Trusted House Sitters

I returned home after a two-month trip to find approximately USD 10,000 in damages caused by the sitters assigned through TrustedHouseSitters. The damages include a destroyed pool cover, broken professional lighting equipment, damaged flooring, a broken sprinkler system, and an electricity bill nearly four times my usual amount.

Beyond the property damage, my security cameras documented the following during their stay:

- My dog was left without walks for multiple consecutive days
- The front door of my home was left open and unsupervised on several occasions
- An unknown dog was brought into my property without my knowledge or consent. The sitters appeared to adopt this dog during their stay, fed it with my dog's food, and ultimately abandoned it inside my home when they left. I returned to find a strange animal living in my house with no notice or explanation.
- My dogs were repeatedly let loose in the street, which led to the local animal control authority (Zoonosis) being called to my property by neighbors. I have the official intervention record in my possession.

When I raised these issues with the sitter, she blocked my phone number.

I reported everything to TrustedHouseSitters with full documentation: video evidence from my security cameras, written admissions from the sitter, official records from animal control, and neighbor testimony.

The stated reason for my account suspension was an incident involving my dogs that occurred during the sitters' stay — while I was abroad and my dogs were entirely under their supervision. Under Argentine Civil and Commercial Code (Art. 1759), legal responsibility for animals lies with whoever has them under their care at the time, not the absent owner. TrustedHouseSitters suspended me for something that was legally and factually the sitter's responsibility.

Their resolution:
- The sitter received a warning
- My account was suspended

I was the victim. I cooperated fully throughout the entire process, even proactively correcting my own claim when a technician determined one item was a pre-existing defect. That level of good faith was met with account suspension.

TrustedHouseSitters markets itself as a trusted, vetted community. What they do not tell you is that if something goes wrong, homeowners on basic plans have no financial protection, the platform will prioritize sitters who pay higher membership fees, and you may be suspended for incidents that occurred under the sitter's own negligent watch.

I am currently pursuing legal action under UK consumer protection law, including a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and proceedings in the UK Small Claims Court.

I would not recommend this platform to any homeowner. The trust they sell is not backed by any real accountability.

I requested a refund within 24 hours of purchasing a $200 Basic Membership.

Support informed me that I needed to wait 14 days due to having an active listing. I complied fully and waited the required period in good faith.

After the 14 days passed, I was denied a refund — this time on the basis that Basic memberships are non-refundable.

That restriction was never disclosed in the original response. Had it been clearly communicated at the outset, I would have addressed the matter immediately.

Instead, I relied on the instructions provided by their team and lost the opportunity to resolve the issue promptly.

This is not about changing my mind. It is about inconsistent communication and a lack of transparency in how refund policies are applied.

When a company provides one reason to delay a refund and later substitutes another reason to deny it entirely, it raises legitimate concerns about fairness and internal consistency.

Prospective members should ensure they receive written clarification of refund eligibility before purchasing, as the guidance provided by support may not reflect the final outcome.

I've had a few genuinely lovely house sitters through this app, so I know it can work well. However, my most recent experience was extremely disappointing. When I returned home, I found that nearly all of my food and some of my alcohol had been consumed, and it appeared that my personal belongings had been accessed. This left me feeling uncomfortable enough that I decided to change my locks and update all my banking and credit card details.

While not every sitter is like this, I can't say they're all trustworthy. Based on my experience, I'd recommend using this service with caution. I won't personally be using this service again

My husband and I have been on Trustedhousesitters for around a decade now. We've been both registered homeowners and housesitters. We've most recently been housesitting full time for over a year and have a couple dozen 5 star reviews as sitters. On our most recent housesit, the homeowners left us only 3 stars and negative feedback for no apparent reason! Their review was full of false statements. They claimed we were not communicative when I texted daily and sent photo updates. They claimed we left earlier than agreed which is an outright lie. I have proof of our text conversations and they have outdoor video cameras (undisclosed to us) showing when we left. On top of that, their review of us said something vague as the reason for the rating like they weren't sure if we enjoyed their home and the area. I don't see how that's relevant or warrants the low stars. I tried to get assistance from Trustedhousesitters and offered my proof that the homeowners had lied in their review. Trustedhousesitters, of course, refused to help or remove the review. They kept telling me that reviews could not be edited even when I asked if it's okay for homeowners to lie in their reviews. Clearly Trustedhousesitters is fine with people making false statements in their reviews. I know I can reply to the review, which I have, but this still affects my rating and looks bad when applying for future sits. There needs to be a way for housesitters to view homeowners' profiles and see all the reviews they've let for their sitters. In this way, maybe we can weed out the odd balls who just always leave negative feedback and not even bother applying to those sits. There also needs to be a system in place where Trustedhousesitters takes these reported issues seriously and actually investigages the validity of a review when someone has proof. Otherwise, there's no protection from any random reviews being posted. If you're offered help from a customer service agent named Braedon, turn it down. He is not helpful and only knows how to copy/paste replies. He even sent me a link to the review guidelines that the owner clearly breached and yet, he still would not help. It's unfortunate that Trustedhousesitters has a vast majority of the jobs in this industry as I would really rather not renew my membership after such treatment and would much prefer to find a better service that values its members and both sides of the community.

