To ask this about housesitting etiquette

I wonder what their house insurance says. Our policy doesn't provide cover for absences of more than 30 days. So you are not only looking after their much loved pets and plants but are also very likely the means of maintaining insurance on a building no doubt worth many hundreds of thousands of pounds plus the value of all their worldly goods.

They are proper cheeky fuckers. House/pet/plant sitting for free, extension to insurance cover for free, AND they basically want YOU to pay for maintaining THEIR relationship with their cleaner.

I would feel so taken advantage of I don't think I could look upon them as friends any more.

They are absolute CF's. Really not ok.

Nope! No contributions, you are looking after their property and animals. They should be paying you!

Tell them you'll waive your usual fee so they can put that toward the cleaner themselves. Cheeky!!

YANBU personally would say - - breezily ‘oh it’s fine just take whatever you think is fair from what you were going to pay us for caring for your plants & animals for the x weeks you’ve been on your holidays’ with a lovely smile!!

absoloutely not a chance and even more so if they’re not even paying you! Cheeky fuckers trying to have a nice profit of not having to pay their cleaner in full whilst they’re on holiday

They want you to pay them to inconvenience yourselves? Pay them so you have to drive back to your house and pick up your mail? Pay them so that your own house is left unattended and could be burgled? pay them to look after THEIR pets and plants, pay them to take on the responsibility of looking after THEIR stuff and making sure you don't damage THEIR house?

I don't think so.

A house sitter is usually paid. And if you're live in then it's taken you perform the function of the cleaner? Unless they need some big item deep cleaned that's nothing to do with you I see no need for a cleaner during a house-sitting visit.
Can you simply explain you'll be cleaning and then leaving it as it was found. They can get the cleaner in if they like but I don't think you should be contributing unless they're cleaning your mess. Which they won't be.
You're doing them a favour and do not require the cleaners services.

This is the cheekiest thing I have read on here. So, you are house/pet sitting and they want you to contribute to the cleaning at the end of it? I can only think of two words in response to this.

I suppose because it's a nice property they think you paupers should be grateful for having had the opportunity of staying in such a splendid property.

Tell them to deduct the cleaner's fee from the money they're paying you for house-sitting.

I housesit dogs and charge £85 per day. Contribute to cleaner??? Not a chance

Charge them £200 a week for housesitting

My house sitter costs me a very reasonable £50 a day. This is crazy!

No, sorry, just No. You look after their house and they want you to pay the cleaner? My God, you know some real CF's

Good grief! My nephew house sits for us to look after the dogs. He is welcome to eat or drink anything in the cupboards, fridge or freezer. He usually books annual leave, but if he couldn't, I'd give him fuel money as his commute would be much longer than normal. He treats it as a little holiday but he's doing me a massive favour as I wouldn't be able to go if he didn't do it. If I had a cleaner, which I don't, there is no way on earth I'd expect anything towards the cost unless he had a massive party and expected to be cleared up after!
Your friends are CFs of the highest order, in my opinion.

Make a list of what it would cost them if they paid for your services professionally and show them.

Tell them you'll only charge them £100 seeing as they're your 'friends'.

Yep

Absolute piss taking ... saving money on pet sitters and charging you for the privilege of having their own home cleaned by their own cleaner on her regular schedule.

Hard no.

You don’t pay a penny, this is the height of cheeky fuckery when you’re already saving them a small fortune and the cleaner would be coming anyway.

I’m sitting in a house right now minding their pets. I will water plants, put out bins, keep the place clean and tidy and safe. Pets are walked and cuddled and cared for as if they are my own( these ones will sleep in bed with me) They are paying me, have left me goodies in the fridge and a bottle of wine. Before I leave I will strip the bed, clean the bathroom and mop the floors.
In the last house the cleaner came in twice while I was there and got on with ‘extra jobs’ as I hadn’t made any mess.
£100 a week for a cleaner? Nope!

Hahaha!
What a pair of cheeky fuckers. Tell them to find someone else to house sit for free, never mind you paying them 😂

I use Trustedhousesitters and I don't pay them. It's reciprocal - they get a nice house to stay in and in return they look after my pets.
I wouldn't have a cleaner come in while I was away - why do that? A cleaner isn't going to drop every client when they go away. But I probably would get them in to clean after you left, but I would expect to pay for that.
So odd request, odd arrangement. As you have semi agreed, at most I'd offer half.

I would send a message along the lines off:

Hi XXX

Rather than fester, I thought it would be in the spirit of our friendship to be straight with you, so can I just say that we think it's really unfair of you to ask us to contribute to your cleaning. We are happy to house sit / plant water / pet sit for free - it's a lot, but a nice change of scene for us - but whether the cleaner comes or not is of no odds to us we would feel a bit outraged if our doing this for you, meant we were out of pocket.

Hope you understand
Hope you're having a lovely trip
and hope that this doesn't become a 'thing' between us!

We're having a lovely time with your pets who are all well.

XXX

We pay our house sitter £30 a day. He gets to live in a house as opposed to his small flat. The cleaner comes once when we are away - would not dream of charging him for that?

I’m near London so I might ask someone to stay so they can basically spend days out there but if I go away, I’d normally be spending a great deal of money ensuring my dogs were in secure, very nice kennels (massive indoor/outdoor runs, 2 acres to run round in, very few other dogs). I think they’re extremely cheeky, given they would have the cleaner anyway and you’re doing them a huge favour, unless you’re trialling dog ownership or getting to ride lovely horses etc!