Our last sitters used up our entire months data in one week.
The cats were happy and the house was perfect. I work from home and had to wait a week for the next payment to go through. We were generous, gave them half dozen bottles of wine etc for Christmas and let their friends stay for Christmas Day.
We didn’t know what the problem was initially I was not working full time.
How can I prevent this happening in the future. Thanks.
Just talk to the sitters in the next video call and mention the data limit in your listing if it’s an issue. In their defence it’s quite unusual for a home to have a data restriction, we’re all so used to unlimited streaming, watching, wifi etc. Out of interest, where are you? We’re in Turkey and this would potentially be an issue for us too on sits.
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Upgrade your internet plan
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@Glen its quite unusual nowadays to have a data limit on home WiFi. We always assume it is unlimited unless you had specifically mentioned it. We use a huge amount of data for day to day streaming and online work.
Realistically this could be a dealbreaker for a lot of sitters as many work from home - we would never take such a sit - maybe you could upgrade your plan if you have regular sitters?
I’m sure the sitters would feel terrible about it if they knew - it certainly wouldn’t have been intentional. You kind of sound like you assume they did it purposefully as you make a point of your own generosity - I’m sure if you had told them you had a data cap this could have been avoided.
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I wouldn’t take a sit with a limit on data. Between working and streaming entertainment, I would assume it was unlimited.
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Data is HUGELY different in different parts of the world.
For example, cell phones.
In Canada I pay C$75/mo for a mediocre plan.
In the EU I pay €13/mo for a spectacular plan.
Effectively Canadian carriers charge 4X more & provide less.
In both places get a combo plan for cell/wi-fi/TV.
And the packages also differ enormously with the Canadian costing far more for less.
SO important to know why yours is limited (where you are?) and what the expectations are of your sitters (where they are from!)
Do you live somewhere where data is more expensive than hiring a professional sitter? If not, maybe you can upgrade your plan temporarily or offer to pay for a hotspot, if needed.
As a sitter, I’d pass up any sit where data was limited. Even if I didn’t telecommute, I consider the internet a basic necessity of modern life. So do many people, especially those who travel a lot.
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Years ago this happened to me as a sitter where I wasn’t told there was a data limit and then got a message from the owner saying the data is out. The home didn’t have a TV and it was the middle of winter so I’d just been watching BBC iplayer for some entertainment oblivious to there being a limit - rare in that location even then. I felt absolutely awful after being told and wish the owner had just been clear from the start so I could have paced myself.
Nowadays I have sat for a few people who don’t have any internet at all which is no problem for me if it’s a domestic sit as I have plenty of mobile data but I would never ever accept an international sit with no or very limited data.
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I have “unlimited” mobile data, but Netflix won’t play on it, for instance. And if you use a lot of data, some mobile providers will throttle your speed. Of course, some folks consume more data than others, so it wouldn’t be a problem for everyone.
For many of us, we use internet like we use water in most places — we expect it to automatically keep running.
@Glen For future listings, it is imperative to mention this in your listing, as most sitters would assume there would be unlimited data, and many work from home. Glad your sitters were good otherwise.
We had one sit with limited data, due to it being on a farm and they had to use satellites or something. We did max it out, part-way through the sit, but the HO very generously called his provider and they offered him a deal where he could increase/double his data for one month only, at an additional few $ - not expensive. We were happy to pay for that, but he graciously paid for it. Grateful to have found a solution in our case.
Otherwise we use our own data through hotspotting, but we have found that some countries (we had this in SE Asia) don’t allow you to hotspot, annoying!
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We had a sit where the owner only decided to tell us that the wifi was hugely limited (and unlimited wasn’t available in that country…not true but that was another story) and that we’d have to pay to top it up which was often and on a 3 month sit. We just refused and she paid but it wasn’t a good start. On another sit we had no wifi but was totally clear from the start of our chats, super rural and we cycled 10 mins every day to a cafe to work. Wifi is as basic as electricity and more so than a TV.
