@Marion I don’t think people want “real estate” worthy photos because we want to see what the house will look like when we arrive. Realistic. However, good lighting is important and a photo of all the spaces a sitter will have access to.
And as you may have read, many sitters won’t even apply if there aren’t enough photos and I feel that especially since there is a 5 application cap, it is wasteful of both the HO and sitters time to use up one of 5 applications just to ask (and wait for) additional photos.
I have never heard of a THS/real estate scheme. What kind of scheme is this? Have you or someone you know experienced this?
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Just to play devils advocate, we’ve had sits with incredible photos that are underwhelming on arrival. We’ve had sits with very average photos that are a nice surprise. Beautiful photos don’t mean beautiful sits and vice versa. Whilst imagery is useful it’s only part of the puzzle as @Maggie8K says. We definitely want the pets, living space, bedroom and bathroom in the listing but it’s often other things that win us over and secure the deal in the end. That said. Yes please to as many photos as possible 
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Agreed - what we really hope for are very realistic photos of what the place will look like when we arrive. That’s the goal. Realistic expectations for everyone is the best recipe for a good match with a win-win arrangement.
All the living spaces are important, everything you mention and the kitchen too.
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I understand sitters want to see realistic house photos. What I’m suggesting is this: Imagine a well kept, but not especially fancy house. One the owners take pride in and do as much as they can to maintain. Now, they have to take photos. They can’t get the lighting right. Suddenly the new shelves just look cheap. It becomes stressful.
All I’m suggesting is not having photos may not be something the HOs are doing to mislead. Or there could be another reason. But the if a sitter is interested the sitter should apply, and if it gets to the point of a video chat, the sitter should let the HO know that they’d like to see more of the house.
We also sat for a very fancy house once @Marion where they’d omitted the sauna, the large jacuzzi, the palatial en-suite guest wing and the well stocked gentlemen’s bar. All entirely on purpose so that sitters chose them because of the pooches and not all the fancy stuff….It was a very nice surprise I can tell you 
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@Cuttlefish We’ve had that kind of pleasant surprise too!! It certainly makes up for the other type of ‘surprise’! 
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But didn’t you say you had five applications in three minutes? How is it possible for them to have read your profile and crafted a response in that time? I just read your profile, and I would love to sit for you. But I don’t think I’ll ever have the opportunity to even be considered. As someone who lives in the US with a six hour time difference, it’s highly unlikely.
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@carpediem16 I find that the HO profile/ listing is a very good indication of whether an HO understands their role in the exchange: a clean, tidy home and homestay experience.
If there aren’t loads of photos of an immaculate house, a good description of the area incl. transport/ shops etc, and an adequately described routine of healthy, unmedicated pet(s), I don’t even consider it.
Everyone figures out their own criteria for THS, however I’m finding that the really good homestay experiences with incredible HOs are sadly becoming fewer and far between, so I’m using airbnb, flatio, spotahome and idealista more and more now.
That said, I’m currently on a 5-week London sit with the most extraordinary hosts. The cleaner comes twice a week, the dog walker every Thursday, and they included their brand new Kia UV6 car, too. This is the type of sit I’ve always done, and the reason I’ve stayed with THS for so long - I have the most amazing holidays, mostly, with only 6 average/ 2 awful experiences out of 19 THS holidays.
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That’s one of the reasons I haven’t returned to European sits. I live in California. In order to be one of the first 5 for a European sit I’d have to stay up all night for the opportunity to see one I want and to be one of the first 5. It’s changed the way I use the site. It will be by sheer luck if I get one several time zones away again. Fortunately I live in a beautiful place and in my own comfy home so I’m not dependent on sits for a place to stay. I’ll wait it out.
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As a home/pet owner, I have to say that we have a very thorough, detailed profile with lots of photos of our clean, tidy, nicely furnished home and our two awesome pets. I have a very detailed welcome guide as well. I can’t imagine not having it so because I want great sitters to apply. I concur with the other sitters that I was never notified by THS about profile updates and only discovered them by accident when I edited my profile, which I do for each and every sit. Not only do I change the headline for each sit that I post but I also make regular updates to the smallest changes in our pets care or issues regarding the house. In an ideal world, all HOs would do so without prompting but clearly that isn’t the case.
As a sitter, I notice tons of HO profiles that clearly don’t update their profile at all because their headline clearly reflects a previously listed sit (referencing the season or dates or animals that no longer exist). To me that is the first indicator that the profile isn’t necessarily reflective of the current situation at the house and I am immediately leery. I would never apply to a sit without a profile comparable to my own. I can afford a nice hotel or vacation apartment rental so if I am going to stay at someone’s house and care for their pets I want to know what I’m getting into. Yes, THS could do better but there is comfort in knowing that the HO takes their profile and sitter search seriously enough to maintain their profile without being told to do so.
P.S. About the 5 app rule 
I live in Germany and post my listing in the evening in Europe, morning in the US. I have listed five sits and except for a re-listing of our Christmas/NYE sit in October I have always gotten five apps within a couple days but never within 5 minutes or even within an hour or two. Three of our five sitters were/are from US/Canada. However, there have been times when I am literally staring at my phone when the notif pops up for a listing that I have saved (a region and time frame) and I immediately click it and there are already 2-3 applicants. How is that even possible?! It seems like something is glitchy with the system but we’ll never know.
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@FrauSheri The notifications come through hourly ( not immediately as advertised) .
My notifications always seem to come at 15mins past each hour ( not sure if this is same time for everyone )
So if a listing goes live at 19:20 and for me the notification alert comes at 15mins past each hour … I won’t be notified until 20:15.
Anyone doing their own search for that location during those 55mins will have seen the listing before me and been able to apply.
Also anyone who has previously saved that specific house- sit as a favourite 
will get an immediate notification . So they can see and apply before I have been alerted of a new listing in the area I have saved .
Despite this frustration with notifications not actually being instant as advertised. I am still happy overall with the quality and number of sits that I am able to apply for on THS. I am mostly looking for U.K. sits which are plentiful.
Thanks for the excellent explanation!
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When did number of Australian states go down from 6 to 5? I missed that. Which one? Did Tasmania float down to the Antartic?
@Katita you are quite right there, good pickup, definitely six states 
But with the amount of rain and flooding we have here at present, I fear the entire country just may float on over to Chile 
Please send rain!
(Hope that means Oz is safe from bushfires?)
@Katita you are MORE than welcome to some of this rain, they are actually going to open the floodgates in the dams as flooding has begun. Definitely means Oz is safe from bushfires at present, now its floods. It reminds me of a poem about Australia from Dorothea McKellar and a paragraph is…I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of ragged mountain ranges, of drought and flooding rains…" Definitely is a diverse country with both drought and floods. 
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Thank you for the extra info @ziggy, and @Katita if we can kindly keep to topic, this would be appreciated.
There are so many replies that I am not sure if I have already made a comment. BUT… We have had to provide photos of every room and although I had done this before the system wouldnt let me move on to list my home until I added more. So you have photos of my kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom and guest bedroom, plus several external photos showing the house and garden and the pets plus one of me and my partner. Not sure how people are listing on THS without the required amount of photos.
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@frenchlife
Because anyone who joined before these photos were required (and there are hundreds of them) are able to continue listing their sits (home/pets) without adding photos. They are SUPPOSED to abide by the new rule but no one is checking unless they are reported.
Hello @carpediem16 I know that this has been raised before but that is a valid point so I have shared this internally again. Thank you 