@MateoMum if this sitters attitide is unsettling you too much you need to express this to them clearly. If it doesn’t go down well- Unconfirm if necessary. I would not appreciate that kind if subtle pressure if I were a host.
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I have a sitter that has asked for reimbursement of airfares. I’ve said yes as time is close to my departure, but I’m not happy
@Crisp, if you’ve already agreed and it’s too late to arrange other care, go through with the sit and afterward report them to THS for their extortionate behavior. Also make clear in your review what they did. It’s against THS terms for a sitter to ask for travel expenses. A sitter like that should be booted off the platform.
If you can arrange other care, I’d do that instead in your place, because I wouldn’t trust a weasel with my pets or home.
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How close is it to your departure? Try and get another sitter if at all possible. This is appalling behaviour by the sitter, absolutely against the rules, and you should report it.
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@Crisp Do Not Pay This! This is wrong and against the spirit of THS. Think twice about this. Imagine what this sitter will continue to ask for once they are in your home!
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Then don’t say yes. It’s absolutely against THS Ts & Cs and they know you’re under pressure so have limited options. Report them & find an alternative either on the platform, local kennels, a paid sitter, FB groups or ask friends and family to help out if at all possible. Otherwise it’s going to leave a very bad taste in your mouth. #notafairexchange
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Thankyou for your feedback & advice. I am concerned it is a month sit, but I have already paid $200 . The sitter did send a confirmation of the flight details.
I will report the sitter when I return
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I have two weeks to go, but I’m away a month and wouldn’t chance finding another sitter. I have paid and received flight details from the sitter. I will report the incident when I return
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Please make sure you state in your review what this sitter did.
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I only hope this unscrupulous sitter takes good care of your home and pets @Crisp as a month is a long time. If it goes wrong, you may have no leg to stand on, I’m thinking, where THS is concerned.
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To pay $200 to get a month’s worth of pet care is actually a pretty good deal.
I find the other posters rather harsh - as a pet sitter I also sometimes see sits come up that are quite last minute, which I would LOVE to do, however the cost of the flight is simply prohibitive.
I do sometimes find myself thinking: so what’s better?
The HO not getting a sitter and thus having to figure out something else.
OR expecting that a sitter pays a really high air fare - after all, it’s not the sitter’s ‘fault’ that the HO post last minute for a location that is known to have quite expensive flights if not booked well in advance
In that case, I really don’t mind if there would be a possibility to ‘share the pain’: I have a limit as a sitter how much I’m willing to pay for airfare to sit someone’s pets. The HO has an incentive to get a sitter vs …kennels, neighbours etc but for some reason left it really late. Let’s both chip in and both will be happy…
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@Crisp did the sitter ask for this before you had confirmed the sit on the dashboard?
Was this someone that you contacted and invited or someone who applied to your listing ?
Sitters shouldn’t ask for any payment and are responsible for arranging their own travel at their own expense.
However I have read on this forum that some owners who are desperate to find a sitter ( because it’s last minute/ or no one has applied ) offer to help the sitter with their travel expenses.
We often receive invitations to sit in locations that would cost us a lot to travel to . We decline them. However I can see that some sitters might say I can’t do this sit unless you pay my airfare ( especially if it’s last minute) .
It should all be discussed before a sit is confirmed and be a mutual exchange .
So if you as a HO don’t feel it’s a good deal you shouldn’t feel pressured to agree to paying any expenses to a sitter .
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If the sitter asked for monies after confirmation seems a bit unfair to you. Even if asked before, it is against the conditions of THS. Sitter May not have known this or just testing to see if you did.
Regardless, you have now agreed and from what I have seen already paid. If you are regretting this I would recommend you let the sitter know this. Either before sit begins or when they arrive. Also say that you intend to report it.
Perhaps you can come to a better understanding and more mutually agreeable terms.
It would be a bit more straightforward than pretending to be ok when you’re not and then leave a bad review.
I think it’s worth a discussion that will help you both.
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Fair viewpoint @Bluehorse 
@Amparo . I think it’s a bit risky telling the sitter you intend to report them. What if the sitter simply doesn’t turn up? Then the HO will have paid for the flights, and still not got a sitter.
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Either refuse to pay, don’t use them and report them or pay and be happy with the deal you have agreed to.
Agreeing to pay, using them, and reporting them after using their services makes you as bad as each other.
You can’t have your cake and eat it too!
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Not when its’ against the T&C AND is changing the agreed-upon arrangement close to the sit date, creating significant pressure and damaging trust.
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I think this is setting a very dangerous precedent. The whole ethos of THS is free accommodation in return for free pet care. All members have already paid a membership fee. Sitters should not be applying for sits if they can’t afford the flights. To ask at the very last minute for the HO to pay, is putting the HO in an impossible situation. Leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth.
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As I understood it, but maybe I understood it wrong:
- HO posted a last minute sit
- Sitter is available last minute, but asking for contribution to airfare
- HO agrees as they need someone for a whole month and left it late to arrange a petsitter, thus no alternative petsitting options left at this point
Not to say it’s just Ok for sitters to ask for contribution to airfare, but I do want to acknowledge that:
- in this post-Covid world airfares have sometimes become quite high;
- at times as a sitter I’m keen to do a sit that starts within a few weeks or less, however the cost of airfare is at that point already prohibitive
- had the HO advertised earlier, I could have locked in an affordable fare
- and sometimes with those last minute sits, HO don’t act swiftly either to confirm a sit, thus airfares going up ‘as you speak’. E.g. I tell the HO: please decide this evening because hardly any tickets left at that price; and then they decide 1-2 days later…ok, opportunity gone. Not fair to leave the price difference to the sitter due to slow decision making.
Of course one can always say in that case: just get another sit, but for continental Europe - not UK - there aren’t that many sits that suit my ‘criteria’ (e.g. good public transport, cats). And competition is quite high. So as a sitter you’re certainly not always in the driving seat for getting sits lined up when and where you’d like to, meaning it’s a bit of a game of give & take.
And within that, I don’t always feel it’s totally fair that the HO expects sitters to show up on THS to do their sit and be 100% responsible for travel costs, even if the HO has clearly left it late and lives in a region with limited flight options (and I should add: limited pool of local sitters) and thus high airfares. Think for example…a sit somewhere Norway not Oslo, etc.
So just like the THS rules allow HOs to ask for a contribution to utilities, I think it wouldn’t be strange to have a rule that allows HOs at their own discretion to offer a contribution to airfare in case where this may otherwise be prohibiting sitters from coming. I don’t think one should pay full airfare for a sitter, but for instance a 100$ towards airfare can go a long way if it makes the difference between whether a sitter can accept a last minute sit or not.
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Bluehorse, I agree that although THS is not set up currently for home owners to assist sitters with travel expenses it certainly would help fill sits in less popular areas or last minute.
I quite often look at sits that involve a long drive plus a paid ferry ride or a flight but don’t apply as it is too costly.
Unfortunately some of those sits never get filled which is a shame when a contribution to travel expenses would be much less than kennel fees for a few weeks.
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