To ask this about housesitting etiquette

I wouldn't be worrying about the mutual friend at all if she feels awkward all she has to do is say oh dear, but it's nothing to do with me.

What you need to do is contact them as soon as possible and say that you do not want to pay for the cleaner because you are doing them a huge favour in looking after their house and animals while they're away and not charging for that and that paying for a cleaner wasn't part of the original deal.

The problem they may have is that most cleaners insist on coming while you were away anyway because otherwise they are out of business when clients go on holiday. So these people are probably having to pay for their cleaner anyway and are trying to get you to pay for it either way.

What are they actually going to do if you don't give them the money? there's literally nothing they can do so I would contact them and say "on reflection we don't feel we need cleaners while we are here and we do not feel it appropriate for us to pay for your cleaners when we are already doing you a favour by house sitting and pet sitting for free. Therefore we won't be paying for the cleaner. But of course if you still want the cleaner to come while we are here then we will accommodate them"

This is only awkward if you let it be, they're not your friends. You don't have to see them ever again and how your other friend deals with them is up to her.

You need to take a deep breath, put your big girl pants on and message them and then stand firm because they literally can't do anything. If you don't transfer the money it's not like they're paying you and can withhold some of it.

In which case if mutual friend mentions it to you, tell her straight that the whole thing was a lot of hard work, the the CFs got free animal and house sitting and that if anyone should be upset and feel taken advantage of, it's you.

Am I the only one thinking the OP could cut down on the work involved by putting all animals in the same room while she does a massive cage clean session. I bet there would be fewer cages to clean after that. The cleaner may have to attend to the stains on the carpet afterwards but hey, you're paying for her anyway.

I think I'd send them a message saying after all we won't need a cleaner during the stay, up to you if you want to pay for one after we've left. That way its clear you aren't expecting to pay fir either clean. I wouldn't worry about dumping it on them after agreeing etc, they have been way cheekier. Sounds like they'd have had to pay a LOT of money for what you are doing.
They aren't your friends so who cares of they whinge about you. You are in the right.

I think they know they are being CFs about the cleaver hence not being upfront about it so they have then subsequently chanced their arm. And would rather do this than piss off the cleaner.

I would write something like:
Now we are here and working hard to feed and care for your plants and animals, we do not want to have the cleaner come whilst we are staying as we feel it would be awkward for them. We will leave the house clean and tidy so do not feel it is appropriate for us to contribute to the clean after we leave.

I wouldn’t dream of asking anyone housesitting/pet sitting for me to pay for a cleaner but then I live in a boring terrace in SE London and have one very lazy cat.

If I was the one doing the sitting I would not expect to be asked to pay anything but would leave some thank-you gifts.

The only exception would be if the property was usually rented out commercially and it suited me to holiday there. Then a contribution towards cleaning or whatever as a mates-rates deal is maybe ok.

Us too. 😁

Love your username, btw. My DH regularly quote it at each other. 😆

Ooh yes, they sound the type to have alpacas.

I was thinking ostrich and llama.

So tree frogs, a parakeet, gerbils, stick insects, a laborador and a bloody great python.

Am I close OP?

These people aren’t friends at all, just do the pets, the plants and whatever and nothing else.

if you need to be blunt, be blunt. “We won’t need your cleaner, thanks. We won’t be paying for them.”

Crikey they have made right skivvys of you both and had you pay for a cleaner.🙄
Bloody hell OP.
Unbelievable.
You should post that list on the same grouping highlight the request for you to pay the cleaner AFTER the event and state you were rightly caught by them.
Try and learn from this.
CF's are always on the look out for mugs willing to be exploited.

Actually if you compare the original house sitting spec to the actual one, you could ask for advance payment because they misled you.
But that would involve not accepting being taken for a mug.

Yeah just cancel the cleaner and do the bare minimum

incidentally have you told this intermediary friend about this?

some relatively large

As in relatively large to humans? 😨

Cross post.

Crikey!

How many weeks to go OP? Is the animal care demanding in the sense of they might die or escape never to be seen again if you don't do everything to the letter of the owners' instructions? Or is it just tedious and smelly?

Because if you're having to do anything that could be described as specialist I think I'd revise my opinion that the situation is just tough and you knew/should have known what the deal was.

I'm wondering if when you went for your familiarisation visit they kept the door shut on the reptile room and you only got to meet the delightfully independent cat and the undemanding goldfish.

It was (demanding) notes. Not a contract. They have no leg to stand on if OP doesn't do every single item on there. Sounds like she's keeping everything alive. Gratis. Good enough. I would just let them transfer money to the cleaners and ignore any reminder of theirs to transfer money to them. Act like you don't understand.

They did tell her she just hadn't fully read the notes so from their end it had been accepted.

It's even worse that you didn't find out for the after stay clean until you were there, and it's not confrontational to say you won't be paying either before or after you leave
Who cares what they think?
You have done them a massive favour and they have been disingenuous.

OP, I’m really wondering what you came on here for.

SO MANY people have told you that these people are cheeky fucks, yet you’re still saying you’re going to pay them.

You’re saying how demanding the pet care is that you’ve been asked to do. What do you want us to say?

It’s like you want to complain about them, say how unreasonable they are, you mention a long list of jobs they’ve given you, talk about how demanding it is to care for their pets etc, but it sounds like you aren’t prepared to stand up for yourself, despite what so many people are saying on here (ie people giving you suggestions of how you can politely stand up for yourself and tell them “no”) so I really don’t know anymore what you’re hoping to achieve from this post.

If it's not a prime holiday location then actually no I'd say I'm happy to pay for a final clean but not a weekly

It's so embarrassing that they want to be seen to be generously sharing their "nice house" with their "less fortunate" friends (whilst happily benefitting from their services).

They also know they need to pay their cleaner anyway so have tried to profit from you while still making use of the cleaner.

It'd so embaassing and virtue signalling of them to appear so kind and generous while actually squeezing everyone to get their moneys worth.

They really are cheeky fuckers! Who has someone house sit & clean out animal cages etc, saving themselves a fortune & then asking for a contribution to pay the cleaners (which sounds like you're paying 100% of cleaning costs unless the house is a mansion!)

Ask them to cancel the clean & just don't transfer any money to them. I'd block their number when you leave & have no future contact with them.