Aussie House Sitters

I had had a really great experience with the Customer Service Manager and I had had a great experience with Aussie Housesitters until I had a house sitting job for home owners who engaged in behaviour that I would never have imagined, including repeated, persistent intimidation, harassment, threats and bullying. The owners’ behaviour started after… Read more

we had confirmed the job on Aussie and I had a commitment towards them (although this didn’t work the other way). Getting neighbours to stalk me and giving out my personal details to an unknown number of neighbours. Getting her sister to enter the house when I told them this was against the terms and conditions. Not wanting me to leave the house and calling me almost daily. Wanting to "go over things again" during their holiday when I had already spent the equivalent of 3 working days over 4 days before the job started going over things in incredible detail. A house that was very unclean, unhealthy and unsafe. And more. The job was then followed by threats to destroy my house sitting reputation because I wouldn’t pay their enormous electricity bill after having paid for the repair of their window that had fallen off its aged hinge (because they had indicated they wouldn’t repair anything and I felt unsafe) and after ending the job early because of injury with only 6 days notice and a relative coming over to harass me. And threatening before the job even started and after I had diligently taken more than 7 A4 pages of notes from 4 days of meetings regarding their many requirements, that “we want you to do everything because we want to give you a good review”. Unsurprisingly they gave me a malicious, false review. The Customer Service Manager had told me that I could make a complaint and I wanted to prevent this from happening to other house sitters. Given the severity of the behaviour and the Customer Service Manager’s caring, I had assumed that Aussie would take the complaint seriously, and I wasted a long time writing my complaint. I outlined the 6 terms and conditions the owners breached, and the multiple ways in which they were breached. However unfortunately once my complaint reached Aussie’s Managing Director, he chose to dismiss my whole complaint and not to investigate. I say this because 1. He didn’t respond to most of the breaches 2. The only breach he did respond to, he chose not to investigate (he said that the owners had not realised that it was against the terms to allow someone to enter the home during the sit and had apologised, even though I had provided Aussie with evidence that I had emailed them to let them know this was against the Ts and Cs and they had responded disregarding this. Aussie's MD gave them just a warning about this one aspect of my complaint only). I would have thought that Aussie’s Managing Director would have treated my 24 points regarding “(a) not to intimidate, harass, impersonate, stalk, threaten, bully or endanger any other User” and the many other issues raised with the seriousness that it deserved. At all times I was courteous towards everyone involved (although I did indicate to Aussie’s Managing Director that I felt invalidated and that he didn’t care about my ordeal through his not investigating my complaint), and I had simply outlined the facts and provided evidence. Aussie’s MD did not respond to my request for an explanation of why he chose not to investigate my complaint. The Customer Service Manager had kindly given me 6 months free membership however unfortunately this didn’t help me at all as I wasn’t able to get house sitting with the malicious review, despite my other glowing reviews - having previously secured jobs easily. I was a very conscientious house sitter who took excellent care of people’s pets and homes, and gave home owners a great experience, but I guess Aussie didn’t value me. So I had to give up on house sitting. My experience led me to the conclusion that Aussie’s MD doesn’t care much about the wellbeing or experience of house sitters. I would give the CSM 5 stars and I certainly think she does care about house sitters. It was only when I had a horrific experience that I discovered that Aussie’s MD did not share her caring. At all times I acted in good faith, as did the CSM. Unfortunately I did not experience good faith in return from Aussie’s MD . And I experienced not just bad faith from the home owners that Aussie’s MD chose not to investigate or ban, but repeated, persistent intimidation, harassment, threats and bullying, and a complete disregard for Aussie’s terms and conditions. Based on that experience, it seems Aussie’s management is unconcerned about owners who repeatedly demonstrate a complete disregard for its terms and conditions. In an extreme situation, Aussie’s MD chose to disregard my complaint. Which suggests to me that they may disregard all complaints, no matter how horrifying the situation is. Aussie disregarded not just my experience but also its own terms and conditions. If Aussie’s management doesn’t care in such an extreme situation, I worry this suggests they may not care in any situation. As a result of all the above, I hold a serious concern for the psychological and physical safety of house sitters who encounter such home owners through Aussie.

