I plan to ask local hosts to arrange things off the platform. Not sure I’ll do sits at home in Ireland any more if I have to pay the booking fee. I wouldn’t put any of that on my profile though, it’s better to do it individually with each person.
As for sits abroad, I’ll only do them if I have a very strong interest in visiting the place and in that case I’d grudgingly pay the fee. For now… as for referral codes, I wouldn’t recommend THS to potential pet sitters any more.
As much as I understand sitters who don’t want or can’t pay for the booking fee, I would immediately decline someone who asks this, no matter if it’s in their profile or if they ask me directly.
If I want someone badly, also no matter why, it’s up to me to offer paying the fee, but I might do this voluntarily and that’s a huge difference!
And, btw, I have to pay it as well. Concerning other platforms, people always complain about cheaper prices for homeowners…here they are the same.
I don’t like them either but at least they are equally expensive for both sides.
Maybe , as a homeowner, I should put “I don’t pay for booking fees” in my listing? I guess this would put sitters off as much as the expectation of sitters for me to pay for both sides.
I live in a popular area and get lots of responses. I’ve had great local and out-of-area sitters. I don’t want to characterize local sitters a being one way or another as the local sitters who’ve actually been in my home, have been fine. However, among applicants, I have had more strange issues with local applicants such a eye-rolling or other body language during a chat indicating that my sit might be too demanding, or hearing what they “charge” for local sits including THS, or hearing what they “charge” for “additional service” and since I don’t have plants, that might include stuff like 3rd daily cat feeding or collecting mail, not to mention that they seem more likely to want overnight guests not mentioned on the profile or reviews.
I am pretty generous generally to sitters in ways I won’t go into here, but I pay for my own premium, and am not crazy about supplementing someone else’s tier choice, and giving more money to THS than I have to so if I saw that in your listing, and I would read your listing before responding, I would simply decline letting you know we aren’t well matched.
Another option would be search ways to give people the discount code to extend your membership.
I would make that request in our initial contact (a/k/a interview) so that they would then have the option of picking another sitter if this is something which is not acceptable. I would never do so upon arrival. That would be rude, disrespectful and…..incredibly awkward !!!
WOW ! Airfare !?! I would probably take a sit like that anywhere (I’m a sucker for free airfare). Probably too late but do you recall any details of this sit so that I can do some sleuthing for future reference ?
@toreishi No sorry, I tried to find it yesterday but couldn’t remember where it was. I passed over it because dates didn’t align and didn’t favourite it.
Brilliant !
But wouldn’t the new rules/fees apply if I push my renwal date forward as they’re in effect now ? Unless I’m missing something it would seem that all transactions (sits, memberships, renewals, extensions) taking place after the rule changes would fall under the new rule guidelines ?
Wow! Your response to the booking fees turns the £9 fee per sit into a powerful marketing tool for THS. In 2 weeks, your Refer a Friend success has generated at least £1500 in new memberships plus whatever booking fees are related to your 15 new members. On top of that, THS pays nothing in FB advertising fees while you write up targeted marketing pitches. Brilliant! THS leadership is either genius at marketing or the art of scréwing up in reverse.
I did ponder the ‘unexpected consequences’ of drawing more HOs in, but it does for me anyway also produce more sits at the one location I need to be going back to every 6 weeks so it’s a win-win for me.
My understanding which could be wrong of course is that the new £9 fee only applies when you renew… if I’m wrong then I’ve wasted my time re the fees however I will have saved x2 x£99 renewal fees going forward. As I certainly don’t do 10 sits a year I’m ‘quids in’ as they say.
Update from today I’m now due to renew Nov 2028… so 32 mths extra (16 new HOs have joined mostly from Jersey Channel Islands I hope!)
@BonnyinBrighton on the website - go to “refer a friend “ and you can see the profile of those joined with your referral code .
Ooo thanks for this…. 
Please report back @BonnyinBrighton
I’m Intrigued to know if all the new members are in Jersey and the split between hosts and sitters 
I can’t access this info via my phone app or iPad….as it’s via the website only.
Can’t you go into the THS website on your phone @BonnyinBrighton?
The thing is, the HO is also paying the fee on their end, and you are applying for their sit, and a local-to-you sit, which I find to be kind of odd, to be honest, unless you’re doing it in lieu of paying rent somewhere? If you’re applying for sits that say pets can’t be left for more than 2 hours and you don’t think that’s a fair amount of time and you should be “compensated” for that sit, why would you apply for that sit in the first place? I purposefully don’t apply for sits with that stipulation, for me that’s unreasonable but for many others it’s not.
That’s really generous of you, TO offer to reimburse the sitter for the fee, short sits will become more and more difficult to fill with the fee. I truly don’t understand why people are even posting sits that are 2 or 3 days long, instead of just paying a local sitter, I’ve seen a lot of ONE day sits, and in areas where I know there are paid sitters available.
I often look for short sits to tag on to the beginning or end of another sit or holiday.
I will not be paying booking fees (extended membership due to referrals). I would never expect a host to pay my booking fee if it ever came to that stage.
One size doesn’t fit all with pet and housesitting and that is the joy of it.