I traveled to England to spend Christmas with my family. My neighbor texted me the day after I left that the sitter never showed. I have two cats who would not have been fed for a at least a day and a half (or longer) if she had not been watching out for me. When I texted the sitter, she lied, and continues to lie, that she was there and fed them and cuddled them. I am livid! I immediately wrote to THS (in a severely jet-lagged state) to let them know what happened. I have even sent copies of the text threads where her partner admitted she never stayed there. I don’t know where my complaint goes once they’ve collected my information. The “sitter” has since written a review on my page where she has lied through her teeth denying any wrong doing. This sitter has done this before. I don’t know whether to trust THS again.
Welcome @CMag this sounds like a terrible situation have you chased up member services about the complaint that you raised?
You can also go through live chat to speak to someone about it. At first you are connected to a chat bot and then you can ask to speak to a human.
If the sit didn’t take place and you reported this to THS , it should have cancelled it on your dashboard so the sitter couldn’t leave a review. . Did you leave a review about the sitter?
Please let the forum know the outcome of THS investigation into this sitter .
From zero reported no-shows to three in a short period—how many more might there be among hosts who are not members of this forum? This is very worrying
I would put this in a review to protect future owners from using this sitter . You can also respond to her review
@CMag not to add to the misery but how do you know the sitter has done this before?
Also, on the THS site there is a dispute form that I understand should be completed for this type of incident.
BLIND REVIEWS y’all.
Use them wisely to better the network.
Although obviously, in an ideal world, 3 is 3 too many, however, I do think we have to look at the bigger picture.
With an estimated 100,000 sitters I think there would have to be many more than 3 cases before it can realistically be classed as very worrying
Hi, yes! The first thing I did when I found out was contact THS. I opened a file and wrote down everything that happened. I’ve been corresponding with them ever since. I’ve even sent text threads from the two accounts we used to communicate (if you could call it that). I just wrote about the bad review the sitter posted on my account and that I would expect a refund if nothing gets done to remove this couple from THS. Everytime something new comes up, it brings back all the stress of it all.
I also wrote a review for these sitters with a zero and that they did not show up. I’m nervous about using THS again, although I did have two wonderful sitters earlier in the year.
Please keep us updated about this. As far as I know, no sitter has ever been removed from THS.
At the moment the profile of the sitter still exists.
Yes, I started this thread as I googled and searched on the forum for owners with a similar experience. I only found threads about cancelling last minute. So at least I see I’m not alone, but it is strange if it has not happened before (as I couldn’t find any threads on this). I hope not that it is a new trend.
This is even worse than simply not showing! Why would you do something like this? There is nothing to gain for the person as I can see to lie about coming. I’m so sorry you have experienced this.
At least I’m happy I wrote here as I see that so many people are appalled by the behaviour the no-show sitter I had. For me this means that the majority of people are serious and responsible. There is hope for the humanity 
I know of at least one case, a member also of this forum.
There was also another case in the media.
And I believe that there are more. (I have only been here a year.)
Yes, next time I will only take very experienced sitters with only good reviews. However, I do not like to feel I have to do that. A first time sitter deserves a chance also, but unfortunately I won’t take any chance on this now.
I’m so sorry to hear this and that you missed your family holiday. This is the first time I hear about a similar experience than mine. Have you/will you dare to use THS again?
Sitters can’t cancel. Only HO can cancel.
That’s 3 now. So in a few days 3 more than you have ever read anything about.
Along with the thing THS does not allow me to say, the sitters arrived announcing they needed to leave a day before I got home (while I was still overseas), because they had to drive halfway across the country. I now look for sitters who live within a 5 -6 hour of me so that this won’t be an issue again.
Then I send a private email asking them to look at my profile, see if they are available on the days I need, and can we have a facetime talk to determine if we are a good match. I ask what would make a good or bad sit for them, and am clear in what I want in a sitter. I try to be really clear that I want them to be happy and comfortable, and I try to buy a lot of their favorite foods before they arrive. This worked really well for me on my last sit, but I remain undecided as to whether renew Trusted House Sitters, or just go back to paying my groomer to watch the dogs at her house. One really bad experience colors the whole THS view.
Edited to remove personal information
@Chrissie some sitters have been removed by THS for booking overlapping sits ( when this was possible ) and for abandoning sits as reported in the forum on these threads
I’m not sure where @springy is getting the info but I can confirm that this has happened to us. Our sitter ghosted us for THANKSGIVING!! We had our initial interview and confirmation 6 weeks before trip. When I reached out with welcome packet we got no response, no response via their personal phone number and no response to THS who also reached out. THS recommended cancelling and putting the sit on the fb forum for last minute sits as it was now 3 days before we flew out. In the end we (thankfully!) found a friend to stay for us tho we did pay her for her time. Sadly, THS said we couldn’t rate the person because we cancelled the sit rather than waiting for them not to show up. This really turned our trust off to the site as we feel others should know if sitters are not showing up. It’s a poor policy on THS’s end. Just because it’s not on the forum doesn’t mean it’s not happening. it was a very stressful experience for us with no kind of repercussion on the sitters end.
@ameliace sorry to hear about this - did THS remove the sitter from the platform after you raised a complaint ?