As sitters we receive several invitations a month and today we received one from Washington DC - we are in the UK.
We have never accepted the invitations as the date/ location/ pets don’t fit with us.
I’m very curious as to how house owners go about selecting sitters to invite and how many invites for one date are sent out.
1 Like
There is a search function, and usually a HO will search for sitters near them, as THS prompts them to do so (which is rather silly, because very few sitters want to sit in their own local area). I think sometimes desperate HO’s also send out random invites to anybody that the THS algorithm shows them, hence the random invite from the U.S - much of the time, I think invites are sent without the HO even reading the sitter’s profile.
If you wish to stop recieving invites, you can either change your location to somewhere where nobody is going to send you invites because there are no sits there (e.g: Antarctica, Asia, Africa etc) or write on the top of your profile that you don’t accept invites. Your best bet though is to change the location - I set mine to Eastern Europe a while back and never received an invite since.
1 Like
Ah, but a few years ago we were traveling on the East Coast and were declined for a nearby sit because the owner said she was looking for someone who was already close by (our profile still said we were from the West Coast). After that I’ve always changed it to reflect where we want to be.
Yes, you can certainly do that if you want to receive invites/apply for sits in a place that you want to be in or are currently in.
(We explain on our profile that we travel Europe with pet sitting, so HO’s will immediately understand that we could currently be anywhere in Europe - we wouldn’t suit a HO that is searching for a ‘local’ sitter only, as we’re nomads - nowhere is local for us 
)
3 Likes
It’s sounds quite random to receive a US invite if you’re based in The UK but perhaps you’ve had US sit experience before which led to the invite?
We’re based in France and all our invites so far have been from Europe.
1 Like
Are you close to Washington in England maybe?
I didn’t know there was a Washington in England. I’ve just had to google it. This site is definitely improving my Geography knowledge.
2 Likes
I am in the UK and received one from Canberra Australia as a short notice sit 3 weeks before Christmas! I declined, in fact I have declined almost all invitations as I like to plan where I am going and I am currently booked up until July 2025. One person had sent invitations to 200 people
1 Like
I’ve only invited people who’ve applied before and expressed interest in a future sit or locals who sit locally (yes, that’s a real thing). THS does kind of make it seem like hey, here are a bunch of sitters just waiting to come to your house and stay with your pets, drop them a note! I’m not surprised it happens a lot. I don’t know the solution except to say you don’t accept invitations on your profile, and just decline without a message anyone who sends one despite that.
2 Likes
It has some links to George Washington too, but not sure of the details
1 Like
It does work occasionally. I’ve accepted a sit only about a 90 minute drive from me after being invited. It’s not a place that I was looking to visit, in fact I hadn’t even heard of it before the invite. The reason I considered it firstly was because of how the invite was worded. It was personal, they had read my profile said why they liked it, had read my reviews and really wanted me to sit. So I read through the listing had a video chat, really liked the HO and so I agreed to do it. I’ve also had invites where I have replied that I would be interested in future but I was unavailable for the dates.
On the other hand I’ve turned down lots more that were either clearly sent out to lots of people or sits that were really unattractive.
1 Like
We had an invite from a place whose radar we shouldn’t have shown up on and we thought it very curious. The only reason we could come up with was that we must have shown up on THS’s home page on the random profiles that appear, and they must have reached out off the back of it. We couldn’t think of any other possible reason… wish I’d asked them at the time.
Invitations I get have something in common; I’ve never applied or favorited - they are very rural, lots of animals and responsibilities up to full time work (or separation anxiety that require to stay put 24/7). And they never show any sign that they have read my profile. So invitations for me are presumably from hosts that has difficulty getting a sitter for obvious reasons.
I see on forum that some hosts send invitations when they are new and haven’t figured out how to publish dates etc. and how to get a sitter.
I would find an invitation more favorable if it was something I’ve favorited and they show they have read my listing.
Some sit locally, for instance «for change of walls», getting guests so need more room or simply to get reviews as a new sitter.
2 Likes
Same here! I’d favourited the sit when it was already in ‘reviewing’ because it just looked such an interesting property, but then was contacted by the pet parent. We’ve now done 2 sits for them.
And this also mirrors our experience; we’ve received lots of generic invitations to apply, which rarely suit our availability or the areas we wish to visit, or else they are simply unattractive (for various reasons).
We’re sitters, not pet parents, but I suspect that some - especially newbies - reach out to local sitters (not understanding that most prefer to travel); some to sitters who have favourited their listing (useful when they reach out despite having 5 applicants, which has negated the possibility for contact) and some are just random. There’s no way of knowing how many invitations for one sit are sent out. From previous posts, I do think some sitters - again, possibly those who are new to the site - interpret these invitations as an ‘invitation to sit’, when in fact they’re just an ‘invitation to apply’. This misconception possibly is the result of the ‘You’ve been invited to a sit’ messages which THS issue.
There’s no consistent approach.
As a sitter, the only unsolicited invitation I accepted was when I first joined THS and had an open calendar because of that. It was a sit across the country and I think the hosts must’ve seen my profile surface because THS rotates sitter profiles.
They offered me a six-week sit in a cushy U.S. West Coast home with three guest rooms to choose from. Two sweet, easy older dogs who didn’t need walking. They had a beautiful garden to roam. It included a hot tub. My hosts picked me up at the airport and left me a nice car to drive. Lots of nearby amenities.
I didn’t want to sit for six weeks, so they split the sit with another sitter — I did bookending sits around hers. (I wouldn’t do a split sit now, but I got off easy.)
I took the sit primarily because I’d just joined a company remotely, but the headquarters were based in the sit city. I figured I’d do the sit and visit HQ sometimes, get acquainted with coworkers there at a leisurely pace vs. when I’d flown in previously for a large team gathering, when many other remote coworkers had converged.
Coincidentally, the other sitter also took the sit because she was a telecommuter and she had company training to attend in that city. I think she cut corners on the pet sitting, which is why I’d never do a split sit again.
I’ve been invited for unsolicited sits since, but never have accepted, because it’s rare for preferences and timing to line up.
1 Like
Wow! 200 invitations sent.
Agree, we are booked through April 2025