I’ve been a sitter via this site for over 6 years. I’ve done 22 sits and all of them have been amazing. I’ve spent time with beautiful animals and made great friends with their owners.
However over the last year or so I’ve noticed far fewer sits posted, particularly in Asia. I thought that post-COVID things would improve, but they haven’t. I wonder if others have found this both in Asia and elsewhere?
I’m just wondering about possible reasons - cost of membership? Increased other options for owners? Owners finding this site not as useful as in the past? It’s got to the point where I’m considering the value of my membership next time it comes up for renewal.
If you use the magnifying glass to search for a question you might find it’s been discussed before.
A similar question has been asked from the point of view of fewer sitters, which might be useful to you and here’s the link:
I don’t think it’s the cost and there is a large membership base. I think it is around 140,000 but I don’t know what the ratio is of homeowners to sitters.
It could just be that if it is a popular area for sitters you are not seeing the listings as they quickly receive the 5 applications before it pauses. Just a thought
I don’t think so tbh. Over 80% of my sits in the past through this site were in Asia (Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore) and there were always a lot more than there have been for the last 3 years.
We are currently on a 3 week Christmas sit in Singapore. We were lucky as the hosts had been let down and had to relist just as we were actively looking for a Christmas sit in this region- so we got in as the 4th application. I think the 5 application limit is seriously restricting how many sits are visible on the site. Especially in Asia where there were always fewer anyway. I just checked and there are only 3 very short sits available in Singapore at the mo. But probably more are ‘reviewing’. We have an active application out for a sit in Bali for January which is now in the ‘reviewing applications’ stage . When you search Bali sits it says there are none available but if you scroll down and click on the first 3 they are all ‘reviewing applications’. Before the 5 App limit those 3 would have been visible and available for accepting applications…
Yeah I agree. I don’t really ‘get’ what the 5 sit limit is all about.
I get it that is’s frustrating for sitters to be waiting for a response. But, as a sitter, you can always withdraw, which I’ve done in the past if responses/decisions are taking too long ‘Hey, just to let you know that I’d like to withdraw from this sit application as it’s been a week/2 weeks and I haven’t heard back, and I’d like to explore other options’.
Yes that’s one side of it- if a host takes too long to read and/or respond we eventually withdraw too. But the 5 applicant limit is a different kind of challenge in that if you are not in the first 5 you don’t get a chance to even apply! With our current Bali sit we were the no.5 applicants so it went immediately to ‘reviewing applicants’ but it has been in that status for 10 days now!! Our application is read, but our follow up msg is not, yet the listing remains open and in reviewing status. Don’t know what’s going on there but we have not withdrawn yet as we have not fixed any alternative plan… so we’ll just keep it on the back burner for now- nothing to lose!- till we make other plans -or they finally respond- whichever comes first!)
Maybe it has something to do with the marketing, even in Spain I only receive it in English, so as a result they have only English speaking HO. At least that is my experience. I haven’t met anyone who’s not.
We are in exactly the same boat as you looking for sits in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia or Thailand and I have to agree not many come up this side of the world.
It’s a few things really a lot of families have maids here so don’t need external sitters or can hire a local sitter a lot cheaper than the membership for THS.
THS don’t advertise well here either as it’s an English site so lots of sits in Europe U.K. mainly or Australia.
Take the US, UK, and Australia out off the account and even in the rest off Europe there are not many. Africa and South America or almost none existing.
I am doing a 1.5-month-long sit in Singapore right now which I secured while visiting Bali - same time zone. New sits in Singapore popup on a daily basis, not as many as in the UK but not a shortage either. Unfortunately, due to their popularity, they are gone within a few minutes. If you are not in the right time zone or awake at night it is rather impossible to apply for them.
What you can do is join a Singapore pet-sitting Facebook group. Not sure how easy it is secure sits there, however, the advertised sits do not disappear within minutes
@Enjaybee The maid or local sitters make
a lot of sense!
And yes, THS is mostly about UK/USA/Australia nowadays. @Lieve I think Nomador is growing massively now in Europe. Before it was nearly all French sits and owners, but over the last few months I see more & more ads in English.
Hi @BJane. Thank you for your comments about your recent experience. As they relate to Pausing Applications we have moved/merged them here >>> Conclusion Of Pausing Application Test - Updated Post to keep conversations on that topic together. Thank you.
