I can understand why a homeowner wouldn’t want photos up. The photos are available even to people with “free” memberships and can be used in advertisements. There are all kinds of legit reasons…
However…
They are supposed to have photos of the home up. They could potentially put them up for a listing, and then take them down after the listing but if the have a listing up or contacted you directly for a sit, there should be photos.
SO
In your shoes, I’d be direct: Your description sounds great, but I noticed there were no photos. I’d really need to see what the place looks like before I’d commit, so I hope that can be arranged.
If you are invited for a video chat, ask before it happens if they will be chatting from their home, and let them know which rooms you specifically want to see. That way you aren’t surprising them by asking for a tour on the video chat. But if they don’t offer you the tour during the chat, don’t take the sit.
Marion - Your recommendation on how to phrase a request for more pix is good. Anyone who has a problem with such a request - I would question their attitude in general about the THS system. Those HO being cautious about their posts could include a note that they will share more with prospective sitters.
No reason for a HO to keep pix up when they are NOT needing a sitter. Best perhaps to only post a few discreet pix when they DO post a sit - especially for a home with a lot of valuables: We have stayed in several which had quite a lot of valuable art, high end electronics, etc and the HO have been understandably cautious.
But surely, a lack of internal pics - at least of rooms the sitter will occupy - would deter some sitters from connecting? We tend to pass, on such listings.
I wouldn’t think twice about asking - I don’t really feel there is any need to tactfully ask. One of the very first sits I applied on didn’t have any pics of the inside of the house so I did ask and did a repeat sit for the homeowners.
yeah, I wondered that myself @Crosswords_and_puzzles THS might need to have a better screening process with each hosts profile page. Which includes the welcome pack filled out properly before a sit can go live. So there’s no excuses not to have one. And of course clear current photographs of the expected spaces the sitter is to live in.
I wouldnt be so quick to judge. There could be an innocent reason.
I recently commented (on a FB post) that the sit listing needed photos of the inside of the house and not just photos of the cat. The poster replied that she had deleted the original house photos because things had changed and she thought her husband had uploaded new ones. They weren’t trying to hide anything.
I asked to see internal pictures and the HO declined my application due to ‘we don’t want sitters only interested in the house it’s ALL about our dog’. I suspect the house was a mess so I dodged a bullet there. I did however report the listing to THS… who said they’d prompt the HOs to update their listing….that was months ago and it’s still only showing outdoor photos. The thing is the HO claimed to have been a sitter previously with 25+ five star reviews. They should know better IMO.
I noticed 3 new listings (in the UK) yesterday which didn’t have any internal photos. I flagged them up via ‘help’ and one was taken down immediately, the others are still showing, though the agents said they’d reach out to the pet parents. I asked why these were slipping through the net and was informed that pet parents had potentially listed and then amended their pics.
It surprises me that sitters still apply, despite there being no internal photos.