Hello,
I’m new here and hoping to find my way back to London — ideally through a longer-term, pet-free house sit in central London.
Do these sorts of arrangements come up here, or am I in the wrong place?
Any tips from experienced sitters would be very welcome! 
Thank you.
Welcome to the forum @KensingtonSitter .
Pet free listings do come up from time to time . but they are a rarity.
Today out of 10432 listings only 9 are pet free and only 1 is in UK - it is for 2 weeks in October and is 45 miles from London .
Sits in London and other popular cities can be snapped up within minutes, whether they involve pets or not .Once a listing receives five applications, it is automatically paused, so no further applications can be submitted unless the host declines some of the existing ones.
If you do get an application in before the listing is paused you will have strong competition with other sitters who already have reviews from previous sits on this platform applying . A host is most likely to select a sitter with a lot of good reviews on the platform over a sitter with no reviews .
Even very experienced sitter sometimes struggle to get sits in popular locations.
How central to London do you need to be ? can you be outside of London and travel in ? Can you consider sits with cats or other pets that gives you more flexibility than a sit with a dog for example ?
Very, very doubtful you will get such a sit , especially with no reviews.
@Silversitters 's answer says all you need to know.
It is highly unlikely that you will find a sit without pets. And should you consider cat sits (less demanding than dogs), then you would.
A. Need to be within the 1st five people to apply
B. Have reviews to stand out against ‘the competition’
There are a lot of sits in London, so the way forward for you, should you want to take care of cats, would be to get those all important reviews by applying for local sits first.
Good luck!
Thanks Chrissie — that’s what I’m beginning to realise! 
It looks like I’ll have to think outside the THS box.
Thanks, that’s really helpful. It sounds as though THS probably isn’t the right route for what I’m looking for.
I’m specifically looking for somewhere in central London, where I’m from, and ideally pet-free, for a longer period rather than a typical short sit. So I think I’ll explore other avenues rather than competing for the very limited pet-free listings here.
Thanks again for clarifying.
Thanks Silversitters. I don’t think this is for me so I need to delete my account. Thanks for responding.
In 3.5 years of sitting, I’ve only seen a pet-free sit in my chosen areas & on dates I’m available, come up just once only. I’ve noticed the odd one in other locations too, but it’s incredibly rare.
What about children? You could become a live-in nanny and then accommodation would be traded for work 
I’ve been a carer for 8 years so I’ve done my share. Thanks for the suggestion,