To ask this about housesitting etiquette

[libertybonds]

We are looking after a variety of plants and animals for friends of friends while staying in their (very nice) property.

They have asked us to contribute to the cleaner, which is £100/week

They would probably have the cleaner come anyway as they want to maintain the relationship. But it's true that the cleaner will be tidying up the house while we are there creating a normal level of dirtiness from showering, kitchen use, etc.

Would you contribute? How much?

They should be paying you for house sitting not asking you to pay the cleaners!!
How big is the house if they pay the cleaner £400 per month!
Absolute CF's
Do not pay a penny

Your friend is being a CF!

I just got back from holiday, and my friends' daughter was my house/dogsitter while we were away. I paid her by the day AND left her money to pay the cleaner, just to make sure the place stayed nice for her.

Seriously, you need to back out of this arrangement pronto.

They will be trying to claim on you directly after, for some issue, real or imagined.

I have extensive experience of house sitting and entitled people like this get banned from the company if they pull stunts like this.

This is a disaster before you have even set foot near the place.

I had one gig and I could tell from stuff like this, before the owner left the country, that I was in for a rough ride. Afterwards they made all sorts of claims, even trying to get their Aga refurbished as I had abused it. I didn't even use it. They claimed I had dug holes in the garden and all sorts of weird shit. Luckily I had the backing of the parent company and they told them to piss off and black listed them. Their place was fucking haunted as well.

My 2 cats in a cattery was £185 for a weekso you are saving them a lot. People do say that rich people are tight, there you are.

"We have looked after your home, pets and plants free of charge. We've left it clean and tidy for you."

That. Keep it brief and factual. Nothing to argue with, nothing to take poorly.

Ignore all the very long and faux-friendly replies that people are suggesting.

We've paid £240 for one cat in chattery over our two week holiday.
They can pay their cleaner themselves or cancel them.

Well, fuck that! You are doing them a favour, they should be paying you not the other way round.

Absolutely not!

We pay £26 a day (when we have a dog - ours died in June but we will rescue another) for our dog to go in a really good kennels.

These are CFs.

I am thinking this is the right approach.

We were super happy to do this house sitting, but it's really a lot more work than I would have thought from the outset. Looks like this is what I get for being nice and keen.

It's difficult for me to be assertive and I think we will probably pay for the cleaner when we are actually here (since we did say this when unfairly put on the spot), but it's ridiculous to suggest we should pay for a cleaner after we leave, like we are some sort of filthy beasts, particularly when they would definitely have the cleaner round anyway.

I don't want to hurt my relationship with the intermediary friend. Trying to decide if I should say anything.

If it's a stunning home the type you'd of paid a grand a week to use pay the cleaner because if a 3rd party friend hooked this up then yes it will be really awkward for them after they tried to hook everyone up with a favour. And no it's not that you are a filthy beast but even after a hotel stay Wed expect a cleaner to remove everyone else's dirt for the next guest.

“Yes, happy to pay the £100 cleaning fee. Shall we subtract it from the local going rate of £x for in-house dog sitting?”

Well what was the deal you stay here and have a holiday but look after our Pets? ( arranged by a mutual friend)

I would retract the offer and say you are no longer available tbh

What is the cleaner's usual schedule and when are the owners coming back? Is the day after you leave her 'usual' day? Is it also the day the owners return? If so then she'll be cleaning up a house you've been using for a week. If you're sucking up the cost of the cleaner because you are a pushover don't want the confrontation I don't see how you can differentiate the final visit. Being assertive about this isn't logical given the whole 'agreement' and will just cause the awkwardness you have been so keen to avoid.

Really?

They were actively looking for someone to house sit. Intermediary friend just told us about the request and helped us exchange details.

This is horrible. I hate being taken advantage of.

Well, you absolutely are being. Don’t stand for it!

To keep the peace I'd just pay, enjoy the break and never do it again. Especially if it's in a gorgeous holiday location it means you've had a very cheap holiday for the sake of watering a few plants, maybe a few dog walks and £100. The only reason I'd pay is for the peace of the 3rd party. Incase they get some huge load of crap about that Susan wow I had to pay a cleaner after she left!

Are you already there?

@HaveSomeIntrospect

Yes. It's a nice house. The plant and animal care is really stressing me out though 😂

You’re working x hours per day, but rather than being paid for it, which is clearly the norm, you’re doing it for free and paying for their staff because you’re there.

Well, yes you are being taken advantage of. But that could have been avoided in the first instance by being more assertive about the terms of the 'deal'. You allowed yourself to be ambushed and being assertive at this late stage is going to cause the awkwardness you were so keen to avoid. Now you've got yourself in a corner and it's too late.

Your choices are (1) to swallow your pride about being taken advantage of, suck it all up for a quiet life and the sake of your relationship with your intermediate friends and never do this again or (2) take a stand on the final cleaning visit which (depending on the timing of it in relation to previous cleans and your departure) makes you look like the unreasonable one.

Just get in touch and say
"you've had second thoughts. You were put on the spot with the cleaning payment question and agreed out of politeness. But on refection you feel that requesting that contribution for a service that would be happening anyway shows that they feel they are giving you a holiday and that shows they don't appreciate you are taking on the level of work and responsibility involved.
Fitting all of your time round the needs of their pets and leaving your own home empty for an extended period isn't a small thing and it means you've had a rethink and suggest they find someone else."

Apart from anything else they are showing they don't appreciate it and are penny pinching... This attitude they have will bite you on the arse if anything goes wrong.
Pet health problem or property breakage on your watch.... = Problems with entitled owner and their views on that.

Sorry. Clicked on YABU by mistake as I thought YWBU to even consider contributing!