Please do not accept a sitter’s request to cancel a listing in order to sit privately for another account user to use the account during that time period.
I made this mistake and both of my pets suffered the sitter’s neglectful approach to their care. Because I agreed to take the sit private, there is no recourse to hold the sitter accountable through the TH site so please do not make the same mistake as me and agree to cancel a listing in favor of a private sit.
I’m interested in what your thought process was that led you to making this decision- what was in it for you to agree to this? Was your sit one of those that doesn’t fit the T&Cs eg a 3rd party living on the property etc
I’m curious, why did you agree to cancel the sit? The idea of THS is that no one cancels unless there is an incredibly good reason, like serious ill health, or a big change in life circumstances. Or was it their life circumstances had changed so they couldn’t afford to sit for free any longer?
I’m not sure I understand; do you mean you cancelled your confirmed sit and made a private arrangement with the sitter so that someone else - presumably his/her partner - could accept another THS sit for the same period?
You are not able to review any THS sitter or raise any issues with Membership Services if this was not a confirmed sit. You must have had your reasons for agreeing a sit off the platform, and if you’ve hosted sitters before you will surely have known this to be the case?
To the OP: I’m sorry for what was clearly a bad experience, and something you can’t leave a review about! I wish you had provided more details about what happened. For a few reasons I suspect more sits will go offsite in the coming years, so details would be useful.
For more context, the sitter applied to the sit and we exchanged contact information so we could chat before I accepted their application. Since they lived in town, we met in person for a walk so I could meet them and my dog could meet them. The walk went well, this person gave me all good vibes that it was a good match so I accepted their application to the sit.
A while later (maybe a week or so) the sitter messages me and asks a about cancelling the sit on TH because their family member (that is also an account user but in another country) needed the account during that time period. They said they were still committed to my sit and would do it privately. Because I had met this person in person and my dog liked them and they had made me feel comfortable, I agreed to their request to cancel my listing.
When the sit time came around they arrived on time and had good questions about my home and my dog and cat’s routine and so I left feeling quite comfortable about having them in my home watching my pets. We eventually agreed that I would get updates and photos at least every couple days and other than that I heard very little from them until I got home. They were there when I returned (which we had discussed so it wasn’t a surprise) and they sat me down because they had to tell me something.
They had a very detailed explanation that a few days prior, they had let their family member’s dog in my yard (my listing was specific of no other pets because my dog can be reactive) and the family member brought my dog into the yard as well and my dog got bit. Also my dog weighs 16 pounds and the other dog was much larger. They said they did first aid on the wound right away (a big tooth sized wound on my dog’s back). Because it was such a long story with so many details I didn’t really react much at the time and defaulted to comforting them for their guilt.
Once they left and I got to process the story more it was all just very elaborate and I got really frustrated that they didn’t text or call me to let me know when it had happened at all and nothing in their updates to suggest anything was wrong. Also, when petting my dog that night, I found another tooth sized wound that hadn’t been treated at all because the sitter hadn’t seen it (on my dog’s shoulder). I was getting ready for bed that night and I noticed that my cat was acting very very hungry and then that there was no power to my automatic cat feeder in the bathroom. The surge protect had jumped and never reset so I have no idea how long my cat had gone without eating a full meal because the sitter’s response when I texted to ask about the plug in was very vague. I also kept finding more things like that a breaker had jumped in the kitchen that they didn’t reset, they used a different scoop for my dog’s food than I had laid out so my dog got overfed (she’s normally quite lean and now she’s quite round), they left a pan full of grease in the oven, they burnt a bunch of stuff to the bottom of my toaster/air fryer. When I asked my neighbors about their interactions they said they never interacted with the sitter but that they noticed on 2-3 occasions that my dog was left outside in the dark alone for hours barking when the house was dark and it didn’t look like anyone was at my home. I asked the sitter about this and they denied it but I don’t much believe anything they say anymore.
