Hello, I’m housesitting for an owner who wants me to run errands for her. This is not part of my obligation to the house sit. Should I help her out? If I help her, I’m sure there will be more requests. What should I do? Can I reach out to anyone?
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What sort of errands?
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It depends what it is and whether you want to do it. For ourselves, we’ve never had a request that we thought was a problem, we’ve always been happy to help.
But if we had the sort of owner that asks us to collect dry cleaning or gives us a shopping list for them returning, then that would be a NO, it’s just as easy for them to do it themselves when they return rather than disturb our time, but we honestly haven’t had those sort of owners.
We’ve been asked to keep an eye on elderly relatives that lives nearby at a few sits and we were happy to do so, we’ve even given a lovely owner’s mother a lift to hospital (everything was fine), because we didn’t see it as a task, it’s just felt like the right/natural thing to do.
What type of errands are you talking about?
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What type of errands @peteswanson65? Was the possibility of this being a part of the responsibilities raised in the listing? Video call? Welcome Guide? If not, you are under no obligation and you can explain this politely to the host.
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As others have said, one factor would be that it depends on the type of errand. But I also think it’s really important that the errands don’t impact on your other plans or commitments during your sit eg you may be working, you may have arranged to meet up with family or friends, you may have a session booked at the pool or gym etc If the errand impacted on anything like that, I’d be saying no.
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We don’t do errands EVER. However we will take in parcels, but won’t stay in to receive timed parcels if it clashes with our plans. One time we were caught out being ‘expected’ to deliver a very very reluctant dog to the Groomers, we won’t do that ever again!
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The three W’s (what, where and when) would be the deciding factor to me. Mailing an electric payment in a mailbox I pass while walking the dog is fine. Who wants the electricity shut off while there, ha. I would set boundaries though. There are some that take advantage if you let them. If not discussed beforehand it is really not part of the deal with pet and house sitting.
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It would depend on what kind of errands. Why are you sure there will be more?
There is no-one to reach out to. This is part of adulting and you will need to deal with it yourself rather than expecting THS to do it for you.
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Just say No
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So no tea, no milk and no crumpets for those returning hosts? Hmmm…
Because our sitter’s travel and arrival times have been all over the map, we always offer to make a grocery run before their arrival and ask for a list. It’s certainly not initially easy for them to do it themselves unless they’re driving. ALL sitters who’ve flown in have taken us up on our offer.
The last thing I want to think about after 20 or more hours traveling is a run to the produce store miles away. But I do not rely on sitter’s reciprocal courtesy (none have offered) by having the groceries I need on return in the freezer.
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You’ve totally misunderstood what I said, I didn’t say we don’t buy hosts bits n bobs food-wise, we do, and for those hosts that left us more than usual or cooked for us, we leave them more than usual too!
We just have just never had a host leave us a shopping list for when they return. The post is talking about running errands.
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Not totally. I figured you intended what you clarified. But I responded to how what you wrote could be easily misconstrued by others in light of the topic of this thread. Your absolute no matches earlier absolute noes here that, based on my experience are not absolute at all. As with everything else related to sitting, it’s situational.
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I generally have no problems with running errands for the owner and I always comply eagerly, especially if it is a trip to the vet or something that suddenly came up that is important, like buying some batteries or replacing a leash. But this lady wants me to return a clothing item to the post office which she could have done earlier but she’s either too lazy or ran out of time. It has nothing to do with the house sit. She has already texted me twice wanting to know where the receipt is. I think I’ll run it down to the post office for her, but if this happens again, I’ll say no. Thanks for the replies.
Pete
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We’ve never had that request, which is quite surprising given the amount of parcels that get delivered to the homes we sit in nowadays.
I’ve always been rubbish at returning things myself, because I dislike the task of re-packaging things and finding/printing the return label 
, so I put it off, then I run out of time, then it never gets returned. It’s up there with ironing for me.
Wonder if she’s like me, or more likely she just simply didn’t get chance to do it before she had to leave.
Personally, I’d do it as a one-off because she may only have 14 days to return it, but thankfully our owners have never asked that of us.
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Just that one task? When you stated ‘errands’ I expected a list of requests. I would do it.
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That’s not your job. If you want to, great. If you don’t you.can politely decline.
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I think I have done that, something that needed to be posted and receipt obtained. But it is a very vague memory because no big deal. In Brussels, I think.
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Returning clothes usually has a time window for a refund. Likely it will be too late when she returns home. One parcel if the post office is accessible does not seem a huge ask. We did a sit where many parcels arrived over 2+ weeks and I was concerned if there were any returns to be made the owner might well miss their window, but that was not my problem 
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@peteswanson65, housesitting is a trade.
it’s challenging to consider reasonableness of an isolated request. some pet parents have shown us extensive kindness (arrive early, leave late, dinner, gifts, …) or listings have included special, attractive features.
we try to be professional and kind, within reasonable bounds. within that, we have helped pet parents in a range of ways. if requests become unreasonable then we would simply reply no.
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If you feel like you’re being tossed around because you’ve been asked to return a package to the post office, that seems to me to be quite an over reaction. Personally, I’d have no problem with that, either people forget things, or aren’t well organised. It’s hardly a big deal.
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