We're incredibly disappointed in TrustedHousesitters for failing to uphold their promise to protect homeowners. Despite providing clear evidence and admission from sitters violated the platform's code of conduct, the company did nothing. This leaves future homeowners completely in the dark and vulnerable. What's most troubling is the false sense of security they provide through their so-called "vetting process." When complaints are dismissed and no accountability is enforced, that process is meaningless. Our requests for even basic protective action were flatly denied. This is especially disheartening because we've had multiple positive stays in the past. We once believed in the platform and its mission. But sadly, without accountability, TrustedHousesitters cannot be trusted. Now that we know the risk involved due to their negligent practices, we would not feel safe using the service again and would recommend for prospective homeowners to look elsewhere.

When things work well this is a workable platform, however, home and pet owners be warned, when things go wrong Trustedhousesitters policies are concerning and leave homeowners at risk. My recent house sitter made alterations to my home, displayed unstable, disrespectful and paranoid behaviour, refused to leave when asked, and stole cash from my home. This was all clearly evident through the 60+ text messages she bombarded me within a ten day period. I reported it to Trustedhousesitters and although they investigated and acknowledged what had occurred, they refused to bar her from the platform and continue to promote her. This is a serious risk to other home and pet owners. It demonstrates a real lack of appropriate followthrough after an incident has taken place. They are basically allowing daylight robbery to take place. Shame on them.

We had sitter destroy an expensive murphy bed, attempt to cover it up and then made up a lie about how it happened, neglected our dog. We had video evidence and all the company did was give them a warning, leaving them to destroy others property and neglect their animals. Then the company keeps stringing me along with the promise of paying the destruction. We call them Busted Housesitters now- don't trust them.

The last time I used THS I picked a sitter with 5 stars. 8 months later I am still discovering things that were stolen out of my house. When you use this service you are rolling the dice hoping these sitters are not thieves.THS does not know if these people are trustworthy or not. I learned the hardway. I will not be taking that chance again.

I have had soo many great house and pet sitters from this website. I pay them NOTHING! It's awesome.
Right now there is a black friday savings event. Use code RAF******* to save 30% AND get 3 months free!

Waste of time and money. Not worth the try. It is a complete frustration and when you ask somthing you don't get an proper answer, alson from the community who I believe are the same people of the website. You get a kick, to make you feel more frustrated then a proper answer.

I signed up seeing the money back guarantee which is false advertising because it is not money back guaranteed. Only within 1st 14 days.

I had a 45 yo male who appeared professional on paper. I truly believe he was just looking for a place to stay and NOT have to deal with caring for my pets. I came home to unhappy animals, a filthy house, my walls (2 different places) had liquid spilled on them and not cleaned up. This guy was a pig, literally!

Consider yourself warned, THS offers anything but trust! I have now had several negative back to back experiences on THS and I strongly discourage pet or homeowners to entrust their home or beloved fur babies to the so-called "petsitters" on THS.
Unfortunately, THS promotes itself as a cheap way to travel and therefore attracts a disproportionate amount of so-called petsitters that have absolutely no experience other than "I had a pet as a child" type of reference. If you've ever had a pet as a child, you know who took care of it, most likely your parents! Therefore, having a pet as a child does not automatically qualify anyone to be a "Petsitter".
Equally distressing is the fact that I have been told by more than one so-called "Petsitter" that they just use the THS platform to "live rent-free" (yes, I was actually told this on several occasions), and/or as a way to travel on the cheap. Experience has taught me that most (even the most sweet-talking ones that tell you exactly want you want to hear), don't actually plan on taking care of your pets as they go about touring your city, visiting all of the sights/museums/attarctions by day and restaurants by night, all while your pets are left alone except for the occasional walk.
If you're lucky, this will be the least of your problems if not then you can expect to have the overwhelming burden of proof placed on you all for naught, as they always take the "petsitters" side due to "insufficient proof" or claiming that the claim was not submitted within their timeframe. Note that if you have to open a claim that you are expected to translate all supporting documentation into English despite the fact that THS doesn't seem to have a problem collecting membership fees in every language and country that they do business in.

