As a sitter the 5 application rule has not negatively impacted my ability to secure sits in highly desirable locations. Mainly because I have more flexibility to travel anywhere on demand. I’m currently traveling full-time and have my own Accounting firm in which I set my own billable hours. If I miss a sit due to timing I just move on to the next sit in the next country or on the next continent. I joined THS July 2023 and have completed sits in Montpellier, Munich x2, Genève, Glasgow, England (York, London x2, Bath), Kuala Lumpur and upcoming sits in Bangkok, BGC Philippines, Perth Australia, Hanoi and Dubai. I will be renewing my membership.
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Will definitely look into it…thanks very much
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Thanks for that. It might be because we’ve had to be specific for a 3 week period due to the 90/180 ruling and we don’t want to go too far south this time. I’ll perhaps widen the search.
Interesting. I saved a sit I’m particularly interested in approx middle of last year and don’t recall seeing any text notification referencing my saved research. I did get a text notification however just recently and tho it showed I could still apply but the position had already been filled I was told. I guess HO have the option to use applications they receive previously. Tho if they do that, not sure why they’d open up new dates and then say it’s filled before the system shows they received 5 apps. I also realized this was like the 3rd or 4th sit since I’d saved it. So I’m obviously not being proactive enough despite the text notifications.
I agree. I don’t know why TH has kept that function in place. It makes it very difficult to travel to other countries plus, if you aren’t one of the first 5, you can’t even see the dates of the sit so why would you apply.
What is the “90/180” rule?
They are push notifications sent by the app itself not text (or SMS if you are in Europe) notifications sent over a mobile network. They don’t end up waiting for you in your text or sms inbox, if you swipe them away or turn off your phone you miss them, they are gone.
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For UK citizens/residents who are now outside the EU following Brexit it is only possible to stay in EU countries for 90 out of every 180 days so effectively you can only stay three months and then have to leave for three months. Not sure if or how this applies to other non-EU citizens.
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@cawosey If I am looking to stay in London I won’t “settle” for suburban beige.
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LizBCN has supplied the perfect answer to the query abut the 90/180 rule .
@lmhale & @Peakysitter - @LizBCN was not
quite correct.
Their explanation of the 90/180 rule should have been…
“For UK citizens/residents who are now outside the EU following Brexit it is only possible to stay in SCHENGEN ZONE countries for 90 out of every 180 days .
It does not have to be a single block of 90 days but if you count 180 days backwards , your maximun stay anywhere in those 180 days is 90 days.
All countries not in the Schengen zone have their own individual visa allowances.
Not sure if or how this applies to other non-EU citizens”
*Note 1 - Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland and Romania are EU countries but are not in the Schengen zone [ Bulgaria & Romania are due to join later this year].
*Note 2 -Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are not EU countries but are in the Schengen Zone
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I have been using this calculator to work things out. You can add additional dates if you want to exit then re-enter Schengen countries. It tells you how many days you have used/have left, when you can re-enter etc so it’s very good. The 90/180 day visa rule applies to Australians also of course. A bit inconvenient for travel, particularly when wanting to sit in various countries. Such is life 
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@ziggy , I use that too , its easy to make a mistake doing it in your head, especially as I keep seeing people refer to the schengen visa allowance as ‘3 months’ which, depending on the three months you are talking about, is not always correct!
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I see what you’re saying. I don’t think it’s really made people more likely to take sits they don’t want. It’s just changed the point at which you don’t get sits. I’d guess before the 5 application limit you’d get turned down more often after applying by homeowners who had some random touch point with someone else (like the sit I’m on now I share a lot of similarities with the HO’s sister) or the HO got overwhelmed and didn’t see your application. I’m guessing if you manage to shoot an application in your success rate is pretty high?
I’d love to know if the ratio of desired sits converted into actual sits is the same but it’d be impossible to know.
I don’t have a copy/paste basis for my applications because I’m awful at remembering to change details within things like that so I write each from scratch. Knowing that if I can get an application in with the date restrictions and the 5 application rule that it’ll be just one of five is nice.
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@pietkuip i dont receive push notifications to my phone, despite having saved favourite sits on the app. Ive been through this with MS but still no notifications, which means i’m missing sits I’d particularly like.
THS says there are no glitches on the system.
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@Colin yes, exactly right what you have said.
I totally agree with your assessment. As a sitter I used to enjoy the process of finding a sit. But now I absoltely dread it. We signed up at another pet sitting site for Europe and it’s a much easier and more pleasant experience! I dont know why THS has dug in its heals negating the needs and wishes of this side of their customer equation!!
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@Peg I have push notifications enabled and numerous saved searches. I don’t receive notifications as they occur. Any idea or have you seen instructions on how to enable this feature? I didn’t find anything from searching the forum.
Thanks for the calculator info. That is going to be so helpful. I have heard stories about people being refused entry because of using up their allowance. We had 2 European TH sits of 6 weeks each last year and it restricted our choices immensely.
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Hi Carla. I know you said you don’t have any more info at the moment.
But could you elaborate on you post and tell us what that actually means, from what you presently know.
Thanks