I was forced to leave a sit early because the dog started barking constantly at night after the first few days of the sit I could not sleep and it was really stressing me out. So I contacted the host and told them they had to get home immediately so I could leave.
They seemed to be ok with it even though they shortened their one month vacation by three weeks but I was worried that I would get a negative review so I requested they post their review review first and send me the screenshot
They refused to send me a screenshot but promised me the review would be 5 Stars. It was one star. Now they say that if I donât return the money for the plane ticket they bought for me. They will file a complaint with TrustedHousesitters because they expected me to stay a month and I stayed less than a week. I donât want to give them this money back. I donât think itâs fair. Do you think I could get in trouble?
I am sorry to hear about this experience. If sitters and hosts make private arrangements between themselves to cover certain costs, such as a sitterâs airfare, the site has no power to enforce any sort of reimbursements,etc⌠So THS canât make you pay them any money nor do I think you could get in âtroubleâ for that in terms of putting your membership in jeopardy.
But if you requested they pay for your airfare and insinuated this was a cost that should be covered by the hostâwhich it obviously isnât as terms state sitters are responsible for their own travel expensesâTHS could take issue with that if the hosts feel like they were misled by you.
In situations like these, it is rare they end on âgood termsâ between hosts and sitters and to get a bad review from themâwhether justified our notâis hardly surprising and most sitters in situations like these should prepare themselves for that more-likely-than-not-possibility.
From their point of view, it is understandable to want to be reimbursed, but to me there is no clear ârightâ or âwrongâ way to handle it. If the only reason you would consider paying them back, at least partially, is because you think there would be repercussions per THS, then you are probably in the clear.
Honestly I am not sure what I would do, but I would most likely offer to reimburse at least partially.
If they do raise any sort of official complaint against you, I believe they may limit access to your account while they âinvestigateâ so that is something for which to be prepared.
You sat for someone with a forum history of bragging about lying in their reviews. And you said in a previous thread that theyâd lied to you about the review they would write about you, too. So even if you were to repay them for airfare, what makes you think they still couldnât complain about you to THS? They donât have a history of truthfulness to begin with.
Youâve not had a great 10 days have you?
Hmm, I think Iâd let them put in their formal complaint. Iâd draw a line block all private messages and move on.
Regarding the Plane ticket- thatâs down to your personal circumstances and ethics. If you were planning to be in that location anyway I might repay it to be honourable or maybe offer 50%
What Iâm worried about is that I read that you can only cancel a sit for extraordinary circumstances and maybe a barking dog at night is an extraordinary circumstances so I can get in trouble for that.
this host is definitely a bad liar, but if thereâs a chance I would get in trouble because I left the sit for what is not a good reason then I would try to avoid further problems and hope that giving him the money would be enough.
Didnât you contact THS before you left the sit? I would think you would call them and tell them you canât sleep because of a barking dog and want to end the sit. They would discuss with you and if not worked out tell you to give the host 24 hour notice. If you let the dog sleep with you and exercised the dog before bed that might of worked. Iâm sure the dog doesnât bark all night when the PP is there. Most dogs wonât bark if you are giving them attention. Did you discuss with the PP how and where the dog usually sleeps when they are there? If you didnât call THS before you left the sit then it is now their story against yours. I hope you have texts of the discussions you had and the mutual agreement.
Make your own decision about whether to repay the ticket based on what you think the right thing to do is.
I would not trust this host to keep their word about filing a complaint or not, so I wouldnât let that impact my decision in whether to repay the plane fare.
I really just want to know if I can get in trouble for leaving the sit early for a reason that might not be extraordinary?
And also if me saying, I wanted to see a screenshot of the host review before posting mine is also against the rule rules and if I could get in trouble for that?
Only THS can decide if your reason was valid. I wouldnât let the host blackmail me with this.
Also I note the host has yet to leave a response to your 4 star review of them. I would expect them to at some point and they will likely state you did not repay airfare, if you donât.
Having thought a bit more, of I were you I would proactively reach out to THS and explain what happened. You said you had video of the barking? Send that and the texts where you agreed to stay until the HO returned the next day or two later.
Also mention that HO is now blackmailing you and you want to see if you can file a complaint against them.
At least you would be proactively addressing the situation this way. Again your history does not help you so no way to say which way THS would land in this. But at least you can get a complaint lodged against the HO as well.
I would say the host has clearly learnt regarding his stance on not wanting to mark sitters down. Clearly this was the sit from h#ll. If people cast their thoughts back,the hosts first post was regarding some problems he had had (repeated breakages) and how to avoid this. He was kind in paying for a flight in the first place. Just because he has irritated people on the forum doesnât mean this sitter is in the clear.
Homeowner? For what? For being a mismatched HO/Sitter who didnât repay any of the airfare paid by HO for a mutually agreed upon sit? There is not some formal or informal contract between you two about reimbursement if the sit is not completed. So no âtroubleâ here IMO
Morally from Yourself? If you feel its fair that the HO paid for a ticket for you to complete a 4 week sit and you completed only 1 week (25% of it), I think morally you might consider repaying 75% of the ticket. I have no idea what lies the HO told before you accepted the sit. The history of them being a liar with regard to going to give you a 5* sit, well they dont want to have a confrontation with you so they say that to be able to cope with the difficult situation that occurred. Cant blame them.
Trouble from THS for your reason to leave not being âextraordinaryâ? Back to my 1st point, worse case THS kicks you off site.
I am sure I dont have ALL the pieces to this situation, as others seem to know more about you, the HO (being on here reading?), other things you have shared in other posts about this sit. What I am saying is it is hard to answer your question with the piecemeal info available in this single topic you have posted.
Personally, I would just move on and block all contact with the HO. See what THS does and go from there.