This is a question for HO’s. If you’ve got mowing lawns as one of your responsibilities - would you be flexible on this if it might attract more quality sitters. The only reason I ask is that whilst we only have a small garden we get someone in to help and whenever I see mow the lawn as a ‘duty’ am immediately put off. Happy to water a few plants but the mowing is a big no from me. Its a shame as I’ve seen some lovely sits, with low applications but the mowing is a real turn off.
If they have low applications, there’s no harm in applying and asking whether they can have someone else do that. You could mention that you’ll immediately withdraw your application if they say no. Hiring someone to mow is typically cheaper than a kennel or professional sitter. And a number of sitters have mentioned on the forum that they won’t mow. I wouldn’t, either.
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Hi thanks - I did wonder if this was acceptable to do. I think I might consider applying and asking the question.
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You also could frame your msg like so: Would love to sit (pets) and your home. If you don’t find a great sitter and would consider having someone else mow, because that’s not something I do, please feel free to contact me for sitting. Meanwhile, I’ll cancel my application, which I sent because there’s no other way for a sitter to contact a host.
Or something like that. That way, you come across as not demanding, but offering. And then it’s up to the host whether they want to engage.
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I think that’s a great idea. Thank you.
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We’re sitters, but there’s no harm in asking if they’ve got low applications anyway, put your best foot forward at the start of your message so they don’t rule you out straight away, and then pop a note at the end of the message about the grass cutting, they can only say no.
We’ve had to say that we don’t have knowledge of specific skills before, and we’ve still got the go ahead because of the strength of our profile in other ways.
Plus, whenever there is a sit that is a week or less, we’ve never had to cut the grass as yet.
Go for it 
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Thank you. It says cut weekly but the sit is only for a week so they are more likely to be open if they feel we would be a good match in every other way.
If you don’t ask, you don’t get 
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Something to note about why I framed my suggested msg as I did:
When you say you don’t know how to do X, you open the door to someone saying they’ll show you how.
When you say outright that you don’t do X, you’re not opening that up for discussion. If someone insists or asks in that case, you just say something like, as I mentioned, that’s not something I do.
That approach works for many circumstances in life, work, etc. When I don’t want to negotiate, I don’t open the door to such.
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Mowing lawns, shoveling snow. I did that for 25 years as a homeowner (and 10 more as a teenager for my parents) and then I decided any future homes would be condo apts or other places that took care of that for me! So I don’t even apply if mowing lawns is a task or in snow country during snow season! 
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We had a sit where the HOs had a relative come over to mow. We guessed it was due to the HO wanting to get eyes on us, which the relative confirmed while chatting with us.
(We didn’t ask. He brought it up because he thought it was funny and said that he was told by the HOs that he needed to show up several hours or a day earlier than scheduled and ask to use the bathroom to get a look inside the house, too.)
We never touched the very high end, expensive mower, which turned out to be a good thing because it broke when the relative was using it.
We now won’t mow as we don’t want to be held responsible for lawn mower repairs or replacement.
We also now make sure there’s clear understanding between us and the HOs regarding 3rd parties at and in the home.
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@Sitter756 did you let the relative in the house to use the restroom.? I don’t think I would as a solo female sitter.
Yes, we did. We were new to sitting and learned a lot of valuable lessons on that sit.
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@ExploreDreamDiscover @Sitter756
Random tangent on this - how would you not let the family member use the bathroom? I mean, obviously, just tell him no.
But I had a situation once where a son came to pick up keys from the owner of the apartment and he asked to use the bathroom while he was there. It was downtown in a big city so I thought, of course - he drove 30-40 minutes to be here, has to drive the same back, makes sense. But I was momentarily taken aback by his asking (not to mention that he entered the apartment without knocking or ringing the bell - taken aback was a theme at that moment) and the owner actually mentioned this in their review, saying I was rude to the son while he was there. (Which I wasn’t totally true - otherwise we had a nice chat, despite the surprise entry.)
I guess I’m still worried that it will come back to me in a bad review if I’m “rude” but that one was before blind review days.
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@sbwade guess it depends on the situation. If I knew someone was coming to get something, I might leave it outside or leave for a little while if they asked to come in. I wouldn’t be pet sitting if there wasn’t a 3rd party rule, so I’m going to be ok saying no. It’s not easy to be in that situation and having to say no and then be called rude. Some may think it’s overreacting but if something happens they will say that I shouldn’t have let someone in. If possible, I use the safety inside lock. And after an incident, I’ll use a portable lock that doesn’t allow key entry.
Everyone has a different risk tolerance.
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@sbwade “worried that it will come back to me in a bad review if I’m “rude”
I’m not looking to be nomadic and to need pet sitting for a place to stay.
If someone criticizes me , unfairly, in a review and it ends my pet sitting gigs, I’ll move on to something else .
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@sbwade - I hear you regarding not wanting to be rude. I am very much an overly accommodating, polite person and like you, would also not want to be called rude in a review.
In our case, it was a strange situation because the HOs specifically asked the relative to arrive at a different day/time than agreed on and to use the bathroom in order to check up on us and the inside of the house.
Like you, we were definitely taken aback when the relative unexpectedly showed up, but lucky for us the relative thought the HOs were being unreasonable, especially after he met us. Whatever he told the HOs must have been good, as we ended up with 5 stars like all our other sits.
That event, other sit experiences, and reading in this forum what others have experienced have taught us to ask better questions up front and to be better prepared with kind and respectful, yet firm answers if needed.
We also now try to determine during the initial video call if the HOs are truly comfortable with the general idea of having sitters in their home. We fully appreciate that it is a huge leap of faith for them, absolutely feel for them in having concerns, and do all we can to comfort them in this regard, but there is a line somewhere between normal concern and being so anxious that this type of arrangement doesn’t make sense for the HO to participate in. We won’t accept a sit where the HO’s level of anxiety is such that it will likely lead to a pins and needles kind of sit on our end.
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Fair enough! That one sit was riddled with red flags that I ignored. I’ve been more choosy since and have never had a problem!
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