I tried to report them but because I had agreed to cancel the sit, TH couldn’t do anything to flag their account.
They had called me at one point early in the sit to let me know about a string-eating incident but they never contacted me about any of the other things at the time and I found them all out way after the fact.
If I am reading this correctly they asked you to cancel so the family member could use their account to get a sit, which sounds like an enormous red flag as only the primary account holder is the sitter. That’s a red flag and a risk not worth taking.
But given that “loaning” your account to someone is clearly a violation, I’m a little surprised that THS wasn’t interested in having that information.
I’m sorry this happened to you. I think this story illustrates the risks of taking sits offsite!
@IslandAnne, welcome to the forum.
Sorry this happened to you and thanks for sharing your experience, which will be useful for other members.
Perhaps @IslandAnne only complained about their sitter’s behavior. If that is the case, it might be worth it to get in touch again and mention that violation of T&Cs, although I also understand that being a local sitter you might want to let it be and just move on.
So I’m guessing the sitter plus a friend arranged sits near to each other with one at your house and their friend using the THS account at another house. Goodness me, I wonder how often they’ve done this? I think it’s worth maybe contacting support and asking them to investigate the sitter’s history of recent reviews.
I think you’re brave sharing your story very much as a warning to others, but also illuminating how one THS account could potentially be shared around….
Thank you for the warning. I wouldn’t do an off-site sit unless it was a sitter we had hosted previously and liked but your story now makes me extra cautious.
My first thought is oh no, some of my repeat homeowners and I have been discussing arranging sits privately in order to avoid booking fees. We have acknowledged there could be drawbacks such as no support or protection from THS (paltry as it might be, in reality). This is a very good example of the kind of situation that could go awry for either party. I am really sorry you were just trying to be a kind, flexible person and unfortunately this sitter ended up being a bad egg😞. And you’re reminding me of why it might be worthwhile to stay with the platform rather than let my membership lapse. Most of all, I hope your poor pup has recovered from its wounds!
Could be that the account has 2 verified members - as do we - and, since only a 2-day overlap is allowed, the second sitter applied for another sit?
I’m not saying it’s acceptable, I just can’t see how some random other family member/friend/acquaintance who is not detailed on the account could possibly achieve a sit. Wouldn’t a HO notice the applicant isn’t the person depicted in the profile pics?
Not if there’s no physical in person handover….
Oh dear, thanks for the extra info, it went from being bad to being terrible. Stick to the THS platform, you’ll have a much larger amount of good sitters. Hope your dogs wounds heal quickly.
If anyone wants to do this, I strongly suggest exchanging links for the “references”. This way you still have a way to give a review, and let others know if there is an issue.
I wish THS was less bad so that there was no reason to even think about doing things off platform.
I don’t think THS would give you anything but warm words in this situation, so the sit not being on the site is not the issue there. You got nothing to gain on that front.
(*edited by Forum team to align with our Community Guidelines)
This is easy to check (unless the second user also did it off platform). Just (have the OP) check in a month if the profile had a sit and review for that time period (apparently hosts don’t see no reviews so it missing is no proof”
I would never do that as it’s against THS terms of service and would invalidate both of the sits.
“5.1.7. keep your login and password details confidential and prevent any unauthorised access to, or use of, the Services via your Account;
5.1.8. promptly notify us of any unauthorised use of your Account;
5.1.9. not create a fake identity or impersonate anyone else;”
Aside from your own sit not being covered by THS because you have agreed to it being a private arrangement. The second host would probably have no idea that the sitter staying in their home was not the individual shown on the THS profile. This would mean that any THS coverage for their sit would also be invalid. Unlike you, they wouldn’t discover the issue unless something went wrong.
I am so sorry sorry this happened. I feel so badly for your dog and cat. This sitter appears to have slippery ethics. If you feel comfortable, please report them to THS for having multiple sitters on one account. Your warning is a good one. There are so many wonderful sitters here. People like this give us all a bad name.