It seems all sits have low applications. We’ve never had this before and have had applications within 24 hours. It now seems that’s not the case. Is Trusted House Sitters losing it’s lustre?
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It’s been happening, because they’ve been attracting hosts faster than sitters, which is hard to control. And generally, while hosts obviously benefit from free sitting, there are limited numbers of people who want to sit pets voluntarily. Like I’ve been able to refer some folks to sign up as hosts, but no one I know has joined to sit.
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Quite a few experienced sitters have left/leaving due to the introduction of booking fees for each and every sit.
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Also this is the time of year when the ratio sitters/listings is the lowest
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It could also be because of your location. If you’re in the US (or Canada actually) sitters like me (European) are reluctant to sit there due to enhanced border controls/the volatile political situation re the above.
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Not true. Members have no way of knowing if a significant number of members left, why they left or if they’re going to leave.
In fact the new booking fees aren’t even in effect yet and any attrition of members due to this fee will be gradual and if they occur at all will only happen when memberships are due for renewal.
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That’s incorrect, not all sits have low applications, it depends on where you are. If you’re in the US, then you have less sitters and tourists travelling into the US to the way things are now.
But if you’re in a different country, weighing it up just prior to Christmas when people are preoccupied isn’t the right time to judge anything, you’ll get misleading results.
Also some owners advertise their Dec/Jan trips too late meaning long-standing sitters are already booked up, so they naturally have a lower number of applications in the winter months.
Also, in my area (UK) over the winter months there aren’t as many owners that take 1 week/2 week+ trips, which is what I prefer, over 3-4 days. It’s simply because travelling in potentially bad weather isn’t the greatest, so when it’s just 3-4 days a sit is less appealing from my own perspective.
THS may be losing it’s lustre with some, but not with me, although I wish they’d delivered the information about the recent rule changes in a better way for the benefit of other sitters. It’s still far better than other sites in my personal opinion, online reviews of all the companies seem to indicate that too.
The additional fee’s don’t affect anyone until their renewal date. I don’t think that would have had chance to affect anything as yet, I think most will just be side tracked with Christmas and family right now.
Our renewal date is Nov 2030 so nothing changes until then for us, but we’ve just upgraded to premium anyway, because we had already been considering it, but we didn’t have to do anything for another 5 years.
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Holiday sits especially Christmas are hard to fill. So if you’ve got a holiday sit and you listed late or had a sitter cancel and had to relist, it could be difficult. This year, found Thanksgiving more difficult than it had been previous years as well.
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Would love to see the stats on the HO to sitter ratio. Any maths genius out there who has an idea of how to work it out?
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People travel during the holidays for 2 reasons (generally…)
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to visit family and friends. Often staying with them, so sitters don’t need to find a sit. Or, like me, they want a sit in a very specific area with easy pets that are happy being left during the day. I’m sitting 5 minutes drive from my family’s home for a cat who definitely enjoys some company but is pretty independent (asleep or outside 80% of the time). Many sitters will look for similar this time of year with less flexibility on location/pets than usual. There will inevitably be many sits that don’t match any sitters wants right now.
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To have a winter holiday in a fun touristy area. If you live in a bog standard town then this may not appeal to many sitters right now.
There will be a few sitters who just want to get away without any specific locations in mind. They will have a huge number of sits to choose from so they’ll only apply for the ‘best’ ones.
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@Johnnie1, over recent months then there seem an increasing quantity of THS Forum threads by homeowners that are finding it difficult to attract housesitters. There are unquestionably some macro trends (e.g. US, being half listings) but quite often it can be a result of poor listing quality; unattractive trade; or unreasonable expectations. Suggest that you magnifying glass to search for prior threads. Suggest consider add your THS listing to your THS Forum profile (link below).
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@Maggie8K, if it’s true that THS has attracted more homeowners than sitters (we don’t have that data) then perhaps THS would surely be motivated to attract more housesitters by improving their value proposition. Otherwise the seemingly new homeowners will surely just leave THS after a disappointing experience?
There seem ways - from better pricing (e.g. booking fee only on homeowners; lower housesitter membership) to improved benefits (e.g. enhanced Sit Cancellation Insurance and Accident & Third Party Liability Plan; listing search features … Schengen?; etc) to retention (e.g. benefits after 1, 2, 5 years membership) to marketing (e.g. refer-a-friend higher benefit for referring new housesitter members). Probably plenty more.
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Yep, need the right balance of both. If it’s not working for one side, eventually it doesn’t work for either side.
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I think there are loads of sitters in the UK, I saw a last minute listing which is a cluttered council house but still they had 2 applications. Maybe Christmas and new year time is different, people may have planned ahead or are visiting families.
Exactly this! Whenever I see people saying how difficult it is to fill a sit, my first thought is “what’s your listing like”. An appealing sit will undoubtedly have applicants. I think too often home owners forget that people want at least a somewhat desirable and/or reasonable trade off. First thing is the listing itself. So many times I’ve seen pictures of untidy rooms and spaces, and I simply won’t apply to those even if they are in the most desirable locations. I’d say that it goes both ways – both sitters and homeowners need to go over their profiles/listings with a fine tooth comb, and only then can they ask “why am I not getting applicants/not getting sits” 
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There are various ways that THS could improve. My POV is that it’s not well run.
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@Maggie8K How is it “not well run”?
There are countless threads where users – hosts and sitters – highlight complaints, so maybe read more threads. I don’t want to spend the effort writing a tome.
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Certain sit locations will have no problem getting a full count of applicants - any highly desirable major city, i.e. London, NYC, Paris, Amsterdam, etc and anywhere near those cities. I’m a sitter and what I’m noticing is a sharp decline in the quality of homes, I just saw a couple of listings for sits in what look like 20 year olds’ pads, and both very much in line with what a 20 year old’s pad would look like. There are also a lot of very young and inexperienced sitters joining up so it looks like everything is changing and not for the better. THS is welcoming any and all to join the site, they are very indiscriminating - as long as you can pay for the membership and don’t have a criminal record, you’re in!
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@Maggie8K People complain about everything. A measurement of whether a service works and how it works is how many people actually use it successfully, and the people who complain are just the visible part of the iceberg when people who in fact have many successful sits often stay quiet. Any service and any thing in life, in fact, can be improved. If the service truly was poorly run, I doubt that you or anyone else complaining would continue using it. People love to make such silly generalisations.
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