I wonder if any of you Have you encountered dirty or old mattresses. Mattresses with ditches, or with old spiral springs poking in your body, or just very stained mattresses. I have recently again came across one of those mattresses in an otherwise clean home. We don’t think the owner ever sleeps on the guest mattress in the guest bedroom. and probably the cleaner always makes the bed. We wonder how other sitters dealt with a situation like this?
Hi @Anniek, I guess that the best way to proceed is to politely inform the owner about the situation (let’s assume that he/she is not aware) and work together to find an alternative that ensures your comfort in something as basic and ESSENTIAL as getting a good night’s sleep.
One important reason (in case it needs to be explained) is that if someone isn’t sleeping comfortably, won’t be able to stay fully alert and focused on daily responsibilities, including the care of the pets and the home during the sit.
I’m confident that any reasonable owner will understand the importance of this and try to find a solution for you.
If that’s not the case, and the length of the stay is considerable, I would unfortunately consider canceling it. Both the owner and the sitters should have peace of mind and feel at ease during the sit 
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Oh this is awful. I couldn’t sleep like that!
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Not nice indeed, my question is what would you do? Any chance of solving this problem as soon as possible?
Thank you for your comment. I am really curious on how other sitters have solved an issue like this, as most of the time one notices the heavy stains when the sit well underway and an old uneven mattress the first night. For example; Do sitters in general just cope and say nothing?
Fortunately I have not been in this situation
but I do have a couple of suggestions for you @Anniek .
Explain the problem to your hosts and ask them if you can switch to sleeping in the main bedroom or ask them to order a mattress topper , if you think it would make an improvement.
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I had this situation in a 2 million pound house that was expensively furnished everywhere except the guest bedroom which had a broken mattress. The photos of the sit showed the main bedroom which we were not allowed to use and was the only one that had air conditioning which was listed as an amenity. Left a bad taste in our mouth tbh.
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Older mattresses and many times much older pillows
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I’ve only encountered a less than ideal bed on a weekend sit, so we endured it.
No photos of bedrooms but very large home in upscale neighborhood, somewhat naive we expected ordinary beds. We got a pull-out bed and weren’t that happy about it but took some responsibility ourselves and it was only a couple of nights. We could probably have asked to switch to main bedroom, but for two nights it seemed a lot of bed making. 
I did make sure to mention the pull-out in the review - just mentioned it «in passing» describing the sit, so others that are mindful of beds might know of the possibility.
This is a mutual exchange between equal partners and it is ok to adress it. I would use a concerned/ non-confrontational approach as Silversitters suggests.
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I’ve only run into bad mattresses a few times on pet sits, but quite often in vacation rentals, hotels, etc.
For short stays I’ve used an extra duvet under me like a mattress pad. Folded a few times, that can really help. For anything longer than a night or two I would let the owner know I’m not able to sleep on that bed and ask to use a different bed if there is one.
For one sit that was 3 1/2 months long we slept in separate beds (neither very comfortable) and used our inflatable camping mattresses on top of the regular mattresses. That helped a lot, so now we travel with small and light inflatable mattresses wherever we go.
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Thank you so much for sharing dear THS fellows. We have encountered old and mattresses and old pillows a number of times. As well as packed goods guestrooms unable to wak in. And solved this by always bringing our own pillows when we drive the car and on a quick fix we bought a topper from the nearest possible store like IKEA or JYSK as delivery might take another 5 - 7 working day. Like @Silversitters described any reasonable HO who takes needs of sitters seriously understands and would take action.
Personally we think sleep quality is one of the most underlooked situations at THS. @huronbase, @Karen_E and @Garfield describe situations that many more of us encountered.
However I wonder if THS HQ could make an additional mention to the HO instructions that welcoming sitters also entails a clean home a good quality mattress, pillows and bedlinnen, next to a clean bathroom.
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After a couple of less than ideal situations we now always ask about the bed size, and mattress quality. If the bed is too small (for two) we ask if another bed, or an extra bed, is available. Occasionally this has resulted in us sleeping in different rooms. But we’d rather be comfortable than squashed together, or on a bad mattress. If a good solution is not forthcoming we would withdraw from the sit. We also would not accept a sofabed or a matress on the floor (both of which we’ve offered)
And we always travel with our own pillows all around the world. So many bad pillows! Its extremely rare we are offered pillows as, or more, comfortable as our own!
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But it is a problem for people without means. The most spacious, cleanest homes, people with money, have given me a beautiful guest suite to stay in. Great pillows, mattress, linens. The people with less means, tend to give the thin mattress on a bunk bed, which I discussed before, or horrible pillows and/or mattresses. Luckily I have not experienced this much. But unless, I need a sit for a medical or dental appointment in a certain place and time, I avoid these sits in homes that are not higher end. Which makes me biased against a more modest home.