I appreciate it might not be politically correct to ask this on here but its something I have wondered about since being a 100% loyal THS member…
Do you belong to any other house or pet sitting websites?, if so, are there many different features between them?
Personally, I am not a member of any other facility as having joined THS back in 2018 I have not felt the need to look elsewhere as it does everything I need it to. 
I am also on other sitting websites and have found sittings on all of them over the years.
One site which I used for a couple of years, Aussiehousesitters, had a feature that I thought was excellent. There was a rating system for both owners and sitters for how quickly you responded. If you didn’t respond within 5 days, you got a point deducted for communication. If you didn’t respond within 10 days you had another point deducted and so on.
This would be really useful if THS could do something similar
We used to be members of another site and did one sit through them. We found they were nowhere near as good as THS, mainly due to the poor quality of the information given, and perhaps the poor quality of the actual sitting assignments. We have now given up membership of other sites.
I think the fact that THS admin staff are so attentive and involved leads to much better quality of information. I think I’m right in saying that if an owner does not give enough information on a listing, they will be “nudged” by THS staff to improve the listing? I doubt if this ever happens on other sites (judging by the listing information)
TrustedHousesitters is the only website we use for finding housesits. It’s the only one that has the right mix of professional feel and community to us.
HI @BrightC thank you and you are absolutely correct, all listings go through an approval process and if the listing needs help with copy or imagery a Membership Services team member will reach out to the owner member and work with them on improving the listing, this benefits everyone, giving the owner the best chance of finding the right sitter for their needs and sitters the information they need to know whether or not the sit is right for them, after all it’s about finding the right sit and sitter, not just a sit or sitter.
(That’s a LOT of sits and sitters:))
Looks like I made the right choice first time to join THS back in 2018 judging by the very positive replies!
I’m a member of multiple sites. I’ve gotten multiple sits from those sites and multiple good reviews. Being on multiple sites means that there are no sites on which I have more than two reviews, which may cost me some sits, especially on a site like THS where there are many sitters with dozens of reviews.
We belonged to another site for a year which had a free membership and only had sits within Canada. We did a sit in our own province while members but we didn’t renew and now only belong to THS.
Well more the other way around. Unfortunately people I’d sat for who were on THS left THS and went to another site. But due to my earlier sits they have come back to me twice now for a sit which I still do.
yes totally agree, I have come up against this a few times on THS where i have not even received a reply on an application to a sit and found this quite rude. As with any “job” application nowadays it seems that it is completely normal to sometimes not even send a oneliner back with, Thank you for applying but we have already found somebody else… a small gesture to acknowledge that the person actually too time out to check out your profile and want very much probably to look after your pets
I was a member of another site before joining THS, mainly because the other site is exclusively UK sits, and that was what I was looking for, and the cost was minimal. I’ve found some excellent sits through it, so have remained a member, although I have since found more sits through THS. The advantage to me of the other site is that, although there are far fewer sits available on it, there are owners who ask for sitters well in advance of the sit dates, which is something I need. Many of the owners on THS advertise the sits only a short time ahead of dates, which is no good to me. The advantage of THS over the other site is that owners give a lot more information in their ads, which is always useful. Since I started sitting, I’ve looked into many other sites, but haven’t felt the need to join any more.
Hi Sue (another Sue here but i lopped off the e years ago).
originally also UK (Lancashire) but Netherlands (and subsequently Dutch) for the greater part of my life! After joining THS never felt the need to actually join other sites even though friends have said I should have been on some of the paid sit sites for local sits as I do also do quite a few sort of lastminute sits and the Help need a sitter quick! ones on THS ( how i actually got my very first sit). But think THS is really good (excluding the non-reply to applications as I mentioned earlier)
Hi, I’m in Italy, which is why I like a bit of notice for UK sits so that I can get reasonably priced fares, and I usually try to join up sits over a 3 or 4 month period, so a bit of planning is necessary. I’m not too bothered about not getting an acknowledgement of an application - if I don’t hear within a few days I assume I’m not successful. Also, I tend not to apply for any that already have more than a few applications unless I REALLY want it - I’ve done it only once and was successful so perhaps I should try more often! I’m happy to do last minute sits in Italy but they’re few and far between and I sit quite often for my neighbours who have cats.
I was house sitting full-time for a four-year period and belonged to almost every site there is. It doesn’t hurt to have as many options as possible, and sometimes the other sites saved my bacon. But THS is definitely the best known and has the broadest share of the market.
HI @InspiredLamb and welcome to our community forum and thank you for your insight and it’s great that you have your pet and housesitting lifestyle working in the best way for you.
We look forward to sharing in your journey, enjoy the conversations and connecting with our members from around the world.
Angela & The Team
Out of curiosity, do listings go through the approval process before they go live/made public or after? We’ve seen a lot of listings that have really poor descriptions and images and quite a few where they obviously haven’t updated the listing since the last time they posted it? I appreciate that there are a lot of listings so some might slip through the net - but just curious on how the approval process works.
Hi @ChrisAndSuzeGoWalkies each listing goes through an approval process, Membership Services will contact owners if the listing needs help with descriptions and or imagery there is a real focus on this as it helps with success for owners and sitters.
Owners can edit listings after they have been approved, which at the moment we cannot trace. Should a member feel a listing doesn’t fall within known guidelines or is in obvious need of checking for listing accuracy (dates etc) then members can inform Membership Services by forwarding the listing URL or heading.
Because of covid and no international travel in sight for Australians, I joined Aussie Housesitters late last year to give me more opportunity to do what I love - house and pet sitting. However I find the majority of advertisements contain very little information about the home and pets and often no photos at all. As a consequence I have only done 2 sits through it. I do however like the rating system for both owners and sitters as mentioned by Itchyfeet. THS offers a far better service and I’ve been happy over the past 5 years being a member.