Join our co-sitter beta group!

Product Updates
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UPDATE: Due to your amazing support, we’ve now closed this BETA signup journey. (08/04)

Hello THS community

We’re looking for a small number of members who’d like to join our exclusive co-sitter beta group.

Who can join?

We’re looking for active sitters who travel with a co-sitter. Your feedback will help us improve the experience for others as we continue to develop our platform.

What are the co-sitter beta features?

Co-sitter verification

We’ll fully verify you and your co-sitter (phone, email and ID/background checks) and display this on your profile.

Overlapping sits

You’ll be able to apply for sits with an overlap, so you and your co-sitter can book and manage back-to-back assignments. To keep pet welfare as our top priority, we’ve introduced these rules:

  • Full verification for both sitters
  • Sits can’t overlap by more than 48 hours
  • We’ll notify both pet parents for transparency

Why are we doing this?

We listened to your feedback. You asked us for features that support co-sitters better and to make booking back-to-back sits easier. So we’d love to make your experience seamless, while always prioritising pet welfare.

What to expect when joining

  • The BETA is expected to begin in the second half of April
  • The co-sitter beta run for two to three months
  • You’ll complete a few surveys to share your experience
  • You may be invited to a video call

How to join

If you usually travel with a co-sitter and are actively sitting, you can sign up here. (link to BETA application has been removed)

Just so you know, we’ll be working with a small beta group, so not everyone will be able to join. And we’ll be making improvements while you’re in the group.

We’re excited to hear what you think!

Thanks,

The TrustedHousesitters product team

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Translation: we are looking to introduce a new type of paid membership, in which couples are able to overlap, right? :wink:

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@Els Happy Forum Birthday, hope you’re having a great day!

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That was my first thought as well, but I signed up anyway to see what this is about. However, I think a trial period of 2-3 months is too short. If nothing interesting comes up, the trial will be over before we could test it.

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I want to join but it won’t let me.

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And if that is the case I will be estatic. It’ll be cheaper than having two individual memberships.

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We’ve signed up for this program. Guess see if selected. Applaud the seeming intent. My spouse & I housesit, substantially together. While we would not routinely rely on overlap then flexibility - say 48 hours and full transparency as noted - would be notably aid housesitting experience and ease gnarly travel logistics. :clap:

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Just signed up for this, we always sit as a couple.

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A change of opinion from the THS stance in November 2023.
I sincerely hope that pets are still the priority and this initiative is not a way to boost profits.

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I want to join but it won’t let me.

Hi @ElsieDownie,

Thanks for your interest in the BETA.

If you’re still having a problem signing up, drop me a DM outlining the issue, including any onscreen messages etc and I’ll see what I can do for you. :slight_smile:

It’s a beautiful day here in central Scotland, I hope you’re having a great day too! :sun:

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I think I signed up eventually but would you please check for me.
We are in the south of England with blue Skys and the sun is shining but not enough thermals for gliding so it’ll have to be another dog walk this afternoon

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To confirm for the thread, Elsie and I have chatted via DM.

All sorted :+1:

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A good initiative, as long as the well-being of the furry friends remains unquestionable and it builds greater trust in the community between HOs and sitters nor the opposite. It would have been very helpful in several of the sits we couldn’t apply for due to just a day’s overlap, where it may have only been hours, or simply because of extra security on the HO’s side when posting.
We hope to be part of the “co-sitter beta group” testing team and share our personal and genuine experience with the community, helping to improve it!

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Thanks @Twitcher for sharing this information! Since we started in 2024, we weren’t aware of this. Noticing what’s happening on the forum definitely enriches the experience of THS members.
The post cited is long, and we’re reading it carefully, full of info…

One of the things we hadn’t considered about the co-sitting is the possibility that HOs might be frightened by the chance of something like this happens:

We’ll have to trust that the THS team will analyze this and find the right way to provide transparency and security for HOs so that the change is beneficial, not counterproductive.

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@Mark_B, originating from that area - some years ago - I recall it being a tropical part of the world :sun: :wink:. Secured a month housesit nearby in summertime. Looking forward to it. Until then, adventure beckons. Hope that the beautiful days continue.

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For a variety of reasons I am not joining this beta group, but I hope the eventual co-sitter option will include a way to make “authorization to work” clear. For example, a married couple where one partner has citizenship or legal residency in an EU country and the other has that for the United States has more legal flexibility in terms of sitting in both locations. A spouse accompanying an EU citizen is not necessarily subject to the Schengen zone 90-day limit. Currently there is no way to make this easily searchable on profiles.

I really like that overlapping sits will be possible.

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Just curious how this might affect couples who are happy with the way things are and don’t want or need to take this step. They might be at a disadvantage getting sits since the second person is not verified. Or will all joint accounts eventually need verification of both people?

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@Mark_B Can you answer the question posed by @systaran ? It’s a good thought, so glad she brought it to everyone’s attention.

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If both people are already verified, is that sufficient, or do they need to be reverified for either the beta test or the eventual co-sitter membership?

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And also - what if a HO prefers couples but would not want them to do an other overlapping sit?

I know this was possible before the change in rules in 2023, but I think this would now be different.

Earlier, I gather sitters would have been open about the possible overlapap when applying. Now, I can see the risk of not doing that, because the system will inform HOs anyway, after or at confirming I assume. Which would be annoyingly late for me.

Not saying this is how all sitters would do, but since the membership numbers are growing, there are more people who’d think: this is what we pay for (I do assume this cositting feature with overlapping ability is not for free), so we are free to use the overlapping right whenever we feel like it.

So… even if ID checking both sitters might be beneficial (don’t really see the need), in a way I might see myself prefering couples who do not have that kind of an account.

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