Trusted House Sitters

"Trusted" is in the company's name, but they take no responsibility for bad experiences with a sitters. I chose a 5 star-rated sitter with 4 glowing reviews (most sitters only had 3 or 4 reviews) and had a horrible experience. The sitter had not replaced our cats' water, damaged our things, taken out the fire alarm out, made a mess in the kitchen and was fast asleep in our bed when we got home despite us clearly communicating that we were on our way home.
The customer service when I attempted to report the incident was horrible: it took me 15 phone calls over the course of a week to finally get through to a person and I sent 3 messages through the website, which took them 3 days to respond to. When I finally got through to them, they did not offer any discount or incentive as an apology for my terrible experience.
The concept for the site is great, but the lack of accountability and customer support is unacceptable for a service provider.
Read the fine print with the Home and Contents protection, it is not a straightforward protection and has a lot of caveats.

I looked at this site for the Christmas week this 12/23/2018, to have my two small dogs cared for while I was going away. There were many sitters showing availability on their schedule on the site, same as what I needed. This site allows non members to view sitters schedule and their location to help you see where and when they are available, before joining. I was really motivated to join, it is for a year membership when paying. I messaged well over 20 sitters that said they were available, local ones as well. All 20 thus far replied back they are not available. I get that there is no guarantee you will find a sitter, but all the sitters still had all their dates not updated as they were available on my dates needed on the site. It's deceptive, and what's worse is potential new members are really motivated to join because they are seeing all the sitters availability meeting the possible new members needs, so they join, like I did. They refused to refund my money, said I already set up the account and messaged all the sitters. What a scam, your probably not going to get a sitter, and their information is old not updated, don't join, it's a scam, they are not taking responsibility for inaccurate information, just take your money, won't refund you. Setting the account up is so much work too, can take well over an hour.

For several years I have been a pet/house sitter on this website, as well as having pet/house sitters for our pets. Both perspectives have resulted in mixed experiences. We have had sitters who were truly excellent and really cared about our pets, as well as having respect for our home. The flip side is also true, sitters who took our dates for location, did as little as possible in caring for the pets, and left major damage to our house. Overall there are far fewer truly good sitters than one would expect, and finding those sitters requires reading between the lines of a profile, and looking for details in profile pictures. As a sitter I have had some wonderful experiences caring for pets and meeting their owners. Unfortunately, an equal amount of undesirable pet/house sits where the owners did not appreciate the time sitters give of themselves, and often owners refuse to write a review simply because it was a short sit. I have watched the website make 'improvements', which did little to help sitters or owners, as well as a few changes that were actually improvements. It does seem like the website owners have lost track of their original purpose, in favor of collecting high membership fees... or maybe that was their original purpose. In any case, sometimes it works great, and often it does not.

What more could you ask for? Someone comes in and stays in your home. They take care of your animals, keep your home neat and clean, and make sure that no one knows that you are gone. I have had two sitters this year and if I had hired a pet sitter to come and feed my babies for the total of 25 days that I had been gone it would have cost me $500.00. They would not have stayed and played with my cats or done anything other than feed them and clean the box. I have pictures from my sitters of the girls playing or being petted, etc. The service cost me $120/year and I get so much more. My sitter is insured and I get to interview as many as I like before I hire. How many pet sitters do you have available in your area? And these guys LOVE animals. My girls were so well loved while I was away I think they wanted to go with the sitter when I got home! Check it out! And if you want to become a sitter, you can travel the world over, just for your airfare. I have not decided yet to do this, but am considering it.

Horrible service. They sure get you. I signed up as a sitter since I have extensive experience as a reputable pet sitter in my community and thought this would be perfect as Id love to travel but its far from it and a big waste of money. Why? Example: Id love to go to Spain in May. Searched the site and there are probably only 2 homes listed that need a sitter with 15-20 applicants. This is the same results when I search for Florida, Paris, etc. So basically, its a crap shoot. Ive asked for a refund after 3 days because I noticed this would not work for me but warning, they wont refund if you've already messaged someone which is total BS. How else would I know how the site works if I dont give it try? SCAM!
So basically, as long as you just window shop, then they refund you? They say its written in the terms of agreement but IT IS NOT! I've messaged customer service again, and still nothing. Based on another review, its seems like it will take months even years to get a sit you want. If that was the case, then there is NO WAY I would have signed up for this service. They say they'll help you yet no one wants to respond. Ugly and deceitful service! Very scammy. Beware!

I just went through evacuation in the River Fire, here in CA. I tried to reach support and it took them over 12 hours to respond. (I didn't hear back until the next day) The only way to reach them is by email - no phone and no chat. In these cases, they should have some sort of emergency contact information.

Also, on this one sit, the home owner knew his home was in a "high risk fire zone" as he told me when I showed up for the sit. He even had over a page of detailed instructions in case i needed to evacuate. Which, I did need to do with his animals.

This should have been listed right in his listing for the sit. Trusted housesitters should require, (as is required in the sale of real estate), any and all risks, dangers, or issues with the property, right in the listing. This way, at least we can make an informed decision.

Having gone through the Thomas Fire a few years back, I never would have accepted this sit.

Besides that, the site is a good one. The home owners I've sat for are all great people. Trusted house sitters is a great idea, but I feel they need to iron out the support issue.

**** Support reached out to me, and unfortunately, like many businesses during this COVID time, they are short staffed. They've assured me that they've hired more people who are now in the training process and soon to come online.

I have used Trusted Housesitters for over a year now, and have had 3 different sitters live in my house taking care of my cats. I find the annual fee to be reasonable, since it covers unlimited houses sits, and the background checks and insurance provide some reassurance when having random strangers live in your house and take care of your pets. I think it also filters out less serious people. I've had pretty good experiences with the sitters, whom I select after online interviews, and only choosing people with reviews from other users. The website however gets steadily worse, and the support gets worse and worse. The calendar function no longer works, and it can sometimes take weeks to hear back from the support staff. They don't answer their phone, and a bot answers their chat. If I had any real issues, I doubt they would help in a timely manner. I have tried using the vet advice hotline twice, but they are so hampered by legal considerations that they are not at all useful. The site also used to offer enhanced security background checks for sitters, but no longer does. I have wondered this year if they are giving up and going out of business. I hope not! It's really helpful to have someone live here with my cats. (Cat sitting services charge by the hour.)

I am a house and pet sitter, registered at trustedhousesitters for almost a year now. My experiences so far: Some home owners treat you like a cheap slave, put you in their worst bedroom, are arrogant towards you and refuse to write a review.
One example: Arriving after a 14 hour trip at 8 pm, I was neither offered something to drink, let alone something to eat. I got put into a dark bedroom in the basement (there was an unoccupied guest bedroom upstairs too.). When I asked for a glass of water, they looked at me as if I was weird. I was not allowed to take the glass downstairs "because it could break". Also I was not allowed to open the window in my bedroom, because "the water from the garden sprinkler could get the bed linen wet".
They put the cat on a diet, while they were away. The poor little thing was only allowed half a cup of dry food per day. She was always hungry, moaning a lot. I felt very sorry, but sticked to her owner's rules. I brushed the cat every evening, as it was wished (it was her only treat too).
When the home owners returned they asked "if I brushed her at all".
They left no review.

Twice a house sit was cancelled by home owners on short notice. I was left with the flight expenses.
The helpline, when I desperately needed support in an emergency, had fun to cruelly even worsen things. No empathy or/and individual help at all, just repeating stereotype guide lines in a cold manner. Without going into detail here: Again a lot of additional costs!

The only reason, why I am still on this site is, that there are good experiences with pets and home owners too.