Sitting with roommates/family home
I need opinions.
I'm an experienced vet tech and pet sitter of more than 20 years.
I do mostly overnight sits, and medical cases/senior pets.
Recently I had a good client of mine that I've known for a very long time, book a 10 day sit.
They book me fairly regularly probably four or five times a year for 7 to 10 day stays at a stretch.
They have two dogs and a cat.
They live in a three-story house that has an elevator down to the first floor. They're large breed dog had surgery not long ago and so we have to take the elevator up and down to go out, period. She cannot use the stairs at this time. (This is important)
This past visit they booked me for a 10-day stay, and on the day that they left the client reached out to me tell me that they're college aged son in his twenties might be coming home that week. And not to worry if a strange man I didn't know was in the house.
This was an immediately uncomfortable situation for me, as I did not feel that I was given an option to turn down the set as it was introduced last minute.
I reluctantly told the client I understood and I would keep that in mind.
She also told me she would be canceling the booking she had for later in the month which was a $600 booking, since her son would be home her husband told her he could handle the situation..
Normally I would charge a cancellation fee, but I swallowed my annoyance and let it go since it was 2 weeks in advance.
When I let my fiance and my daughter know the situation they were both immediately uncomfortable as well.
I tried to brush it off and continued my visit as usual.
3 days before the visit was due to end I received another text from the client to let me know that her son was there in the house, so don't be alarmed.
This is where the elevator comes into play again.
The ground floor of the house was enclosed to create a living space / apartment for her son.
In order to take the elevator to the ground floor it opens out into the sons living room.
So in order to let the dogs out whether it's in the backyard or to take them out front for a walk, I have to pass directly through his living space.
When I got home I could not access the elevator, as he had not closed the exterior doors which will trigger an alarm and not allow it to come up to the second floor. I left the dogs took the auxiliary staircase down to the first floor knocked on his "apartment", introduced myself and politely requested that he closed the door so I can bring the dogs down.
He was friendly enough and apologized and went to rectify the situation so that I could go back upstairs and bring the critters down to let them out.
He also told me that he would be having friends over shortly just so I was aware. Now I have several 20 something year old men that I don't know hanging out in the apartment that I have to pass through to let the dogs out multiple times.
Now I'm uncomfortable walking around in my pajamas slash without a bra on etc. I feel like I have to be looking over my shoulder and I am one thin door and a cheap lock away from half a dozen guys that I don't know.
Yes, I could be overreacting.
Didn't matter I still feel weird about the situation. Mostly because again I wasn't given the option to just turn it down as it was a last minute.
This continued for 2 days me having to pass through the living space with two or three dudes half passed out on the sofa with no shirts on etc.
I texted Mom 24 hours before the sit was scheduled to end, partly because I was uncomfortable and partly because my own animals were having a medical issue that I needed to return to.
I kept things very brief and polite, told her the dogs had done very well there had been no problems everyone had gotten their medication and since her son was home I was going to turn over the animals care to him, and that I would talk to her next time.
She responded rather shortly, simply saying that I shouldn't rush out of the house because her son was there as he was "aware I would be taking care of the dogs", and I wasn't in his way.
Me being in his way was not my concern.
She did not say anything about extra 24 hours charge, to which I simply would have responded I did not charge you a cancellation fee for your booking which would have been 20% of the invoice as is.
So my question is am I the asshole in the situation? I don't leave since early, ever, however something about it just did not rub me right.
Edit: Clarifying a few things. When I reached out to this client I did so the evening before they were due to come home, so at most it was 16 hours her son was in charge. When I did so, I was very polite, asking if she had a nice time, and explaining that my own dog whom she knows well was having a flare up (she is on auto immune drugs) and that since "son" was home and settled I would get out of his hair if she had no objections. She didn't protest at that, simply said "son" was fine, he knew I would be there. I may have misread her tone as short simply because I personally was upset at the situation. (She did like several of my social media posts after, so perhaps in retrospect she was not as irritated as I was) I considered adding the fee for the last day back on her account but did not since she canceled her booking on short notice. Someone below asked what sort of pajamas I wear which I thought was an odd question, as I'm not parading around in lingerie, but I'm top heavy and even in regular pj's if I don't wear a bra it's fairly noticeable. A problem when I have to put on a sweatshirt to make it through a crowd of rowdy 20 year olds to make it outside just to stand in 90 degree weather. Going forward I will def bring up the insurance coverage and make a point to be firm on that stance. It was an awkward position to be in since she notified me as they were en route to the cruise ship and I felt I had no recourse but to show up.