Shrug. It’s not important to me to change anyone’s minds about their priorities. If they prioritize their house equally or more, it doesn’t matter to me, since I do a good job with both pets and homes. As long as pets are loved and treated well, that’s what matters to me.
FWIW, there was a HO thread about prioritizing homes. That person presumed to speak for other folks, and that didn’t go over well.
No thank you, I wouldn’t want that!
If the sitters don’t want to clean our house themselves at the end of the sit, they are free to hire my regular cleaning lady. She knows the house, she knows the cats and, most importantly, they know her. I do definitely not want any other people in my home.
Each sitter gets the phone number of my cleaning lady and she is happy to get the job done. Payment however is on the sitters.
Such a service wouldn’t be aimed at folks like you. If you already have a cleaner, makes sense to stick with that one. It would be odd to bring in a one-off cleaner in such cases, unless maybe your cleaner wasn’t available.
I’ve done sits with existing cleaners and gardeners. In those cases, the HO maintained and paid for the service even when I was sitting. It wasn’t something I needed to raise, because both HOs had automatically offered that as part of the sits. That’s not unusual — I’ve seen such references in various listings.
I don’t see that in your listing, but if I saw it, I would not apply.
Payment is only on the sitters @pietkuip if they don’t want to clean the house of @Pawtastic and return it to her as they found it. It’s an option they can choose, or not.
Likewise, THS could do such referrals for sits without an existing cleaner.
Of course, such a service would be opt-in only. Cleaning services that would offer affiliate relationships would theoretically be more reliable in various ways than THS sitters. Why I say that: They’re typically vetted and insured and such by the cleaning company. Those folks are doing it for a living, unlike THS sitters. Mom-and-pop cleaners wouldn’t be able to offer affiliate relationships that could scale revenue for partners, so they wouldn’t come into the picture.
@Cuttlefish In such cases, the HO seem to require professional cleaning. After the sitter has been spending weeks taking care of the pet: company, feeding, oversight, walking, picking up after them, making sure that they do not run away, do not get run over.
When the HO economized by not having their cleaner there for those weeks.
When most of the dirt is likely from the pets.
Sorry, I find this so cheap. And I would not take such a sit.
@pietkuip
Exactly. No way would I sit for such owners.
Another factor nobody has mentioned: if there is an option to hire cleaners, this will cost the sitters extra. Meaning that only wealthy sitters would even consider this. If anyone pays a cleaner, why not the owner?
Since it would be opt in, only folks who want to pay would do it. There would be nothing stopping you from cleaning. And plenty of middle class people have cleaners. You don’t have to be wealthy.
If you use a company so that wages are decent and all taxes and benefits get paid (as one should!), a professional cleaner is expensive.
(But even a company is not a guarantee that everything is according to the rules. A former prime minister of Sweden had an illegal immigrant cleaning at her place. And when this became public, the cleaner was deported. Disgraceful.)
Companies that would have affiliate capabilities would not be using illegal labor.
Lots of companies use undocumented immigrants. That doesn’t compromise the level of cleaning, but often leads to the workers being exploited.
Just my two cents here, but a couple I did a sit for fortunately the mother of the husband owns a cleaning company and the cleaners graciously cleaned their home at the start of my sit. It wasn’t really necessary because the home was already clean & tidy but I appreciated the thoughtfulness. Honestly though I do think that sitters ought to strive to clean before leaving a person’s home. It’s true that we are giving them a free service, but they are providing sitters with free accommodations and a privilege to be local in countries, cities & states we wouldn’t otherwise experience.
I agree and get raves for leaving sit homes clean and tidy. Unfortunately, various sitters don’t necessarily. We see that with repeated posts or comments on the forum, for example. And the idea is that HOs might want to consider whether they can end up satisfied more consistently on that front, since they’re already saving on pet care, especially the longer the sit.
The references to illegal labor, etc., to me aren’t to the point, because of course THS or its potential partners would be responsible for following labor laws, etc.
Open communication is the solution to this cleaning issue. Not throwing more money into the equation. Home owners/renters with impossible standards will find reasons to complain about the best cleaned house in the world. Messy sitters who don’t want to clean at all are not likely to fork out for a cleaning company, because that’s not the attitude that goes with leaving a house filthy.
Comms are great, but I don’t think there’s only one answer to the problem. That’s because various folks aren’t great at comms and people have varying standards for cleanliness and tidiness.
My concern would be that HOs would then start expecting or requiring the use of a paid cleaning service. It also sets the expectation that sitters leave homes cleaned to a professional standard. We are not professional house cleaners. Personally, I clean as well (probably better) than most professional cleaners, so I certainly wouldn’t need this service. But I think the expectation should be that we leave it as we found it. Often sitters arrive at homes that are not clean. If I arrive to a filthy home, I’m just cleaning the specific areas I use to make it so I can stay there. I’m not spending hours cleaning someone else’s filth or paying someone else to do it in order to leave it professionally cleaned when that’s not how it was left for me.
I likewise leave things as I found them or better. I don’t clean things or rooms I don’t use, that sort of thing. I think HOs who are dissatisfied with cleanliness should consider paying for cleaning if it helps give them satisfaction after sits. Again, they’ve already saved loads on pet care in most instances.
Why? I also pay my cleaner, because I don’t want to do it myself. Where’s the difference for a sitter? I am perfectly fine if they want to do the cleaning themselves. If they don’t, I only accept my cleaning lady.
Because it’s the sitter’s decision if they want to do it themselves or rather have someone else taking care of the cleaning.
Our house can be cleaned by oneself but if a sitter doesn’t feel like doing it, he or she can hire our cleaning lady. Why should I pay for this?