I’m new to THS. My husband and I are currently without our own dog and have become everyone’s dogfathers anyway so when we found out about THS we thought it was a fantastic opportunity to explore more of our favorite vacation destinations and their more rural or just more local areas and communities. Is it realistic to expect that Pet Parents in other countries will accept our applications? We’re happy to rent a car, we have no problems with big energetic dogs, one of us is retired law-enforcement… I thought if I applied to Sits that people would be eager to engage with us, but I feel like I’m on a dating site and every ten minutes checking back to see if I’ve gotten a response yet, always to be left wondering if I’m just not dashing enough.
It can be a little hard to get started when you are new. Understandably, HO‘s will tend to pick people with some reviews. It took me eight applications to get my first sit. Just keep trying. Make your profile as good a “résumé“ as you can – if you can get reviews or references from work, friends, colleagues, that helps. Photos of you with pets, a good little pitch about why you would be a great sitter. Also you could try applying for some short local sits, maybe not areas you want to go to especially, but such sits that get you some good reviews will help you in applying for places where you really want to go.
Good luck!
Hi nanderson1,
Welcome to the Community.
You and your partner sound like fantastic sitters, and based on your post here, I’m sure they’ll be swiping left in no time.
I see you’ve had some sound advice from @ABGM and I dare say, there’s more to come from our members.
Out of curiosity, were there any particular destinations that you had in mind?
We are looking to utilize THS as a way to extend our own summer vacation this year and we are happy to go anywhere in the UK. But I’ve followed all the advice on our THS profile, gotten all our reviews and pictures and everything so perhaps it’s just a matter of more time.
It can be done. The personal references don’t “count” as much with hosts as reviews from members, so it will be helpful to get a few of them from friends and relatives you’ve sat for. Photos of you loving dogs and/or other pets you might be sitting will be helpful. Emphasize your petowning experience including any experience you have giving medications, etc.
The more desirable the location the more competition there will be, so you might consider doing a few more local easier to get sits to build up site credibility and get some reviews.
I’ve already been warned to stay away from even mentioning current world conditions that might impact on homeowner decisions regarding picking sitters from some countries. So I will only say that homeowners want people they are comfortable with and whose values align with theirs so don’t be afraid to mention some related stuff in your applications.
Also please be aware that petsitting is considered “work” in many countries, so best not to mention that if you are travelling as a tourist. There’s a forum thread here that you might want to checkout: https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/challenges-with-border-guards-re-the-laws/
Your profile and wishs sound similar to ours in the US. We had success with starting with shorter sits in less ideal locations to get some great reviews then the more popular sits came easier.
What is a less ideal location? We prefer rural countryside, but are open to just about anywhere. We aren’t trying to use THS as a way to get ourselves to London or Paris, we would just stay in a hotel for something like that. Is it about the house though? By less ideal location do you mean less ideal accommodations?
It means different things for different people - but mostly it means you might need a car to get there (many housesitters only use public transport and if there’s no connections, then it’s hard to get there and to get around). It may mean somewhere pretty ‘boring’ - the very far outskirts of a small city - not much to do in the area. Again, for some that’s great, as they might need to be close to family in the area, or just want to bunker down and work. It may mean numerous pets that will take up lots of time/energy, or dogs that are hard to walk. It may mean a cold, old house (or poorly insulated) in winter, or a house without aircon in summer in a rather humid environment. It’s basically less desirable sits.
It’s all subjective, so don’t worry about it! Just apply to all the sits which fit your idea of perfect, then sit back and wait for responses. Don’t be afraid to apply for several sits across the same timeframe - most sitters do this, to increase the odds a bit - and don’t make any final decisions until you’ve had a video chat with the pet parents (remember this is not an interview, but an opportunity for you to find out more about the sit and for them to find out a bit more about you).
You’ll soon be notching up the sits (and hopefully the 5* reviews)!
Best of luck with it.
So far, I have only used TH to change up my work-from-home setting and have primarily applied to sits within an hour of my home. They were all highly desirable areas with all the bells and whistles, but the homeowners felt more comfortable with someone local. Their reasons were either not needing to worry about travel complications or hoping to find someone available for repeat sits. I am considering using the platform to extend my next vacation abroad, so I appreciate the reviews I’ve collected with the local sits.
On more than a couple of occasions, we’ve heard it mentioned that we were chosen because we are ‘relatively local’. Actually, whilst our home address might be so, our whereabouts prior to any given sit could be anywhere at all! 
I just meant places that vast amounts aren’t trying to go to. For instance, I live in NYC. As a host, I can always find sitters even though mine isn’t the world’s easiest sit. But when we are looking for sits are tastes are quirkier so we might take a sit in a rural community we can drive to as we have a car because it’s near hiking or we just want to get away. It’s not exactly undesirable. It might be great, but it’s unlikely to get a whole bunchof application becuase a whole lot of sitters favorited the location and their phones are pinging.
@nanderson1, absolutely - go for it!
