Do sitters use the HO streaming available or log in on their own apps?
I like paranormal ghost hunting shows and wonder if that popped up on a HO’s streaming list post my stay…would they get weirded out?
Or in general show topics that could be “controversial?”
(This is not about incurring a download cost or “adult” content.)
I have 2 profiles for my streaming apps, one under my name and one as “Guest”. I’ve never asked sitters to use the Guest profile, but that would seem the obvious thing to do. I haven’t bothered to check what shows are watched under that profile, so I don’t really care.
When I’m a sitter, I use the HOs profile unless they also have a guest one. Usually there is just one profile, so they can see what I’ve watched. Often it is something that I can’t get at home because I don’t have that streaming service -maybe HBO or Showtime, for example
If they don’t have one, we make a guest profile and then delete. Mainly because we don’t want to influence what the homeowner gets offered by Netflix or change their location in series that we might watch. Hence they would never know what we’ve been watching.
Haha, as a big fan of horror films and true crime docs, I totally understand the feeling self conscious about what you are watching if you are on someone else’s account. If I want to watch something I feel might leave an impression that I’m a weirdo, I just use my iPad.
Great question.
I never use the HO’s streaming apps, as I have a Netflix/Prime on my computer and most times I am in the middle of something. I find that different shows pop up due to my changing location.
The only time I watch on the HO TV is if they actually have a TV channel, which is something I don’t have at home, so I do enjoy that part.
On a sit last year, I watched the Queen’s funeral, which was special as I normally would never have seen it on TV. An then the tennis is always a plus for me, if it is on.
This is what I do too. It’s very easy to set up a guest profile and then delete before you leave. I don’t want to mess up their shows or recommendations.
This is something that we wondered about during our first sits when the owners kindly said we could use their login for Netflix etc. We were worried we would change their choices (get suggestions based on things they had not watched). We also had a time when we were watching the same series and the owner was a few episodes behind us, so we did not watch it so as not to lose the owner’s place.
Then we got the suggestion from another sitter of taking a firestick or as we use now a Roku box that has all of our logins and apps saved.
This just plugs into any HDMI and does not interfere with any of the owner’s settings or equipment at all. We always check that is okay and has never been a problem as normally there is just a spare HDMI port.
Very helpful suggestions!
Thank you!
I don’t have ANY streaming service access, as I don’t watch TV at home, and I usually don’t even turn the TV on elsewhere.
That said, I do appreciate when a guest account is set up. Once in a while I feel like I’m in the mood to watch a series… And then I binge a season in 3 nights and ruin my sleep schedule!
This just came up for us. We definitely watch the owner’s NF or Prime accounts but generally choose Guest option so as not to throw off their viewing preferences. We watched a movie last night at the house we are at right now and they don’t have a Guest NF option so I think I’m going to add one tonight.
Honestly…I didn’t know about the guest option on these apps, so I am going to set them up in our home for practice to be ready to set up at my up coming sit and a sitter staying in our home soon!
We’ve created profiles for our sitters in each of our streaming apps. Not so much not to be weirded out by the shows they watch but purely to make sure we don’t lose our progression in different series we are watching.
Hosts that have had such have always offered the use to me, but at the same time (just like in AirBnBs or anywhere that the account isn’t purely mine) I don’t.
Reason is in the parentheses above. You go on a streaming service that isn’t your own and it’s randomness without your lists and such.
Good for folks that don’t usually use them, just a source of frustration if I have an account with a particular service. So I’ll cast or mirror my computer or sign in with my own account if that’s fine by them.
But yeah, everyone who has had them has offered me use of them and just not cared if my usage screwed up their algorithm or had a guest account set up.
I used to run an AirBnb, and I can’t tell you how many times I had to log out of a leaving guest’s personal Netflix account so that the next guest could use their own Netflix if they wanted to. They had forgotten, so keep that in mind if you use your own account on the owner’s TV.
Yes…I thought to put a reminder in my phone the morning of departure. Good point!
Thanks for asking about this! As a HO I hadn’t thought about it, especially since I don’t watch much TV and have never had cable. Then one of my sitters created their own profile in my Netflix account. I inadvertently clicked on it and saw lots of “adult content”. Not so much weird as TMI.
So I’d encourage sitters to remember to delete any profiles they create 
Though I understand if folks forget.
Creating a Guest profile is a good idea, but would be a bit tedious to do for each service.
That’s exactly what I was going to recommend, take your own fire stick but then you have to remember to remove it when you leave.
Thanks for taking the time to reply!
Welcome to the forum.
Lots of great threads to read up on and add to!
That is so smart! I didn’t even know you could do that. Thanks for the tip!
A good reminder, for the sakes of both the HO and Sitter. It’s best for everyone to log out of any personal accounts used.