Hey THS community. I’m saddened by the need to write this, because so far I’ve only had good experiences with THS.
We welcomed our sitter (who had glowing reviews and we had 2+ phone calls with prior to the sit) on Thursday about 2 weeks ago, gave her the full home tour and explained that the front door auto-locks, gave her 2 sets of keys, introduced her to our tenant who lives in the apartment downstairs and gave her the contact info for 2 others so that should anything arise during the sit, she has people she can reach out to. We have never had any issues with 5+ previous sitters and no one has locked themselves out.
The second day of our trip, we received an email from our tenant that the sitter had locked herself out with our dog inside while retrieving a package, without her phone or wallet, and that our tenant paid $350 for the sitter to get a locksmith to access our apartment. We immediately repaid our tenant the $350 and waited for the sitter to apologize for her mistake and repay us the $350. The day that we returned home (10 days later), my partner texted the sitter about the issue and she 1. blamed us and the house for the circumstance 2. was not willing to repay us and did not want to discuss further as it would cause her anxiety 3. she claimed she did not have the money to repay us. My partner then offered that we pay $100 and she pay us back $250. She never replied. Later on in person once we were all home I had a brief 1-on-1 conversation with her to try to calmly discuss the issue with her and she continued to refuse to take responsibility for the situation. I told her that if she had apologized and tried to make it right by us and offer any amount of payment to reimburse us, we would have been a lot more forgiving, to which she angrily lashed out.
In a nutshell, she did not reimburse us, never apologized and after she left we discovered significant damage on the door where she and/or the locksmith tried to open the door.
I reached out to THS support regarding the $350, to which they replied that they do not reimburse locksmith costs and this is an issue that sitters and owners need to work out amongst themselves. Upon discovering the damage, I followed up on my support email thread with photos of the damage, and have not had a response from THS support within 48 hours.
Is there anyone else who has experienced property damage and has THS been helpful in reimbursing you? Any suggestions for getting in contact with support? A phone number you can share? I’m close to never using the platform again because so much trust has been lost.
Thanks all.
(Edited to remove identifying information in line with the Community Rules )
Just a thought, why hasn’t a trusted friend got a set of spare keys? Not sure why THS has any responsibility here…. so I’m a bit puzzled why you would expect them to.
I totally understand you feel angry and upset. While it can happen that the sitter occasionally locked herself out (we’re all human), her attitude towards it is of course unacceptable.
However, THS as a platform is not responsible for this. They are ‘matchmakers’ between owners and sitters, nothing more, nothing less. You should turn towards your home insurance who will hopefully be able to assist you.
In any case, make sure to leave the sitter the appropriate review. People like that put other sitters in a very bad light. Thankfully, as you have experienced before, most sitters are trustworthy and responsible adults.
A lot of the newer type doors do lock quickly and I always carry the key in my pocket having been locked out of a friend’s house while taking the bin out. A lot of home owners have an emergency key hidden or a key box outside with a code for this very reason. It is unfortunate but she was probably not used to that type of door and would probably been very worried about the dog. She was taking in a parcel as it would have been unexpected, we don’t all carry our phones everywhere. I wouldn’t expect her to pay for it, it wasn’t deliberate and the neighbour could have phoned you for her to help solve the problem. It certainly isn’t something THS would deal with.
We recently moved to a new house and only got keys a few days prior. Definitely unfortunate timing. Our previous house also had gates that auto-locked but we did have friends/family with extra keys then.
It was an accident not done on purpose. It would have no doubt cost a lot more than that to put your dog into Kennels. Trusted Housesitters won’t get you the money back and I don’t think the sitter will pay either. You will probably have to write it off to experience I’m afraid.
I have had experience with doors that auto locks, but they were all code punch in. It is too crazy to expect to carry a key just to get a package. There should have been a key somewhere with some emergency person.
Was there not an emergency contact with a spare key? That’s something I always look for in a welcome guide. I’ve never been locked out, but sitters are human and it can easily happen, particularly if you are just stepping out to grab a package and the door locks automatically.
So, if I understand correctly, the reason you’ve mentioned this is that one of those people had a spare key? …and yet no one thought to ring them, or you, from the tenant’s phone before calling a locksmith?
It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances where that the sitter didn’t have her phone when she got locked out so no access to the welcome guide with the emergency contact numbers in.
