I’d love to suggest a small but important improvement to the platform—especially for those of us who take on long-term sits.
Right now, I’m on a 3-month sit that ends August 31. I’ve noticed a 4-month sit posted that begins August 29—just a 2-day overlap. It’s been listed for almost a month with no takers, and I know we’d be a great match. But I can’t message the homeowners at all because the system says I’m “busy with another sit.”
In real life, many homeowners are totally okay with a later arrival if you’re the right fit. Some leave keys with neighbors, have self-check-in, or are happy to accommodate if it means finding someone experienced and trustworthy. But the platform blocks all communication if the dates aren’t a perfect match.
This feels like a missed opportunity for both sides. Long-term sits can already be harder to fill—especially around holidays—and a bit of flexibility could make a big difference.
Feature Ideas:
Let sitters contact homeowners even if there’s a slight overlap (with a clear note about current commitments).
Add a “Dates Flexible by a Few Days” option to the listing.
Offer a “Tentative Inquiry” button so a sitter can ask if flexible arrival is possible.
Would love to hear if anyone else has run into this. And TrustedHousesitters, if you’re listening—this could really help us all connect more easily and keep great sits from going unfilled.
We used to be able to reach out to HOs if there was a short overlap. I’ve done several sits with the scenario you describe, a 1-2 day overlap where the HO is happy to make other arrangements for those days. However, THS decided to ‘improve’ the site by removing our ability to contact HOs if we have even a one day overlap.
Booking sits with overlapping dates used to be possible but has not for awhile now. I know they are beta testing some new features with partner accounts whereby both parties are verified and would be able to apply for sits with overlaps of 48 hours max I believe.
Apparently they removed the ability to do this after there were some incidents of sitters booking overlapping sits and leaving pets on their own.
So this may be possible in the future for people who sit with some kind of partner.
As for adding a general feature where sitters would still be able to contact hosts simply to inquire about dates without officially applying would probably not happen-- this could easily be used as a workaround since hosts could simply amend the dates in the system so they don’t conflict with the sitter’s current bookings.
I do agree though that some kind of notation that dates are flexible would be helpful. I remember they used to have that awhile back…not sure when it went away exactly.
Someone else on this site (I apologize that I can’t remember who and couldn’t find it with the search) recommended a workaround for hosts: Create a “ghost” listing for one day, about a year out into the future. In the MAIN posting, mention that dates for the main posting are flexible and if you need to contact the host, to apply to the “ghost” listing to open up the conversation. It isn’t perfect, but it is workable.
There is also a huge thread called “Overlapping Sits Discussion Post” that might make sense to merge this into @Jenny or @Mark_B
Many on this site are fully nomadic and prefer long sits (several months).
I’m sure a petfree sit would have takers, although many sitters would like the company of pets also. So unless it is very rural, something is all off etc. such a sit might have (had) applications but for some reason the hosts decline. (Could even be that they aren’t really comfortable with sitters and such or have friends/family that step in etc).
The topic has been discussed several times on forum, and it seems that if such a solution should emerge, it would be for those who sit as a couple - presumably so that they could fullfill requirements on both sits at the overlap. Some of those members do already have two memberships, making them able to apply for overlapping sits. The perk for them (I imagine) with a joint account would be that they are able to get all reviews on one account. From a THS business perspective it would probably therefore make sense that such a joint account would cost more than a single account, or else THS would lose money.
That sounds perfect for you as there are no pets. You said in another post you are close enough to do a meet and greet and discuss with them. Maybe do a post on the forum with the heading “. 4 month sit desired and list the area. Maybe that person reads these posts and they can get a hold of you. Also ask if someone reading your post has had correspondence with them and can email them giving them your email. It’s better than nothing.
If you haven’t already you can favorite their listing. They will get a notification and hosts are able to reach out to sitters «cold» should they wish to.
I don’t know what country your sit is in but if in the US you can do the following or maybe you have something similar where you are. We have a site called Nextdoor.com. Several neighborhood zip codes are grouped together to form one Nextdoor you can join with proof of zip code residency. They are throughout the US. If your sit now is within an hour of the sit you may be in the same Nextdoor. You sill not be able to post but a neighbor next to you will. Just have her post your story of how you are on this site, etc, etc and not able to contact them but does any neighbor know the person to give them a message. It’s amazing how my Nextdoor has tracked down people for other people. Don’t give up to try and get a message to them. I would even call the TH number and talk to them. You say they have no applications. TH does not want to lose them as a customer so since there are no pets involved they may send them a message on your behalf.
It would be nice if THS allowed us to communicate and manage our own schedules (since we are adults and paying members). Then we wouldn’t need to find workarounds.
This was very extensively discussed on the platform after they made it impossible about 2 years ago to still do overlapping sits. Members were very upset with this and hundreds of comments were made, requesting the new feature to be cancelled.
THS as usual didn’t care that it reduced functionality of the website for many just to weed out the occasional ‘bad apple’. E.g. the change in policy was implemented because there were some ‘idiot’ sitters who deliberately booked multiple overlapping sits, in multiple countries even and then of course did not show up at several of them.
Such sitters shouldn’t be on the platform in the first place, rather than making it impossible for everyone to do any overlapping sits. Esp. as in your case we’re talking about just 2 days of a multi-month sit with so far no takers.
So yes, this has been discussed at length, it’s very annoying that THS has disabled this, and as usual with the various changes of the past years that have negatively affected members ability to use the platform, they’ve not been willing to make any chances after suddenly dropping the change onto its members (of course also without prior consultation as to the impacts).
Yes i just flew all the way home because of the missed opportunity to do other sits. And it was in an area very unlikely to have anyone apply because the nearest town to get groceries or gas was 45 minutes away. I liked the silence in the woods to do this sit. And because i couldn’t apply and no other sits were available i came home from the west coast to the east coast. What a waste for both sitter and home owner. Now i see the home owner must have canceled their vacations. Its terrible to miss so many possibilities. This could really really help both parties. I was a mile from the new sit.
@Kytka If you have an overlap its not usually possible to see how many applicants, if any, there are for other sits. I wonder how you are seeing numbers?
Anyway if you post a link to the sit here or msg me directly I could contact them for you. As it happens, for various reasons, we are (at the moment!) not yet booked for the time period you are looking at so the apply/msg option is still open for me- so contact me if you wish!
@Petloversuk
That is only for Co-sitters ( sitters who sit with a partner ) not for solo sitters .
OP doesn’t want to overlap -. They want to have the ability to contact hosts when the dates overlap and they are available to do part of the sit .( not the overlapping part )
I suppport this suggestion! Have you tried saving the listing as a favorite? If the original poster sees this, they may be able to invite you to specific dates (I had that option on mine).
Feature Ideas:
