We have recently had house sitters who did not even appear to like dogs. We have 2 dogs who, in my opinion, are very easy to look after as they can be a bit lazy. Also, we live in a remote location having only solar power. We explained that we needed someone who understood how to manage the power in the house, taking care only to use this when it was sunny etc. During our initial interviews with the sitters they told us they are from Australia and live now in a remote area of Mexico City on a ranch. They told us they know about how to conserve energy and are used to living remotely.
Whilst they were here, they continued working remotely on Australian hours, so used power through the night. During their 2 week stay they stayed away from the house for 3 days, asking a neighbour to feed and walk our dogs. One of the sitters appeared to be very afraid of our dogs, who are, whilst large dogs, are both very friendly.
I have security cameras outside of our house which record movement. The cameras send me a notification when they sense movement. On one occasion the cameras were activated at 5.30am when it recoreded the sitters leaving the house with them returning at 9.30pm. This meant that our dogs were alone in the house all day and may have gone without food for 27 hours, as I can’t imagine they were fed at 5am in the morning.
I did not raise this with the sitters when I returned as I do not like conflict. I did feel that my dogs were not a priority for them and indeed when I returned (earlier than planned) I did witness some behaviours that I did not like when it came to looking after my dogs.
The sitters were lovely people but definitely not the right people for taking care of my dogs. Have you ever found yourself in this situation? How did you deal with it? Did you leave a negative review? I am torn as I the sitters were lovely people and dogs were not harmed.
I would suggest the sitters definitely deserve a poor review. May I suggest you draft up a review and post it here for feedback? Keep it brief, factual and un emotional. I would avoid referencing subjective elements such as “connection “ with the pets.
Welcome to the forum and I’m sorry it’s a bad experience that brought you here.
This is a huge no-no and not allowed by THS. They are not allowed to leave the animals overnight. Please report this to THS.
I don’t know if you had specified in your listing how long the dogs could be left alone but even if you didn’t this is extreme and warrants a mention in the review. You can’t know if they were or weren’t fed at 5am so unless you take it up with the sitters I wouldn’t mention 27 hours just that it is too long to be without food and really, really too long to be inside the house
If you only have solar power why does it matter when they used power? People are allowed to use power at night and working on a laptop is hardly a huge drain of power. I would not mention any of this as a negative in a review nor even mention it at all.
@cawosey I think, from my experience in remote areas in Australia for example, certain solar power systems only last for a short time. During the day there is a constant source but at night time it runs down quickly if not enough panels are installed. Possibly this is the case here. Remote solar isn’t always the same as what we have in the cities, it has to be used sparingly after sunset and on low cloud days as the OP states. I have experienced this a few years back. It does sound to me from what the OP said that their solar system is like this.
I’m aware of how solar/battery systems and off-grid works. The OP indicated they were solar only, so not grid-tied as well. In that case using power at night will still only come from the solar/battery system and it doesn’t matter when you use the power - if you use it all at night and run out of battery then you sit in the dark until the sun comes up. Managing your usage is for your own benefit to ensure you reach the next morning.
So my comment still stands - using power at night isn’t something to complain about. It’s not for you to decide how and when they sitters choose to use the power captured by the solar.
If they were grid-tied then it may be an issue as grid power is a cost but then we’re just wandering into the territory of utilities costs again.
I would definitely suggest checking in with the sitters about what you saw on the camera before putting it in a review. If the camera is picking up movement there could be a glitch. Are your dogs able to get out to a yard? Clearly, they would have needed to “go” in the house if not? I wouldn’t assume they weren’t fed before the sitters left. I would contact the sitters and tell them you need to “debrief”.
How were the dogs when you returned? Were they healthy? Is there evidence of chaos in your home?
Had you already told the sitters it was okay to leave the sit and have the neighbors care for the dogs? This sounds like a big breach. Did they have an emergency and call you to tell you this? Did the neighbors call you? In terms of the review whether or not this was something agreed to in advance would make all the difference.
Very likely these were the wrong sitters for you. I don’t know what your video call or discussions with them were like, but I think many sitters are very clear about what pets they love taking care of. I have cats, and I don’t just look for cat sitters; I look for cat people.
I would go with what OBJECTIVELY happened, not your “feeling” that one of them was scared of the dogs. If they left for three days in the middle of the sit, and didn’t tell you or explain and it wasn’t discussed in advance, and you still don’t know why or what happened, that’s a big deal.
