Why do prospective pet sitters/ house sitters seem to think they’re so desirable?

[Neverbeentothegym]

I’m on a lot of FB/ house sitting websites due to needing pet sitters some of the time. Previously, it would be a lot of peoples full time job and usually they’d have been older, retired, a bit alternative. They’d know so much about pets and animal care.
Now the market is completely oversaturated. If I read one more post from Tina and her three kids who want a month long holiday with free accommodation ‘somewhere warm’ with close access to a beach, I’ll scream.
It’s the sheer ignorance that this is a job and a responsibility. If it was a free holiday, everyone would do it.
We don’t live in a highly desirable area so avoid a lot of these people but I find the genuine pet sitters who have experience and do it as a way of travelling the world are fewer, but maybe I miss their posts amongst all the ‘we’re looking for a house sit, pets considered, near Marbella, 28th of October for a week, must be walking distance to a beach, no dogs please, pool would be nice :)’ posts.

It's annoying because you want a responsible adult who looks after your pet, not someone whose looking for a free holiday. I'd rather pay higher rates for the right person, Tina and her three DC have no chance

Tbh it is a free holiday with responsibilities for me.
I know a lot about taking care of animals and I do it 100% if I petsit but I wouldn't spend my holiday in a area which isn't desirable for me and work my holiday around your animals' needs.
I use public transportation and rely on this. A lot of offers are rural.

(then a petsitter stays at my home I save £50 a day so yes, it's also about money but mostly our pets stay with friends for free).

I think it goes both ways. We do free pet sitting via a housesitters app, and the number of homeowners on there with ridiculous demands is something else.

I see lots of messy house photos with a description of a demanding dog - quite what they think anyone is going to get out of sitting for them I don’t know.

One the other week took the biscuit - four rescue dogs in a small messy looking house, in a non touristy area. All with separation anxiety so they can’t be left, but none of them like leaving the house so you can’t walk them either. One incontinent but it’s ok, they have hard floors so it’s easy to clean up! Why do they think someone should go and offer free pet care?

We do it because we love dogs and walking. However, I want it to basically be a holiday with a bonus dog, so we apply for nice clean houses in lovely locations and take the dogs on fabulous walks every day so it feels like a mutually beneficial exchange.

“quite what they think anyone is going to get out of sitting for them I don’t know.”

My pet sitter gets the payment she charges for doing the job of pet sitting. It’s around £500 for a full week, and she can fit other jobs in during the day.

I wouldn’t ask some random person I didn’t know to stay in my house just because they were doing it for free, though. People are way too weird.

Most petsitting is not paid work. The reward is being able to stay at the house.

We have a Motorhome and are happy to park up or stay in the house. We are retired and have huge experience with cats and small to medium size dogs, hamsters and Guinea pigs, DH also has some experience with horses. We are also keen gardeners. Just to ask people that use these services, we love walking so dog walking is fine and if exploring a local area we would think leaving a dog ok for maybe about 3 hours, do you think people would be ok with that. Obviously we would check with each owner, our little cat currently looked after by our DS has a specific routine when she is fed.

Can anyone recommend an app or page that is more reputable to offer services, we would be looking for unpaid sits.

I find live-in catsitters on Trusted Housesitters (annual fee but the actual petsitting is free) and have found it works really well. But I have a nice flat in London and an easy and affectionate cat so can be quite picky.

I’m not referring to the paid sitters. The app I’m on is free house/pet sitters who do it as a mutual exchange for somewhere nice to stay.

What I do find is that lots of pet owners don’t want to pay someone so they use the app to try and get free pet care when they’re not offering much in return.