Has anyone done a sit in which the HO was not the sole occupant of the home - as in, they have stated that their housemate/s will also be in the home with you during the sit. It seems totally bizarre to me. There’s a sit I’m thinking of applying to but I’m not sure I could get past the awkwardness of sharing a space with a stranger! (and a stranger who will probably be critiquing me and my sitting skills back to the pet parent!)
Surely in this situation you should just pay for someone to come round every day to check on the pets - or get the housemates to do it!
According to THS terms and conditions, there should not be any third parties living in the home while the sitter is there. So you could apply letting them know that is against the rules, and you could do the sit if no one will be there. But I can’t imagine the other person will want or perhaps even be able to stay elsewhere.
If you really wanted to do the sit for some reason (I wouldn’t recommend it), you still could. Even though it is against the ‘rules’ I think for the most part, sitters and HOs should be free to make arrangements between themselves and decide what is okay and not okay.
No third parties are permitted during a THS sit so please report the sit to support@trustedhousesitters.com@artgirl We’ve had an HO try and spring that on us mid sit and declined gracefully shall we say
I find this such a strange arrangement for the flatmates too. Wouldn’t you just ask one of your flatmates to look after your pet (or even pay them to) rather than bring in another person. It would be a breach of most of the flatsharing agreements I’ve come across too although I appreciate it could be different in other countries.
One of my first sits years ago with another platform the owner rented out a bunch of rooms on airbnb which I only found out after I arrived (along with a number of other unpleasant suprises). I didn’t have to do the turn over but did share a bathroom with the visitors which I found pretty unpleasant. Wouldn’t recommend.
This is not allowed by THS. I would also wonder why they couldn’t trust these other people to look after their home and pets but expect that you should be ok living with them.
I did once come across a listing that initially looked quite good until I spotted that it mentioned their young adult daughter would also be living within the house. When I read the reviews out of curiosity, it had already had a succession of good reviews but I have to say, this arrangement would not be comfortable at all for me and I’d have the exact same concerns as you.
There’s a brand new listing in London right now where you’ll have two roommates during your stay. They’ve posted two dates and both have already received their five applicants max.
Clearly sitters aren’t reading the details or just don’t care about having other people in the home (and presumably TH doesn’t really care about it either as it is a new listing and those supposedly get reviewed; roommates are mentioned in the very first sentence!).
@meow wow! If I saw an ad for a roommate, I definitely would think staying in same room and keep looking. Flatmate shares same space but roommate shares same room.
As you rightly say, different word in different countries. The world isn’t the same all over hey
My understanding of the terms would be that other people in the home is against the terms of service even if you are only sharing a kitchen or possibly a bathroom. Once you have roommates, even if it “sounds” okay, there is just too much that can go wrong. (Also adding in the US we usually use the term “roommates” to describe non-related people sharing an apartment as we don’t usually call apartments “flats.”)
It’s a sit you are thinking of applying for… but then you have written your concerns here. That sounds like you aren’t trusting what your inner voice is telling you.
I had a sit where the owner had a room rented but the renter would be away during my stay. But then the renter’s plans changed and she came back home during the stay. She did not know anything about the THS policy and the owner had not informed the her about the sit and me being there. It was definitely awkward but how could I tell the renter they could not be in their own home?
@meow Thank you for spotting this one, if you have the listing link please send it to me and I will refer it back to the approvals team.
Listings only get manually approved when they are brand new to the site, once the listing has been approved the owners may choose to edit and update their requirements at any point in the future. The new badge means new dates, they might not be a new owner of the site. I’m not sure without looking further into this one but I just wanted to explain the approvals process as it has been asked before.
If it is a new owner then things can get missed in human error we appreciate any flagged listings and we will definitely reach out to them. Thank you for questioning this one as the listing should not be up on the site with roommates there at the same time as the sitter
Others have already reported this new HO and the listing was removed. Adding checks for terms like “flatmate” “roommate” “housemate” “lodger” etc. to regularly scheduled QA scans of all listings and then flagging those listings for human review would be quite straightforward; however, I know basic site functionality is not a priority.
The point of Housesitting is you are receiving a space to stay in that’s homely in exchange for sitting a pet. I don’t know about anyone else, but sharing my space with a total stranger would ruin the experience and hinder my ability to relax.
You don’t know anything about their routine, lifestyle, habits etc until you’re there. Alternately you could end up meeting a great new person - but it’s such a gamble I don’t think it’s very fair of HO’s to see this as an equal trade.
Adding to that what if their housemate doesn’t like your habits! Sometimes I like to be lazy and leave the dishes in the sink after cooking for example… or walk around in my dressing gown after a shower…
And I can’t imagine if I was someone’s housemate and they moved in a random person whilst they were on holiday to walk the dog I’d be best impressed either.
We’ve had an HO try and spring that on us mid sit and declined gracefully shall we say 
