How busy are sits at the moment?

I had membership up until recently which I ended up not using much given all the lockdowns in the last year. When I signed up in August last year some sits had up to 50 applications. As I’m not a member anymore I can’t see that number now, so just wondering is it still crazy figures now people can go abroad or is there a more reasonable level of competition to get sits, like 0-3 or 3-5 applications?

I think you can expect a wide range of answers to your question. I read this forum regularly, and my thoughts now are that it can depend greatly on a wide range of things, including location, length of sit, perks, and so much more.

Along with a wide range of sits is a host of different reasons people housesit - from getting away for a long weekend once or twice a year, to many who are full-time sitters. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.

For a similar reason to you, I didn’t use my membership for almost two years, but now I’m active again, but keeping it relatively local. Distance travel still has many unknowns that can change with little notice.

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Hi @topcat - It is very varied. The usual big cities or long sits are getting many applications but there are also lots with fewer applications advertised. We only joined in May and are currently on our 7th sit so the opportunities are definitely out there. Time to join again!

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Hi @topcat
Where do you want to go? Presently, there are 664 sittings listed in the UK. Some of them have been there a while even though desirable. Many are still on 0-3 applications. Even popular ones e.g. cat sitting in London are not being snapped up. As @Colin says, time to join again.

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Hi @Itchyfeet It’s Interesting to me that, when doing some current comparisons:

  • The UK population is roughly twice the size of Canada’s and yet you have almost 10 times the number of sits.
  • The UK population is one fifth of that of the USA, and yet you have about the same number of sits.

It seems like the UK really is the hotbed of sits right now :thinking:

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@topcat I think its starting to level out abit though (not sure where you are based) here in the UK ‘staycations’ are still outstripping overseas trips and thats probably the case in other countries so both HOs and sitters are mostly staying within country I would think.

Thanks for the replies, that’s helpful. We live in London (UK) in a flat, so the main attraction for us is places in the countryside with a bit of space, not too fussed about where in the country. Does sound like it’s worth signing up now even if it’s not quite as quiet as it was - was just worried about it being almost impossible.

I wonder if there’s a long term trend of more people being able to do housesits because they work remotely.

Hi @topcat welcome to our community forum and we hope being part of this conversation will inspire you to rejoin.

As travel opens up we are seeing a real return to pre COVID sit levels, especially in the UK and if you are flexible there are many great opportunities right across the country.

Thank you for asking the community for help and advice there have been some great answers and no doubt there will be others contribute to the conversation.

Remote working is here to stay, the lifestyle lends itself perfectly to pet and house sitting and as owners become more aware then growth will happen on both sides.

Enjoy the conversations, connecting with others members and welcome back …

Angela and the Team

Hello @topcat
We are french house-sitters and I can tell they are plenty of great opportunities in France at the moment. And not so much sitters applying (generally speaking less than 7-10 I should say).
We chose to only apply in France for the moment as covid is still a concern and travel restrictions are still possible. So we prefer driving to house-sit and don’t bother with ferry or flight booking so in case of any cancellation there is very few to worry about.
We are not full time sitter and we only apply when I don’t have to travel for my job.
So that is for our point of view of the french situation !

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