Dog Sitters in West Horsley

Courtney

There were red flags before I hired her, but I was running out of time to find a pet-sitter, so I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. She told me that her expected sit had "cancelled at the last minute", so I even allowed her to stay in our spare room for nearly a week before we left town, simply as an act of kindness given the circumstances.  After getting to know her, however, I unfortunately think I understand why the other folks had cancelled, and in retrospect, I wish I had done the same. 

When we first met, I gave Kelsey a tour of the house and explained my expectations and how to care for my pets. I also left her a one page type-written sheet reiterating most of the requests and instructions in summary. I was available throughout the entire time I was abroad, and asked her for daily check-ins. 

She sometimes sent nothing, other times just a photo or two or a question. Other times that she couldn't think of anything to share. I spent the first part of my trip wishing I had just hired a paid pet-sitter rather than using zeewoi since her communication was so minimal and poor, and the questions that she asked could have easily been answered if she just read the sheet I left. 

It felt clear to me that she didn't take any pride in caring for my home or pets, and was really just using this platform for a free place to stay. 

When I gave her a tour, I had specifically told her that a part of the house was off limits,  which included my office, my bedroom, and ground-floor bathroom. She acknowledged this by never entering the space while we were still here. One of the doors to the area was locked, but I had to leave the other one open because I had expected an electrician come to finish a project while we were out of town. Long story short, she went into the off limits area of the house, and when I questioned about it, replied "Oh, I was just grabbing a pen and paper, sorry!". She had been told not to enter, and I never gave her permission to use anything in my office. 

After landing from an 18 hour flight, I received a text from Kelsey sharing more relevant information that she had over the two weeks she was pet-sitting. She told me that she couldn't ever find the mailbox key (even though I had shown her, and she could have asked at any point during the sit), which meant that she had not brought the mail in FOR TWO FULL WEEKS. She also told me, for the first time during her sit, that the dogs had been having accidents in the house, and went on to ask me about the camera in my office that had detected her in an off-limits area of the house, and then proceeded to file a complaint with the platform. 

She was specifically told not to enter that area of the house, and would have had no engagement with the camera had she not chosen to actively break that rule, and what's worse, she did so to help herself to items in my office, again, without permission.  

I spent the first day back from abroad fighting jetlag to invest far too much energy into justifying the presence of the camera in an off-limits area of the house. 

This, on top of the fact that when we came home: 
-the house smelled like literal sh*t. 
-I came home to find the mailbox jam-packed with two weeks of mail, including numerous paychecks. 
-I discovered she had broken a kitchen cupboard, which I was informed I could not claim through zeewoi since the damage was less than $1000 (needless to say, she hadn't told me about this nor apologized). 
-The water-level in the  reservoir for the self-water container was too low for the water to adequately circulate for my pets. 
-She even helped herself to two items in the fridge that my young daughter was very upset to come home and find missing, in spite of the fact that she had her own mini-fridge in the guestroom.   

My experience with Kelsey was an absolutely nightmare, on so many levels, and I have put off writing this review until the last minute because every time I think about what an terrible pet-sitter she was (not following instructions, poor communication, disrespecting house rules, helping herself to personal items without permission, breaking things, not adequately caring for my pets' bathroom needs, and to top it all of, having the nerve to file a complaint for which I had to invest energy into going on the defensive with the platform), it makes me literally sick to my stomach.  This was my first time using zeewoi, and makes me seriously consider whether I even want to use it again. Once I post this review, I hope to never have to think of Kelsey or remember this nightmare experience again.

Andrew

Sandra and Cooper are awesome. Really nice people and excellent pet (and house) sitters. We met each other on Zoom to plan for the stay and I could have seriously chatted with them for 2 hours - they are so nice and engaging. They are very organized and experienced sitters who arrived on time, took excellent care of my pup and left my apartment in better condition than when they arrived. Communication with them was easy and stress-free. I am so glad to have met them and highly recommend them!

Leslie

We've had some great housesitters, but John tops the list. He was super communicative from the start, and it was clear he really enjoyed spending time with Nelson and Omar. The house was clean when we got home, and he even left us some tasty food that he'd cooked! We highly recommend John as a great housesitter and wonderful person. He's welcome back any time!