Our experience with Ruth has left us feeling deceived and extremely frustrated. Judging by Ruth’s past reviews, she seemed perfectly capable. Had it not been for our camera footage and the damage we came home to, we might have been inclined to maintain that opinion even now. Hopefully, sharing our experience will help other pet owners make a more informed decision about choosing her to watch their pets in the future. We booked Ruth to house sit while we were gone for about a month. This was our first time booking Ruth and judging by her past reviews, we felt fairly comfortable. During the stay, she was generally charismatic via text and occasionally sent photos. For the first two weeks, it seemed like everything was going well. About halfway through our trip, we received our electricity bill. The average daily usage for the days Ruth was staying in our home was 3x higher than any previous day in the past 12 years. For reference, we’re two people and an electric car, so we were worried something was wrong. I sent Ruth a message letting her know this and offered some tips - like turning off devices when not using them and not running the AC when the doors and windows are open. She replied “will do” and mentioned that the weather had been hot. Despite the text message, none of her habits changed. The next bill was on track to be 150% of the last bill when we arrived. Due to our concerns about electricity usage, we decided to scan through some of our security camera footage when we arrived home. We have cameras along the outside of the house and in the common areas of the house. None of them are hidden and we pointed them out to Ruth during the meet and greet. During this review, we came across several other issues that range from disappointing to alarming: * Ruth left our home completely unattended for three consecutive nights. She was additionally absent for 8 hours on one of the days in between. Our dog was visibly distressed in the camera footage (pacing, laying in weird places, watching the door). Had we been told something came up, we could have arranged for a family member or another sitter to be present, but Ruth never mentioned this to us. * Ruth burned several of our candles all together in a group on our coffee table, where our dog could easily have knocked them over, for hours at a time. They were left burning overnight while she slept and, on one occasion, were left burning while she left the house for several hours. * The source of the electricity usage was evident on our security cameras. The AC in our media room, as well as our projector and receiver, were on 24/7 from the time that we left until we returned. The living room AC was also left on while the front door was regularly open to the screen. The damages we have incurred from Ruth’s stay are as follows: * The AV receiver in the media room is essentially fried. It emits a loud crackle noise through all the speakers, regardless of the cables or ports used. Replacement will be about $500. * The projector lamp now also needs replacing – about $100. * Compared to our normal usage (two people + an electric car) Ruth single-handedly used at least $200 more in electricity * The white couch in the media room is visibly dirty compared to when we left and we’re having to get that professionally cleaned – another $250. We wanted to give Ruth the benefit of the doubt to make this right and reached out to her before writing a review or reaching out to Rover. She waited a couple of days to respond (perhaps waiting until Rover dispersed payment for the stay) and replied that she had been working and was too tired to read all of what we wrote!

Ruth is very open, friendly, and responsible. She loved our dogs and took care of them like her own. It’s so nice to see lots of photos to ease your mind that your pets are well cared for. Thank you Ruth. We will definitely contact Ruth for our future trips, and we will recommend Ruth to our family and friends.