How do you kindly turn down house sitting requests because of bad neighborhood?

Sitter safety should always be priority #1. What I do is I ask the client for their address before I commit to a M&G, I want to see where they live and if its in a bad area, I would tell them they are outside your service area and leave it at that. So you check it out and think it may be ok but during the M&G the area isn't quite right for you I would decline the booking. House sitting can be stressful for many sitters especially woman so keep safe and only accept bookings you are comfortable with.

I agree with Walt. And there is NOTHING RUDE about turning down a job. This is YOUR business, you're the boss, you're in charge and you will decide whom you want to work for. Like any other job.

I always ask for address first (or cross streets). I decide if i want to do it or not.

Another option you may consider if it's close enough and based on your availability is to let them know that you wouldn't be able to stay over, but could perform multiple visits per day and perhaps stay longer than the 30 minutes when possible during the day at the house sitting rate (since your h.s. rate is 75 and drop in,walk 19,22) and if agreed upon, document that in the rover messages when booked. Some people don't think about asking that and their pet may be fine with that arrangement.