Hi Peg, I have just joined for the simple £99 and want to invite house sitters and it seems to ask for more money than the basic ? Is this right ? I am desperate to get a house sitter next week and no one is replying to my post.
@serenamomberg - Sorry to hear you are not getting replies to your listing. Last minute postings certainly could be an issue, especially during summer when people tend to make plans. I’m including @Angela_L on this to see if she has any suggestions on how to “market” your post on THS. Good luck.
1 Like
No this is not my problem my profile says I am a sitter and I am a owner!!! I need to change
Hi @serenamomberg I’ve just tried to find your account to change your membership type but cannot find you from your forum log in details, could you DM (Direct Message) me your THS registered account details so that I can look into this for you.
Thanks for your help @Peg I am taking this up with @serenamomberg
If I was turned down from a sit but later asked if I could do it because of being let down by another sitter, I wouldn’t feel like I’m second best, I would be honored that you asked me. It isn’t your fault if a sitter pulls out so why would we feel any negativity towards you?
Hope that helps. 
3 Likes
If just been browsing the sits, as you do, while eating my breakfast.
Someone has posted a sit for next Christmas. Talk about preparing early!
Sitters, when are you booked up to? Pet owners, how much notice do you give for your sits?
We have got a sit booked for Ecadour in October.
2 Likes
6 months is the absolute furthest out we’ll book. We’ve already turned down a request for a repeat sit for Xmas '22 because we have no idea where we want to be in a year.
1 Like
As with every question, it depends!
With repeat sittings, we can have those booked out for up to 9 months or so.
Apart from that, the maximum tends to be 6 months.
About 3 months is my preference
We’d recommend to start looking 2-3 months ahead. In one year a lot can happen, even during more certain times. It also depends on how popular your sit might be. If it’s a great opportunity and you can expect lots applications it’s fine to wait until 2-4 weeks before the sit. PS: If you really want to book someone far ahead of time, it’s best to be in touch every few months, to remind them about you (and to make sure that they’re still planning to sit for you). Currently we’re fully booked until early May (with a one month gap in March) and have pending requests for August and even October (which we’ll confirm or decline 3 months beforehand, as discussed with the HOs). But we didn’t apply to any of those sits, they’re almost all repeats.
Angela, we are relatively new to THS, so I hope my question is not a dumb one! So, if I am reading your response (above) correctly, the next time we post a house sit, THS will include that post in daily and weekly emails for sitters to see?
Hi @KenandMary1998, daily and weekly emails of new listings are a thing of the past which is very disappointing for HO. They now need to rely on a) sitters having created Saved Searches or b) sitters browsing daily what new listings are available.
4 Likes
Hi @KenandMary1998 and thank you @temba, @KenandMary1998 I do apologise for the delayed response, I will tag @Therese who can also help steer you through the process and familiarise you with the way this works, she will connect with you when she is back online.
Hi @temba it isn’t just disappointing for owners, it’s disappointing for Sitters too.
The only people happy with it seem to be THS IT!
2 Likes
I find this to be an interesting question. We are HO, and pre-covid we would take one or two international trips a year, and of course with these being expensive and having to be paid for 2 to 3 months in advance we always need to know we have a sitter in place by then. So we tend to advertise our sits (usually about 17 days duration) as soon as we book them, often 12 to 9 months or so ahead. Our sitters have always come from another site thus far - we have never had any luck with finding an advance sitter from TH for some reason.
We advertised a sit here a few months ago for April/May 22. I have withdrawn it as the only applicants we’ve had have been those who absolutely don’t fit the current criteria in my listing. Maybe we would get more applicants closer to the time, but that would obviously be too late for us to be able to plan our trip, so it is a moot point. Perhaps everyone is being cautious with covid and not wanting to plan in advance, or maybe there are a greater number of spontaneous sitters on TH! Anyway, that means for us there will probably be another year without a holiday (though our TH membership remains!). I shall keep trying with every trip though!
As a very experienced sitter myself, I couldn’t agree with you more @JackieX, and voiced my concerns to Ben and THS when it was announced Saved Searches were basically replacing the daily/weekly emails. As Paige2013 is a HO, I was informing them of how the changes when they next listed would affect them.
1 Like
The reason the daily/weekly emails were dropped, is as we were growing, the emails were becoming too big and sometimes dropped off countries due to size. It was becoming unreliable. The idea behind the Saved Searches is that each sitter can really individualize their preferences as to where they are situated presently and where they want to sit. As soon as a new listing is posted, it is sent out by notification/email, (app/website) … so if you have a saved search, you will be notified. We realize many members like to see the full list, as it is inspirational, so you can create your own ‘world’ notification by creating a saved search for Anywhere - recommended to only do this on the website and do remember to put in a set date in order to save this … eg 1 Jan 22 - 31 Dec 22. These will be sent by email daily. (which is essentially like the original daily alerts).
Homeowners can boost their listings at any time, so this will then create a new listing post which will be sent out again on any sitter’s saved searches. Sometimes sitters may have missed the first listing. My suggestion to homeowners is that as soon as you know your dates, you should list them. We can continue to boost your listings at any point so you find the right sitters, just keep in close touch with us on membership services.
I hope this helps a little and let me know if you have any further questions. Kind regards Therese
1 Like
Hi @Boodie. In your two paragraphs here, I see the first as pre-pandemic, and the second as during the pandemic. When and how post-pandemic will happen is still very much the unknown.
Pre-pandemic, even though I live overseas from you, I would not have hesitated in applying for a sit in the UK. It would have allowed me to incorporate visits with my family, as I am from Britain. That’s what I’ve done in the past. However, currently (my personal choice) I would not consider a sit in another country, even that far away in time. It appears that many homeowners are also selecting applicants closer to their location, again because of pandemic complications. That, of course, limits choice in a homeowner’s selection of applicants.
Like many others, I’m looking forward to when the pandemic is in our rear-view mirror and we can get back to enjoying the freedom of choice some of us at times took for granted.
1 Like
I joined THS as a HO only a few months ago but even now I see a difference. For the September sit we had 4 applications right away and for the December sit (pre-Omicron) there were also four coming in within the first three days. Unfortunately we were forced to cancel this one because of Omicron hitting South Africa.
Now I listed new dates for March last week and so far not one application has come in. I know there’s still a lot of time but I would rather have it cut and dried early. At least a lot of sitters have saved my listing so I go on hoping.
I do.
Ten character yes