I signed up with Aussie House Sitters as a Home Owner and had to pay $49 membership. After a time wasting 2 weeks of contacting nearly 20 house sitters, that were LISTED AS AVAILABLE for our O/S travel dates, plus in our SE Vic region, all replies came back they were NOT available. Reasons such as having knee replacements, to new jobs, selling… Read more

their houses, needing to extend working Visa requirements with paid regionals work plus stating they just weren't unavailable but said they loved our house and beautiful rural kitchen garden. So it isn't that we have an awful home and or difficult duties as only dog feeding and some companionship was required and sitters were free to explore our region. Contacted the website's Administration who replied they asked sitters to keep Availability current but this is not the case. Very Poor service from Aussie House Sitters....HOMEOWNERS, DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!

ANIMAL ABUSE ACCEPTABLE! – Having been on this site for a few yrs, I have met well cared for pets, & Abused Animals. I opted to remove myself from this site after management sided with the ANIMAL ABUSERS, who's 19 yr old poodle, was STARVED, disgustingly cruel sleeping situation, freezing conditions in winter, food he couldn't eat due to a mouthful of Blackened Rotten… Read more

teeth, Pus leakage, Brutal owners, who never went without a meal in their lives!!!, said, do not bring that dog inside, if it's whining at the back door when we return it's going to be very bad for that dog. RSPCA contacted the animal was Euthanised. Owners lied about my time there & me, saying I didn't follow their rules, ONLY RULE I BROKE was to bring LOUIE inside, he slept next to me, for body warmth, followed me around, THEY DIDNT CARE ABOUT HIM! I showed him love & kindness, gave him nice food he COULD eat!!! Dirty, scruffy, matted, UNLOVED! I put the actual truth to the Management, Facts, they chose to go with the ABUSERS, & their Lies, for what reason I don't know, NO ETHICS, NO HEART, WHO KNOWS! A picture of this Little dog, "Louie" enclosed. Rest in peace little fella!, peace at last!

Simply the best – I am a housesitter and have been using the Aussie Housesitters website for 7+ years. The site is very easy to use, and I have been able to both apply for advertised sits as well as people contacting me directly via the message page, which is linked to my email, so I get any messages immediately. It's a great way to find sits in particular… Read more

locations, and for all sorts of lengths of time. I thoroughly recommend the Aussie Housesitters website for sitters and people looking for sitters. Thanks to Aussies Housesitters, I now have a dozen regular sit homes, and am still able to find new sits to fill most gaps in my schedule. Of course, we must all understand the site is only a way of bringing people together and has no input into who chooses which sitter - that is up to the homeowner. Sometimes, people who need a sitter can't get one. Sometimes, lots of sitters apply for the same sit and only one can 'win', it's just who fits the homeowner's requirements. Occasionally I have missed out on sits I wanted. That's just the way it is. But the site itself is fantastic, user-friendly, and a great way to find possible sits all over Australia. I thoroughly recommend Aussie Housesitters.

Overall great community but many pet owners don't read our profile before contact – Edit: 4 stars to 5 stars; their service team did respond fairly quickly, passed on our suggestions to IT and reinstated our reply rating. I have not experienced such prompt replies with other sites, so I do appreciate that. Original review: We have enjoyed several sits through this website where both parties have understood the exchange well and… Read more ·  1

enjoyed the shared benefits of house sitting. I feel the community on Aussie House Sitters is better than other sites, as we've had a great run on here. We've been full-time house-sitting for 18 months now; as people without the bank of mum and dad, it's been great to help save for a house deposit.

However, my main gripe with this site is that on our profile we mention minimum periods for sits, but we'll have people disregard our profile and contact us with shorter periods. For example, I had one recently, and he obviously hadn't read our profile, I looked at it and saw it was a short sit and forgot to reply, so our reply rating dropped. However, UX-wise, the reply rating looks too similar to a review rating- so I don't like that. I'd like to be able to restrict messages based on the duration of the sit, so we don't have to reply to people who haven't read our profile. Many people like the shorter sits, it's great for visiting/holiday but we use it as a renting alternative, so I feel our contingent needs this feature to keep everyone happy.

