Advertising like this is IMO setting members up for dissapointment.
No, all expenses and efforts are not gone. It is quite a lot to do (and some expenses) to find a good sit-match.
And a membership doesn’t «unlock» «unlimited sitters». Only the possibility to make your sit something a sitter would want to apply for.
For instance:
Discover TrustedHousesitters – a global community where hosts and sitters choose each other! With one yearly membership fee, you get unlimited access to verified, reviewed sitters who care for your pet as if it were their own.
Matching is built on mutual trust and choice.
Explore worry-free travel while your pet stays happy at home!
The pet parents we (myself & my partner) have sat for have saved cost and hassle of finding reliable pet care, we are verified, we are ID checked, and they can read our reviews left by fellow pet parents.
It’s worded exactly for the type of sitters that myself and my partner are. The pet parent paid their money, advertised their sit, we applied, and they had a hassle-free experience.
I know there are bad scenarios on the forum, but that isn’t the norm.
What does it mean by verified? I have seen this confuse new HO’s on the forum, and I don’t recall being verified by THS as a sitter, but maybe I missed something.
IMO it doesn’t. In comparison to use friends/ family/ kennels I wouldn’t spend time and effort on listing and WG, videocalls, deepcleaning the home, setting up account at vets and arranging emergency contacts, I wouldn’t have to spend money on a gift basket/ gift card/ other or paying for utilities for the sitter.
It seems to me that it is often these things - the hospitality, seeing things from the sitter point of view, the understanding that you can get an equal partner and not a commodity - that make sits fail. That it requires some cost and effort («hazzle») to make it work. But I’m happy to discuss it!
Yes, you would to spend time to create a listing and welcome pack, but once it’s done, it’s done.
kennels - you would have visited them beforehand to ensure they were right for you, and there’s paperwork to complete. That takes real time, not to mention an emotional roller coaster… a video chat would be quicker.
Deep cleaning is your choice - we don’t expect it spotless, we just don’t expect unclean .
Vets - you don’t need a pre-paid account… but it’s great when it’s in place from a sitters perspective .
Emergency contacts - you ‘should’ have those regardless of who’s sitting or if it’s kennels (but I guess usually the emergency contact would also be your family member who doubles as your pet sitter)
Gift basket/gift card - Ooooo, that would be nice, but most just leave a bottle, or chocs.
I still think their owner ads are okay, in comparison to some of their sitter ads I’ve seen, now they are a very different story!!! That’s when the truth gets stretched a little too much.
@RR12345 Verified - it probably just means you got an email, and clicked the link to acknowledge you’re a real person… but teamed with ID there’s no problem anyway.
The advertising is a little polyannish but generally matches our experiences and the experiences of multiple HOs we’ve told about THS. Most HOs are saavy enough to see right through grand, unequivocal advertising language.
@Garfield, i agree.
How about “pay low annual membership and get access to unlimited free labour”.
Perhaps the sitter ad could be “pay low annual membership fee and get access to free unlimited luxury properties”.
Each is misleading. We come across pet parents that clearly expect free staff. We try to avoid such people. We withdraw applications from a fair percentage of housesits after video call. Such lofty expectations very rarely offer the fair trade that we seek.
This is brilliant, far more accurate, & just as effective without setting up unfair expectations by those who tend toward the entitled side of the spectrum. (Free labor for no effort on your part! You get a skivvy…and YOU get a skivvy…EVERYBODY gets a skivvy!!)
I’d suggest THS marketing set up a contest for suggested ad campaigns, but I’m not sure how yours could be topped. (It would be fun, though!)
I feel like Verified is the only real sticking point as new HO’s seem to believe sitters are Verified Pet Sitters vs Verified Human Beings. But honestly, people should read more and know what to expect. All the information is available before signing up. Anyone who is confused about how THS works and what to expect is being lazy. It’s marketing! Due diligence is real.
As a sitter, I don’t expect the home to have been ‘deep cleaned’, I only expect it to be clean and tidy. I certainly don’t expect gifts, cards or anything else to be provided (although obviously nice if they are).
I’ve hosted multiple successful sits in the last 2.5 years, and:
The membership is is NOT the only cost I’ve incurred, even though it is a much lower cost than hiring a paid sitter. This is not “totally eliminating”.
I personally have had minimal hassle with finding sitters, but a quick perusal through the forum shows that this isn’t always the case. But also, saying “totally eliminates the hassle” is really misleading. If I’m hiring a paid sitter, I book it and it’s confirmed. Not much hassle. Listing on THS means creating/updating a profile to entice sitters who are a good fit to apply, and then doing the work of video calls/selection. Not to mention the extensive amount of cleaning I do prior to a sit, at a far deeper level than I would for a paid sitter.
Again, not a big deal for me, but I can understand why THS is getting HOs who treat the whole thing like free labor with minimal effort on their part with advertising like this.
For me, the key is to find hosts who are clean normally, not scurrying to clean when they’re normally not, so they have to do extensive cleaning “for the sitter.” And hosts who are normally hospitable (because hospitality has existed for centuries among humans), not needing THS or anyone else to regulate or teach them hospitality.
When I find those types of hosts, everything goes smoothly, regardless of whether they’re new / newish to THS, and no matter what the advertising says. That’s because they get the value of the exchange without being told or convinced, and they don’t think they’re doing sitters a favor. Every single one of my hosts has been appreciative and kind, for example. And I’ve sat for a number of new or newish THS hosts.
And as a sitter, you want people who pride themselves on being great guests, regardless. Like I live clean and strive to be a model guest, no matter whether I stay at friends’ or family’s homes or I’m sitting. Sitters like me don’t need checklists on how or what to clean, for example. And I take care of my own dog the same way I take care of sit pets. I don’t care what advertising or checklists include.
I mean, I’m clean, but I live in a 100+ year old building where dust is constant. I don’t move the furniture and scrub the baseboards every week just for myself (nor would I ever expect or want a sitter to do this), and the occasional spider does not bother me. I leave my home in the best condition possible, which is admittedly nicer than my day to day life, sue me lol.
ETA: the other huge effort is clearing out space. I have a small home with limited storage, so I pack away the clothes, toiletries etc that I don’t take with me, which is not a big deal, but takes effort I would not expend on a paid sitter.
Personally, I don’t care whether a host cleans their baseboards unless they’ve not done them for ages, along with not doing regular cleaning. I usually sit houses and have sat 100+ year old places — pristine or clean ones.
It can be harder to keep a small place uncluttered or to declutter, but there’s also much less to clean vs. a large home. Personally, I prefer to sit roomy homes, so clutter is less likely say in a guest room.
My main issue is the word, "verified, ". Verified what ? How does one “verify” a sitter ?
The only analogy I offer is in my field - fitness training. The most common term used is “certified”.
In reality it means nothing as there is no regulation, standardisation or oversight in the field. It is easy to be certified as anyone can make up and teach a certifcation course. Voilá ! A trainer is now “certified” via a course taught by someone who created it yesterday.
Further, the word in this context has strongly implies some legal and professional process which sitters undergo.
I don’t want to minimse anyone’s responsibility or qualifications as a sitter here but that word carries quite a load which, again no offense, isn’t necessarily applicable to many.
If John Doe joins THS as a sitter in the US, THS sends his particulars to a different company that checks if John Doe is real, lives where he says he does and has a clean criminal record. THS is informed of any red flags. If there are none, the profile has the Verified stamp added to John Doe’s profile.
It’s not much but it is about as much as THS can do. A UK company isn’t likely to do their own background checks on US members. And there’s no such thing as a sitter certification.
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