There are many things to consider here but for a sitter to appear pushy like this is most definitely off-putting (and I am a sitter).
It’s one thing to explain their limitations hoping the hosts will offer to help, but it’s another to request.
If you have no reviews and you are remote, it might be a challenge to find qualified sitters so you will have to decide what ways you can entice sitters to apply for your sit with no reviews.
But Sitters should be self sufficient. If they need these kinds of “extras” this might not be the right sit for them.
Hopefully you can find someone who arrives by car.
We have had hosts offer their cars but it is never expected.
It’s entirely up to the host whether or not their car will be made available to the sitter. It doesn’t make sense to entrust a person with your home, pets and possessions but not a vehicle. Why not make the sitters experience more satisfying and enjoyable by providing it to them?
Picking up and dropping off is another courtesy that to me is a given. Sitters are providing a valuable service for free. It shouldn’t even be a question even if schedules need to be adjusted to accommodate a hosts departing flight.
A sitter requesting money for local transportation is inappropriate and would make me uncomfortable with placing my trust in such a person. If this came up during a video chat it would end there.
She is experienced in the platform with all 5 stars except for only one very bad review. She applied our listing.
We liked her profile because the experience, good reviews and car availability (as it was explicit in her profile). She bring up the car topic in our video call.
If the car is your main car I would not loan it. You have to now make sure she is on your insurance incase of accident. Do you have a large deductible? If so she doesn’t sound like she will take responsibility for it or can pay it and now this sit will cost you more than hiring a paid sitter. I would get a copy of her license and make sure her driving record does not show negligence. I am a sitter and would only loan out a car as a PP if I lived somewhere where there was no public transportation. No uber, no buses. Then I would loan out a 2nd car only.
Thank you @idocsteve for taking time reading and commenting the post. I would like to clarify a few things because I might not be clear in my original post.
There would be no need to discuss transportation costs if you let them use your car.
Unfortunately, my family will use the car for our trip, so it is not possible to let the sitter use it. It has nothing to do with willingness.
even if they have to arrive a bit earlier than they originally intended so the host can make their flight.
That’s generous from your side. I can tell that we have had more than a conversation regarding how to get here and when. We do prefer her to arrive early but it was not her preference. Even we talked about arriving on the next day after our departure. We were flexible on that area as well because we wanted to succeed with the sit.
I believe the sits are meant to be convenient to both parties. There are several stages where both sides can clarify the expectations from the other one, we had those instances but each time there was something new.
But we allow use of our car and we go the extra mile to pick up/drop off because we care about the people who will be caring for our most valuable possessions.
We care about them too, we offer the best we can offer. I disagree that “taking care” is do or give whatever they ask.
Thank you everyone for your messages. I really appreciate it.
After reflecting on the feedback and thinking it through, we decided not to continue with the application.
We don’t believe there was any bad intent on the sitter’s side — it simply became clear that the transportation logistics and expectations were not the best fit for our situation. We had an open and respectful conversation and ultimately felt it was better to step back and continue our search.
Thanks again to everyone who shared their experiences and advice. It was very helpful for us as first-time Home Owners.
Agreed, and thanks for that additional information. You’ve got a good attitude and approach, you did what you could to make things more convenient with your sitter. I have no doubt you will do well with your future sits.
The request for you to pay for some of the local transportation is a bit troubling, be wary. I’ve found the hard way that a sitter’s stellar 5 star review rating doesn’t always speak to the truth. There is ongoing reluctance for members to negatively review their counterparts for fear of backlash, even with the recent change to implement “double blind” reviews to encourage more honest reviews.
Excellent. I wasn’t sure if it was too late in the process for this sitter. You may have dodged a bullet. At the very least, you’re decision is more than justified.
The car ( or lack of ) seems to be the deal breaker for both parties here -
It’s one thing for a sitter to ask if it’s possible to be picked up from a local train station/ airport and different thing all together to ask for money for transport during the sit , this is not permitted . The exception being if the vehicle is *required* because it is necessary to transported your pets somewhere for their exercise in which case you would be responsible for covering those costs .
