I live in San Francisco. I accepted a sit in Portland. When I entered the house, mold, mildew, and dust smelled quite malodorous. However, I should have left the house, called support, and canceled the sit.
I did not know that an option to cancel a sit secondary to unclean conditions was possible. Reluctantly, I stayed, but I saw mold in the house. The house’s windows were not secure.
I wanted to cancel the sit, but the pet owners never responded to my calls or texts.
The homeowners told me to go to the neighbor’s house in an emergency. I went to the neighbors, and the women who answered the door said, “The person who is friends with my neighbors moved out.”
Therefore, the pet owner left me with nothing to work with.
The pet owner wrote a scathing review, and I had to respond per “Trusted House Sitters.”
I want to encourage sitters to cancel a sit if they come to a lacking house. You do have the right to cancel. I wish I had canceled and called the support team before accepting the sit.
However, this was my first sit. Unfortunately, my first sit may be my last.
I am posting this to help other sitters. Have a great day!
Oh that is awful to read. I’m so sorry you had that experience, especially for your first sit.
After 6 years sitting I can assure that is not the norm, although we too have had the odd dirty or mouldy home.
You are right- next time cancel immediately and walk away. We quite recently cancelled a sit directly on arrival (for different, but also valid, reasons) It caused a lot of hassle at the time, a lot of extra costs in accomodation, temporary suspension of our account while THS investigated both sides of the story etc. All pretty stressful. But we were so glad we followed our instincts and did what was right for us. The sit would have been a 2 week nightmare for us if we’d proceeded & we’d have been very unhappy and resentful.
Sometimes you just have to go out of your comfort zone to take care of yourself. Your physical and mental health are way more important than any sit.
I really hope you have a wonderful experience next time to make up for this poor start.
Woaaah, that must have been very stressful! That sounds awful and I’m very sorry for that experience. I would be interested in hearing the full story, how THS handled it, about the HOs reaction, what happened to the pets etc. Have you already mentioned all of that somewhere here in the forum? Maybe you would like to share your experience in another topic? I never had to cancel a sit and while I’m not exactly shy, I really would have problems to cancel a sit last minute and let down the pets, but of course, my own wellbeing is also important. I fully understand and that’s why I really like people like e g. pietkup for their attitude.
@Maria_Sitter_1
Also very sorry to hear that story. When we started our sitting career we began with a sit in Lisbon who had no reviews. Luckily, it was the start of my really big love for dogs and petsitting.
In retrospect, this dog was really not an easy dog, but I didn’t realise that because I had no comparison. He was big and strong and very reactive towards other dogs. But I loved and still love this dog to this day.
Nevertheless, I would advise starting with sits that already have some positive reviews. At best, 5 stars.
So sorry you had this experience, particularly as your first sit. You tried to honor the agreement and do «the right thing» although you sensed that it could be troublesome. That is great strenght. Most people and sits on THS are nice, otherwise it wouldn’t be successful and we wouldn’t have so many sitters also doing it fulltime or indeed use their (my) precious vacation-days for it.
Our mistakes are only wasted if we can take nothing from them - learning from a mistake gives it value. A bad sit often teach us to observe and ask to ensure our interests are met, that our needs are as valid as anyone elses and that it will contribute to a mutually good agreement if we stick up for ourselves. I guess that is something I can incorporate in my life also outside of THS.
It is your choice whether you want to sit and whether that will contribute to your life. Should you wish to learn more about how to find (and vet) a good match you can find a lot of info on this forum and there are a lot of people here that would happily help you. Best of luck whatever your decision is.
@pietkuip Thank you for your advice. I did not want to write a review. I spoke to “Trusted House Sitters,” and they encouraged me to respond, and write a review. Therefore, I have written an honest review. I told the pet owner that the house was not in condition for a stay. The pet owner became angry and wrote a scathing review about me. The pet owner wrote about me in an unflattering manner, and what she wrote is untrue.
The issue that I faced was that the owner did not respond to any messages, or telephone calls. The owner said that her neighbor would care for the dog, and when I went to the neighbor’s home, the person who answered said, “They do not live here.” I do not like to complain, however, I suffered and the home owners hurt me greatly.
I learned a lot from this experience. I do not ruminate about the manner I have been treated by the pet owners. I own my faults, and this is what makes me a better person. I do not judge others, or the pet owners. It is unhealthy to judge. I have empathy. If the pet owners did anything to hurt my reputation, I have nothing to do with their resentment. I approach others with compassion. I do not recieve respect from everyone, and this is fine. I keep my circle small, and will be much more cautious in the future.
Hi @Maria_Sitter_1,
Well done on being honest in your review. Where reviews are blind now so neither member sees their review until both are posted (or the 14 days expire), I’m wondering if the owner’s scathing words were as her response to your review or her actual review of you (where she would not have known what you had written). If it was her response to your review then that will appear on HER profile and not yours. So it won’t be as damaging to you. Don’t give up after this but look on it as a learning experience and use the forum to help you.
And then you may not have seen that they had not written anything because in the web interface, this is invisible. But can you check in the app if that had happened before?
It is a potential sign of trouble, and THS should make that visible, also in the web interface. I regard this as the major safety issue with THS (especially for owners).
@Maria_Sitter_1 are the owners comments a reply to your review ?
I ask this because they would not have been able to see what you wrote in your review before they wrote theirs .
If the place was unliveable or otherwise broke the THS terms of service , you can raise a member dispute . Did member services (MS) inform you of this option and talk you through the procedure ? You can submit evidence ( photos of mould etc ) and MS will investigate .
Here is the procedure if MS didn’t tell you about it .
For future reference you can call THS for Urgent support whilst on a sit - there is a 24/7 phone line
Do you mean you complained direct to the pet parent about the state of the property during the sit, or on their return?
Did you leave a factual review for this pet parent, or simply respond to their scathing review?
If can provide evidence - photographs of the home and screenshots of any communications with the pet parent - it might be worth opening a member dispute (@Silversitters has provided the link). Did membership services advise you of this, when you spoke with them?
It sounds like you’ve been terribly unlucky with your first sit choice. If you feel like elaborating on the situation, experienced sitters and hosts on here can offer advice on what they see as red flags, what you might have done differently and how to identify better hosts in future.