She reached out to the tenant downstairs who you had suggested that she reach out to if there was an emergency . It seems it was the tennant that went ahead and arranged an emergency locksmith . Presumably to get quick access to the dog ? Did they not try to call you first ? Or did they try and were unable to contact you ? If you did not leave a spare set of keys with anyone ( other than the sitter ) then it seems that getting a locksmith was the only solution for getting back into the home and dog. You decided to reimburse him, which seems fair .
Whilst getting locked out was a mistake that could easily happen , the sitter should have informed you about the incident , the locksmith call out and the damage to the doors as soon as was possible . It seems that the biggest issue here is the sitter’s lack of communication.
Since good communication by both parties is vital for a smooth sit , I find it odd that THS do not have a communication category when reviewing a sitter ( there is one for hosts ) . You can still mention the lack of communication about this incident , when leaving an accurate review of the sitter .
I do not understand why you did not leave a spare set of keys with somebody. Your tenant would have been the obvious to have left them with, or a relative or friend. I normally find on the sits that I do that there is a spare set of keys left with somebody. It is frequently ,mentionrd in the Welcome Guide, who holds spare keys. It seems it was too easy for a door to just close, especially if windy, when retrieving a parcel.
Do always ensure you have spare keys left with somebody and it will avoid these situations.
I don’t think it’s crazy at all. I do a lot of pet sitting and I will never walk out of the house for any reason without bringing a key.
The sitter was warned that the door locks automatically so this this should not have been a surprise. I completely understand that people forget things, and I’ve been locked out of houses myself, which is why I always carry a key now.
I have not experienced this with a sitter. However, I live in an apartment complex. All the doors have knob locks in addition to other locks as standard. A very few homeowners have gotten newer versions. Management has copies of all our keys with 24 access through security. Many people have neighbors in the complex with a copy of their keys.
I’ve gotten in the habit of NEVER locking the knob lock. I keep it in the vertical unlocked position inside. Although I give the key to sitters, I strongly advise them to never lock the bottom lock! I also do a fair amount of compensated pet care for my neighbors. I’ve noticed many of them don’t use the knob lock for this reason. (Everyone has additional stronger locks that require a key to lock from outside.
If you want to pursue this, that’s on you. But what warnings did you give the sitter that this is what occurs if the door closes? If I was the judge in small claims court I’d want to know.
To prevent something like this from happening in the future, I’d recommend either warning the sitters, and showing them the lock mechanism and how this happens. Maybe leaving a spare key with a neighbor or simply disabling this lock for the duration of the sit.
If the sitter has otherwise stellar reviews, and you give the sitter a bad review for this, depending on the sitter’s response, the review would not be dealbreaker for me. I also sit, and a bad review based on the sitter not paying $350 for a lockout in these circumstances, would probably cause me not to consider the sit.
As you’ve said, it’s an unfortunate set of circumstances given that you just moved in and got the keys yourself.
It’s a very reasonable mistake to leave the keys inside, especially for someone who isn’t used to dealing with that kind of door. I lived in an apartment for 8 years that locked automatically, and there were maybe two or three times where I left my keys inside, even though I was of course used to the situation. As others have pointed out, an outside lockbox and/or friends with a spare key are the answer to this moving forward.
As far as the sitter’s responsibility, she should certainly have taken responsibility and communicated more proactively with you, should have at least apologized, and definitely should not have blamed you for it. And it would have been a nice thing if she had offered to at least partially reimburse. But I wouldn’t expect her to pay. These things can unfortunately just happen during sits in unfamiliar homes.
All the sits I have done here either have a keyless entry or a spare key left hidden outside or with a friend or neighbor. I wouldn’t expect a person I don’t know and does many sits per year to remember every nuance of each home. I think it was your responsibility to have a spare key available to the sitter when these types of situations occur. Also, if you want to argue the case, the neighbor helped her call a locksmith instead of calling you first. I’m surprised they both didn’t think of that first. You may have had a less expensive solution. Your house, your choice. I wouldn’t ask the sitter for reimbursement. This happened by mistake retrieving a package for you. As a paid sitter as well, you still saved a lot of money. This is more of your lesson to learn opposed to hers.
THS will not help you with damages but you could try your insurance company. I had only one sit where I was told the door auto locked so as soon as I got ready for the day, I put my fanny pack on me at all times that had the keys just in case. I have had other sits where hosts gave me a set of keys but then also had lockboxes with an emergency set. In the future, perhaps you could leave an extra set of keys with emergency contacts or use the lockbox.
