I had a HO cancel on me last minute and said they were suddenly wary of my lack of social media and online presence. Do all HO feel that way?
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Youâd have thought it could be a good thing as it means youâre a private person who doesnât share everything (including their pets and home) with the whole online world 
Maybe they were worried that you werenât who you said you were as they couldnât find any history on you? 
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That is an interesting question and I am curious to see how some respond. I am sorry that happenedâŚif something like that was so important, itâs strange she accepted you in the first place. Was this a first time HO? Were you the only applicant that applied?
I have an online business and I put a link to my website as well as a link to my personal Facebook page on my profile.
My profile is public and consists of promoting my website content, travel pictures and some âpersonal growthâ type thoughtsâthat is the focus of the work I do. There is nothing I post that I feel the need to keep private, or wouldnât want a HO in particular to see, so I figure it canât hurt to share another way to learn more about me.
While some people have commented on looking at my site and liking the content, most donât mention anything about it. I am curious if providing that information factored into any of the HOâs decision to choose us.
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Im only on Facebook* personally so I dont know how Iâd know that you didnt have an online presence 
(*I do also have LinkedIn but never use it.)
THIS is more of a concern. Had you both confirmed the sit? If so, thatâs not an acceptable reason to cancel under THS guidelines.
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It has never been an issue for me. One host asked me about a link to my online teaching profile, which I was happy to give.
Seriously, if someone required me to join Instagram or Tiktok just to pet sit for them, Iâd quickly move on to another opportunity 
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Never thought of this before.
We have no social media presence on purpose.
As a HO and sitter, I would not look to that but instead use the THS reviews and the airbnb links.
Was that cancellation in line with the THS policy?
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Hello @Looney and welcome to the Community Forum. I am sorry to hear of your recent cancellation. As @KC1102 asked, was this a first time/new HO? I am assuming this wasnât a confirmed sit?
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If you have no THS reviews under your belt then theyâre just being overly careful with their home. A lot of people live in a world where they think itâs weird not to have certain social media, everyoneâs connected! But everyoneâs not.
Did you tell them you had no presence or did they come about that on their own? There are things you might not think about that you could list if asked in the future: Rover, Yelp/Review sites, Reddit, Strava/All Trails/Fitness activity sites, even this forum once you have an active presence on it.
Otherwise, I would be more concerned about the fact this person Googled your name and tried to obtain more information on you instead of just asking.
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We are HO and I do not care if someone isnât on social media. Iâd say you donât want to sit for someone who judges you based on whether or not you use social media!
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If it was a confirmed sit, I would report to THS as that doesnât seem like a valid reason to cancel. Maybe they are new to the site and got cold feet? Either way, I am sure it doesnât feel very nice to be cancelled on.
For what itâs worth, if they were that intent on creeping your social media and willing to cancel the sit over it, they may have had unrealistic expectations and you may be better off not sitting for them. Just a thought!
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Wouldnât actually occur to me to even check a prospective sitters media presence or otherwise, I base my decision on reviews from past sits, their application and our video callâŚâŚâŚ
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Hello, @Looney I am sorry to hear that this happened.
Maybe as others have mentioned they were new to the site and unsure of a few things. It is quite a new concept for some members and leaving their furbabies for the first time can be quite daunting, however, this should have been something they discussed upfront if it was a concern.
I am a sitter and have limited social media with not much activity on the ones that we have and we have never had an owner comment or try to find us on social media as far as we know.
I have passed this on to the Membership Services team and they will be in contact with you to look into this further.
Keep applying as there are lots of owners out there that I am sure are not worried about social media presence
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I am a sitter and a homeowner and I, personally, have a very limited social media presence. It would make no difference to me if a sitter applying to me has a strong social media presence or not. I do like the fact that a sitter can link their AirBnb and/or LinkedIn profiles to their THS profile. That way, if they are completely new to THS, without reviews, I can see that they are, indeed, a ârealâ person 
and learn about them that way. I will tell you that I had somewhat of the opposite situation with an applicant â her social media presence was very high (I did not search for it, she readily supplied it in her application) â and when I looked at some of it, I saw something that, to me, was objectionable. It might not have been objectionable to others, but it was to me so I politely declined her without asking for a video chat or anything like that. So, there are upsides and downsides to a strong social media presence.
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It was their first time on this site and mine as well. They had officially accepted the sit, we did a video call with all of the instructions and everything.
I really donât like social media and I honestly thought itâd be an appeal because I wouldnât be posting pictures of their home and private belongings online. THS does ID checks and background checks so Iâm verified there and I was doing everything they were asking for. I just donât know why they accepted me in the first place.
I do have premium though and they said that it all technically falls under the approved reimbursement requirements but they wonât give me a guarantee for thirty days
I just wanted to help some cats be comfortable. 
Edited to meet posting guidelines
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When I first read the headline, I was expecting the issue to be about someone with a social media presence the HO was concerned with. Although Iâm a sitter, if I was a HO, Iâd be a lot more concerned about someone with too much online presence if I had concern that they would be filming TikTok videos from my home or sharing pictures of my home and pets.
The only concern could imagine is that they canât check on you ahead of time even though THS has already done their verifications.
If it is already invited and accepted, it should be a violation of THS.
Dan and Nan
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Iâve been a sitter on here for several years now and not once has that ever come up as an issue. In fact, never in all that time have I even been asked for any links to social media handles.
A lot of people are growing somewhat weary of social media these days (understandably so) and are even coming off it altogether. It saddens me to hear that this has become an issue and therefore a reason for people to not proceed.
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I would be happy to house sit for a home owner that didnât have social media presence or a lack of it. In fact, Iâd be wanting to know how they do it!
We had sitters that considered themselves âinfluencersâ and used our home, property, and possessions in their frequent videos to promote themselves. This was not disclosed before our during the sit; we only found out afterwards, and would not have allowed this had we known. We now ask potential sitters about their social media presence just to clarify this - I donât care what their online presence is, but I will not allow my personal property or details to be widely and publicly shared. If they want to update their personal FB page with photos, fine, but Iâm assuming they donât have thousands of âfriendsâ on that page. The big thing is that both homeowner and sitter should be clear on the expectations, like everything else.
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Hi @MountainLife and welcome. A homeownerâs privacy is sacrosanct to us and I was sorry to hear of your experience. Privacy is so important and puts the Trust in Trusted Housesitters.
We have a paragraph in our profile which states we donât âdoâ social media etc and prefer to keep our arrangements private. I am pretty sure there is mention of sharing information and images in the Code of Conduct and if you feel the terms have been breached it may be worth taking it up with Membership Services.
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We have zero social media presence - on purpose. I put a little note into my application saying that ââŚyou wonât find us on social media as we prefer to keep our private life just that, which means you wontâ see photos of your house and pets posted on lineâŚâ or something similar.
Maybe some HOs may prefer that you donât have a social media presence. But I imagine we are in the minority as most people seem to have one these days!
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