I’m always recommending Aussie House Sitters to everyone. It is a fantastic site for both house sitting and house owners. Have now been using them for 3 years looking after my 2 cats (as owner) and cannot recommend them highly enough. Each sitter that I have engaged has been truly wonderful. Don't know what I would do without their great service.

Thanks aussie Housesitters – We have used Aussie Housesitters to find Sits for the past 3 years - the site is very easy to use and we have had a number of great Sits - around Bayside, Melbourne at Christmas time - we love the blind review system. if you need admin help the Site provides back up. We live in the UK, but visit Australia to see family each year. I read a negative… Read more

review, which spurred me on to write this - I can highly recommend and rejoin each year. Thank you Aussie Housesitters

Great, easy to use website – We've been using Aussie House Sitters to find house sits for almost 6 months now and their sister site Kiwi House Sitters for well over a year and we have nothing but good things to say about Aussie House Sitters. The website works really well for finding house sits and many of our sits have come from home owners who have messaged us directly… Read more

because they liked the look of our profile so the sit itself was never advertised. The review process is quick and easy so we've built up a number of excellent reviews which raises our profile, shows home owners what they can expect from us and ultimately helps us to secure more sits. We're currently booked out and have to turn home owners away. Overall a great experience and we would highly recommend registering with Aussie House Sitters.

My first booking with a house sitter, I came home to find my house in a dirty state, things broken and missing. Every item of food in the house was gone, storage jars emptied, cleaning products gone, not even a toilet roll left. And $200 I left in case of emergencies was taken without any account for how it was spent. The sitter left before I… Read more

arrived home and took my house keys with her. This sitter had excellent references and in person seemed trustworthy. I mistakenly thought all the sitters on this site were checked and I was safe to leave my house and dog in the sitters care. How wrong I was ! Never again, I'd advise everyone to be extremely careful using this site.

Snap decision on my part to subscribe for this. There should be a cooling off period built into it. Instead, BANG, welcome, you’re in! I don’t really want to housesit now, so now I’m down nearly $100. I know readers will think it was my own fault. Just seems a lot of money if one doesn’t use it.

Listed our house as available from 31/8/2025 including the care of our four pets. First contact seemed great, but over time, became late in responding to our contacts, turned up late on the two occasions she came to the house and then finally sent us a message that she couldn't do it. We then received contact from a person who told us that her… Read more

clients had decided to come back early and that our situation was perfect for her. Very gushy, and agreed to visit us yesterday in person before taking several hours to respond to a message asking if she could come and have a look at the house and pets. Went so far as to book a time, and then just before 7pm last night, she too cancelled. We have now lost payment for our holidays and I could not be more dissatisfied with Aussie House Sitters, who wiped their hands and said there was nothing they could do.

We've had 17 house sits over 10 years and couldn't have been happier with the service. We have always had courteous prompt communications from interested sitters. We value the way the site is run, it works both ways, reviews for sitters and home owners, references and police checks are easily accessed via the site, communication is always… Read more

prompt. Could not recommend more highly. We will continue to use this service. Other pet sitter services do not seem anywhere near as reliable so good on you Aussie House Sitters for providing a consistent, reliable platform.

Don't use shona – We had a lady name Shona on the Gold coast look after our house. She had a party there with people that were not permitted on the premises and was supposed to look after our dog,passer by found it out on the road with gate wide open. She covered the cameras to hide a deceitful actions and it goes on and on be very wary of people on this site. I… Read more

doubt they will even publish our review under her name on the website because it will be bad for business, I encourage you to check if she has any negative review on there and if no negative reviews then they haven't published it so beware.

Enjoyable housesitting – I found this site easy to use. I have done several house sits and the info given was relevant and helpful particularly regarding the animals I cared for. Have enjoyed all my sits for Aussiehousesitters and would recommend.

