or anything else that will prove the sitter is responsible (eg object being listed for sale on an online platform )

If it is proved that the sitter stole the item - then THS can remove the Sitter from the platform .

Without proof of who is responsible THS can’t act -

Although this must be an upsetting situation to be in , I’m sure that most members are in agreement that THS should not act on accusations alone but need proof .

11 Likes
12

I am not saying I am not willing to share that information. I’m saying I have never been asked.

13

The only problem is, that even if something requiring a police report happens, THS won’t give any details of the sitter to the HO. No full name, no phone number, nothing. So, while I wouldn’t take a copy of sitter’s ID, getting to see it and having their full name does seem reasonable.

1 Like
14

Holy smoke @ChiaGrowth, that sounds horrific. Hope not THS. Sending support.

1 Like
15

@Silversitters, +1. Great advice.

@DarrenB, Member Dispute is THS formal protocol for alleged significant breaches of THS Terms of Service by pet parent or housesitter (of any member tier). Once triggered, THS collects information and evidence from both parties before making determinations. As experienced housesitters, we had cause only once to raise a Member Dispute and provided extensive evidence to support our allegations.

1 Like
16

I appreciate people haring their perspectives, but some replies seem to jump to conclusions without knowing the full circumstances. I intentionally did not include every detail of the situation because my aim here is not to publicly accuse anyone or share private information.

My purpose in posting was to highlight a broader concern about how the platform operates when something goes wrong.

TrustedHousesitters charges both homeowners and sitters a yearly membership fee, and recently introduced booking fees on each booking as well. With that level of monetisation, one would reasonably expect some level of support, mediation, or at least a basic review process when a serious incident is reported. In my case, there was none.

To clarify a few points: the item was not left out. I have dated photos showing the item in its storage location before the sits and photos showing it missing afterwards. A police report was filed and classified accordingly. So this is not speculation or a casual misplacement.

My concern is not only that the platform provided no help to me as the victim of a theft in my own home, but also that it appears no investigation takes place regarding the sitters involved. If that is the case, then other homeowners are not being protected either. If complaints are not formally logged or reviewed internally, the same situation could easily happen again to someone else.

This raises a broader question about accountability. A platform that brands itself as “TrustedHousesitters” creates a clear expectation of trust and safety. However, when incidents occur, the platform seems to position itself purely as an intermediary with no real responsibility to help resolve issues.

From a security perspective, members should be aware that there is very limited protection in practice. Identity checks and background checks are not consistent across jurisdictions, and in Europe for example background checks are generally not part of the system.

Again, my intention here is not to accuse anyone personally. It is simply to shed light on the gap between the expectations created by the platform’s name and the level of support that actually exists when something goes wrong.

6 Likes
17

You’re quite right there. But bear in mind that the new T&Cs are quite clear about that. They clearly state that we use the platform at our own risk and they

cannot promise that the Platform will be fit or suitable for any purpose.

18

@DarrenB You may be able to follow up again with THS as the quote below is the standard response by THS to 1* reviews given on TrustPilot re the new booking fees which refers to more investment in trust and safety.

“The booking fee was introduced to help support the ongoing costs of running and improving TrustedHousesitters, including investments in trust and safety, platform reliability, and member support , while still preserving the core exchange that our community is built on.”

1 Like
19

As a HO and a sitter this feels extreme to me. If you require this hopefully you have that on your profile so sitters who are not comfortable with that do not waste time applying.

20

You are completely correct. You are also correct to bring this matter to this forum, to make it seen and heard and to warn the community. The reason some of us answer in, dare I say, dismissive ways, is not because we are not angry alongside with you. We are. Some of us however are also cynical, disappointed, and already defeated. We have voiced concerns and we have voiced wishes over and over again, and even simple, no cost solutions, are not being made - let alone bigger ones.

THS can not give my personal details to a HO who accuses me of theft. They can not legally do so. So they never will. A court can order THS to give my personal information to them, but there are legal limitations to when a court can ask for that. Personal data must be protected by law (even though we so willingly feed it to tech giants).

I would appreciate THS letting hosts (and sitters) know that if something goes south, they will be on their own. THS will never inform us about that in cleartext, as it is bad for the business. THS is on it´s own side, never on the side of sitters or hosts.

It is far easier and cheaper for them to deal with complaints (meaning not deal with them, just offer some words and move on). Even public ones like this here, on on trustpilot, or where ever online are just a drop in an ocean. There is much more positive buzz (especially because if you lure others in, you get free months yourself - the incentive for bloggers etc to give THS glow is deep). There is also always the hoards that defend THS with “its your own fault” and “you are probably a fool/lying” and “I am just good at choosing sitters/hosts”, which muddies the waters. None of that is true - statistically it is very unlikely that one faces serious damage trough THS, as most people are trustworthy - so it is just a case of bad luck, who faces the non-trustworthy user.

But that general trustworthiness has nothing to do with THS. THS just cashes in to us being socialized to be nice, coming from enough wealth so that we can afford do be nice, and the internal, carefully curated and created pressures of competition and reviews that guide our behavior on the platform. Not to mention that we really are the human_kind - humanity has survived since the dawn of our time because we are pro social species.

When tragedy does strike, THS can not take accountability, as that would be a bad business move. I dont recommend living cynically. I am suspicious of all corporations, so I never thought that THS would have my back. But when that actualizes, I am still sorry to hear that, and sorry for whoever is in the receiving end.

2 Likes