You may wish to commence your THS housesit journey with a few local housesits to build a few positive reviews. That said, our first THS housesit was international!
You may wish to reflect on the attractiveness of your intended destination. THS has many housesits in US, Canada, UK but rather fewer in other countries. If you seek to apply to international housesits in Europe, Asia, etc then it may be more tricky.
But encourage experimentation and perseverance. For context, as early-retirees then we’ve completed ~40 housesits in a hearty handful of countries. Super fun times.
Welcome to forum @nanderson1 !
Lots to learn from reading on forum.
In general UK has loads of sits, and I would assume there are more sits than sitters at times. Sits that can be harder to get is ifc major tourist locations like London, longer sits are attractive to more sitters than short, central locations more attractive than rural, few tasks/ cats attractive to more sitters than many tasks/ larger dogs.
But ofc keep in mind that this is mutual exchanges, and many would either way draw a line to what should be paid work. Most fellow members have that in mind, while others don’t.
My experience is that an adult, able couple like yourselves are attractive as sitters, so I don’t think it would take to long to get a nice sit if you keep applying. As a host could have approx 5 applications, it really is to be expected some declines. A host only need one sitter. See your first sits as a learning experience also for what you should look for, ask for and expect from a mutual exchange. Being selective as a sitter will give both you and your host a good match.
You need to get a few THS reviews under your belt. Apply for last minute sits in less desirable locations. References from friends and family don’t really count for much. Post pictures of yourself with animals. It might take a while to get your first sit, but we all started with no reviews.
It can be a good idea to start off with local sits, but honestly I don’t think it’s that necessary. When my partner and I started out with sitting, we were already travelling and far from home, so doing ‘local’ sits never applied to us. We started out with Nomador, and managed to get a couple of sits lined up in a row, with zero references, and flew to each sit around Europe 
Then when we decided to join THS, we used a Nomador external reference. Apparently this was good enough, because we easily got six months worth of sits in the UK lined up just from that 1 external reference So although it may help to start off locally, I do think it’s really not that big a deal and you certainly don’t ‘have to’ to gain sits. Just do as you like, apply to sits that interest you, and see what works for you 
Currently we’re on an off platform sit with a Dutch website that we haven’t used before, so have no references with. When we applied for this sit, I offered the owner links to our THS & Nomador profiles with all our references there, but the owner said “nah, it’s all good!”
Hi @nanderson1, welcome to the forum.
As others have said, how easy we get the sits can vary a lot so it’s worth applying for your favourite ones and, also, it may be worth “investing” some time and/or traveling doing some “low application” or “last minute” sits to get your first few reviews. The shorter the sit, the more likely to get and the more productive for accumulating reviews.
I wouldn’t advise you to take a sit that you don’t like or that you have the feeling it’s not going to be a good fit. It’s not worth it; it will spoil your experience and it may make you lose perspective on what THS is about. It is OK if it’s not on your favourite location, even if you can’t leave the pets alone for long but you feel they are adorable and you can take them with you exploring or whatever works for you.
I mean, it’s OK to compromise, but not at all costs. You should establish your limits even for your first sit. We tend to get more picky when we are more experienced but most of us have had mostly great experiences from the beginning.
Regarding sits in continental Europe and other places with shorter sit offers, it’s still possible to get your first sits there. In some places like Spain or Portugal, the listings are mostly from expats and some of them may feel more comfortable with sitters from a similar cultural background.
It’s doable, go for it! Good luck.
We didn’t do any local sits at all until about no 30 into this life @nanderson1 and went fully for the international adventure like @Nagy26 and it worked. We landed our second application in Switzerland. We had both grown up with a lot of animals and owned a property maintenance business plus spoke some additional languages which am sure helped. You guys have owned your own dog, are open to renting a car, had responsible careers & good with strong breeds which are all a bonus. You could add your profile here if you’d like feedback? You could also change your location to where it is you want to sit as that can help including with invites. If you’re set on Europe then you could also book a flight to a country of choice and set your date and then when you apply you can say “we arrive into Berlin on 1 June and plan to be in Europe for our full 90 days” to add confidence to the host. We often do that and then see what comes up and so far, so good 22 countries in with 3 more looming later this month 
#dontbedisheartened
Our three petsits lined up for 2025 is in Australia, South Korea, and Canada. You will need reviews under your belt so my best advice is to look for local or low application petsits. It’s not easy to get sits lined up in high tourist areas as there is a lot of competition but don’t let that stop you from applying.
Thank you very much! I admit to feeling a bit deflated when everyone was telling me to apply for local sits… We have a darn nice condo and plenty of friends with dogs (and nicer condos than our own!), so all I could really think was ‘sorry, not what I paid $170 to do!’ But I kept at it all night last night and applied like a maniac to many more sits (I only hope the Pet Parents can’t see that I’ve applied to half of England) and we did get one promising reply over the night… So thanks for everyone’s encouragement and advice!