We have just returned from holiday for seven days. This is the second sitter we have used from this site. Whilst the pets were well cared for unfortunately the house was left filthy and she had made no attempt to clean up after herself. Additionally she has boiled milk in the kettle(italian sitter) and wrecked the bottom of it.
I spent a fruitless afternoon speaking to bots on this site and a deeply unhelpful woman on the phone. Despite the guidelines essentially saying the sitter will make every attempt to leave the house as found, apparently our sitter has not breached any guidelines.
This has all left a bad taste. I invited her in for a meal, i had her in for coffee and cake and i gave her two gifts and a card to thank her. I really feel she has abused my hospitality and TH dont give a hoot. It has really put me off using a sitter again.
After a fruitless afternoon tith TH bots i msg the sitter directly with photos showing the dirty bathroom and kitchen.
She replied with she was sorry we didnt find it clean and that she didnt boil milk and she would pay for a cleaner.
I am annoyed TH wouldnt intervene on my behalf. How am i meant to process a payment for a cleaner and it is not about the money it is her whole attitide. Did we make a mistake accepting a sitter with no home? Essentially a digital nomad, however a 51 year old one.
Are TH ever any good at dealing with problems? Have we just been unlucky? Anyrhong we should avoid in the future?
Many Thanks
(Title was edited to help make the post clear and separate from other post with the same title - postal address for THS)
@KatieKirsten Please leave a review in which you factually cite the condition of the home upon your return. Reviews are blind, so the sitter cannot see what you wrote before she posts her own review.
Good pet care is a priority, but so is respect for the home.
Is this the same sitter that you believed used too much heating?
Normally if a sitter has a history of not cleaning up after themselves at the end of a sit there will be hints of that in their references. So in the future suggest reading those carefully before confirming a sitter.
Sorry to hear your sitter didnāt clean to your expectations. It sounds like you may have just had a bad sitter, fortunately the pets were well cared for which is the most important thing. You could mention in your listing or welcome guide that you will provide a clean home for the sitter and you would like it to be the same condition when you return. Although, the majority of sitters do not need to be told to clean. I leave homes spotless, often cleaner than I found them.
Iām not sure why you would think it has anything to do with being a digital nomad.
When I sold my house to travel for a few years after my daughter went away to university (I didnāt feel the need to live in a big house by myself), I didnāt suddenly become a slob or a completely different person. I donāt think traveling full-time correlates with being inconsiderate and leaving someoneās home a mess. I recommend reading reviews very carefully when choosing sitters. The majority of my reviews mention how clean the house was after my stay. Look for statements about cleanliness in the reviews.
Iām sorry to hear your sitter didnāt leave the home as clean as she found it as one would expect . You seem upset that THS didnāt āinterveneā on your behalf. The thing you need to think about moving forward is that the sitter is a member and you are a member. This is a matching site. If you went on a matching site for a date, and your date stuck you with a dinner bill when you had agreed to split the bill, you couldnāt really complain to the site. The same is true here.
You can give an honest review mentioning the coffee maker and the condition of your home. If it makes you feel any better a bad review will probably warn other homeowners and make it difficult for the sitter to get other housesitting gigs. However, it sounds like she offered to pay for a cleaner ā something she is under no obligation to do. Reviews are blind, but sheāll have the right to comment on your review. Future sitters will probably see the review you left for the sitter ā and the review sheāll leave for you ā and if your review comes off as petty ā menioning the sitterās age and nomodic lifestyle in a derrogatory way for instance ā this might put future sitters off and make it more difficult for you to get a sitter. So I would consider being honest about your dissapointment but fair.
What would you like THS to do on your behalf that they were not willing to do?
You can get the sitter to send money via PayPal or bank transfer. Even inter-european transfers are quite easy now.
THS are pretty bad at anything that requires direct action on their part. They seem to see themselves as being in an āadvisoryā role even though they are the ones being paid (or maybe because they are the ones being paid). Have a look through this sitterās reviews and see if there is anything there that may indicate they werenāt the cleanest sitter, or maybe even something missing that may indicate it. Often owners will remark in reviews on how clean their home was when they returned so maybe look for a sitter next time with more reviews that mention what you are looking for directly.
The fact that you made two posts complaining about the same sitter clearly indicates you arenāt happy. Make sure you review the sitter honestly as that what makes the system work. Iām not sure what you expect THS to do in this instance.
Not sure how being a digital nomad has anything to do with cleanliness. Next time I would suggest looking for feedbacks from hosts stating āhe/she left our house spotless, clean, in mint conditionā Thatās what almost every single host has stated on reviews for our family and yesā¦we are digital nomads
@systaran I completely agree with you Iām a 47 year old digital Nomad without a home and my reviews always talk about how clean Iāve left it and I wouldnāt want to be lumped into a category where someone thinks that people without a home donāt know how to care for one. I had my own home for over 20 years and my own pets so I am very skilled at taking care of both of them.
Sounds like you had an inconsiderate sitter. Review her just stating the facts, then move on, not all sitters are like that. Sheās offered to pay for a cleaner, take her up on it.
Having read both of your posts (are two necessary?), itās clear you were understandably not very happy with this sitter.
No, this is not something I would expect THS to intervene with. This is what reviews are for.
Yes, I would leave a review. Just state facts (maybe draft something now, then leave it for a day or two to when you are less heatedā¦ ).
Yes, accept the money for a cleaner (why not). Include that in your review. āWe were disappointed that X did not clean our home before she left. After discussions with her, we accepted her offer to pay for a cleaner.ā
(Was it really filthy after seven days? I suppose it depends on the pets. For a short sit I just ask the sitter to tidy after themselves & my pets and run the hoover round. That all looks fine when I get home.)
I am not sure the two posts are about the same sitter. The one about electricity usage says it was a 12 day stay whilst this one about cleaning states she was there to cover a 7 day holiday. I also donāt understand the point about how to process the payment offered by the sitter for a cleaner. Surely a simple bank transfer is all that is needed?
Ah well spotted - donāt understand the inconsistency in the time frames in that case. If it was only a 7 day sit it seems difficult to pin all of the extra energy cost for the month on the sitter. Even the 12 day sit mentioned in the other post is less than half of the billing period.
In addition, in your review you can also rate the sitter on Cleanliness - e.g. give them 1 star for that category and higher stars for how they looked after the pets. Then future HOs can see that and decide how important they find a clean home (some people donātā¦ I do)
).