You have a lovely caring and appreciative attitude- thank you on behalf of all sitters!!
I use paid sitters. They charge 80 dollars a night to stay in my home with my dog. The housekeeper comes on her regular schedule. I pay her. The cost to rent a home like mine is irrelevant. I’m paying for pet care.
You’re using an unpaid sitter. Saving that 80 dollars a day. Certainly it is your option to give the sitters a choice of paying for the housekeeper or cleaning themselves. But our primary focus is the care of your pet. It’s not a vacation really as we aren’t away for long periods of time sightseeing. I’ll clean the areas I’ve used but I won’t be deep cleaning the entire house as a housekeeper would.
Be sure to put your requirements in your listing.
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I wouldn’t dream of asking you to deep clean the house, especially not on a short sit.
If the areas you used are clean that’s perfectly alright with me.
It also depends on the length of the sit. Our current sitters stay for 3 months and no matter what, the place has to be cleaned.
Depending on how clean the sitters left the house our cleaning lady will be asked to come sooner or later, which of course we pay for.
Actually I find it very disturbing that my kindness and thankfulness are judged by the single topic of paying a cleaner. Nobody knows what we do to make sitters welcome and what amenities we provide.
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Your feeling about who should pay the cleaner is unusual. We are there caring for your pets and are not on holiday touring around. We do so for free when in fact in paid pet/house sitting is quite costly. I also pay my cleaner while I am away as she deserves a steady income. She often will do some special extra projects if cleaning isn’t needed that week.
Your mention of what it would cost to rent your home is not relevant. Most of us have our own homes we pay to maintain and again we are not on holiday when we come to sit as we must remain near your home and pets.
Perhaps the arrangement would work for someone who does not already pay to maintain a home elsewhere. But you’ve heard from several sitters in this thread about their perceptions.
As for your statement of all the things you do to make a sitter feel welcome, that’s great. It’s important to make sitters feel welcome. Those haven’t been discussed here though and are a separate conversation.
Best of luck finding the perfect sitters for your needs…
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Many of the sits we have been on employ regular cleaners (and gardeners) and after checking if okay with us (always 
), keep their arrangements during our sit. The sit we are currently on their cleaner normally does a Monday morning and we arrived just as she left to a beautifully clean home. The HO arranged for her to come in again today rather than Monday this week as tomorrow would normally be cleaning day for us prior to leaving on Friday morning (so apart from all the tidying and cleaning up I did ready for the cleaner coming in ) we just need to clean the bedroom and bathroom we are using. We always clean as we go in the kitchen anyway. So tomorrow will be a very much appreciated stress free day with more time to spend with the dogs. With such kind consideration of us by the HO we of course will consider coming back for repeat sits if we are available. 
As others have said, we have a home to maintain but being retired we love to get out and about to new places and spend time with lovely pooches (and often their lovely owners too).
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Oh, don’t you worry about me finding sitters. I have received more than enough applications for each sit I posted and absolutely none of them had any issues with either paying our cleaning lady or cleaning the house themselves.
They were also not desperate to receive five stars, which somebody had assumed.
There are obviously different opinions about this, which doesn’t necessarily mean that only yours is right.
If your only focus is on caring for the pets, that’s your reason to do it. But there are definitely sitters, who care for the pets and want to do some sightseeing, which they certainly can do. For them it’s the perfect opportunity for not paying anything for the accommodation.
I would appreciate if you could respect other opinions as well, thank you.
You have a sitter for three months taking care of your home, your pets, your plants. Feeding, cleaning the litter, medicating. You require them to sleep with them in the bedroom. Cat will wake them early in the morning. They cannot use your car except for going to the vet.
And then you want them to pay your cleaner.
Sorry, but this must have been the most unsupportive message that I have written on this forum.
Edited to meet community guidelines
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Hello 
everyone, just a reminder that everyone has had different experiences whilst housesitting and this can lead to different perspectives. You might not have shared that experience or agree with what someone is saying but please keep it respectful and kind as per the forum’s values. Thank you.
I’m happy that you have the sitters you need.
I noticed that there is no mention of the sitter’s housekeeping option in your listing. I would recommend that you add it for clarity.
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Personally having a cleaner clean the house is , to me, like having someone wash my car or do the ironing! Yes, I know there are people that do employ others to do those jobs as well but for me ‘normality’ is doing these things myself. I also think that in a general sense that is normal for the majority of people.
Those who do employ cleaners obviously have a clear right to do so and, perhaps , may even have a need because of difficult circumstances such as being in some way handicapped. .
With regard to a sitter paying for a cleaner I don’t think that is right; Given what I have said about ‘normality’ Any HO should explain fully to a sitter that payment is required and then if the sitter accepts it then so-be-it! The sitter has the opportunity to ‘walk away’. Again, communication is the key!!! That also covers food in fridges, cars, gardening; everything! If people don’t talk, explain things as well as ask questions there will be problems
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I have been watching this thread morph into a lot of judgement and feel the need to speak up.
We are are currently at a house sit that is so close to what @Pawtastic has described, it is uncanny. We could actually be her sitters! We are currently on a 3 month sit that has been booked for a year. This is sit #115 for us so we’re not newbies. We were picked up at the airport, given a thorough tour of the house and the neighborhood, discussed the welcome guide in great detail, taken to dinner, introduced to the neighbors (particularly English speaking neighbors in case we need some translation help), given a lovely welcome basket with wine, treats, vouchers for local cafes, as well as maps and books about the area. We were also left with a pristine home, an entire dressing room for our clothes, cleaned out bathroom drawers and heaps of space to unpack and settle in. And, at the last minute, the use of their electric vehicle. All unexpected but very much appreciated. Beyond generous!
