Trusted House SittersReviews 1,000

I have been a member of Trusted House Sitters for almost 4 years. The past 2 years have not been a great experience. In 2020, my house sitter left my front door open while she was loading her bags into her car resulting in 1 of my dogs getting loose. I then spent 6 weeks trying to track down my dog and trap her. Luckily I was able to trap her that time and get her home safe. I decided to chalk it up to the house sitter not being experienced enough and to give THS another chance. After that every house sitter I worked with, was told multiple times how important it is to keep the front door closed and secure. I wouldn't think this would be an unknown factor to anyone house sitting with or without animals. A year after I got my dog back, another house sitter left the front door open resulting in my dog getting out once again. I chased her for 5 weeks, but unfortunately this time I was not so lucky, and she passed away before I could trap her. On top of that, I had spent over $500 in costs to change my flights to get home sooner, hiring a drone to search for my dog, and in the end cremation costs. I also got hit with almost $700 in citations from my city for my dog getting out. THS refused to pay for any of these charges even though they are all a result of negligence of a house sitter from their site. Not only do I have to deal with the heartache of losing my dog, but I also have to deal with the financial strain of almost $1300 because the house sitters on this site cannot be trusted to keep your pets or home safe. I do not recommend using Trusted House Sitters. The sitters on their site cannot be trusted, and you might end up losing your beloved pets and racking up a hefty bill because of it. The photo attached is of my Roo girl. It's going to be hard to get over this one.

Data Mining site, don't be fooled. They demand your ID, to work for free. Sound familiar? If your down with third parties having your personal information so you can work for free. The ID is between me and my client, not the NWO. I had to cancel a CC thanks to them. I'd sue if I could,

"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.

Trustedhousesitter should include a mandatory declaration of security cameras in the owners premises as part of the listing. As sitters are not paid, sitters should not to be filmed, the trusted aspect of which this community is based on is being violated. Suspension of owners who violates this regulation should be enforced

I signed up and paid for a Standard membership. My credit card was charged immediately. There was an issue with signing in to my account so I needed to speak to an agent to sort it out. The phone number is just an automated reply that says everyone is busy and you should try the chat or message on their website. It then hangs up on you without the option to speak to a person. The chat is just a bot that can't answer actual questions and I have sent two messages that no one has responded to in 12 hours. I am not impressed AT ALL. I'm not even sure if I can call this terrible customer service, because there isn't ANY customer service! How do you run a company like that?

I needed to visit out station on regular basis and can't take by lab all the time with me. But because of this people I can visit back and forth regarding my work. Thanks for the services.

I was completely traumatized by the response from Trusted Housesitters and my house sit in COSTA RICA be warned - after reporting the most traumatic event of invasion of privacy possible human trafficking! They did nothing except take the homeowner word over mine - upon being filmed by a drone on her property while undressing in my room and while in bed! And no curtain on the inside shower window let alone she lied to me and did not disclose it had happened before and she has outdoor showers and rents it out to others too! I was applaud by THS response to cancell my membership after reporting this to them! And not take it seriously the thought my naked body was being filmed and is out there on the Internet is discusting behavior I was so traumatized stressed and depressed as a result of her and THS! And to report it and be cancelled form my membership! Discusting behavior of house owners in Costa Rica!

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.

Phone line auto-hangs up on you and "live chat" is a bot that offers you to send team an email. The automated email response says "it is taking a number of days for us to reply". It does not cost $150+ per year per user to host a website and this business cannot even provide timely customer service so not sure what they are collecting the fee for.

Cool house sitting idea, poor execution. (Our sitter just cancelled last minute since it wouldn't be "ideal" for them to come anymore and I can't even leave the review/note on their profile to warn other hosts.)

Trusted Housesitters has been used by so many people for so long that they have solutions for your concerns before you know you have them. The site is loaded with good advice, it sets out the requirements of the sitter and the host so that everyone is aware of expectations, and it always has a wide range of possible destinations for you to apply to. An excellent feature is the opportunity to connect with a vet if you encounter any issues with the pets you are sitting. I've never considered jointing another house sitting site and I recommend it often. It's fun to step into someone else's life for a few weeks!

I just hired a sitter from this site and it was a nightmare of epic proportions.

She left my 4 month old kittens (one who was sick and had been at the vet) home for hours and hours alone with no food or water in a heatwave in syndey on the first day, after promising she would not be out for more than an hour or two at a time.

By 11 pm that evening she still had not returned and I had no update and was beside myself with anxiety knowing the kittens were home alone.

A friend went over and let herself in to feed them and water them (with the keys that the sitter had left in the letterbox ALL day and night because she hadn't been back.

While my friend was in the apartment, this girl sent me a message saying she was home with them, they were well and hiding under the bed so she couldn't get a pic (she wasn't as my friend was there) and so I asked her to leave.

The sitter showed up at 1 am buzzing the intercom and trying to break in the back door despite being asked to come home at 11.30 pm to collect her belongings.

Completely out of control.

She deleted her message where she had lied being home with the cats out of WhatsApp obviously realising she had Been caught and yet even wirh screen shots of everything and very clear communication on our agreements this site terminated me.

The site not only immediately blocked my account preventing me from communicating with other sitters whilst I was interstate but following very clear evidence of neglectful behaviour they then refused to let me back on.

Please note that this was the FIRST day of the sit and my time using the site,

Their customer service is slow and unprofessional.

I do not recommend this site and would never trust them with your animals.

Although the owners pays for the pleasure of using it they clearly favour the sitters.

I had very clear evidence of this sitter lying about the state of the kittens hours before she was actually home and they honestly did not remotely care.

I would use anyone else

When the housesitters I spent hours with and showed my home before giving them keys changed their minds after I left on my trip, not only did I have to find someone I could trust to get the keys from them and watch the house, but Trusted Housesitters staff approached it as though the house sit never happened, was "amicably" resolved and I was not given the option to review the housesitters and respond to their reneging on their agreement. Nor did my email to staff asking for the refund of my membership fees based on the house sit that they said did not occur meet with any response. Their promise was as meaningless as the housesitters who accepted the job and then changed their mind saying that my home was not "comfortable." I won't trust the service again.

I was originally very skeptical when my friend enthusiastically recommended THS to us. We were leaving for two weeks and had no solution for our two cats. The idea of turning over our home and pets to a total stranger was troubling. Reluctantly we signed up. Within hours of posting our request we received an offer from a veteran house sitter with 22 5 star reviews. We met her on line and immediately trusted her. We normally pay a teenager to feed our cats daily. The cat survive. But with THS, some one is with them 24/7. They thrives. Our sitter sent us pic daily in which they were clearly happy. Our only worry was that they would be sad that we had returned. THS is the BEST solution for pet owners that travel.

We first used THS for a one month long trip, and I was very nervous about leaving my dog with strangers I had never met. So I had a back up plan in place, and did plenty of work on screening and we struck gold - and then we struck gold three more times. Two of the couple have stayed multiple times after their initial sit, and the other two couples we would absolutely have back as well. Like anything, you must take responsibility for your research, planning, asking important questions, having a video call (absolutely must have) or even meeting in person if possible (which we have done twice), completing your welcome guide thoroughly and setting your sitter up for success. I would, and have, recommend the site to anyone who is responsible, honest, willing to put in the effort of screening and communicating openly with your applicants. We will continue to use the site when any of the four couples we have already met are unavailable!