What do you do when your house-sitting client's house is dirty/smelly? [closed]

This is an FYI for everyone! If you are house sitting a home that is filthy and you are not comfortable staying in, the Rover Staff can arrange for another sitter to come and take over the job.

I'm in one of these situations right now and wondering if I should leave... Call the Rover Hotline if you are uncomfortable - [Edit: Rover’s contact options have changed. Visit the Rover Help Center at https://support.rover.com/ to find the phone number, help articles, or chat with the team]

Unfortunately yes, I've had one client whose house was like this. Thankfully she had left it up to me if I wanted to spend the night or just drop in morning and evening (dogs had a dog door and could go potty anytime they wanted) so thankfully I didn't have to spend the night. Unfortunately this meant I spent my profits in gas commuting. Although same issue as you, sitting on the couch to spend time with the dogs was pure torture and the house smelled so bad. I did a meet and greet and it was much cleaner than a few weeks later when I was doing the care.

My recommendations, have a dedicated large blanket that you bring to your house sitting gigs. This way if you encounter a nasty couch you can cover it and wash it as desired. I've also learned the hard way to ALWAYS charge for a cat!!! ALWAYS!!!!! I've never had a situation where I didn't need to scoop a litterbox or clean up cat puke, people assume cats are the easiest pet for a pet sitter but I've not found that to be true at all. They're also the ones typically waking me up all hours of the night with their shenanigans.

First, don't comment on them cleaning their house. All this will result in is an angry client and a potentially harmful review. People have different tolerance levels for cleanliness of their homes and there's not much we can do about that. What you CAN do is just not care for their pets again, what I did with my client was told her the next time she asked that I could only do drop in visits and charged accordingly which increased the rate. She found someone else and I was more than happy to not have her as a client.

I am not there to judge their housekeeping. If someone's house is uninhabitable during the meet and greet I may not take it. Once it is booked and I arrive I only have two choices, deal with it or tidy up within reason. If the dog is going to the bathroom on the floor or something I would mention it as it relates to care, even if it is apparent that they for some reason let their dog go in the house.

Yup I’m in that situation right now for THREE WEEKS. I could see it was very messy on the meet and greet. But there’s things like bathrooms that you don’t see the filth when you are just being shown the room. I think I’ll start asking to use the washroom during meet and greets so I can look closer. I too am not going to stay overnight. It’s good gas prices are low right now but it will still eat up money I could have used. During the day I’m just going to sit at the kitchen table and read a book and try not to touch anything.

I don't know how you wouldn't have seen the stare of the house at the meet n greet?? I ask for them to show me where they would like me to sleep. Then I ask to see bathroom cuz usually shower combo is too hard for me to figure out on own lol. I ask where they take them out to potty so can see yard. It's just a basic tour of the house....... If you don't do that, it's a risk you take that the house will be unkempt. And if course I would never complain about that after the fact to the owner! The next time they reached out I would just say I can't help them anymore and give them links to other sitters on site. I usually bring a sheet or blanket to cover couches. If it's really that bad, I don't have a problem bringing my vacuum and doing some cleaning ;) And FYI many owners may not even know house stinks cuz nose deafness is a real thing!

Omg the house I am in is sooooooo dirty! I can barely be here, but there are dogs. What do you do..ask for a full tour of the house before accepting?

I don't house sit (for this exact reason, lol) But I'm just curious, do you do Meet & Greets for house sitting and inspect the houses before you agree to stay there for extended periods?

I also had this happen to me. I had to sleep in a recliner cause the rooms were horrible. Client left dishes in sink. I did wash them cause they would start to smell. But I was there to take care of the dogs and so I cleaned up some so they would not get sick. She called me a couple of times but I said I was busy. Hope that helps.