Information Request Overload

You don’t have to send your ID to 100 owners (unless you contact as many?), but only the ones who accept your application or invite you

it seems that us citizens have accepted to give their social security number to Ths when they subscribed
Who is at the end of the line criminal check ?you don’t know.

Why don’t you trust the owner ? In my opinion s/he is the one who takes risks ( s/he welcomes strangers in his/her home, to look after his/her pets)
If a sitter is anxious about the home, the pet parent then , he can perfectly ask for id , adress, and insurance of the owner.
I’ve been amazed to read on the forum some sitters did not ask for family name and precise adress before taking a flight crossing fingers some people will wait for them at the airport…

2 Likes

Interesting perspectives.

We were just asked by a homeowner yesterday for copies of our passports. This was in a Zoom call in which the homeowner also said she was inviting us to the sit, which she did. We accepted and sent the copies. So it was an agreed requirement to do the sit, but not a requirement to be considered.

First time it’s come up, so a bit surprising, but we’re okay with it. We hand over our ID to countless hotels with no idea of the controls they have on it. If it makes the homeowner feel better, fine.

If we didn’t agree with what was asked , we wouldn’t do the sit. (And some of what people have described being asked for we wouldn’t do.) We miss on a good sit, homeowner misses on good sitters. Such is life.

This is part of informal nature of TH. Neither the homeowner nor the sitter is a business with laws and rules to abide by and can do what they want within the guidelines of TH. I feel like that’s a good thing so far.

4 Likes

It seems like the obvious solution for homeowners and sitters is upfront communication… the HO can simply state that xyz documents are expected from sitter in the application process in the listing profile and the sitter can accept that and apply, or pass on the opportunity.

2 Likes

I have been curious about what information the homeowner gets? I have been asked for car insurance information if I am driving their car which I agree with, and details such as my last name and contact information a few times after the initial interview by people who were honest, they wanted to research me more. Once I was asked for additional information on the person I travel with, again basic information like last name. I think this is reasonable as I honestly want the same information on them because I want to know a bit more about the homeowner also. Anything more than that, I withdraw.
Is anyone aware of how much detailed information the homeowner gets?

I’ve never been asked for any documents (15 sits so far) but it wouldn’t bother me to give them. I suspect the biggest issue for more people is transmitting private documents digitally We prove our identity to THS and have a secure way to share the documents. Home owners usually don’t have a secure way for us to transmit the info so a lot of people would be uncomfortable doing so.

The only information an owner gets on THS is what is written on the profiĺe by the sitter + links to airbnb or linkedin the owner may open if he has an account himself on these social medias (when the sitter has given these links, which is not compulsory)

it’s precised “id verified”, “telephone and email verified” + criminal check (this, only for U.S citizens)

I guess they are never communicated to the owners (unless there is a huge problem, @Angela, such as thief or hard damage ? To the owner or to THS insurance? )

A sitter may move in a few months time, but the info is given once. If the owner moves its advert changes (this is why some feed backs look rather weird sometimes when sitters evoke a nice view over the sea when the listing is about Paris…)

Other sites such as Nomador add other details (such as adresses with recent electricity or telephone bill verified with the sitter’s or owner’s name on it)

Some owners seem ready to “use” sitters who only publish on pet sitting web sites, for free… then, how strange, these sitters write they are ready to give their I D in a private message…

Is Messenger safer than a private owner’s e mail?
I doubt
if a sitter is afraid by the dangerto send by email his private infos, he can still send these by a simple letter to the owner : in all countries, the state mail still exists.

3 Likes

I couldn’t agree more. If you can’t start from a place of mutual trust, then I’m not going to feel comfortable at any point in the future.

1 Like

Frankly my thoughts are that references on trustedhousesitters what people need to look at. I might provide my licence if I was going to drive their car which is unlikely but I do think that passport details or utility bills are a little bit much to ask for. As others have mentioned on this thread I haven’t had a utility bill for over 18 months and I don’t own my own home at the present time.

2 Likes

Well Chuckles It’s probably a sign that many contributors on this forum are sitting all year round.
I don’t know the proportion of sitters who sit once or twice a year on THS, the ones who have jobs which imply they go to work outside, not from home and the digital nomads, or “location free” as you seem all to prefer to be named.

Simple question : have you ever thought to welcome strangers in your home (if you rent or own one). Will you open your home without asking anything? You trust everybody? Fantastic. Generous or dangerous?

