Tessa*, a European backpacker, has just returned from a walk in the blistering summer sun.Surrounded by high fences, and the bush beyond that, it appears safe from prying eyes.Tessa strips and wades into the water, thinking all the security cameras have been switched off.
Her time in their house was largely uneventful, aside from when the dog bit her on the arm. She stayed a few days, tidied the place up and moved on to her next house-sit."I feel that you weren't honest with me," they wrote.But if the cameras were turned off, and there were no neighbours in sight, how could they have known?
Talking to Tessa, you get the sense that her lifestyle – travelling the world, bouncing from house-sit to house-sit – isn't quite as utopian as it seems. Elena Bryant returned to Auckland to find her car damaged, her house a "pigsty" and one of her hens rotting in the coop out the back. She expected the platform to ban them, even though Kasia had arranged the sit with them via Facebook.
Kasia Potoczny: Should you continue to support this dreadful person through your Website etc. you will be neglecting your obligation to provide decent house-sitters to people who are registered with you. While complaints like Kasia's are usually handled behind closed doors, there are a sea of reviews for potential users to browse on third-party sites and the platform itself.
Reviewer 3: OMG NEVER AGAIN … you tricked me into coming and trapped me for 3 months … All in all I had enough of you your dog and filthy house And plenty of people are choosing to do exactly that. After recording 158 per cent growth in global membership during 2022, the company was valued at $150 million.Calling in from someone else's light-filled kitchen in the UK, Angela Laws seems like living proof of the possibilities of house-sitting platforms.
As she works for the company – something she is open about with home owners – her experiences may not be representative of every sitter on the platform, though she says staff receive "no preferential treatment"."A negative review makes those members strive harder to actually make the experience a good one," she explains.
This is an important function of a review system, as it protects the community from bad eggs – but it also leaves users open to their reputations being tarnished by a single over-zealous reviewer." is not something that we tamper with," Ms Laws says.The company's policy