I’m surprised that others feel that a HO should pay for alternative accommodation if the sit is cut short due to illness. It would never occur to me that HO is responsible for this just as I would not consider that I should pay for their pet care if I were unwell and had to leave early. Everyone should have a plan B in my opinion.
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The second the sitter asked for compensation (for the sit, not the cleaning), she should have been rejected. Now I wonder if the prior HO paid up, or the sitter just floats that out each time in the hopes she catches an unaware HO, as it sounds like the sitter had at least one review prior.
I do hope the dogs and your home are ok. Please update and let us know.
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I can understand if the cancellation is not for an extraordinary circumstance .
However if the host cancels because of illness or another extraordinary circumstance why should they pay for alternative accommodation for a sitter ?
If you as an unpaid sitter had to leave the sit early due to an emergency (e. g serious accident / illness or bereavement ) would you pay then pay the bill for kennels / cattery for the host’s pets for the remainder of the sit ? That would seem unreasonable to most sitters since you are not being paid to house sit in the first place . So now you have to pay for something that the host is responsible for ( care of their pets ) .
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Yes, I would offer to pay kennel or cattery bills if I had to leave, even if due to an extraordinary circumstance. A homeowner might choose to decline my offer. But we never know other people’s circumstances. It is possible that the cattery bill is the difference between buying their prescription medication this month and - not. We had an agreement. If I cannot uphold my end of the agreement, I am going to offer to do what I can to “make them whole”.
I think this is supposed to be a friendly exchange between two parties who agree to honor the commitment unless there is some emergency that comes up such as a medical emergency, death in the family, etc. It’s not a contract and I think if you start adding financial obligations that completely changes the nature of THS. We are all adults and understand that things can happen in life. That’s why we should all have a backup plan. It’s a risk we take for the unpaid exchange of pet/home care and accommodations. If I had to cancel a sit, I would not expect to be asked to pay for replacement pet care, just like when hosts have cancelled on me I just made other arrangements. It would not have occurred to me to expect them to compensate me in any way. The THS cancellation plan is available to members who choose to pay a higher membership fee to have it.
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I can see your point of view. I would not expect to be asked to pay for replacement pet care, but I would offer. I do have the higher membership fee plan, so perhaps that informs my perspective. One thing I love about this forum is seeing all the different opinions - none of them are right or wrong, just different. For example, I always did a deep clean after a sit. In several threads I see that for a lot of people, the expectation is simply to do a “straightening” and cleaning of things like the bathroom I used and countertops. It would never occurred to me that this is okay without the forum - but it is okay! Not sure if I’ll be able to break the deep clean habit though (even though in my own home, I employ a cleaner rather than deep clean myself).
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If a host has pets and can also afford to go on a vacation they should also factor in paying for pet care for their pets. If they get free THS sitter - that’s a bonus - everyone should have a back up plan for emergencies/ cancellations.
As a sitter I have a back up plan of a sit is curtailed , ( which unfortunately has happened on 3 separate occasions) . I have the funds to either return home or pay for alternative accommodation ( hotel , AirBnb ) .
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Not all of homeowners are going on vacation, though. Many of my sits are for people going on trips for work or for family needs, like a recent sit where a person’s father had a stroke and she had to leave town unexpectedly for two weeks.
I think the gesture of offering - genuinely offering - to make the other party whole is appreciated and appropriate.
For example, if I had a three-week sit scheduled and my family member died one week in, leading me to leave the sit to attend the funeral, I would do everything I could to find suitable alternative arrangements for the cat. If that required paying for a professional sitter, I would offer to the cover the cost. If that involved the homeowner having to come home early, I would offer to help pay for any incremental travel costs. I made an agreement and the other party to the agreement should not have to suffer because of my circumstances, sad as they are.
Now if I were the homeowner on the other side of this, I would absolutely decline the offer. I cannot see myself asking someone who just had a death in the family to pay for my catsitter. Unless I really, really needed the catsitter and had no other way to pay for one. There have been times in my life where paying for a week of cat sitting would have been the difference between me being able to buy food that month, and not. I know what it feels like to be asked to find money for something that is difficult if not impossible to afford. It feels terrible.
And as a sitter, if a homeowner came home early, I would want the gesture of them offering to cover alternative accommodation. In the majority of cases, I would decline the offer. But if it was never made, it feels - entitled? Like they didn’t understand the nature of the arrangement.
There are exceptions to every rule, of course. It’s one thing if I can drive back to my own home when plans change; quite another if I have to fly to another country. The bottom line is we never know what is really going on with other people’s finances, even if we think we do. Grace and generosity have a vital role to play.
Placing financial burdens on either sitters or hosts in these circumstances would not make the site very popular. This is why there are premium plans.
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This brings up a very good point - so the situation described by the person who started this thread: Shouldn’t THS have covered alternative accommodation for the sitter (assuming the premium plan)? Looking at it in that light - I guess you’re right, since individuals had the option of using the premium plan, maybe the right thing to do is say, “Oh I’m so sorry I’ve had this [illness, death in the family, etc]; please contact THS to understand what arrangements are available via the insurance” - and leave it at that? I am learning a lot from this thread. I never read the details of the premium plan until just now, and I still don’t understand exactly what it would cover if a homeowner chooses to come home due to an illness.
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So did you decide to end the sit early due to mild illness, or because the sitter sounds like an opportunist?
We’re on a sit now and I’m feeling really unwell. But, it hasn’t crossed my mind to end the sit.
I hope you’ve arrived home to find all is well. It sounds like you’ve encountered good sitters before so, rest assured, you certainly will do so again. It seems the red flags were flying from the beginning, with this one. Next time, heed your inner voice.
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