No they weren’t! They ditched your pets for an extended period and also left them with neighbours for several days while they went off gallivanting. That is not what lovely people do.
A friendly first impression is great, but you are well within your rights to be furious with them for what they did. They sound like a pair of absolute chancers.
Well, regarding your actual question, do I find myself conflicted about reviews to leave? Yes, as a sitter/guest, I do. I’m often in the same dilemma with HO’s. They may be nice, or once not so nice, but the issue has been the discord of what was in their listing and discussed prior and agreed to vs. what I encountered. A few times it’s been a drastic difference and has taken a massive toll on me or even put my safety in question. I’ve tended to just not leave reviews for those people, which I actually don’t think is good. However, if I were to leave a review that would have a potential negative impact, I think if there was anything that was a gray area, I’d ask them for clarification first.
Regarding the details of this sit, there’s definitely some red flags. It’s really odd that they would leave the dogs with a neighbor unless you had discussed that prior. The only time I can imagine doing so would be an emergency but I’d tell the HO’s at the time. So did the sitters/guests discuss prior or have a legitimate reason? If not, definitely call that out in a review. A lot of the other stuff is pretty irrelevant or subjective. They worked on AUS hours. So what. Lots of remote workers dealing overseas have to adjust work hours. You think one of them was a bit fearful of one of your dogs. Well, that’s completely subjective Plus dogs can act very different with new people than their people. Maybe the sitters/guests had reason to be uncomfortable.
But on another note, if you have security cameras, did the sitters/guests know? They were the ones there, not you, so the ones in need of security. How does that help their security if only you have access? Or, did you not disclose security cameras so that you could use security cameras as monitors? If so, that sounds dodgy.
Yes it is exactly as you describe. We had given instructions about what to do and what not to do with the power; don’t use the dishwasher and washing machine at the same time etc and switch everything off at night so that the power is drained overnight. They were in danger of having no power at all until the sun came up.
The dogs we unharmed, they seemed healthy when I returned. There was no evidence of any chaos in the house.
With regard the the motion sensitive cameras, they record movement. It recorded them leaving the house and when they returned. The dogs were locked inside the house.
The neighbour was our emergency contact for them. We had not agreed in advance for him to replace the sitter at any point. The sitter sent me a text on Saturday evening, after I had gone to bed, although she obviously wouldn’t have known that. She said she needed to attend a meeting and would be gone for 24 hours and had asked my neighbour to walk and feed the dogs. They were gone from 9.30am on the Sunday and returned at around 9.30pm on the Monday. I only saw the text message when I woke on the Sunday, which was after they left.
I’m sorry but upon reading your OP and the follow up…I don’t see the problem with leaving a factual review, which in and of itself writes as negative.
Remember that the whole point of reviews is to share with others what you wish you’d known as a host or as a sitter. It’s not to rate their likability.
Would you pick them, knowing what you know now? If not, write those facts for other folks to consider. You can include positives as well, if there were any. But don’t lose sight of warning other folks if they should avoid them. Imagine if another host could’ve helped you with a factual review.
So you can factually state on a review that the dogs were left per the motion cameras – as the car was gone for 16 hours one day. DId you check to see if they maybe asked a neighbor to check or let the dogs out? Still not cool using neighbors as co-sitters, but I’d ask the question if it’s possible the neighbor wouldn’t have been seen on the camera or you missed it?
Then they left for 36 hours putting your neighbor in charge and only told you in a text when you were likely to be asleep. That definately goes in the review.
Regarding the power usage. Is it possible they “stored” power on their own charger? I have one I use to jumpstart my car battery that could also keep my laptop going for many hours? I understand your concern with the freezer, but did you have any kind of discussion with them?
I know there are a lot of people who give sitters all kinds of benefit of the doubt but the lack of communication regarding the 36 hour break to me is worth losing at least one star on its own.
Add the 16 hour absence – especially if no one checked on the dogs or let them out – and that’s another star.
Given that they are likely to respond to a review, and might be planning their own review for you, I would still try to reach out to both the neighbor to get a better idea of what happened, and to the sitters to ask some questions about the energy usage and absenses.
I’m sorry but no they are not. They scammed you and your dog out of quality pet care if they were gone that long. Borderline neglect. As a pet parent, I would never want someone like that watching my pets. Please leave a factual review. Maybe leave out all the details about the solar but just note that they didn’t follow the guidelines for the house either.