To me, it's the timing and time frame. You guys were offering 7 months, which is actually pretty good as a short term rental for people who need a few months or more between places. I'm also assuming you had thosffwe up more than a couple of weeks in advance. The guy that posted this is correct: there really might be someone out there that this works for. But this house sitting position was offered only two weeks in advance for only a few weeks. To me, it came off as they needed an emergency favor and wanted someone to pay to grant the favor. I'm still not sure how I feel about pets. House and garden care seems obvious because those are part of the their short-term home: they'll want to keep that up for their own sake. But the pets aren't theirs. You might be able to negotiate that in, sure. But let responsibility is a weird thing to put on someone. They're your pets, not part of the house.