Perhaps but not all long term sits are reflected in reviews and feedbacks as they are privately arranged after short term experiences.
many sitters, ourselves included, would be very happy with a 3 month sit. Visa considerations are important as that may impact who may wish to apply. Check out sitter reviews, places they may have sat, profiles. It can be a bit time consuming but well worth it as you need someone you can rely on and trust.
Thank you everyone for your comments. I know sitters have the ability to select possible sittings on the basis of duration and other factors. We home owners donât seem to have that same facility. I just wondered if I was missing something.
To reassure some posters, we have 25+ years of experience as hosts for home exchanging and house sitting as owners (never sitters ourselves). When we first joined THS we did open our page to applications and were swamped by people presenting themselves as ideal matches but who on questioning on Skype contact turned out to be completely unsuitable. So it was a huge job to sort through all of that.
Our absolute worst sitters worked incredibly hard to persuade us of their ideal suitability, even though they didnât fit our normal match. Long story short, as soon as we landed in Europe, 24h journey away, on a three month trip, they contacted us to request we removed all the animals from our property for the duration of the sit. We had been - and always are - very explicit and detailed about the 2h work daily necessary on our rural property from the start.
We were unable to do that for various reasons (the reason we invite HS in the first place). They also cleared out our quite extensive pantry, leaving a teaspoon-worth of each item only so avoiding our usual offer of âreplace anything you finishâ, demanded payment for the petrol they used in the car we left them (never mentioned prior to our departure) and many other things.
We used to offer sitters free time in our private holiday home, located in a very desirable location, as a âthank youâ after the sit, but as a result of these sitters, withdrew that offer and no longer do that.
As a home and pet owner, we are incredibly vulnerable - hence the âtrustedâ I suppose. It took a lot of that trust for us to consider ever hosting HS again.
So while I know sitters run a real gauntlet sometimes in taking on sits with owners who may or may not be honest and transparent about what is on offer, our own experience suggests itâs not all one way.
And to reassure folks who guess where we might look for possible sitters, I am currently âtalkingâ with folks half a world away from here.
Thanks everyone who has taken the time to discuss my post and best wishes for you all to find and enjoy genuinely wonderful home-from-home fun!
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Some of us reading your post live in NZ & may be interested 
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We would be very interested depending on the time of year! We have done 6 week and 4 week sits and loved really getting a feel for an area and forming bonds with some lovely petsđ
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