No, we never ask for reimbursements. It’s nice when there are plenty of loo rolls and bin bags are left, but we don’t expect them. We’d have to buy them for our own home anyway so don’t mind paying a tiny amount for these things.
We would never expect toiletries or extra paper towels, because going through more than 1 kitchen roll purely on their pets doesn’t happen unless the sit is incredibly long, so you are probably using it for your own use. As for toiletries… it’s not airbnb.
We also regularly leave HO’s milk when we leave, and we make sure they have plenty of loo roll, and kitchen roll left when they arrive, and bread etc if they left us any on arrival.
I have never had the problem that there was nothing there to eat or drink or other basics etc when arriving at a sit. At more than half of my sits, the HOs were generous with dinners and/or with bottles of wine.
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This doesn’t make sense to me, because if I didn’t think an exchange was worth doing, I sure wouldn’t take it, hoping that a host would toss in a few extras at their discretion later.
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I’m pretty sure many folks would toss in extras if they were put on the spot. But that’s irrelevant to me, since I can easily afford things I’d normally consume or otherwise need anyway.
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Sitters have various reasons for doing it. Some people are scraping by or tight on money, so they might hope for more from sits. That doesn’t seem to typically be the case with most THS sitters.
Personally, my career allows me to telecommute full time. I sit only for enjoyment — travel, change of scenery, the company of pets. I don’t care at all about extra freebies or such from sitting. I do appreciate when folks give me gifts or treats, but I also believe in reciprocity and generosity. For instance, my most recent hosts offered me food and treats. As my sit wound down, I asked whether I could pick up anything for them food wise and left them treats. Whether we were “even” dollar wise made no difference to me.
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I have, yet the host generously offered “help yourself to whatever you like.” The problem was that the host was a fitness fanatic, and the only edible “produce” he had was whey protein, pills, and supplements. Nothing else … with an exception of cat food 
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@pietkuip I’m not suggesting it happens every time where I enter a home to an empty fridge. However, when HOs are leaving for 3-8 weeks at a time they aren’t going to the grocery store the week before they leave to restock for sitters.
If I arrive at your home at 6pm after leaving a sit earlier that day (which HOs are always aware of in my case), the last thing I want to do as a sitter is arrive, get pets excited, then have to leave because there’s nothing to eat and I’m hungry. And by choice I never order meal delivery in the US (Uber eats/doordash, capitalism can go to he11) so it’s highly disappointing when this situation does occur.
Funny thing is this started happening to me once I completed ~10 sits. It’s like folks expected someone on the site with more experience to anticipate less than someone brand new to the service.
But again, I’m only speaking from my experience/perspective much like you’re only speaking from your own.
By that logic, it similarly wouldnt hurt most sitters to buy the products before they arrive at the next sit.
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@Maggie8K No one is trying to make “even” on a dollar. A couple toiletries certainly wouldn’t allow me to breakeven 
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I value every sit and believe the travels/pet cuddles are more than worth it. Yet that doesn’t mean that sitters don’t incur more costs than homeowners, to which HOs could help subsidize and offset that difference.
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Exactly! And I don’t have the backbone to ask to take their car when I leave so I’ll stick to minor things that don’t make a difference to HOs.
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It’s not about scraping by. Based on this comment + your “my career allows me to telecommute” it seems you’re making a lot of assumptions. Just a reminder to be cautious about inserting unknown assumptions in a public forum. I actually work a full-time job plus two contract gigs for old clients so I’m making more than enough to currently handle myself. But that doesn’t mean that folks can’t help out their community and the individuals providing a high-quality service. It’s funny that building community and helping your neighbor in small ways is no longer at the forefront of some folks minds.
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I’d say that your assumptions were highlighted in comments about freebies going far with sitters. That’s fine if that’s so for you (or not), but there’s no need for hosts to be responsible for such preferences among some sitters.
When I mentioned my career, it was specifically about my situation, to highlight that there are all sorts of sitters and what we care about differs.