Has anybody been offered use of a car during the sit then been told there is a daily charge of 20 euro and insurance to pay?
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No, I havenât encountered this but would consider it as pretty cheeky. May I ask at what stage was this brought up - in the listing, during videochat, upon arrival?
That hasnât happened to me, but⌠to be fair it doesnât sound like too bad of a deal, especially if it was explicitly stated from the start.
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I have never seen that. Actually, yesterday I was offered the use of car and told it was insured for any drive over 21.
I have heard of insurance or deductible being paid by the sitter, which sounds quite reasonable it they are not covered.
As @MaggieUU says, it would depend on what stage this was disclosed, if itâs listed itâs not so bad as sitters can choose not to apply.
THS T&Cs admit payment for the use of utilities but a daily charge regardless of the use sounds a bit on the limit.
I stayed for a month in January and had use of the car with no charge. Then agreed to all of August. Booked flights for ÂŁ550 to Cyprus then they told me I had to pay 20 euro a day for the car. That was a discounted rate as normally it was 40. I would have said no if they had told me before I booked flights. I have since cancelled!
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If the car is needed for providing for pets/ doing the sit I wouldnât accept to pay for it. If it was agreed a use for the car, mileage for instance, and I would pay for a surplus driving more, or the car was not necessary for the sit but only for sitters comfort I might consider. But in general I pay enough to look after their pets with travel only.
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In that case, it doesnât seem reasonable.
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Totally unreasonable and mean-spirited! Especially after youâd already done a successful sit for them and used the car without charge (as it should be!) What were they thinking?!! Iâm glad you cancelled the sit!!
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Well done!
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Sounds like bait and switch if they pulled it on a sitter late.
You could report them to THS, because hosts are allowed only to charge for utilities, and only if mentioned at the outset.
Plus, if an insurance company learns that a policyholder rented their car to someone, they might cancel the coverage if thereâs an accident. Thatâs because it would violate terms of normal noncommercial policies.
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Very underhanded. Sitters shouldnât be the source of an (albeit small) profit. Shall we now expect to subsidize their mortgage payment?
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Hello Sitters! Greeting from Switzerland⌠and snow!
Some years we long term lease a car otherwise we apply for appointments that provide a vehicle in case the Vet. may need to be visited and of course, if in the countryside, we need transport to get to shopping, etc. ( Weâre International Sitters). Surely pet owners wouldnât expect you to call a Taxi cab to take their pets, especially bigger pets, to the Vet. if an emergency?
Some Hosts may say they canât âlendâ you their vehicle due to Insurance Companies not giving cover but that is highly likely a fob-off.(There may be some restrictions but unlikely relevant to THS Sitters). Of course, the Hosts may not have a vehicle to lend although we have actually had Hosts rent a car for us. One lovely lady lived in rural France and was concerned about anyone using her rather old car⌠very generous. Weâve usually had wonderful response to car usage requests when talking pre-confirmation of a Sit. There was an exception on one occasion after our arrival however, when the decent car ( i.e. the âpromisedâ one)was substituted with an unreliable jalopy, no air con in 40âC heat, poor brakes, overheating episodes, filthy state!! The Hosts locked the better car away. Hmmmm. (and we thought it was âTrustâ by both parties?).
We are not buzz-about tourists who would drive excessive kilometres and we declare that to the Host. We provide International Driverâs Licences authentications ( even if a total money making exercise for Automobile Clubs!)and we have good reviews about past car usage so usually an agreement is easy.
So to the question, would we hire from the Hosts? No.
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If this is their own car rather than a hire car, theyâre likely invalidating their insurance if renting it out it to you anyway. That, combined with their lack of transparency about the car until youâd booked your flight - I would steer well clear.
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Itâs hard to really be familiar with the various and different rules (not to mention the cost) of car insurance in all the countries where one may sit⌠even here in Canada, where car insurance is regulated on a provincial and not federal level, the rules are different one province to the next.
A quick example related to cost: an inexperienced driver here pays at least 3 times as much as one who lives in Italy. Itâs quite possible that insuring a person from abroad, whose driving experience is not easily verified, will also be very expensive.
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Perhaps the HO had to pay significantly extra to add another driver to their insurance policy, and wanted the sitter to contribute to that.
But, given that they didnât tell you this until you had confirmed/booked your flights, it seems unreasonable.
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I am new to THS and have a listing.. I would happily offer my car for use free of charge, we call it the dogmobile as itâs the one we use for walks so it can be a bit hairy, sandy etc and we donât mind. Also, we have a beach hut which the sitter can use and my car has a season ticket for the car park, so sitter wouldnât have to pay for parking!!
Personally, I feel the sitter is doing us a favour so if we can help make their stay enjoyable, Iâm happy to do so
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Your dogs look gorgeous! Such a pity I am not available for your dates!
Iâd certainly put gas in it, but a daily charge? Does that include days you might not go anywhere? May as well rent, then. Iâve been offered a car for free but chose to rent because driving in unfamiliar insane traffic, if anything happened to it â or even if some twit backed into it in a grocery parking lot â now thereâs a problem between me and the HO to sour the sit and potentially affect my rating, because how do they know whether I was careful with the car? Iâve preferred to rent so far because if anything does happen, itâs between me & the rental co. & my insurance, and doesnât drag the HO into it.
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Yep, this happened to a friend in Hawâi on an organic farm. The place was really lovely, but the dog was high maitenance, though gorgeous, as he was a puppy and living in a humid climate with a heavy coat. They kept changing dates for health reasons and then wanted to charge my friend a daily rate for the use of their car, which he wouldnât have needed, if they kept their promise about the sit dates. Due to them cancelling his start date and forever extending the start date, he had to stay at my pet sit, and of course, to do so, a car was needed to shuttle him there and then back to Hawâi. They argued with him to charge him for the use of their car on those dates they cancelled from his original sit and were screaming at him over the phone, saying they felt taken advantaged of because I helped to argue his case to the husband that the car should be free, seeing as they cancelled the earlier dates while he was already in Hawaii and I was already supplying him free accomodation to assist. If I wasnât there, they would have to pay for his alternative accomodation. They were so entitled and then they didnât even give him a review, after he did a really great job with their dog who liked him more than he liked them. Just insane!!
(Post edited by the Forum Team to comply with the Community Rules - Keep it Kind).
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Iâm not sure why it was marked as edited to keep it kind when in reality you only edited grammatical errors. Please be accurate. I didnât write anything mean at all! lol
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