This is my first foray into Housesitting, giving and getting, and my first message. Seems like there’s a lot of support, but I haven’t found anything about verification. I read one message that someone was waiting to be verified, but I don’t see where to start that process. Is there a page that explains How It Works from both the Sitter and Pet Owner perspective?
I probably won’t be able to get started today, but I’ll be back when I have a larger window of time.
Thanks for your help.
Loretta
I don’t even see how to post this.
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Hello @LorettaPhilly and welcome,
You posted this correctly. As a new member of the Forum, your posts are first sent to a moderator to be reviewed. Because there is less weekend coverage, it can take a little longer before they appear on the Forum. After you’ve been here a while, your trust level will increase and you’ll be able to post directly.
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If you can’t see it on the forum, the easiest way to find out an answer is to pop it into the search box on google, ie ‘verification process TrustedHousesitters’, and the relevant help page usually shows up top of page 1.
If you’ve paid already the verification process is usually the next step you do to kick things off. Check out the below link.
https://support.trustedhousesitters.com/hc/en-gb/articles/213688709-What-is-the-sitter-verification-process?
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Here’s my issue: I would like to know more about TrustedHousesitters before I join and pay 2 or 3 hundred dollars, and I can’t seem to find information on the site. For example, how do you verify people --do you do background checks or is the sitter asked to submit checks? What are the rules about having a guest at a house where you’re sitting? Is there a different listing for house vs. pet sitting, or is there always a pet? What is the expectation about being in the house, with a pet? I assume you can come and go, as long as the pet is cared for. Questions like that. Can I find out, particularly about the verification, since I want to have someone come to my home, before I sign up.
Thanks,
Edited extraneous text
@LorettaPhilly, welcome to THS. You’ve asked quite a few wholly sensible questions. Concept of housesitting can seem unfamiliar, overwhelming and maybe scary. Maybe THS staff can shed light on better approach but suspect many answers available via search of THS website or THS Forum.
Here’s several weblinks to get you started-
It’s perhaps also worth noting that THS website states “Your membership is here to be enjoyed and so if you haven’t used it within 14 days of joining or auto-renewing, you can cancel it.”
I interpret this to mean that you could become a member; trial/experiment the platform and decide whether to progress over the first 14 days.
Good luck with your learning.
Welcome to the forum @LorettaPhilly
Here is a link to the verification process
You say that you want someone to come to your home before you sign up .
Once you have paid for membership you will make a listing - then sitters will apply -you can chat with them before confirming the sit .
Please note that many sitters will travelling for a vacation and may not be able to visit beforehand- but you can have a video call with them - and read all the reviews from previous hosts .
If it’s important to you that the sitter can visit you before you confirm the sit , you should state this in your listing so that only sitters who are local apply ( but that will reduce the number of sitter who are available )
What are the rules about having a guest at a house where you’re sitting? You can’t have any guests without first asking the owner, and then they can say yes or no, some may understandably say no if they have a more timid or anxious pet etc, or perhaps they may simply not want anyone they don’t know in their property whereas they will know you from your profile, and that’s totally understandable too. Personally we rarely ask because we’d rather meet up with family/friends in a cafe/restaurant, but on the odd occasion where we have asked, the owners have said yes, but that is probably because we’re in our 50’s/60’s so owners can presume our partying days are over, plus owners will read our profile and will know we’re a very responsible couple.
Is there a different listing for house vs. pet sitting, or is there always a pet? Once you are a member there is a filter button to search for sits without pets, but there isn’t many sits like that in comparison to those with pets, but you can also filter by pet type, for example rabbits/hamsters, reptiles may suit you if you are after pets that require less time at home, or likewise, you can search for dogs, cats etc.
What is the expectation about being in the house, with a pet? I assume you can come and go, as long as the pet is cared for. Yes, but this varies on EVERY sit, each owner will have their specific care requirements, with some cats you could be out of the property during the day if that’s what you are after, and back for whatever the feeding times are, whereas most of dogs that we’ve sat have needed a loo break every 4 hours, sometimes less, but there’s quite a number on the forum that have sat dogs that only needed a loo break every 6 - 8 hours, that just hasn’t been our experience, it varies on each and every sit. But with us, we have taken dogs to cafes/restaurants/beer gardens if the owners have said they are good in those locations etc, it’s loads of fun.
*Also, don’t worry too much about the price, because if you decide to join, and you love it, then simply tell others about it and if they sign up you get two months free membership, and they get a discount off their membership. We started in Spring 2023, and we’ve got our membership free until Jan 2029, we love our pet sitting life, it’s changed our lives so it’s really easy for us to recommend it, the owners we’ve sat for have have praised THS too, so it’s easy recommend. Check the link out below.
Hope that helps, you’ll love it*
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No, I didn’t mean that I wanted them to come to my home before they sit, I meant I wanted to find out about the verification process before I signed up BECAUSE I want people to come to my home so I was interested in how the background checks are done. But I’ve done all that now and I’m comfortable with it and I have joined.
Now I have a sit scheduled and I would like to invite a particular sitter. I go to her profile and it says invite to sit and when I hit that it just tells me that I can send her a message, but doesn’t tell me how. If I hit the send button in the upper right hand corner, it opens a text message, but it puts her information in the message part and nothing in the address part. It’s so confusing… How do I invite someone to sit?
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@LorettaPhilly Member Services don’t read the forums . To contact member services - you can try live chat from the Help section and ask to speak to a human .
If there’s an urgent help needed - there is a 24 hour 7 day a week phone number which is shown on your dashboard.
Also to note that invitations don’t often work , the best way to get a sitter is to publish live dates and then sitters apply to you .
You can also try searching 
the Help section for answers to your questions.
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Definitely create a great listing and attract applicants if you can @LorettaPhilly. The invite thing is a low hit rate and highly time consuming. Once you’ve done it you can add it to your forum profile for help from experienced members to make it stand out! This blog from @Nagy26 is a great place to start 5 common mistakes to avoid for a successful listing
#gogetsomesitters
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I believe you need to make what they call «private dates» to invite a sitter:
Or you can message first.
I think the chance of succeeding with an invitation is higher if they have favorited your listing and are already interested in your location/ home. But in connection with a first time listing - sitters often favorite a listing when they have seen a listing with published dates, but they can’t do the dates - they would like to get notifications for future sits.
No harm done in reaching out. It is a good idea to read the listing thoroughly (as it seems you have) and show it in your message to sitter. It is motivating for a sit-partner if you want that particular partner (and not mass-distributing messages).