Welcome @kgraftenreed to the forum .
It’s great that you gave a new member the opportunity to sit. We all had to start with a host or sitter taking a chance on us .
What was it about the application that convinced you she would be good ? Did she take good care of your pets?
If the neighbour had not told you about the sitter bringing her belongings into your home or about asking to use the pool facilities/would you have considered this in all other aspects a 5 star sit ?
Have all the complaints ( living out of the car , wanting to use the pool ) come from one particular disgruntled neighbour ? Do you think the neighbour is upset with the concept of you having sitters stay at the park in your absence or is it just this particular sitter that has caused an issue? Have previous sitters been accepted / welcomed by the neighbours?
Sometimes the issue can be the neighbours ( or a particular neighbour) not comfortable with the concept of having “strangers” or “young “ people on a shared site ( for example retirement village ) Since you have to live with these neighbours year round maintaining good relationships with them is of course a priority. If that could be a factor you may need to consider this when choosing your sitter . Or reassure them before the sit that the sitter’s stay is temporary and they are there to look after your pets .
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I have once gotten a “educational email”.
The host was missing a plate. I did very hard to remember where it was, but could not. This was the only thing I could have been useful in.
The host complained about scratches on their stove. I learned to take a photo of every stove after that. Maybe I scratched it, but I used it normally and haven’t had this complaint other times, or ever noticed that I scratch these. My guess is that it was already scratched - next time I will have a photo.
Now to the valid complaint: I was told to monitor the ears of the dog, and to administer medication if needed. I did check the ear daily, and I did not see a change. The owners said it was badly infected when they got back (if was 5 days sit). I learned that I am not reliable with new dogs who have potential active ear infection: in the future I will ask the host if I should just give the meds just in case, and in general I will reject sits with sick dogs. I feel terrible that the dog was potentially in pain because of my lack of care and skill, and so this was important to hear.
I know that people have a lot of deflections skills, so i try to both listen very carefully when I get complaints, and be vary of complaining usually leading to nothing. For this reason I think you should not expect anything useful, good or valuable to come out of “educational email” (calling it “educational” already makes you sound obnoxious so the email probably won’t do any good) but I personally appreciate honest feedback - even though I deflect it and it probably won’t make me behave the way you want, and I probably while about it to you, I still use the info and in two weeks, when I am calm, I will also make use of the data. But my way, to benefit me, not to necessarily benefit you.
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One thing that I don’t see much discussed is the neighbors. Especially in rented homes, but also in homes with lot of neighborhood control.
I have seen some hosts tell that “this is a student flat so don’t be going around telling you’re not one”. Or “our neighbor is very sensitive to noice so we need someone quiet”. Meaning that sitters need to be aware of the neighbors, from the Turkish law that prohibits house sitting there, to just knowing not to engage with certain neighbor.
I am always a little bit vary of neighbors. Maybe the host did not disclose what they are doing and I´m supposed to be “a relative”. Maybe the neighbor is a nosey one and seizes their opportunity when the host is away.
Then there are great neighbors, the host introduces us or agrees with the neighbor that they can babysit the dog so I can go for all day outing.
The point is, I think hosts should tell more about their neighborhood situation if applicable. But I also think that I am overcareful, and sitters should assume that neighbors are friends and can be interacted with (within normal neighborly manner).
An unhappy neighbors complaints should be taken with grain of salt - and the host receiving such complaint is probably emotional so their report comes with salt too.
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Just a heads up that there isn’t a Turkish law prohibiting house sitting, it’s quite commonly used in our homeland. There is a tourist permit that prohibits non relatives staying in someone else’s house when they’re absent but the jandarma are not interested in sitters, only holiday makers. We’ve been checked three times in various provinces and it was all fine. It was just a blip in 2024 that everyone was flustered over. House sitting is on again 
#turkishtip
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Why would you choose NOT to use as sitter with 5 or mare 5 star reviews?
I am super picky and have high standards. As a result i do a video interview (using WhatsApp) with every sitter i am interested in
So, you waste the time of all applicants by interviewing (bad word choice, you make it sound like only you decide, the potential sitter may decide they don’t want to sit for you either) so many, and then you delay by a few days whilst you decide? Wow, that’s a way to lose a good applicant who will not wait around.
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That was clearly an error in the post.
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So to be legally sitting in Turkey we must be sitters and can’t be tourists - have THS thought of this legal implication with their new tick box ?? 
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I understand your concern, but I definitely wouldn’t consider her ‘living out of her car’ a bad thing if her intention is to house sit full time.
