I hbave received an application from a sitter who is new to THS and has no reviews which is understandable however she also has no external references. I have queried this with the helpline as I understood that at least one external reference is required. I was told that the sitter has given the name of a referee but no reference has been received. I expressed suprise that her profile should be live as I am sure when I joined initially as a sitter , a reference was essential before a profile went live. I was told this was no longer the case. This seems very poor practice on behalf of THS and gives very little assurance for home owners. HAs anyone else come across this?
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I signed up in December, and my friend who I asked for a reference got caught up in other things with Christmas and it never happened. I called it out in my first application(s), but given it was Christmas I still got a sit and now I never had any references.
Everyone has to start somewhere, if they have a strong application otherwise get them on a call and discuss it with them (maybe they can get their reference to give you a call?)
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I donât have external references either, it was not required when I joined.
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Let the sitter know that youâd like to see some references (not just one) then they can nudge their references from their end- make it their problem to solveâŚ.
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I do not see any point in biased references. When we joined a year ago, we didnât HAVE to put any external references, and I chose not to, as I see it as totally pointless to ask for references from friends and family who are totally biased. It seems like something you would do if you were 16 year old, itâs pointless, weâre in our 50âs and 60âs and have a lifetime of proper experience of owning loved pets and owning houses and refurbishing them as I am a landlord, I also used to own a cleaning business before selling it. So there was no way I was going to use biased references.
Weâve gained 25 x 5* reviews in just 1 year on THS, who are all non biased, and thankfully the lovely owners who read our profile thought we were suitable and we get asked to return A LOT ,and we were fully booked for whole year, within 3 months of starting. And all of that with zero biased references.
So why do you need totally biased references? Personally I would use your intuition, you will know-know if a sitter is right for you.
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3/4 of our references were from people where we cared for their homes/pets outside of THS. I believe that theyâre valuable references. 1/4 was from an Aunt. Iâm quite proud of what they all wrote about me.
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Theyâre definitely worthwhile references to have 
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Thanks everyone. I agree that external referenences can be biased but can also be useful as @HappyDeb says. I have asked the sitter about references and hope to have a chat with her as soon as possible.
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Fully agree that external references are completely biased but we joined just over a year ago like others and had to have them before applying.
This inconsistency with the THS platform is baffling!
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Yes @Hallt64 the inconsistency is baffling and ,useless or not, you would expect THS to require references for sitters who will be in peopleâs homes.
Interestingly I have just heard back from the pet sitter in question who said she didnât realise there was an option to put external references on. How times have changedâŚ!
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I joined 10 years ago and had to supply external references, itâs all so random with THS.
As a host, you donât have to accept a new sitter, with or without external references. And hosts can always ask for more info, but sitters decide whether to share.
There are way more sits than sitters at this point. Maybe THS has dropped the reference requirement, because itâs a hurdle to getting more badly needed sitters into the pipeline quickly. Some hosts are open to giving untried, unreferenced sitters a shot.
I joined a little over a year ago and no references were required. I didnât add any. Wrote a robust profile, including Airbnb and LinkedIn, which offers my full name and much more. Like all U.S. sitters, Iâve gone through identity verification and a background check. When hosts ask for a video chat, they immediately get my email address. Iâm also happy to share my phone number, which also works for WhatsApp and Signal. All of that was enough for hosts to trust me from early on, including offering unsolicited sits. And now, I have 14 reviews, all strong.
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When I joined references werenât required and I did not add any. Less than 2 years later, I now have 34 reviews. Iâm in my 50s, educated, employed, with decades of homeownership experience. I also linked to my Airbnb profile showing over 25 reviews from stays during my travels to many countries. I didnât have any trouble getting sits right away. I confirmed my first three sits before I had a single review.
I think references might be more helpful for young people who donât have as much life experience to discuss in their profile. But, hosts took a chance on me with no reviews, my first two were hosts who also had no reviews, so we both took a chance on each other and the sits were excellent. Just trust your instincts, donât accept anyone you are uncomfortable with, but keep in mind that lack of references or reviews doesnât mean they wonât be a great sitter.
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@HappyDeb I agree with you in principle. However when we joined 6 years ago 2 references were required before we could go live so we asked 2 friends whoâve known us for decades. We told them what weâd like them to say about us and they wrote their own versions of that. I donât feel they were biased as these are people who know, love & trust us completely so they were happy to comply in whatever way helped us.
Those 2 references plus the airbnb reviews we cut & pasted into our profile helped us easily get our first sits. (Linking profiles was not yet possible back then) we were happy to do whatever was necessary to speed up the process. Now we have over 100 real THS 5* reviews! 
And I also agree with you that HOs should use, and trust, their intuition. The same as we sitters should do the same when choosing a sit. Its not only about the profile and multiple 5* reviews. There should also be an energetic âclickâ 
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I have. I remember it was a while back and it was a weird last minute thing for me owing to a sitter cancellation so I was actually considering it. I had a chat with the sitter â who I ultimately didnt choose, and convinced her to get a couple of references up ASAP and to consider having her linkin. She did give me a link to the linkin on request and I was definintely much more likely to consider her after seeing it. She did follow up on some of my suggestions as well â more professional looking photos, etc.
I think what you always have to remember is THS is a matching service. Outside references donât mean very much, but a sitter without them is less likely to get a sit period. Itâs a waste of money for the sitter.
I didnât have any references either when I started, and had a number of all five star sits. I think the references are a bit pointless - anyone could write one.
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I agree that they arenât necessarily genuine,
Thank you all for your responses. Interestingly I have just looked on the section on THS called Trust and Safety. Under How Are Sitters Vetted it says you can see which checks each sitter has . Regarding external references is says âReferences have been provided on behalf of the sitter vouching for their character or house and pet sitting experience. This could be a landlord, employer or someone they have previously house or pet sat for.â The implication is that external refernces are a requirement.
While there are arguements for not relying on external references, surely THS should make it clear to home owners that the provision of external references are not complusory and not part of the vetting process. It should also be made clear to sitters that they can provide external references if they so wish to enhance their application. It is a matter of transparency for all concerned.
I joined in January last year and didnât need any external references.
Could it be related to the level of membership?
I have the higher level, which allowed them to check out some of my background, which the basic level doesnât have. So, maybe the basic level requires references?
I joined in April last year, and opted for the middle package and required two references.
Its generally agreed here there seems to be no set pattern or regulation regarding references