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What a terrible host, @Cuttlefish. By contrast, I had great hosts who even changed their internet provider and upgraded to high speed for my sit. I include in my THS profile that I need high speed for telecommuting and they volunteered to upgrade without my having to ask. And it worked out that they were so happy with our sit that they’ve asked me to repeat sit.
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And that’s what we like @Maggie8K #abitofkindnessgoesalongway - luckily only 1 of 31 sits so ratio is fine 
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If you did not tell them you had a data limit then it is likely they assumed you had unlimited data or just aren’t aware of how much they use (some people are heavy users without realising it) or both. I am currently in a ‘3rd world country’ with unlimited data full fibre internet that is faster than I can get back home so it is quite common.
I work remotely and everything I watch is streamed from my home server plus I can copy huge files from home so it is possible form me to utilise huge amounts of data or modify my behaviour to fit in with a data plan if I know in advance or offer to pay for a top-up. Or I may not apply for a sit if I don’t think I can do without the data.
Going forward make sure you specify that you have limited internet data and any options a sitter might need to consider or upgrade to unlimited if it’s feasible
If you had told them about the data limit before they accepted the sit (not after accepting or when they arrived) and they still used it all up then they’re bad sitters and maybe ding them a star in the review and mention what happened.
@cawosey even in that theoretical scenario that doesn’t make them bad sitters. The house was left perfectly and the cat was well taken care of.
We say this to all owners but everyone on here needs to stop being so harsh. This is a friendly exchange - the assumption should always be that all care has been provided with the best of intentions and without malice.
If something has gone a bit wrong, a plant has browned a bit, a pool towel got a little dirty, the data usage limit was reached etc. it was certainly never done with bad intentions. Just little things do happen - your sitters are human beings not perfect robots.
Don’t be so callous as to trash a sitters reputation over these small types of things by docking stars and leaving petty feedback. It will come back around to you if you do that as future sitters wouldn’t want to sit for people like that.
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I didn’t say to trash the sitters reputation. I said that IF they knew about the limits before accepting and IF they decided to blow through what was available anyway leaving the owner effectively without what many class as a basic utility then effectively give them 4 stars instead of 5. That’s hardly trashing the sitters reputation.
Factual information in the review is hardly petty nor is it callous. You all want accurate reviews of owners you have to take accurate reviews of sitters as well.
@Glen I’m sure it was irritating to come home to non working internet. But this is not the sitter’s fault or responsibility unless there was mutual agreement in advance of the sit being confirmed that data would be limited. If the person works from home and needs to run programs that consume a lot of data they couldn’t possibly know it was capped unless you tell them up front. So this is not “overuse of data” as you’ve stated. The sitters simply use data differently than you.
You should probably make some different arrangements for your service if you are going to use sitters.
I sincerely hope you did not penalize the sitter in your review.
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@B1anca
I also used up all the data on one sit and I was SO embarrassed as well! The homeowner was fine about it, and we agreed that we both should have been clear about it beforehand. Now, I always ask about the data plan, just in case.
I’d be useless on a limited data sit as I can do 4-5 video chats a day for my remote work and then a few hours streaming at night. I know I used 150 gb in a month recently while using my home wifi as stated on my monthly bill(which is fortunately unlimited)
@Glen Did the sitters know when the accepted the sit that your connection was limited? Did they know when they arrived or at all?
What is your monthly allowance?
Since your original question was how to stop it happening again I think the only real answers are have unlimited, have a limit that the sitter is aware of, be able to top-up or have them top-up (I know some connections don’t allow for top-up), have a backup connection like tethering to mobile if you need to work when you get back.
I don’t know how tech-savvy you are or how easy your provider makes it to be able to see how much data you use but something that you or the sitter can see to gauge how much is being used may help if your provider gives this out easily.
My use at home for the last 30 days is 1.2Tb (1200Gb) download and 200Gb upload and I wasn’t there for 2 weeks out of that period. I would either not accept your sit or be happy to pay for data or to temporarily upgrade you if it was an option as I know I’m a heavy user.