And your home insurer, he does not ask you anything?

On Nomador once a sitter applied to keep our pets he warned me his real identity was not the first name he had given on his profile. I was surprised it was possible to use some first name different and initial of his family name totally different too than the ones he was known as Nomador asks us copy of id…
I asked a copy of his id. As he was italian, i asked his adress in my country, he refused.
he was very harsh, unpolited on phone (i had given him my tel number)
He had booked his train, my husband did not “feel” that guy, the tone he used with us.
the very day he had booked his train, i told him we would cancel the sit and prefer to find somebody else we offered to pay his train back ( the trip was a month ahead)

Then of course to get my check he gave us his adress…
So why not before?

Blockquote

1 Like

Owners can check your profile, THS have carried out identity checks, owners should be asking THS to change their security requirements if they have concerns. Ad another commentator said, I would not be happy providing copies of identity documents to all and sundry, identity theft is prevalent and it now seems to suggest this site could be used at a small membership cost to get enough personal details to clone an identity.
If home owners do not feel safe with how the company runs the site I suggest it’s not for them. I would never provide such personal info.

@Candide - Before we joined THS we were Airbnb hosts for many years. We invited literally thousands of strangers into our home and never had a single negative incident. I can understand your nervousness so would recommend you only invite sitters with previous reviews. If your chosen sitter comes with glowing reviews from former home hosts then it is a pretty sure bet that they won’t be leaving with your valuables packed in their suitcase

7 Likes

Crikey that’s rude. It would never cross my mind to ask this from a sitter and I have had far more than 30 over time. I usually remember to ask if they have an international drivers licence if i’m leaving my car for them but just take their word if they say yes. I have had many first time sitters and quite a few full time sitters and have never felt the need to be intrusive. Good call on your part.

4 Likes

Hi Candle

Good question about inviting strangers into my home.

I have been Couchsurfing around the world for a total of 13 months of the last 4 years. It is a system whereby people invite you into the homes based on your references from other people who have also invited you into their homes and who you also have invited into your home.

It works based on one being authenticated through the site in a similar matter to how one is on trustedhousesitters. To date I have stayed with 70 different people in a number of countries and, when I had one and againwill do when I have one, also have opened my home to travellers as well. And yes this opening of my home and the opening of other people’s homes is based on a simple request to stay with a reason as to why I would like to.

It is only in the last trip away that I also began house sitting. It is apparent the approach taken by those hosting people for free in their homes on Couchsurfing are a very different group to some who view people with excellent references and authenticated on the site as innately suspicious on trustedhousesitters.

So in response and in a couple of words: yes I would open my home based on the references and the request letter.

That people do this just highlights there is honesty, there is reliability, and there are people who believe that innate goodness still exist in people. It also highlights how the economic & social system of neoliberalism completely distorts how many people view others. Rather sad really!!

5 Likes

ONLY to the verifying firm. Please understand that none of us with SSNs gives them out to ANY public or private entity in any way without the strictest of assurances.

If that trust is broken, you’d better believe there will be consequences.

2 Likes

Our insurance requires us to have copies of the sitter’s drivers licence or our ins becomes void.

As a HO I do not know where I can access any of this info from TH. Please provide the TH link for this info where I can download it and print it. Our insurance requires a driver’s license of anyone who will be taking care of our home.

1 Like

The HO gets no detailed info on the sitter. As a HO I would love for TH to provide the info so I don’t have to ask for it for my insurance company.

1 Like

You’ll need to ask HQ for it, we’re not given that as sitters. Although from memory they don’t have a driver’s licence. They have a passport. If an HO wants a copy of my licence because I’m going to drive their car then no problem, just ask.

For this reason I would submit with some information redacted…such as the ID or account number

To me such requests are a good sign to avoid this sit like the plague. Unreasonable requests or paranoia may be just harmless eccentricity but could be something a lot more troubling. Accepting any sit is a risk and a video interview is essential to get a feel for the other person. But occasionally they can seem fine until you get more information. Of the 65 sits we’ve done in the last 3 years none have been awful but one or two house owners have been a bit dodgy and we’ve breathed a sigh of relief that we got away without any nastiness. There was one we turned down although it was somewhere I really wanted to go and they’d seemed nice on video, but their written contract was outrageously punitive and controlling.

6 Likes