Is that sit you are referring to in October? Maybe nowadays sitters are holding off committing to something so far in the future? You might get some applicants as the dates get closer.
Some of us just really love cats. That makes us great sitters for cats, not lesser sitters. I work remotely and typically have 4-5 days a week that I donât leave the house at all. I spend many days with a cat curled up in my lap happily purring. There are a lot of HOs with cats who really want experienced cat sitters.
Love having cats on my lap when working on the computer and especially love that warm little body stretched along mine under the covers at bedtime.
I love dogs, but sitting has given me the chance to fall hard for cats. Now, I adore them and have increasingly sat them, because I have a dog of my own and he wouldnât get along with cats. Sitting lets me very happily spend time with them.
Iâm sitting for a friend and her cat is now stretched out next to me in bed, which I love, especially because she started out skittish.
There are few things better in life than a cat purring on your lap 
I totally agree. My membership has not yet expired. I was last week offered a repeat Sit in Germany but had to very sadly decline. My previous experience with the HOs was fantastic - lovely pet, beautiful house, very pretty area, the HOs asked me to arrive a few days early and I was treated exceptionally well by them - an day tour of the area, met their friends and fed! This occasion my air fares from EDI (SCO) - Frankfurt (D) - Hamburg (D) were eEuro545 two travel dates! Plus a two way train fare! I had to sadly decline as the Sit was only for 7 days and not cost effective! I have already frozen my auto-renewal as the additional euro9 fee, although small, is an added expense on expensive air fares. I`m looking at other sites and unlikely to renew with THS. I think the number of Sitters will continue to decline. Yes, I can make Sits in my own country, but part of this is the experience of different countries.
Apologies. I wasnât meaning to imply that there are no sitters who genuinely love and understand cats. Iâm one of the former - and, hope, the latter. Itâs just that Iâve observed a lot of obviously new sitters posting in other forums, looking for sits with cats only. And I do struggle to believe itâs because every one of them has a deep love for cats.. But then, Iâve become a horrible old cynic, over the years.
After emailing in my concerns to THS support regarding this obviously true assessment of one of the issues at hand, i received a reply.
In summary, THS says they monitor the balance closely, theyre actively marketing to get new and experienced sitters globally, and supporting HOs in creating appealing listing.
An observation: when I first signed up as a HO i didnt read ANY of the suggestions & rules about using THS. I simply went though the process of populating the listing s required to get it posted up. It was only after coming to the forum and lurking around that I saw how much refining my written profile was in need of to attract the best sitters. Lucky me, people liked my listing and many favorited it quickly even while it was crappily written (pics were on point from the start), and many people applied.
HmmmâŚif they actively monitor the balance and are marketing for sitters it kind of sounds like an acknowledgement that things are out of balance right now with more HO than sitters.
I think this is complete nonsense, how would they monitor this exactly? They wonât turn any owners away admitting that there arenât enough sitters.
I think the booking fees make THS less attractive to sitters, compared to owners.
I agree and if THS marketing is highlighting the appeal to HOs itâs going to worsen.
THS is never going to turn away any HOs looking to join. That target of 1,000,000 members looms large in THSâs head office I reckon.
I wonder what the sweet spot of the ratio between HOs and sitters is? Anyone any ideas or suggestions? More sitters than HOs?
Hmm. Itâs hard to say because some HO travel often and post sits frequently, maybe 10/yr. Others like me travel a couple of times a year so post only 2 sits/yr. Same with sitters, some are full time, others only once or twice a year, or somewhere in between.
That could be. On that note, the last few times I was in Australia (Iâm a dual citizen), I noticed far fewer UK immigrants and working holidayers than when I was a young traveler and then immigrant.
@Felinelover And the marketing email I am receiving is going straight into my Trash as I am not interested. I hope this isnât what the booking fee is being used for.
Iâm getting tired of people complaining about the THS fees. You know, sometimes CEOs or CFOs need their pools or saunas serviced on their yachts. These fees help pay for that, so, be considerate.
I know youâre trying to be sarcastic but in fact this is true, if not incomplete. Wealthy corporate CEOs (and anyone else whose job starts with a âCâ have expenses most of us do not have, and the money for those bills has to come from somewhere. It goes far beyond pools or yacht saunas. Weâre talking maintenance on private jets, college educations at top end Universities, pilots for the helicopters who are specially trained to land on a pad at the top of a large boat, multiple huge properties in expensive areas that are hardly ever used, butlers, maids, bodyguards, etc.
Rather than be envious, we need to be respectful of their accomplishments and their ability to handle their finances and work the system in such a way that they are in the top 1%.
Perhaps Cat-ophileâs point is that THSâs sole aim since being bought by PE investors is maximising profits so it can be sold on and thatâs incompatible with why many signed up in the first place.
âTrusted House Sitters justified the introduction of a ÂŁ9/$12 per-sit booking fee by stating it helps fund operational services behind each sit, encourages commitment to minimize cancellations, and allows membership fees to remain focused purely on platform maintenance.â
If there is an increase in unfulfilled sits my best guess is that there has been a greater increase in hosts and not so much sitters.
This is such an odd statement. Theyâve made cancelling a sit much easier with the new drop down box, as well as access for both sitters and hosts to do it. Plus they refund the booking fee if someone cancels on either side so not sure how it âencourages commitment to minimise cancellationsâ? Surely it will have the opposite impact? #puzzling
For me personally as a sitter with THS for a number of years now and 29 sits behind me Iâve paused applying for lots of sits mainly (and I can only speak about the UK) the increasing cost of flights and the ability for many UK based airlines to cancel flights within weeks of departure. Throw in the number of world events happening right now. This doesnât effect me as I work for myself but unemployment numbers are going through the roof with another national chain going bust seemly daily.
Lastly I donât agree with the new booking fees but happy to pay if a suitable sit is available but I know many non premium members are not wanting or willing to pay the booking fee.
The forum helped me too in that regard. I added a few more things to our listing as a result of some of the posts I read.