It really isn’t worth getting stressed about. As long as the homeowner is upfront about any costs in the listing the sitter can decide whether or not to apply.
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Can you point me to the paragraph in the terms and conditions that state that? I have looked but Cant find it.
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@ElsieDownie No I can’t, and I don’t care to look for it. My comment is based on the fact that I’ve read a few times on these forums: whenever a sitter asks for a fee for sitting (which could also be construed as a contribution to travel?) then the HO is encouraged to contact THS to report the sitter. The offer has to come from the HO, apparently, the sitter can’t request this. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve read it a few times now.
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Hello, @botvot & @ElsieDownie I can help with this one.
In the T&C under the sitter’s clause it states:
The following applies only to Sitters. You will:
1. not charge for your pet sitting services;
This is also one of the terms in the Code of Conduct for sitters.
There is a help desk article about owners charging utilities:
There is a help desk article for travel for sitters:
I guess playing devil’s advocate it does not say that sitters can not ask for a contribution towards travel… If it was really important to you to ask the owner can always say no?
However, I think the general ethos of the site is a fair exchange and win-win for both members, where no money changes hands. I think this happens in the vast majority of sits and you always have the freedom to not move forward if you are uncomfortable with anything an owner or sitter requests during your application stage.
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I know you’re being cheeky, but it does actually work like that for utilities on flat rentals, at least it did in my experience in both Germany and Poland. When you rent a flat there is X cost for rent and an estimate of Y for gas, electricity and water. They take an annualized estimate and divide it by 12 to give you a monthly amount that you pay along with your rent to the landlord. The utilities stay in the landlord’s name.
At the end of your rental contract the landlord compares the estimate to actual use and if you paid more than you used they refund the difference to you, or conversely if you used more than the estimate you owe the landlord the difference. Landlords usually ask you to do meter readings along the way to avoid any large differences though.
So if you were doing a sit for someone with that kind of arrangement who would be getting money back if you underused…it wouldn’t be cheeky then to ask. 
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Yes, nearly all of us, have the same utility bills, mortgage/rents etc to pay while we are away. You can board your Pets, however your bills are still there, sure your electricity/gas/water usage is lower especially if you turn it all off, however you don’t have that security that if a pipe froze and burst, your sitters are going to be aware of it and contact you, if your fridge/freezer breaks down and all your food goes off, your sitter can at least let you know and you can try salvage some of it, you have some options other than coming home to rotting food and blood from meat off in your freezer, potentially dripped all over the floor, with then potentially flies, maggots etc. Your Bins go out, so you don’t have flies and maggots in your Bins when you come home, your mail is collected and parcels are taken in, your Gardens/Indoor plants are watered, I always do the Bed/Bath linen before I leave, Washed, dried and away or back on the Beds and in Bathrooms, I always leave a home cooked meal ready for them to come home to, so they don’t have to worry about cooking when they get home, often I will do their Towels/Bed Linen while they are away, if it’s a sit over a couple of weeks so they don’t have to worry about it when they get home. The Bins are all empty, the Dishwasher is run and empty, the Kitchen and Bathrooms are sparkling, floors hoovered and moped, Pets groomed. If you go on Holiday leave it as you walk out with the fridge not cleaned out, wet towels, dirty soiled laundry and dirty bedding, you come home to that, no thanks. Before I leave for a HS all our Bedding gets washed, Towels, the Kitchen gets a clean, dishwasher, washing machine, the fridges get a clean out and I take anything that needs to be used up with me or eat it all before we are going to be leaving, bins are emptied and there is no dirty laundry, so when we get home, I was our dirty laundry our Towels (we use Bath sheets, you have to have some creature comforts when you are away,lol) find something to throw together for dinner or a Tikka Masala that I cook in advance and pop in the freezer so we just have to put some rice on and enjoy a home cooked comfort meal. anyways … it seems a bit unfair HO asking for utilities (if it is a single person they have to take into account when taking applicants 4/5 ppl use much more than 1 person) sure this might leave Families like ours with less people accepting or inviting us, so be it. x
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I haven’t seen any such listings yet and I think it’s wrong. Both parties involved paid a membership fee and you might as well just hire a professional sitter and pay them, than take advantage of someone who is doing It for free. That makes absolutely no sense that people would ask for utility fees. It’s basically the same as if they were still around using their appliances, which is exactly what TH’s concept says: You’re stepping in as a pet parent.
