I am one of those pet owners who would offer to pay the sitter’s (preposterous) fees (come on THS, drop them for sitters at least) but I haven’t quite worked out yet whether to include it in my listing or discuss the subject in a video chat.
To answer you question directly, it wouldn’t bother me to see the request on a sitter’s profile
“https://www.trustedhousesitters.com”
You can access it from your phone by typing this into your search
But you do need to go through the verification to get into your account this way .
Similar experience with the discount codes. My feeling is I’m not pushing them or promoting THS. People are seeking membership and looking for codes. I would hope everyone goes in with their eye wide open. (I have premium and a combined membership which is costly, so for me it’s not about avoiding booking fees but avoiding a hefty renewal fee.)
We are heading off on a short trip tomorrow. Dog is going to fancy kennel where she will be kept busy and spoiled. Cats will be home with our paid drop in sitter. I don’t have to frantically run around today cleaning and preparing for a sitter, so even though I’m paying more it’s so much more relaxing!
I guess some people either can’t afford paid care or just get used to THS. But yes the fee will likely make short sits less viable.
I don’t think everyone cleans frantically, either because they keep up on cleaning and/or they have a regular cleaner. A number of my sits have them. Some hosts even tell me to not bother with X, because the cleaner will be coming.
I can’t speak for everyone else but cleaners we’ve had in the past don’t clean ovens, wipe baseboards, curtains and ceiling fans. Some will clean a fridge or wipe cabinets as part of a more expensive deep clean.
They also don’t pick up dog hair off the sofa or clean dog beds.
They usually do a standard cleaning (kitchen surfaces, floors, bathrooms, dusting, etc).
Anyway I can just report my feeling, which is nice and relaxed not having to prep for a THS sitter for this trip.
I hear you.
For our dog’s special needs, we always have a professional take care of him when we travel without him. Like we leave him with someone who used to work at the shelter where he spent many months. (He kept getting passed up after being returned, because of his issues.)
They have five dogs of their own on 20+ acres, so I joke that our dog goes on vacation with them. Because we know them so well, it’s an easy, relaxed routine.
Sometimes when we’re gone, I invite friends to stay. But no extra cleaning needed, because we keep it up.
So happy pup found a nice furever home!
We use THS sitters a couple of times a year. So we time our spring cleaning around that. Probably would be less work if we did have sitters more frequently as we wouldn’t need to do that each time but it’s just so much easier to use local sitters for shorter stuff.
Yes, if I had a “normal” dog, I would go with local sitters for short trips as well, especially if you can get the same one(s) repeatedly.
Years ago, I worked at a startup with offices that welcomed dogs. There were many coworkers without dogs, who doted on them at work. Some were so popular that there was a wait list to sit them when their humans went out of town.
@Felinelover That makes perfect sense! Perfect!
@Twitcher I’m talking about ALL sitters, why they would do a one day sit, pay the expenses to travel there, think about every move they make so they don’t have to super-clean the whole house. I mean, you can’t afford to pay for a place for one night, is that it, or you just don’t want to?
I’m not paying booking fees right now either, because I’m on Premium and not promoting this platform anymore, they don’t deserve it, to be honest! I would never dream of asking a HO to pay fees, nor would I expect them to, I don’t think sitters ARE actually doing that, to be honest, except the ONE person here (I think here) who was going to actually put that in her own profile, requesting HO’s to pay her fee - pretty immpolite, if you ask me!
I believe that you’re referring to me though there may have been others who have considered this possibility.
Contrary to your assessment of me as '‘ “impolite,” my post -should you refer back to it - was asking peoples’ opinions of the idea before I consider doing such. Asking for opinions of a potential act is entirely different than requiring or demanding the act.
You’re quite fortunate in being able to afford that premium membership and I’d suggest that you consider the fact that many of us cannot afford it and are greatly impacted by THS new money grabbing fees.
Eloquently written within convincing context of your profile, you might be able to not put anyone off. It seems like you are making yourself available to HOs in need at a cost versus just staying home without a fee.
But I am wondering if homeowners would rather see your request to pay the fee in your application, since my guess is that it is what they review first. Good luck.
I am on Premium only as a result of the 50% off they ran last year, otherwise I wouldn’t spend the extra money so there are no fortunate people here, only unfortunate as we are all having to now pay even more to use this platform. It is impolite for a sitter to outwardly request their sit fee to be covered by the HO, yes, I hold to that, it matters not whether you were merely asking if that’s acceptable or you’d actually done it already, the fact that you considered it in the first place is what I’ve responded to. My feelings are, as a very long, long time exchange sitter, as in decades - you are choosing to be a sitter, you’re choosing to apply for sits, I think unless a sitter is actually approached by a HO and invited to sit they shouldn’t be requesting the HO to pay their sit fees, HO’s are paying on their end as well. A little late in responding but I’m trying to stay out of this forum as much as possible!