This isn’t typical.
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Personally, I think it’s good that your reading other peoples experiences, questioning what is expected, as we well as the HO & Sitter/Guest dynamic. There are some good things about THS and some really not so good things too.
Although I haven’t encountered the expectation that I be a housecleaner, the cleaning on the leave day can be a lot, particularly if you’re a remote worker and are taking care of dogs. I’ve found myself getting up hours earlier to get it all done. So, if the HO has dogs, I no longer wash/remake the beds. Too time intensive. Only one had a cleaning service prior, but cancelled the person while I was there. So I was expected to leave it at the level of a cleaning service.
More often, the issue I’ve encountered is HO’s not leaving the home clean or making space for the guest. I’d say 10% of the home I sat at were appalling, 70% were fine but not what I consider clean, and 20% were extremely clean.
What am I missing here? If a sitter is staying at their own home don’t they clean their own space anyway? I’m getting a weird impression reading some posts that cleaning is being seen as an additional set of tasks …. but it’s normal to clean weekly isn’t it? I spend half a day a week cleaning/changing bedding/washing/drying….And if cleaning is an extraordinarily strange and unfamiliar set of tasks…. no wonder I’m reading that some HOs leave their places in such a horrible state. I don’t know, but perhaps I only have clean friends/family….and I’m living in a clean bubble. I’d be horrified to turn up for a sit and for there be dirty dishes, a dirty fridge, dirty bathroom….do people have no respect for their guests? And do guests/sitters have no respect for HOs by not clearing up after themselves?
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@BonnyinBrighton different perspectives. My time has more value than cleaning (sorry). So we do light cleaning daily, of course pick up after ourselves, wash dishes, wipe counters, I happen to do laundry but wish I could find a service for that.
However, in my own home, I pay a cleaning service every other week to vacuum, mop floors, scrub toilet and tub, dust, etc.
And even they do not leave my home perfect.
Regardless of what you think should happen, in my view cleaning is a job that has a numerical value, just like pet sitting, and just like having a house in which to live temporarily (but that value is not the same as an AIR BNB as the sitter time is not free).
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@lou28 thanks for seeing the positive in me! 
Yes, I am generally thorough, and like to understand what’s expected of me. I was truly surprised to learn that anything other than don’t leave dirty dishes or counters was expected, as I would never expect pet sitting plus house cleaning.
Now we have to decide if that interests us. I really don’t like serious cleaning so probably not as often if ever. We’ll see though. We’re still thinking about it.
I’m sure we will clean for any sits (or pay a cleaning service like we do at home). That’s just a major deterrent for me. Pets? Yes love them. Serious cleaning? Nope, sorry, wrong person.
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If I was a HO, I would be over the moon knowing my pet was cared and looked after so I could enjoy my holiday with peace of mind.
The house, all I would expect is to look pretty much the same as when we left it
The emphasis on deep cleaning etc on this site is absurd in my opinion
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Would you ask for permission first of the HO before hiring a cleaning service to come into their home?
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You have been lucky to encounter only clean homes so far- unfortunately some HOs do not prepare their homes to our level of cleaning comfort and the first thing I have to do is a bit of deep cleaning on arrival. Especially toilets/bathrooms etc And fridges?! We’ve encountered some yucky ones in our time. And even once- unwashed bedding in our room…
It is definitely very disrespectful- either way.
Fortunately (in our experience)t does not happen too often.
I saw a recent update on the sitter cleaning list to wash & dry bedding and remake the bed… that was not there earlier. Stripping the bedding & leaving it neatly in the laundry should be an acceptable standard but washing/drying/remaking is a lot and depends on several factors- e g leaving time/ knowing where spare linens are/ is it spare bedroom or host room etc also length of sit etc
And there seems have been a shift from focus on pet care/home protection/leave as found- to pet care/home protection plus a daunting list of leaving tasks…
This is an unpaid service and expectations should be fair and realistic.
