After several years of being a member of TrustedHousesitters I am seriously considering not renewing my subscription. I have had lovely people to house and pet sit particularly before Covid.
Now it appears to be young people looking for a place to stay and not always interested in the animals.
My home is comfortable not luxurious or a hotel.
I do not have a car a sitter can use.
I do not expect a sitter to clean only the essentials.
However I live in a lovely part of the UK.
Everywhere in town walkable.
Good transport links.
I explain everything on my profile honestly and I am welcoming and flexible with good communication.
I will not say more except to say that the original purpose of TrustedHousesitters has changed and not for the good. Liz
Maybe share your listing in your profile? I think it’s challenging for hosts, with so many competing sits in the U.K.
Personally, I love doing sits there, even though I have to fly in as an American. I’m just coming up on a year with THS and will be doing my 12th sit soon. In the past year, I’ve done sits outside of Cambridge, in London, in Stratford-upon-Avon, plus in Glasgow. And I’ve agreed to a repeat U.K. sit for later this year, to which I’ll be considering adding another sit and/or nonsit travel.
I don’t think young folks should automatically be dinged, but of course, we want to see sitters who care about pets, no matter what age the people.
That’s a shame. I can only speak for my wife and myself but we don’t fit into that category yet we are having an amazing time. While I can see how the pool of sitters may now include those who don’t reflect the original ethos I’m sure there are many who do. It just makes your job of selection a tad more difficult.
A comfortable clean well located home in a walkable town sounds just lovely.
Members here are always happy to give feedback to make your listing more attractive to the sitters you want. You’d have to link it to your profile here.
The 5 applicant rule makes things a bit challenging. But I can assure you that there are many sitters here who have their own homes and are not just looking for a place to stay. There are people like me, early to retire and like to experience different places with the company of animals instead of other humans. There are digital nomads who wish to change places while they work from home. Etc. Keep trying!
My daughter and her boyfriend spent inordinate amounts of time and money on their rabbit. Don’t assume that young people would care less about animals.
As a young person sitting I think I’m doing it for the right reasons. Yes to travel and have somewhere to stay but also viewing it as an exchange where my part is to provide really good care to the pets I look after. In return I get to experience new places. It wouldn’t work if I didn’t like animals.
Maybe leave for a paid service or just keep declining people and opening for new applications. Check the reviews of the people who apply to get a sense of their motivations and how they are as sitters. I’m sure you get people of all ages who are in it for the wrong reasons. It feels like with this advertising push, reviews are more important than ever
Im not assuming anything just speaking from experience
I don’t assume about young people just about my recent experience.
You are generalizing from experience.
And often generalizations are from bias.
I’ve done all that you have suggested. There are others on the site who share my opinion. Like I said after many years and having lovely sitters I have noticed a change in applications
You could try writing “looking for mature sitters only” in the first line of your ad. If I see that I move on past and don’t apply. Other younger people might do the same.
Edit to add: no need to go into your reasoning in the advert, it’s similar to the couples vs solo sitters question. It’s your home and at the end of the day it’s totally up to you who you have stay in it. Unless you’re already very upfront and still get applications from people you’ve asked not to in which case I have no solution!
Absolutely not. You are assuming now.
Sounds like your mind is made up. In that case, best wishes with your pets and goodbye.
@Gwenvilla What does “I do not expect a sitter to clean only the essentials” mean?
I agree with the other advice keep trying. I will say I have heard from many owners exactly what you say about people in it for the wrong reasons particularly young people.
@Gwenvilla sorry to hear you are considering leaving THS. I can see from your other posts on the forum that you have had a few bad experiences with sitters / applicants in the past year so I can understand why you feel this way. It does make me sad to think to someone who is probably a lovely homeowner with sweet pets leave because of bad experiences with sitters. There are still lots of good sitters out there. It’s bad luck that they haven’t found you recently.
I think @Junipers suggestion about adding that you are looking for mature sitters is a good one. @Junipers I love that as a younger sitter you have provided such good and helpful suggestions without judgement. A great example of someone sitting for all the right reasons and providing support to other members.
@Gwenvilla You seem like a very good host who has reasonable expectations and honors the spirit of the exchange network, so it would be sad to see you leave. It may help to say that you are “looking for mature, responsible sitters who have at least ?# of reviews or references. “ Being mature and responsible are traits that are not always tied to age, and you can probe into problematic areas during your video interviews. Also, you can quickly decline and thank anyone who does not meet your requirements and get more applicants. Unfortunately, this is more work for you, since you will have to manually unpause your listing if it fills up quickly. Here is the information for how to add your listing to your profile, so others may help you fine-tune it to perhaps attract the type of sitters who you are seeking. Good luck, regardless of what you decide.
How to add a listing or profile link to your FORUM profile
I am still finding great sitters, but I do have to do more filtering.
I’ve had a few of those - and they arent necessarily all that young! Fortunately I’ve always found a way to decline politely, indicating that they or we werent a good fit.
I think THS is a mixed blessing. I think the concept is amazing and there clearly are many great sitters (speaking as a home-owner). I also realise I only need a sitter for a few nights for my membership fee to have paid for itself, so I have come to learn that actually if I dont get any suitable applicants then that’s fine, I can use other resources to find a paid sitter. Currently I aim to advertise dates on THS in good time (always as soon as my own plans are made) and if no suitable sitter applies, then I look elsewhere. I do have to judge how long to leave the dates live on THS vs the likelihood of finding a paid sitter.
I have a THS sitter coming in August - she seems great, I’m really looking forward to it and hope she has fun with my pets. Ive just decided to go away for a weekend in March and - for various reasons - I’m looking for a paid sitter for that one.
Hello, just jumping on here as there have been a couple of flagged posts on this topic about age issues or comments about certain groups of people. This happened on another topic recently, so I am just sharing my post again to help remind members of the Forum guidelines.
Everyone has the right to choose who is right for them and have their own opinions, but when using the forum please remember that the forum and platform are open to every demographic and it can be easy to make assumptions or stereotype certain groups of people, whether it’s by age, job type etc which might not be a true reflection of that person or group.
So just a reminder of our guidelines for this topic or when using the forum in general:
This is our safe place
Any form of prejudice is not permitted. We must all feel safe. Negative comments about race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, age, gender or identity will not be tolerated.
My DM’s are always open if anyone has any questions or concerns.