Excellent Website for Seeking and Finding House Sitters – Found this to be an extremely useful way to advertise for House Sitters. Via this agency we were able to attract and vet potential candidates and were delighted with the final outcome. Top marks for being such an easy-to-operate online system.

I can relax knowing that Aussie House Sitters have comprehensive profiles making my choice of sitters easy – I find the Aussie House Sitting site an excellent resource, we have used it a number of times. The profiles of sitters is clear and closely monitored by potential sitters, which I find absolutely great because I can organise dates easily. The sitters all have their histories clearly set out. The uploading of an add is very user friendly. I get an… Read more

alert when something new is posted. I often recommend Aussie House sitters to friends who are going away. Well done Aussie House Sitters.

Good reliable sit for longer sits – Reliable and stable petsitting site that we regularly use, it seems to be better for longer sits. While we would love them to build an app as it would improve usability, we are generally happy with the service. On the few occasions we needed help with something they were extremely responsive and personable.

An amazing experience – A fantastic service. We have used the site regularly over two years in NZ and Australia to organise housesits (as sitters). A very rewarding and humanizing experience - meeting great people and their amazing pets. The site administrators have also been quick to respond to queries and work hard to make it all work. Highly recommended.

Easy to Find, Easy to Use – I love Aussie House Sitters because they make it easy during each step of a house-sitting project, from finding and contacting a client, to communicating with the client before during and after the project. I love that the client gets a template and guidance on what to tell me, the house sitter. Good communication is a key to a successful house… Read more

sit and Aussie House Sitters make this easy and effective. I also love that I can find house sits wherever I go - which in my case is primarily Canberra and Perth, but also other areas of Australia.

Aussie House Sitters for Excellence – I truly cannot speak too highly of Aussie House Sitters and the service they offer. Also I can confirm other members of my family have used them and have the same very high opinion. Its all so EASY; lovely to use website; the people we have had sitting have absolutely lived up to their profiles, (clean, caring, non-smoking, good with animals).… Read more

The house has been spotless and tidy, animal/s healthy and, in the case of the various cats over the years, quite disinterested in our return, which says to me they have been thoroughly spoilt and indulged during our absence.

Eight out of eight is not just good luck – Nothing ever satisfies my wife. We travel a lot and have two revolting little dogs. After paying a number of different people to look after the house, and we came across Aussie House Sitters. It was a wonderful discovery. We would happily have any one of the sitters back but they've always been booked out. We've used them eight times. We always… Read more

interview potential sitters and know what we need from them. Usually we have a short list within a couple of days of advertising. On one occasion we had to cancel a trip only days before departure due to emergency surgery. Our chosen sitter was very gracious. I give AHS 6 stars I never need to look anywhere else for a housesitter. Even more importantly MY WIFE IS SATISFIED!

Great experiences with Aussie House Sitters – I've been with Aussie House Sitters for just over 2 years and would have done around 30 sits in that time. I can honestly say I have had only good experiences with the housesits I've accepted through this platform. The Aussie House Sitter team are very professional and provide assistance equally for sitters and owners to ensure a smooth and… Read more

successful sitting arrangement. They have a wealth of information available on their website and the platform itself is easy to use. I highly recommend Aussie House Sitters.

unable to contact – Unable to contact aussie house sitters !! i do have an important problem , have been trying for a week now to hear from them ...but nothing ! no answer.

I rely on AH Sitters for competent and worthy sitters – I have used the AHS site for about 6 years, approx once per year. We have had a range of sitters including young people to older people, backpackers to singles couples and a family. Maybe we have been somewhay lucky but all our sitters have been lovely reliable people that have treated our home and pets with the utmost care and love. We welcome… Read more

our sitters and ask them to dine with us the evening before we depart. We believe this invitation helps ease the change over and assists in them in adapting to our property and functions. Everyone loves our puppies say how much they will miss them. I hold AHS in high regard with their system and process and will continue to use this service in future. Feel free to contact me if you need to confirm my review. Trevor Sargent Busselton WA 0400 803 554