I chat about having been away petsitting and they ask how it works. I explain Trusted House sitters, and why I do it (to visit distant relatives and explore new parts of the UK, as well as liking the animal side) and I see their eyes light up. I quickly add ‘of course, I don’t do local sits as what would be the point, ha ha’.
But no, they’re fixed on the idea of a free pet-sitter, then get offended when I don’t jump at their invitation to look after their pets for nothing two miles away from my own perfectly nice home. I suggest they join the site, oh no they don’t want to do that.
It’s happened to me twice recently and I find it pretty irritating. Not really friends, but people I know. I can almost hear the ker-ching sound in their brains
Yes it has happened to me frequently even with people I don’t really know, but I am just passing conversation with. On my first ever sit the neighbours came round and said would I mind feeding their cat as they were going away for the weekend and they would cook supper in return. I was a bit stunned but agreed. During the meal they asked if I could look after the cat and dog later in the year I quickly declined and said why didn’t they join TH but of course they didn’t want to pay the fee.
No, but I’d have fun with it if they did. I’d explain that it’s not for money, but for bartering. So I’d want one of their kidneys and I’d get to pick which one.
One time, a really nosy neighbour on a sit we did would somehow always bump into us on the street and kept trying to ask if we could pet sit for her in the future, thinking we were just free local sitters
Kept trying to get our contact details and was rather pushy and annoying, and would also gossip about other neighbours to us… like… okay lady, that’s nice, cya!
Then again, there have been lots of people (often shop owners/check out clerks) who ask what we’re doing, and when we explain THS they’re amazed of our lifestyle and note down the site because they’re really interested!
We have occasionally done sits for friends and colleagues and found the standards of home preparation, cleanliness, and communication are so lacking when compared with THS sits that we have decided to entirely turn down these requests in the future. The only thing we will do is host a dog at our own home when close friends or family travel. We even be sure to be politely “not available “ when prior THS members reach out with a sitting request because the membership benefits, such as liability insurance and vet advice, would not apply to those sits any longer.
We would not want to Sit in our home town, so I completely understand what you are saying! While we are sitting far away from our home, we are constantly having conversations with people about THS and finally had the business card printed with our contact information.
We have done several Sits off the platform, just through word of mouth, and overall, they have been fine. It’s all about communication.
A few things that I mention right away are:
We do not generally do Sits of less than 7 nights, since we like to leave the home clean and laundry done. Just not worth it for a weekend stay.
The home needs to be very clean on arrival. Sorry but we have fairly high standards! And it will be just as clean when you get back from your vacation.
We are completely booked through January 2025 but might consider dates after that.
Definitely gets the wheels turning in people’s heads. What? We could get these people to dog sit for “free”? Wow!
I did a free sit for a friend of mine a couple of years ago. It was at her cottage in a holiday resort with lots of amenities which I enjoyed so I felt it was a fair trade off as it would have cost me a fair bit to stay there.
We do sit locally because we’re in the process of a self build and have been asked by various neighbours if we’d sit for them or just feed and walk their ‘extremely easy’ dog for free. When we’ve tried to explain the THS process and offered the discount code they’ve resisted because it’s too expensive or too many rules or they don’t want strangers in their home . We say we exclusively sit through THS because of the insurance which isn’t strictly true but has managed to weed out those people who don’t understand the reciprocal nature of the site.
Yes, I have had people in this area ask me if I wouldn’t love to come over and stay with their dog, or their neighbor’s dog, or their cousin’s gecko. I am starting to think I should say, “Sure, you can join THS and here’s a discount code, or I’ll do it for $100 a night.” That might shorten the conversation.
I had a neighbour wanting me to sit next door. Would much rather stay in my own home without the pet responsibility. I then moved a few miles away and was still contacted to sit. next door to where I used to live. Luckily could give honest excuses that I was away at the time.
I get asked a lot, usually by family and friends; I suggest they sign up to THS but they often state they don’t want strangers in their homes. I’ve never done a sit for them as it doesn’t appeal to me. And they need a longer term solution.
It hasn’t happened to me yet with people not part of THS but we do get invited to a lot of local sits. For me local sits are not appealing as we live in a lovely house in a lovely area. HOs often comment on our lovely life so I find some of the invites a bit bizarre. We choose sits based on holiday type locations & of course lovely pets that suit our preferences & experiences. Fortunately we’ve been so busy it’s been a genuine decline on availability as I don’t quite know how to say politely say we’d never do local sits.
Most of my invites are local too, I do the same and say I can’t do their dates. I suppose from the HO point of view it’s a bit hard to randomly choose another area to start inviting from.
I get asked a lot to do sits for local people that are not part of THS. If I am free and interested in it, I let them know that I will gladly sit for them at a rate of $50 a day. (this is usually the going rate to border pet in our area ) If they have more than one dog that requires more than a couple of walks a day, I will raise that price. Usually they still end up ahead versus what they would pay to board their dog somewhere else. If they are not interested in paying for the services, I also offer to send them a link to get a discount on the THS membership. No skin off my back if they don’t want to pay me for my services.
We haven’t been asked yet but if anyone in the future asks, then I will say “we don’t petsit if we already have a place to stay. We only petsit if we can visit a new cool location that we’ve been wanting to visit.”
. We say we exclusively sit through THS because of the insurance which isn’t strictly true but has managed to weed out those people who don’t understand the reciprocal nature of the site.