We sit as couple and our ‘life’ is in our car because we sit full time. We were all new at one point, but within 3 months of joining THS we were sitting full time, we didn’t mean for it to be that way, it’s just what happened, because we loved our pet sitting lifestyle, but that could be her aim.
We typically end one sit and start a fresh sit the next day, with just 1 day in between so we find a cheap hotel. So we live from our car.
That said, our old home is now a holiday cottage, and we own rental properties too… but our whole life is actually IN our car now. As long as she has income to support her travelling/house sitting lifestyle then it really shouldn’t matter at all.
So personally I’d just focus on the other issues you have with her, don’t let the car thing cloud your judgement.
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I think it would be helpful if @kgraftenreed could explain just what s/he means by “harassed” (or, as some are reading it, “pestered”). It’s causing confusion, or it is in my mind. Was this a polite enquiry, maybe repeated once… Or a constant barrage of aggrieved insistence?
It does make a difference.
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I think it could be something that the review should say if she doesn’t mention it in her profile. Living in the car is for some HO something we want to know and the right to decide for ourself. Very probably she wouldn’t mention for obvious reasons and for the same reasons, HO have the right to know.
May be you not but it doesnt means it doesnt happen, i had one that freaked out and canceled on us 2 days before leaving for 2 months to Bali and already our keys in her possession because I told her that a neighbor will check on her and pick up the mail.
None of your business. Think about some private info a sitter might find out, and puts in the review. Example: “The hosts are in a messy divorce proceedings so you will need to send the updates to two phone numbers”. Can easily be seen as info the sitters should know before accepting the sit. But would it really be ok to post that? In reviews?
I will emphasize that I think living in a car should not have any effect on host decision making.
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If there are dealbreakers for anyone as a host, just be upfront in your listing. That saves everyone time, so potential sitters can opt in or out from the outset.
Likewise, my sitter profile includes dealbreakers. That way, hosts can avoid me if we’re not a match. It’s a matching platform and no one will match with everyone else.
Just make sure you have a backup plan or are willing to cancel your travel if no one matches with you.
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They can always lie to fit the HO requirements and make the whole thing even worst by lying and break HO trust, in my oppinion, thats doesn’t work hat way.
Anyone can lie at any time. That’s what trust is about, combined with reasonable diligence. If that doesn’t meet your needs, then THS probably isn’t the platform for you. Maybe hire a firm that’s insured / bonded and has had a long enough run that they value protecting the reputation they’ve earned. Even then, there are no 100 percent guarantees, though.
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We’ll disagree on what hosts have a right to know and stick to the practical. How would you propose finding out that a sitter lives in their car, a tiny house, a travel trailer, a mega yacht, a mansion, …? You’re free to ask but I very much doubt that’s an approach with much potential for success. Mostly, sitters would skip your sit once you started asking probing personal questions.
If you expect sitters to volunteer personal information, you have 2 major problems. First, what personal information would you seek that you consider relevant? That is quite an open-ended line of inquiry; what are the boundaries? Your second problem is that 99% of personal information is none of our business.
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I wouldn’t have a homeless person in my house caring for my pets and being responsible for my possessions and assets.
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@idocsteve There are different interpretations for ‘living in a car’- you are making assumptions that such people are ‘homeless’ and irresponsible and therefore you would not want them in your home caring for your pets and possessions.
Have you considered that the very nature of a nomadic lifestyle, often very much a chosen lifestyle, involves moving around and potentially ‘living’ in a car? My husband and I have been nomadic for over 13 years. We own rental properties and are landlords but we ourselves have no fixed base, by choice, and love the freedom. Like @HappyDeb and many others we travel from sit to sit in our own car when in Europe, although we never sleep in it (too many travel essentials on board!) If we have gaps we stay in an airbnb, take monthly rentals, or visit family etc if we are in a hot country in summer (like Spain) or in a busy area where our belongings could be vulnerable, we unload our car and store our things on the host house for the duration of the sit (after the host has left ofcourse). I don’t see anything strange or irresponsible about this. We are very experienced sitters and always present ourselves professionally to hosts. We are completely open, both in our profile and Video chats etc, and no one has ever questioned our lifestyle.
It’s good to keep an open mind about lifestyle choices. Each case is unique.
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What you describe isn’t really living in a car, which you emphasize by putting the phrase in quotes. Our present sitters do the same as you, they travel from sit to sit or stay with relatives or in a paid accommodations.
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