You could decline this sitter’s application based on her not being suitable as she doesn’t have a vehicle available and look for another sitter more suited .
If your listing was paused because you received 5 applications- you will need to decline all unsuitable ones and unpause to receive more applications.
I’m a sitter and I take full responsibility for myself. I don’t expect any financial contribution towards travel costs, or any other costs eg accommodation the night before a sit starts. That said, I am UK based, only sit in the UK, have my own car and am not strapped for cash. I can understand that sitters might favour sits where use of the owner’s car is offered but it is entirely up to the owners whether they agree to that or not. I think you should stick to your guns.
This is how it works! Some sits are much easier to fill because of location, types of pets, etc. Some are more difficult. I have cats and a popular location but some candidates aren’t going to work out for certain reasons and often the best fit when everyone has great reviews will come down to logistics.
People in less desirable or competitive sits might find ways to sweeten the pot that they are comfortable with but probably shouldn’t compromise on stuff that gives them that funny feeling in the gut.
If you are having trouble getting suitable appicants, maybe post a link to your listing, and let the community help you by suggesting tweaks to make your listing more attractive.
Hey, dunno if you picked that sitter but I’d steer clear of that type of sitter (we are sitters and home owners.)
We enjoy staying at homes where a car is allowed but we do not ask for it unless it is in the listing. We also do not ask hosts for any sort of compensation outside of them covering their own vet bills or any expense for their pet via phone.
The sitter you are interviewing seems like a head ache waiting to happen and they’re going against ths t&c’s… tread carefully.
You might want to firm up your language in the listing regarding the need for a car. Instead of saying a car is “helpful”, give the distance to the nearest shops and say that you can’t lend your car. We’re in a rural area where a car is essential and we don’t lend ours because of past bad experiences doing so. When we wrote that a sitter would need their own vehicle, people would still ask if we would be willing to lend ours. I finally changed the wording to “a car is essential and we only lend ours to repeat sitters”. That put a stop to the enquiries.
Thank you all for your comments. After rejecting that application we got a few new applicants and the process was way smother than the previous one was. We found a person that is kind and very engaged in making it work
I’m glad we could decide to not continue with the problematic one.
I am currently going through a sit with a sitter we have gotten for the past 3-4 years. Since we live about 18 miles from the nearest town, they have asked to use our vehicle. I checked with our insurance company and they said we’re covered if we allowed them to use our vehicle. The first few years were fine. This year we left them with our brand new vehicle that has an app you can track where they go. In 39 days they have only been home for 11 of them. They have put on over 2,000 miles or so. One of the first outings was over 100 miles from our home and at that time, they were not only sitting for our pet, but also our daughter in laws mother’s pet for a couple of weeks. My concern is not only for how many miles they are putting on our car, but for how these pets were taken care of on all these trips. We live in the Black Hills of SD so we do have a lot of tourist attractions along with a ski area of which they have frequently been to.
I wanted to try and communicate my concern, but not sure how to delicately bring it up since they are watching our pet in our home. I’ve talked about the tire pressure warnings I can see, so surely they must know I can track other things? Maybe not. Anyway, if anyone can provide me with advice on this, I would really appreciate it. Thanks
When this first became a concern was just a few weeks into a 2 1/2 month sit for our almost 5 yr. old female goldendoodle. Now there’s only 10 days remaining. We could have our son take over, but they don’t have a planned flight to leave until after the 10 days.
The topic had never come up in past sits because there wasn’t really anything that raised a red flag and probably because I didn’t have notifications turned on our previous vehicle. This one seems to hit me harder because we had just purchased our vehicle this past Nov.
They are very good people. I honestly don’t think they are being malicious. But to me, it just seems a bit extreme how many places they go and so far away from our home. Our dog is used to going with us places so I know she’s ok going with, but wow, just wow!!