@LIQ, most of expats go home summer break
Yes, that makes sense. I don’t think I’d fancy a summer in Dubai. 
Me neither. November was bad enough - and I’m used to hot Texas summers.
It’s probably a good time to be a paid housesitter in Dubai, however.
Yes! I’ve noticed them! LOADS! But NONE for Abu Dhabi and I know there are hundreds of UK teachers 
( and teachers from other countries) living in Abu Dhabi who will need someone to house sit their small animals in the summer.
@LTD I am sure they´ll come … in due course 
Schools close for summer on July 2. Plenty of time.
I had a THS conversation last week with a teacher in Dubai. She admitted frustration in not being bale to pinpoint her flat correctly as in Jumeirah Village Complex. Instead the THS algorithm would accept only Emirates Hills which is a bit of a distance away.
1 Like
I might be the only sitter holding out for a teacher in … Kuwait to post a sit!
@Vanessa_A @anon47943759 Have picked this up and will seek clarification from the wider team
1 Like
@Dave_and_Becky I think it’s fine to put your location as the next village and then mention in your listing the name of your actual village. I’ve seen other listings where this has been done.
There is definitely scope for confusion where a villages shares its name with another place. I have a saved search for Gloucestershire, and a housesit keeps appearing that says Shropshire in the title. I assume this is because there is a village of the same name in Gloucestershire.
I’ve also noticed an inaccuracy in the locations of sitters as well in the area where I live. If a homeowner is looking for sitters in the Fraser Valley which is where I used to live, sitters in North Vancouver show up. The Fraser Valley and North Vancouver are about a 1.5 hour drive away - one area being East of Vancouver and the other area being West.
Princess Bride reference anyone ?
I just saw a sit that says “Come visit XXXXX!”
Cool … Except that city is over 2 hours away from their house, so it is kind of misleading.
Or is it?
It is bad for Washington DC too. HO posts as Washington DC but is really in McLean VA or Rockville MD. Also, a friend posted their home in North Potomac MD and it kept showing up as Washington DC. Annoying.
I strongly believe that your actual physical location should be as accurate as possible. You should never place your home in another village/town/city. In your banner title, you could say “San Francisco Bay Area” or “Near London” but the town under your profile photo and the mapping should always place your home where you actually live. How are sitters supposed to search and make decisions without accurate information?
1 Like
I completely agree that the location should be as accurate as possible.
What if your village isn’t recognised by the mapping software? Or worse, incorrectly mapped as being in a village (or even a country) of the same name hundreds of miles away? Surely then, giving the location of the nearest village that the mapping software can correctly pinpoint would be a sensible solution. Having the location marker a couple of miles from the true location is better than it being in a completely different county or even country.
1 Like
It may be because the form for HO asks for your nearest town. Our nearest town is 5 miles away. Our postal address town is 9 miles away and is in another County.
2 Likes
Of course, in rural areas or where mapping is not accurate, we need to figure out solutions. I am referring to those Owners who seem to be purposefully misleading the Sitters! I have seen many listings in the San Francisco Bay Area listed as IN the city of San Francisco when the true location is another nearby large city, for example, Oakland, which is across a large body of water, across a bridge with a toll. Please, please, please, be honest! It’s not difficult.
1 Like
Well spotted.
(They’re in Chattanooga which is a big enough city to “count” and plenty of people post as Chattanooga, but they’re saying they’re in Nashville.)
I notice they pick the cooler/nicer town – latest examples I’ve seen: Sedona when it is either the VOC or Cornville, Boulder when it’s Broomfield, Jensen Beach when it’s 15 miles inland in Port St. Lucie.
Just came across two sittings with very generic, vague or even misleading descriptions of their home location.
One is in a neighborhood 20 minutes away by bus/tram from city center. The owner mentions only the positives. After doing some investigative work, I found out they live in a neighborhood not known for safety. The sitters’ “glowing” reviews make no mention of this (as expected).
The other one is a small town far away from the city center but the owner says you can be in the capital by train in less than 1 hour. I checked the train routes and found out there’s no direct train to the capital from the small town. A detour is required and the train journey to the capital takes at least 1 hour 20 minutes.
I do not know why the owners are not honest about these facts. I know you want to sell your sitting but isn’t it a waste of time on both sides when I find out where they live and decide not to do the job? It’s much better to lay out all the facts in the first place.
I understand that owners care about privacy, but at least tell sitters which neighborhood they are in so they have a vague idea of where they will be based.
BTW, I hope THS allows sitters to contact/message each other so we can ask about their previous sitting experiences. I do not know why this isn’t even an option.
Admin Notice: Post Moderated
1 Like