I am having fun with math today. It’s Monday! Why not?
So I decided to play with some numbers combining THS “data” (a term I use loosely) and information from the Office of National Statistics.
Supposedly there are 10,000 THS sitters in the UK. I say “supposedly”, because that is the precise number of sitters given for the US, Europe, and Australia also. How can there be 10,000 sitters in the UK and 10,000 sitters in Europe? If you narrow down to, say, France, you’ll get a much more specific figure like “2866”.
In any given group of 10,000 people over the age of 21 in the UK (and admittedly those on THS are not typical of any given group, but I’m not aiming for perfection here, just fun):
- 28%, or 2800, will be retired.
- 25-27% will be able to work remotely at least part of the week. So let’s say 2700.
- Roughly 35%, or 3500, will have dependent children, and thus presumably be unable to travel because of school schedules.
- So let’s say 45-55% are available to travel in October (Very squishy: retirees (~28%) are generally flexible; add some fraction of child-free employed adults who can take leave or work hybrid/remote that month. A simple split: retirees (28%) + half of child-free employed (0.65 × 0.60 × 0.50 ≈ 19.5%) + ~5% from other non-retired, non-working adults ⇒ ~52%; I round to a 45–55% range to reflect uncertainty.)
So - directionally, not precisely speaking - there should be at least 4,000 THS sitters available in the UK in October. Whether those 4,000 want to travel or are actively seeking to travel is another matter altogether!
According to the site as of 9 am CDT on Monday 25 August, there are only 604 house sits available for those 4,000 sitters.
Which is a long way of saying - the odds are in your favor! If you’d like to enhance yoru chances against those other 604 sits, here’s some advice for making your sit enticing through invitations(which have worked well for me; I realize this is not the case for everyone).