I completely agree with your stance and am impressed by your conclusion that the pet sitting process between host and pet sitter brings out the best in us as humans.
4 Likes
Typically I’m sure it does, and so far I’ve personally have had good sits.
But there are people, also on THS, who doesn’t know how things work, or are entitled, or are exploitative, and it is practical to know that it exists and how to be prepared for it. It will help avoiding bad sits, and help coping if one find oneself entangled in a bad sit. If one is too good-natured and excusing, I think the probability of getting a bad sit will be higher. Even if most sits are good. That goes for both hosts and sitters.
3 Likes
@Sheila you can tell by what others have written that some have very different viewpoints to your own. You’ve obviously had a bad sit in the past, but you can’t tarnish every future HO like that, because a lot of what you are saying is simply not true for most, it’s like someone having one bad sitter and thinking we are all like that, we’re not, there’s plenty of brilliant sitters, and there’s plenty of brilliant HO’s too.
I think the one thing that has made us have 30+ amazing sits, is because we have felt a real connection with most of them. Perhaps that was missing with your own experience. Only do sits whereby you have a good gut feeling, and go with your heart, and don’t sit any where you don’t feel a real connection with the owner.
7 Likes
I also disagree with all her points. She plays defense from the moment she steps inside the homeowner’s door and even before while reading the profiles. I am curious why she is on this platform. I read, what she puts up with for free accommodations. I don’t think this platform is for her.
3 Likes
Defense even BEFORE they step in given that they are coming from a place of mistrust. But just want to say that taking photos when you arrive is a great idea but not necessarily to protect yourself. Taking photos will help you keep track of stuff like where the dishes go. My goal as a sitter is for people to come back to normalcy to the point of “leave no traces.” Also I can never remember how to put the silverware back.
6 Likes
That only matters when hosts are too fussy about such trifling things. But indeed, we have seen owners here complaining about “sofa cushions left in disarray”.
3 Likes
My point wasn’t what mattered to the owners. It was what matters to me. A kind of personal goal to strive for leaving things as I found them.
7 Likes
Yes, but painting others as group with such a broad brush is never helpful.
As other have said, I also disagree with most points. And most likely these come from a bad experience. I have 50+ sits behind me and:
- never take photos of the state of the apartment/house that I sit in
- always use Whatsapp
- don’t insist on written summaries of verbal conversations
- daily updates - usually yes, but it depends. Some hosts are very hands off and are happy to have a little quiet time
- Amount of photos: hard to say. Obviously the more photos that show the place the better, and otherwise ask to see the place during the video chat
- I’m always friendly with hosts. I really do not want to see this as a business transaction!!! My goodness, I’m looking after their place with all their belongings, their pets and so on - at the very least we should build trust, which doesn’t work well if you keep things very formal
- Overly friendly hosts are hiding something? Has yet to happen to me. if the HO has something to hide, they may do that in various ways. I don’t get suspicious with very friendly hosts. The friendlier the better!
- Amenities: it’s not a hotel, so you can’t ‘demand’ certain amenities. It is what it is.
- Hosts do usually NOT feel like they’re doing me a favor. In general, they see it as an equal exchange! For entitled hosts: catch them out before you agree to a sit!
If this list would be true, I would have stopped house/petsitting on THS a long time ago… ( = member since almost a decade)
15 Likes
80+ sits all 5-star sitter here. I disagree with all but the pictures. And if the rest of the listing was interesting to me, I would ask for more or a video tour on a call. Were still friends withany HO’s and not had issues with any of the other points.
9 Likes
I think this is a bit far fetched. I agree documenting small changes or additions to a listing or WG may be helpful to confirm everything and to keep record just in case. But if there were important changes to listing or WG or I felt there might be some kind of trouble I would not agree to the sit. As @Bluehorse says, I would not be sitting if I had to be in such an alert attitude all the time, expecting trouble to arise from every possible angle. I need to feel hosts are more potential friends than potential enemies, otherwise I would not be sitting at all. My best sitting experiences are those where I have had the opportunity to share time and chats with hosts, usually over a meal, sometimes even at the video chat stage.
3 Likes
I will only pander to the pets because they deserve all the love and fun that they can get. The humans get good quality pet and house sitting service as well as updates.
1 Like
Sheila, as someone who has been doing exchange sits for 25 years, 10 years before THS even came into existence, I would never approach sits the way you are suggesting here. Taking photos/video is the only thing that I agree with, the rest not so much.
Edited post to comply with the Community Rules; Keep it kind.
4 Likes
As a newbie of 1.5 years with about 10, 5 star sits, i am in agreement with all our seasoned sitters.
I would not be sitting at all if i felt i needed to use your criteria. That, in and of itself, would be more stressful for me and not worth the engagement in house & pet-sitting.
I’m glad you’ve come up with something that seems to work for you. But, for me, no thanks!
Ill stay with my joy.
10 Likes
Agree on Whatsapp.
Data privacy issues aside — why are ANY of you still using Whatsapp?!!! — use a messaging app for casual comms/ photos by all means, but keep all formal questions, concerns about the sit on THS platform so that customer support can immediately jump in with help if necessary.
THS support will be able to see you’re communication with host/ sitter and see what you’ve tried to solve. This is REALLY helpful in making complaints and getting awful people thrown off the platform. Sending multiple screenshots of a whatsapp thread is not easy!
Whatsapp is free, widely used, reliable and instant.
The THS messaging system is unreliable and seems to get worse with each improvement.
15 Likes
I don’t know why anyone finds sending screen shots of WhatsApp challenging. Shrug.
I’ll use whatever my hosts and I find convenient and reliable, whether texts, WhatsApp, Signal or whatever.
Personally, I don’t want to partner with hosts who don’t understand tech, because I don’t want to be affected by their lags and don’t want to hand-hold.
6 Likes
paradoxical but true.
7 Likes
Other than taking photos when I arrive so I remember where to put things when I leave, none of the OP’s issues reflect my experience (relative newbie: 2 years, 18 5⭐️ sits). If I’d read this post before joining THS, I might never have joined.
My hosts have all been kind, respectful and very appreciative. I’ve never felt looked down on. I echo the advice of other sitters to do your due diligence and be very discerning in the sits you choose.
12 Likes
If we had followed most of this advice we would not have done over 150 sits in the past 6 years.
Communicate.
Tell the truth.
Make your expectations known and take on board the hosts expectations.
Go with the flow.
Roll with the punches
Enjoy the sit
And most of all, love those beautiful animals.
24 Likes