Occasionally some hosts forget that…we once got docked a star on cleaning because the ice box in one of fridges froze up & we had not defrosted it… (on a one week stay where it would have happened anyway!)
Personally I ignore all the sit reminders now. I know exactly how to care for a home & how to respectfully leave it…
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@BonnyinBrighton expect the unexpected with house sitting !!
We want to stay in clean homes but don’t expect perfection. We have had stayed in many immaculate homes where everything was pristine. With plenty of cleaning products and the equipment to keep it that way. They didn’t all have cleaners the homeowners kept it that way themselves .
We’ve also stayed in a mostly clean home but fridge and dishwasher were grimey ( and they had a regular cleaner ) bathroom and bedroom were immaculately clean though…!?
Had a home that was thick with dust ( I mean really thick … like years of dust ) - main living room, hallway, bedroom…carpets, lots heavy velvet curtains, lampshades including one that hung low right above the bed - and the vacuum cleaner was broken , no mop or floor cleaning products !? I ended up with an severe allergic skin reaction … however the kitchen and bathroom were clean …
We sometimes see listings where there are dirty dishes piled on the counter tops and sink and piles of dirty laundry on the floor or bed in the guest room
… we skip past these listings …if HOs don’t tidy up for their listing photos it’s unlikely that they will for the sitter’s arrival … examine photos and choose your sits carefully …( we couldn’t see the dust or the inside of the fridge in the photos though )
If I were you @CuriousCat I’d be looking for listings in houses that look as though they pay for a cleaner (I guess you can’t tell really though) and in your application say that you really value a clean space and that if the homeowner employs a cleaner you would like to use them for an end of sit clean at either your expense or shared with the HO? If I were listing my place and someone said that I’d probably be quite happy about it. Then you wouldn’t have to worry. Everyone has red lines for what they need in a sit and maybe this is yours.
As a side note, if you do list your place I’d remove that last paragraph about the house still standing haha! I’m sure it’d be fine but you don’t want to attract people looking to take advantage and have parties.
That has been my experience. It was only after a few sits that I started reading this forum, and then it gets scary!
But it may be good to make expectations explicit. Where I am now, the owners have told me that I do not need to worry about cleaning but they did show me the vacuum cleaner. I will be here a few weeks and of course I will use it for the dogs’ hair and for my own crumbs etc.
Like I had also told them in the messages in the week before arrival that there was no need to stress about a THS deep clean for my sake. Well, I regard the place as very clean, but someone else might complain about the trash bin in the kitchen not being empty. It is always so subjective.
@CuriousCat - you can do some detective work 
when choosing a sit and look at the reviews that the homeowner left for their previous sitters - if they put the emphasis on the care of their pets or is their priority how clean the sitters left the home or if they used ice cubes and not replaced them ( yes that was an actual review )
There are plenty of homeowners on THS whose priority is the pet care and they really appreciate their sitters and are not looking for cleaning services .
Also
don’t commit to a sit unless you are 100% sure that you can do it - as part of the T&Cs that all members agree to sit can’t be cancelled unless there are extraordinary circumstances…
( not wanting to clean is not an extraordinary circumstance)
You can always withdraw an application at any stage up until you have accepted a sit and then it is confirmed…
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Very important point.
I, for one, don’t regard sitting as a vacation. I take the responsibility of looking after someone else’s animals and home very seriously. If I want a vacation, I book a hotel/airbnb, whatever.
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I always multitask when cleaning, I listen to audible books or podcasts, it’s how I do my travel/history research and take notes as I go along… the cleaning time doubles up as research time. I value my time very highly being retired and it’s why I’m into time optimisation these days. We had cleaners/gardeners for 40 years whilst working, but got rid of all staff/stuff when we retired at aged 60 and downsized and went minimalist…. we’ve found that it’s a better lifestyle for us as we’ve got older.
