Owners lying about amount of plants to be watered

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
1

I’m currently on a sit where there are over 60 plants and trees to be watered. I specifically asked the owners during our interview, (since once in the past I had a sit where there were over 125 plants to be hand watered, everyday), if they had plants, and how many. They lied to me and said, “A few”. It takes me and hour and 1/2 to water them because they need 3 min each plant or tree.

I think in the posting there should be a place that asks the owners if there are plants and how much time is needed to care for them. At least then, the owners would be less likely to lie.

I also think it would be great to have, in the review section, a place where you could rate the “value of the sit versus responsibilities”. At least then, other sitters would know what to expect.

I did pass these suggestions along in the support chat, but they didn’t sound like they were interested in doing that.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I work so that I can do these sits and visit new areas. With this much watering, and my work situation, I have very little time to explore the area.

2

I’m sorry to hear that the host seemed to have outright lied about the plant care responsibilities. 60 plants and trees certainly does not qualify as a ‘few.’

But once a sitter has been ‘burned’ with a particular situation, especially more than once, even if it is a situation that is unlikely to be an ongoing occurrence, the best they can do is ask hosts directly about the issue, which is what you did.

Unfortunately in this case you encountered someone dishonest, but for the most part, I think that the vast majority of hosts are forthcoming about responsibilities, especially if asked directly about something.

If more involved gardening and plant care is one of your ‘dealbreakers’ you might ask about this right upfront in your application message, asking hosts if they require any sort of care in this regard, and to tell you specifically the amount of plants and the time it typically takes to do the job.

I have gone to a few sits that ended up having a good deal of indoor plants and it did take up some time. But it is not something that is so concerning that I feel the need to ask about it specifically prior to confirming; also I doubt it was something they deliberately did not mention. For any sit that had a particularly involved amount of plant and garden care, those hosts have always told us about it upfront.

As for the suggestions you mentioned, plant care info could be helpful.

But the one about rating the value vs the responsibilities would not be as helpful I think. While all the rating categories are subjective, this one is particularly so.

Some sits have more involved responsibilities, especially in regards to the home, and depending on the person, and the specific requests, some may not mind that at all. They may even enjoy doing those things.

For example, my husband and I have a lot of free time and some of these more involved tasks do not bother us–it can even be nice to have some stuff to do to take up the time. But another sitter who may have a busier work schedule or wants to spend more time exploring, would not find the same sit as appealing.

The reviews are somewhere that someone can mention specific tasks that are required for the pets, home,etc..–and it can be done in a neutral way of just stating a fact–and this info can help future sitters know if it is a good match or not.

3

Well you can either leave or suck it up and review accurately. You could dock stars from accuracy of listing and state there were 60 plants that took 90 minutes a day to water. At least future sitters will be warned.

4

I am sorry that the amount of plants was misrepresented but I honestly believe that adding more categories to reviews or even to listings won’t help improve sits and could even make things more difficult as it’s already happening with some changes. After all, reasonable, honest hosts already cover most relevant information and the ones who don’t care still have inaccurate and/or inconsistent listings even regarding the required content.

Regarding

I agree with @KC1102 that it’s really subjective but it’s something you can mention in the wording of your review if you think it’s important.

5

wow super annoying, that is definitely not “a few”. Not many options now except stick it out or start making arrangements to depart. Another idea - can you raise your concern in a nice way, explaining your lack of free time? Ask AI for tips on how to say it, and see if you can alternate days rather than daily? Sometimes plants/trees can tolerate less water for a short time.

For future sits, ask “how long does it take to water the plants?” and you can also ask them to show you the area(s) in the video chat.

As a retired person who likes taking care of gardens and being outside, this wouldn’t bother me IF I knew about it and agreed in advance.

6

That happened to me ones as well. In a very hot climate, the HO had over 50 potted plants on the patio.

I mentioned in my review as a warning for others!

7

I did one sit that had 178 indoor plants to water, that was a surprise. I did another one that said they had a few indoor plants. They neglected to mention the plants outside, the vegetable garden and greenhouse.

HOs really should be clear about plants so they don’t end up disappointed. I know a few people who just can’t seem to keep a plant alive.

8

I’m about to do a cat sit primarily for the stunning garden of a professional landscape gardener. They have a well organised drip drip reticulated watering system so twice a day I’ll turn a tap on for 20 minutes drink a coffee in the garden and turn it off again! It’s going to be heavenly.

9

@BonnyinBrighton You might not even have to do that with more rain forecast :wink:

10

Yes. I plan on letting other sitters know in my review.

11

For now I’m just going to water. I leave tomorrow. I’ll mention it clearly in my review.

In terms of speaking to the HO’s, the woman is the type who is very good at pretending everything is fine, while taking advantage of people. I’ve seen the type before. So a conversation wouldn’t result in anything.productive. That’s why I feel I need to warn others. I’ll do it in a respectful way.

12

Yes, that’s a crucial detail to ask about during the interview and you should make it clear that you won’t be doing any extra tasks. I once had a situation where I was told about daily garden watering only after I’d already arrived. There was also a house filled with tons of indoor plants, watering them was a real chore, especially while also looking after the pet. There were also instances where, just before the scheduled arrival, I was suddenly informed that the dog was sick and required constant care and five short walks. I’ve also started paying closer attention to whether the host has a cleaner, because pets create a huge amount of mess, far more than a sitter ever would. I didn’t sign up to be a housekeeper, I’m happy to clean up after myself and sure, the pet’s waste but I’m not going to deal with shedding fur and general messiness every single day. If the sit lasts longer than 10 days, hire a cleaner. On a lighter note, I’ve noticed that many hosts on the site have started viewing sitters as free labor—expecting them to mow the lawn, shovel snow, and weed the vegetable garden :laughing:

13

Good that you’ll mention this was misrepresented. If you don’t want to water a lot of plants, you now know you need to ask about them in discussion/calls about your application, but if they’re going to lie to you, what can you do :frowning:

I wouldn’t mind seeing a category for plants among the pet categories. “Someone” would have to decide how many plants it would take to need listing, to implement that. Half a dozen indoor plants once a week shouldn’t be a big deal but if someone’s got a housefull, then yes, potential sitters should know.
I assume the daily watering was an outdoor collection in a very hot dry place. MY plants could take a noob an hour & a half, but the instructions are very clear and it’s only once/twice a week.

14

Normally, I would agree with you but it’s the “someone” I worry about. With recent “improvements” I have learned to be careful what I wish for in THS.

Let’s take two examples:

  • Time alone category. It was something widely asked by forum members but I don’t think it’s working properly. It is not an open field, very limited options are offered to choose from. As a result, there are lots of inconsistencies and more often than not, the category tends to be much more restrictive than wording and reality.

  • Arrival/departure times. Just the opposite: 48 options around the clock. Owners can choose any time frame. It could be 3-3.30 am. Again, the category is more restrictive than reality.

15

This happened to me on an otherwise easy sit for a lovely HO. Asked in advance if I’d mind watering and showed me the plants while we were on the video chat. I said No problem. But when I arrived, it turned out there were a lot of more plants than I’d realized from the quick video look but the real issue was that the plants had many different and very particular watering and feeding instructions!! It took an hour or more a day to fulfill these duties.

I was there mostly for a sort of retreat, so it didn’t interfere with anything I wanted to do, but it was still something it would have been better to hear about from the HO before committing to the sit.

The trouble is…plant people who are used to babying their plants really don’t get how much work they are asking for. They do it out of love and enjoy it and it really doesn’t register with them how other people might see it.

It’s the same as HOs who spend an unusual amount of time and energy on their pets and expect sitters to do the same.