Admin notice: Post edited to adhere to posting guidelines.
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I’m new on this site but what I understand about it is. that its a mutual beneficial service. The sitters get a holiday while looking after pets and the owners have the peace of mind knowing that their house and pets are looked after. I think its a fantastic service.
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Very interesting to read both HO’s and Sitters points! We’ve still not decided how we would deal with this as HOs. We live in big house in a tropical country. We’ve quite well accustomed to the weather, so we rarely run the ac during the day and keep it at 26°C/79°F during the night. Pets don’t require ac.
Now, we would NOT expect the Sitter to do the same! They would certainly be able to use ac during the day and keep it cooler at nights. However, we would hope them to not run the ac in the whole house all the time, but to use it while they are in the room(s), and then turn it off when not in that room. Cooling the whole house the whole time would be way too expensive for us.
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Spell this out clearly in your ad and bring it up again during your call/video chat. You should get a good feel for the sitters you can trust to be sensible.
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The entire concept of housesitting is built on mutual exchange. I have used house-sitters, sometimes for months and have been housesitting myself for years. I always provide something special for our house-sitters - wine, chocolate, sometimes tickets to a show and have shared many wonderful meals with house sit guests and hosts but no money has ever exchanged hands. If this ever changes I will opt out of the system. I have friends who charge $50 -$70 to care for a dog. HO are getting a great deal.
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What would it cost for the penthouse owner to board their pets an hire someone to check on their place in NYC? Deduct my utilities cost from that and let’s talk.
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No absolutely not. I can speak from experience. It’s a mutual exchange. Should NOT be asking for utility contribution.
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It truly baffles me that THS even allows HO to ask this. Unless the sit is longer than 3 months with really easy pets then there shouldn’t be any money coming into play.
I also am very hesitant with HO that seem super cheap with letting sitters use utilities. In general we’re in a climate crisis and people should be mindful of water, gas/electrical and refrigerant use. But when it’s the dead of summer…yeah I’m absolutely gonna use the A/C if it’s hot and I shouldn’t have to worry about that being an issue.
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I’ve never seen that - but yes, why can it be even asked? I’m pretty sure there isn’t a ‘paid for sit’ option where there are lots of tasks, and home owners pay something to the sitters (or is there?) I’m disappointed to learn of another feature that favours home owners but any payment, either way, seems against the ethos of TH.
On the subject of energy use: we’ve found most of our UK sits cold recently. We understand the need to keep usage low - prices have risen, but also we have a climate crisis. However, there is a comfort limit. I like to think HOs keep the same temperature when they’re in residence that they ask us to…
We have an EV, and most HOs kindly allow us to charge at home, which makes life so much easier: especially in rural areas. Naturally we always offer to pay for that.
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Couldn’t agree more on both counts Colin. At the moment I’m “lucky” to still be working so i can actually afford to do some of the sits because of the travel costs i have to pay to get to them. This year i’ve had about €650 on costs to travel to my sits (two abroad) which have been in some lovely places so if a HO then started talking about paying utilities it really would be the end of the line with TH sitting and i would move to a paid sit site which I’d actually hate to do and I have even rejected sits referred to me by friends from two paid sites as I feel this would take away the spontaneity of sitting and it would just become solely a business agreement.
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I rejected an extended sit recently because the hosts wanted me to pay all of the utilities. At least they mentioned it up front. I might consider such an arrangement if other aspects of the sit were stellar but that wasn’t the case here.
I won’t ever apply for a sit where utilities costs are requested.
I understand that some HOs are in financial strains, but I didn’t join this site to help them solve that problem. Maybe they could Airbnb their place instead and figure out how to get someone else to take care of their pets for free.
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This is a very good example where I would discuss with the home owner the cost of AC during my stay.
Being a woman of “a certain age” I would definitely use more AC to keep the temperature in the room I was in below 18C. This will cost far more money therefore I would offer to pay the difference. In my experience, it’s better to be comfortable and not worrying about the HOs bills.
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