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If I left one of my sits as I found it I’d be embarrassed at how filthy it was. Apparently a cleaner had been in the day before I arrived, but I wouldn’t know where had been cleaned. I started the sit cleaning where I used, and made sure those areas and where the pet had been were good before I left. I also cleaned the leaves of a rubber plant, poor thing.
On my most recent sit the home was so clean and tidy that I tried to leave it as I found it, and also cleaned houseplant leaves.
Really immaculate, spotless homes terrify me - I’d never be able to clean to that level.
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I have never even considered that!
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@Junipers also we were considering booking pet sitting across the country on a road trip. We have instead booked paid accommodations everywhere except the destination, where we wanted to spend an extended time like a month. The reason was cleaning. So the site is losing some good people.
My husband is a really hard worker and cleans somewhat obsessively in our house. But even he was against the idea, and actually is skeptical of the entire platform bc of the cleaning, which devalues the sitter time in the actual task of taking care of the pets.
I mean the bad stories on this site are really concerning, like people unhappy bc there were dust bunnies, half empty ice trays, sheets not washed and beds remade, etc. I gather those aren’t the norm but still.
And again I’m sure we would leave the house pretty clean looking. Just not perfect. I’m not scrubbing tiles, dusting, or even probably mopping unless we made a visible mess. Possibly mopping for a longer start just bc the floor would look dirty. But I don’t think any HO should ever expect to come home to a clean house. Like I’m watching your pet – that doesn’t include cleaning up after them other than basics like keeping a litter box clean and picking up poo from a dog, cleaning throw up if that happens, etc.
I read one listing that said vacuum the house daily because of animal shedding. 
Like what in the world?!!
But like I said – sitters are doing this to themselves. As Dr. Phil likes to say “you teach people how to treat you.”
I would encourage all pet sitters to actually price these services then ask yourself if you’re worth more than $10 an hour or whatever it would work out to be. Because whoever owns a pet sitting company is making far more money and staying in a nice empty air bnb on their travels!
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@Junipers sorry to keep going on this. But I don’t think you understand my point. I believe that the pet sitting is actually worth more than the accommodations in most cases. The cleaning should not be expected at all, so I wouldn’t offer to pay even part of the cleaning in many cases, just as a matter of principle.
I could easily prove this with listings from air bnb beside prices for pet sitting per hour or per night or per walk, etc, in most metros (I’ve priced these things, when seeking pet sitters for our own home, where I wanted more than just a quick in the door and feed them).
What this unreasonable cleaning expectation (on the site overall) has done in our case is:
–we withdrew our application from one sit after asking and not getting an answer we liked about cleaning.
–we are totally avoiding any sits that mention cleaning as a requirement in the listing, or otherwise seem like they expect too much.
–we have only booked when the homeowner seemed very nice, welcoming, appreciative, and not at all giving the “employer vibe”
–I was initially considering a few local sits just to get reviews or for a change of pace occasionally. That’s out – now we will only consider for travel dates in highly desirable areas.
–I’m sure we will clean but still not perfectly, especially for a larger house, which we would never rent even on Air bnb because we are only two people.
In general, I think sitters need to reconsider their actual worth and value, and stop this culture where they seem to think they owe the HO an incredible amount of work, in addition to providing excellent care for the animals. That part is truly a joy for us, so not something that I really consider work at all.
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@fledermaus I take the responsibility seriously, too. But why else would I leave my perfectly good home to go somewhere else, besides at least a partial vacation to another desirable area? I guess if someone had no home of their own, then maybe there would be no vacation aspect. But that’s not our situation.
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@Silversitters oh I would never cancel once committed. I should have said I cancelled during the interviewing process.
Thanks for the other info – I think we’ll be okay. I’m just going with his I feel about the person during the initial exchanges, along with their profile info.
The other reason this cleaning was surprising is that there are many more sitters than houses. My guess is that sitters have contributed to this culture by going above and beyond. I truly believe that the pet sitting would cost more than renting totally empty air bnbs in the same locales. And this is after pricing those things myself.
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