We learned that the HO has a weekly cleaner that we weren’t aware of until we arrived. She chooses to have a weekly cleaner because she and her husband work full time and she travels extensively for work. They are currently on a 3 month, well deserved sabbatical. I don’t need a weekly cleaner and her cleaner does not depend on this income. We are super tidy people and clean up after ourselves daily. We have decided to have the cleaner come once a month (as a treat for us) for the duration of the sit and we are paying her out of our pocket for that choice.
We’ve done plenty of house sits where the HO had weekly cleaners and paid them to keep coming during our stay. That’s Ok too. Again, it’s a choice. We even did a 5 month house sit with no pets where we offered to (gasp) contribute to the utilities! Again, a choice.
My point is every situation is different and you have no idea what details may have been worked out between the HO and the HS. Other than exchange of money and no active interior cameras, pretty much anything goes on THS. If you have a list of “must haves” or “won’t dos” then don’t apply. If you find out something during the video call or through some level of communication, that doesn’t set well with you, don’t accept the sit. There’s plenty of room for all types of arrangements and who are we to judge? Just because a HO doesn’t pay for a cleaner doesn’t make them unkind, stingy, cheap or rude.
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@Ken we have sat for HOs that do have cleaners that do the laundry, have valets come do the car, window cleaners and gardeners (and some nannies). Mostly they are busy professionals with businesses to run, children and pets to care for and are time poor but cash rich. When we had our business overseas without any family support and worked 6 days (hospitality) we had a cleaner, gardner, au pair and had someone come to clean the car. It just made life so much better to be able to enjoy the limited free time we had.
I totally understand that this is a wonderful privilege to be able to afford this as someone who values time on this earth rather than money but again (for me - not everyone) it speaks to the mindset of a HO that has these services in place but then cancels them when we sit. We have no expectation of cleaners etc. as being clean freaks and ‘busy’ people we actually enjoy cleaning and gardening. One of the reasons we choose to sit is to keep us active as we retired early.
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Luxury indeed! My point was, and I did make it clear, is that a HO shouldn’t ask the sitter to pay for a cleaner, or anything else, I consider that to be insulting no matter how wealthy the HO or sitter is.
Should a HO expect a sitter to pay for anything then that should be made clear at the very first communication. If the sitter is willing to pay then that is very much their own affair. How far down that road do you go I wonder, ask them to pay for electricity and gas?, Perhaps pay the local taxes for the house!
I consider a ‘sitter’ to be a guest, they pay for nothing other than their own food and even that is tempered by the offer of lunch at a local restaurant as well as helping themselves to anything in the fridge or cupboards they want.
Sitters are doing me a favour, sure they get a holiday etc. I’ve heard all the arguments! My perspective though is that they are helping me and should be treated accordingly.
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Totally agree. In terms of mindset clearly we are on the same page. A great sit for us doesn’t need to be luxury, just as you say being treated as welcomed guests is our aim.
No, actually I will not include this in my listing.
This is a topic which I will discuss personally with the sitters during a video chat. They are not required to have the cleaning lady come so what would be the point?
The choice is completely on them to decide if they want to clean themselves or not.
Thank you @Knowmad for your understanding and supportive words 
.
We treat our sitters very similar to the HOs you described and I find some of the replies to my opinion quite disturbing.
Enjoy your sit!
You still don’t understand that nobody has to pay my cleaner! If you don’t want to pay her, clean up yourself.
Obviously you’ve looked at my listing.
All I can say is “don’t apply!” if you don’t want the pets sleeping in the bed and you can’t live with them waking you up and if you need a car. It’s as easy as that.
It’s a listing you are free to apply to or not! Nothing in there is against any THS rules and everything you comment on is your opinion vs mine and there is no right or wrong. I would appreciate if you simply accepted this.
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Hi All.
I wanted to pop in to remind everyone about our forum guidelines to be kind and respectful, and to remind members to stay on topic of the original post which is about THS being affiliated with cleaners (not about their personal cleaning issues).
Many thanks.
@Pawtastic
I think that if you put these arrangements in your listing, it would stop some people from applying who are not a good match for you. However, this is your choice. As long as you explain things clearly to potential sitters, you have every right to decide on your own way of doing things. The same goes for everyone else. What creates problems is if these things are not made clear, and then one party feels taken advantage of or disrespected, etc.
I will repeat what I said before, communication is key for everything. For me, honesty and transparency are often what make a sit great or bad. I have done pet sits with loads of pets, but owners made clear what my responsibilities were and didn’t introduce any random extras. I have also done sits were lots of unpleasant surprises waited for me when I got there, and it was too late to leave without leaving the pets in the lurch. I might need to learn to ask better questions, but if owners are honest and transparent, you don’t need to ask them lots of questions.
Affiliate cleaners may or may not be helpful to some people here, but I think the problem to solve here has a much wider scope.
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Why would you not disclose your requirements? You’ve disclosed other requirements and preferences such as asking the sitter to sleep with your cats.
You are obligated to disclose these types of requirements/choices in your listing under the THS TOS.
Wasting someone’s time with a video chat when you haven’t made full disclosure in your listing is not ideal. Many of us find it quite disturbing that you aren’t willing to disclose your requirements of sitters in your listing.
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Everyone can decide what they put in their profile and I appreciate that people might not want to give too much detail and overwhelm readers. However this cleaning issue would filter out those sitters who are not comfortable with it. That would save time for both sides.
I’d really love it if there was a way of seeing which owners see it as a friendly exchange and which ones see it more as someone working for them. I love doing friendly exchanges, and I adore pets, but I don’t love working as an unpaid housekeeper.
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