The fundamental flaw of THS is their review system, which allows each party to view the review that was left by the other party PRIOR to submitting their own review allowing them to effectively post to revenge reviews and negative ratings if they don't like the review that's been left for them.
This effectively means that 5* reviews of petsitters on THS cannot be trusted for fear of reprisal by the petsitter against the homeowner. One would think that pet owners would want to warn others and keep the platform safe but the fact is that once a pet owner has several negative reviews it means that it will be extremely difficult to find a petsitter the next time they need one, and this is why you will see that >90% of reviews of petsitters are 5*. If one dares to bring these systemic issues to light on the THS community then posts are immediately removed by the moderator.
THS does nothing to promote trust and safety on their platform because enrolling new memberships from travelers (sorry "petsiiters" as THS likes to call them) is more lucrative. I'm sure that there are extremely caring and professional petsitters however the majority are not on THS, just the opposite.

Even getting to *apply* for a sit it like winning the lotto. Only five people are allowed to apply for each sit. I have given the site a very fair chance (six months), receiving email notifications daily for sits, and every single sit I have ever been interested in is not accepting applications by the time I click through to apply. Dozens, if not over a hundred failed attempts. I politely requested a pro-rated refund and there are no exceptions to their yearly commitments. Their suggestion was for me to download the app and get instant notifications so I can apply faster - but this is wildly impractical advice for someone with a full time job. Perhaps if you are unemployed and able to watch for notifications like a hawk to act IMMEDIATELY you'd enjoy the site but it's completely useless and and utter waste of money otherwise.

We had a sitter at our house for 10 days who left the exterior irrigation system on for the whole period causing massive flooding in our basement. When trying to connect with Trusted House sitters via email and phone to discuss applying for coverage through their plan we have received Zero, I repeat Zero communication back. If they want word of mouth to spread about their program through social networks maybe they'd treat customers better.

This site gives a false sense of security. It is no more that a costly craiglist type listing of ppl who want to sit a home or list a home to sit. The site says background check, verify references and home contents protection... All bs.
Background check are voluntary and provided and payed for by the sitter references are not necessarily from actual sits but look like they are.
We confirmed a sit met the person in advance in person to feel them out... Seemed totally normal, leave on vacation... Get a call mid way through from local animal control telling us our dog was turned over to them apparently found in the park next door. Animal control found our front door left open sitter vanished. Turns out the sitter is the one who turned him over to animal control, not before attempting to enter a neighbor home and stealing clothes from their line. Our home was damaged (improper cleaning ruined antiques and our enamel oven, neither of which needed to be cleaned) she broke a figurine and a few glasses as well as leaving ac running despite us explicitly saying in home guide never to do this because leaks, our home was left by her many hours before we could return so our floors are damaged as well...
The home protection insurance on the site is again false advertising, fine print makes it clear you must claim in your home insurance, mediate with sitter for anything under 1000$ and only after using your own home insurance can you claim anything from trustedhousitter...

The fee you pay is pure profit to a site that claims to provide a service but only service is access to ppl who are interested in house sitting. Zero protection and no actual vetting of sitters. Buyer be extremely aware... And sitter be aware you are liable for all damages this site will not support or protect you.

We lost our on half our vacation, our brand new oven is ruined, our antiques damaged, and our home violated by having someone who totally misrepresented themselves and abandoned our home to be damaged.

Nothing trustworthy about this site waste of money.
(Review shared on may sites)

Don't waste your money. They won't refund you no matter what. This is a trash site that claims your satisfaction but actually has zero customer service. They'll reply to this saying someone will reach out but I've contacted their support several times with no help. The risk of losing money or having an unqualified person in your home is high due to the fact they make it impossible to report scammers. Again just don't do it.

My house sitter did significant damage…
My house sitter did significant damage to my car and left the country as I arrived back so was gone by time I realised. One of my pets died in her care and she did not even notice, was not aware, was surprised when I advised her of this tragic event.She all but trashed my home. They did refund me my membership but have refused any form of compensation did the damage to my car. They take no responsibility for damage incurred by the house sitter, no responsibility can't be bothered, overall gutting experience. Would NEVER use them again

I accepted a pet sitter from trusted houses to stay with my animal for nine days. This Pet Sitter had a background check and seem to have a positive profile. I sat down with the Pet Sitter, and gave her instructions on taking care of my Pat, and let her know not to open any windows or doors, because of a problem we had with our gnats. When I returned home from my vacation about a week later, I noticed my house was infested with knats. I asked the Pet Sitter if she had open the doors or windows, and she said she did not. However, my ADT security system keeps record of when doors and windows are open. I checked to find out that the Pet Sitter left one of my windows opened when the screen had a hole in it and she lied.I asked the Pet Sitter if she had open the doors or windows, and she said she did not. However, my ADT security system keeps record of when doors and windows are open. I checked to find out that the Pet Sitter left one of my windows opened when the screen had a hole in it and she lied.Also, I found that some jewelry I had hidden was missing. Lynn, the pet sitter,was the only person in my place and the only person that access to anything in my house