I can tell that there are some amazing people on this app and I would love to have a way of identifying who is pet sitting in the same area as me. I’m traveling on my own, and luckily I enjoy my own company (haha), but at times, I’ve definitely wished there was a way to reach out to nearby sitters to see if they wanted to go on a city tour together or try a local restaurant.
Initially, everyone should automatically be opted out, unless they voluntarily participate (for privacy issues). The sitter could then turn it off or on, depending on whether they’re interested at that time/place. Then, perhaps there could be some sort of map that geolocates other sitters in the area. And, of course, that would go hand in hand with being able to message other sitters easily.
Would anyone else be interested in something like this?
Great subject for discussion @cnj840 and idea, members do enjoy meeting, we know that when we’ve arranged them when doing city visits … I’m sure @Ben-ProductManager will be happy to take this up.
Great idea, like you I am solo sitter and like my own company but also would like to share experiences maybe visiting local attractions etc with another local sitter. When doing a longer term sit it can get a little lonely so a facility such as you have suggested would be great.
I guess of course you could always put a post here in the forum too…
This is a great idea! Maybe we could have an area in this forum where we post date ranges and locations, seeking others who will be in the area at that time. Something like “Lyon area 23 April through 15 May. Any sitters interested in getting together?” Other travel related forums use that approach to enable interested members to meet.
I’d imagine there could be an overwhelming number of posts to sort through! And then those posts would just be clogging the forum since they probably wouldn’t erase just because date of the sit is long gone.
THS might be able to develop a mechanism to auto delete old posts.
Having spent my career in cybersecurity and because I like to plan activities in advance, I probably wouldn’t participate if it shows our locations in realtime.
Hi @Nancy.Lorne thank you for joining our community forum, would be wonderful to get to know you and hear about your TrustedHousesitters journey. We hope you enjoy the conversations and connecting with other members.
Wonderful idea! I did actually meet another member of Trusted Housesitters purely by coincidence while housesitting in Dublin. We met at a local pub and had a great evening of musical trivia!
Yesss would love this! We’ve come across fellow THS on occasion and it’s always very exciting. Most randomly at a vegan cafe in Bosnia, on the outskirts of Sarajevo! I often come across sitters’ profiles when looking at house sits (I see their profiles in the feedback section) and wish there was some way to contact them. Apps like couchsurfing have the geolocate feature, and I’ve used the to great success.
@HousesittingMag and Ian of House Sitting Magazine have created such a feature, Mapahub, but it’s currently on pause due to the pandemic, with less people traveling.
I love this idea! Maybe in the meantime, we can put a call out in the forum - you know, “anyone want to get together in _____ this weekend?” sort of thing.
Thanks, Sam and yes, there’s a community of longer term house sitters that have been meeting up all over the world for quite a few years now… one of our biggest meetups was in Covent Garden, London one Christmas with over 20 sitters and a zoom link to many others. It was great fun.
After our recent chat Ian got Mapahub up again, as lockdowns are being eased, and it has always been offered to THS members on the dashboard free for a year for anyone interested.
It allows you to put the dates of your sits in the future and then you get alerts for anyone in that area at same time.
I’m not sure where the link is on THS now, or if it’s still there @Angela_L might be able to help. If not the website is https://mapahub.com
@HousesittingMag Mapahub looks like a great solution for connecting with other sitters. The site says you’re still not accepting new members yet. Would you let us know when that changes?
But maybe this should be open to all who are interested. So also for the HOs. Because there are HOs who might want to meet sitters beforehand, then they could look at who is in the area and maybe meet. For sitters who come from far away and can’t come over quickly, this can be an excellent option to get new sits. Also, the HO can reach out to sitters from far away and still get to know them beforehand. It would be nice if it would be possible to set the geolocation manually without a sit if you are in the area anyway (vacation, work, etc.). So a calendar in which you can enter when where you will be for whatever reasons would be helpful for both sides. Who maintains the calendar shows that he/she is willing to meet when it fits.