Homeowners
How to Vet a Housesitter: Beyond Reviews and Video Calls
Five-star reviews tell you someone made a good impression. A video call tells you they’re charming. Neither tells you what they’ll do when your dog escapes at midnight. Here’s what actually matters — and how to find it out.
For Homeowners · 7 min read
The standard advice for choosing a housesitter is: read their reviews, do a video call, check their references. It’s not bad advice. It’s just incomplete. Reviews tell you about past performance in past circumstances. A video call tells you about social skills. References tell you what someone chose to share. None of them tell you how a sitter will handle your specific situation — your pets, your property, your expectations.
Real vetting means understanding someone’s position on the things that actually matter — not their personality, but their approach. How do they handle vet emergencies? What’s their view on cameras? What does “clean” mean to them? How would they react if something went wrong at 2am?
What reviews don’t tell you
Reviews are often the main thing a homeowner has to go on. They have real limits — not because people lie, but because of how reviews come to be written.
A low review is hard to give
Each side knows a low review can be answered with another, and both want the next sit to come easily. So a problem can go unmentioned, and five stars may only mean nothing went badly wrong. A sitter with 30 five-star reviews may be excellent — or may have 30 homeowners who chose not to say otherwise.
Context is invisible
A five-star review for a weekend flat-sit with one cat tells you nothing about how that sitter will handle a month on a rural farm with four dogs, a pool, and a garden. A star rating doesn’t carry context — it’s a number. Two sitters with identical ratings may have completely different experience profiles, and you can’t tell from the stars.
A background check answers a different question
An identity check, or a criminal record check where one is offered, tells you someone is who they say they are. It doesn’t confirm they can handle a reactive dog, administer medication, maintain a garden, or cope with isolation in a rural property for three months. The things that actually matter for your sit are the things no background check covers.
The questions that actually reveal who they are
Good vetting isn’t only a background check. It’s a conversation about specifics — one that goes deeper than “tell me about yourself” and into “what would you do if.”
“My dog is reactive to other dogs on walks. How would you handle that?”
The answer tells you a lot. A sitter who says “I’d cross the street and redirect with treats” has probably handled reactive dogs. A sitter who says “I’m sure he’ll be fine with me” probably hasn’t.
“What would you do if the vet said the bill was £1,500 and you couldn’t reach me?”
The answer reveals whether they’ve thought about emergency protocols. “I’d wait until I could reach you” and “I’d authorise whatever the vet recommended” are both honest answers — and they’re completely different. You need to know which one you’re getting.
“How do you feel about indoor cameras?”
A sitter who gives a thoughtful, nuanced answer — “I’m comfortable with a pet camera in the living room but I’d want the bedroom and bathroom camera-free” — has thought about this before. One who seems surprised by the question may not have encountered it, which tells you something about their experience level.
“What does ‘clean’ mean to you? Specifically.”
Cleaning is an easy place for resentment to start after a sit. Asking specifically forces a concrete answer. “I’d leave it as I found it” is vague. “I hoover weekly, wipe surfaces daily, do a deep clean before departure, and take photos at handover” is someone who has a standard.
The trouble is that these questions are hard to ask on a video call. They feel too pointed, too interrogative, too much like a job interview for something that’s supposed to be based on trust. So homeowners ask “tell me about your experience” and sitters say “we love animals and we’re very responsible” and both parties learn nothing they couldn’t have read on the profile.
Their answers tell you more than a star rating
Not “I love animals”, but “I’d want you to call me before any vet spend, I’d rather cameras were off in living spaces, and I leave the place as I found it, with photos.” Answers like that, to the questions that matter, tell you more about how a sit will go than a rating can.
Reputable Sitters’ free agreement tool asks you both the same questions, each from your own side, and shows where your answers differ before anyone signs. If you’d keep cameras on in agreed rooms and the sitter would rather have no cameras indoors at all, you see it now, while it’s still a conversation.
Taking the time tells you something too
Answering questions like these takes some thought. A sitter who takes the time to say where they stand on the vet decision, cameras, visitors and how the home is left is showing you how they’d approach your sit.
Use the reviews, the references and the video call too. They just don’t answer the question this guide is about: does this person’s approach to your home and your animals match yours? Asking each other the same questions, before anyone commits, is how you find out.
The questions that tend to cause trouble, answered from your own side. The other person answers from theirs, and you both see where your answers match. Free, with no account, and nothing binds until you both sign.
Start an agreement