Nomads verses travel from permanent homes

I feel I’m being rejected in favour of nomads i live in Scotland but love to travel especially to somewhere warm love the sunshine. The hotter the better.not a lot of that in scotland.don’t get me wrong I love my birth place .it’s a beautiful country.but so need the sun to get me ready for the long cold winters.

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Are you saying that you are applying for sits and being turned down because you feel the owners favour nomads instead of people who sit part time?

If so, I’m not sure that is true - I suspect that the reasons home owners choose any particular sitter vary greatly.

Are you a new sitter? If so, it sometimes takes a while to get your first sit. You might want to try applying for a local sit first so you can get a few good reviews before you try applying for the very popular “tropical” sits.

Tell us a bit more about yourself, and if you’re interested, add your profile link to your account so we can check it out and give you some suggestions to make your profile more desirable.

I’m not sure. How to do that and no I’m not a new sitter

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Hi @Genevere welcome to our community forum, it’s great to have you here.

I’ve added your profile to the forum profile for you and as @Kelownagurl says we would love to know more about your THS journey and what you are finding difficult at the moment.

Looking at your profile you have wonderful reviews and I’m sure some amazing experiences you can share but please feel free to ask any questions you may have as our community are really very helpful and supportive.

Angela and the Team

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Thank you just getting rejected a lot from anywhere out with Britain at the moment.it can take as long to travel within Scotland as it takes to go on a short flight abroad.so that’s why I say nomads who are in the location are being prioritised.

Are there a lot of people applying for the sits in the sunny places you are looking for? My guess is that there is a lot of competition for those sits anyway. I know we’ve applied for a few in Hawaii and there are almost always 40+ people applying within a few days.

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Yes lots and even before I have even seen them on ths there are 20 or more applications.even the ones I have saved

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Gotcha, then it’s likely they are going to choose someone nearby who is a perfect match. That’s what I would probably do, especially with the pandemic travel uncertainty. Probably not a preference for “nomads” per se, just people with so many applicants that they can pick and choose. I wouldn’t take it personally.

HI @Genevere I’m wondering if you created your saved searches on the app or the website. I say that as those who did them on the app will get a notification as soon as a listing goes live. Saved searches on the website come in an email generated daily, which may be hours later than the app notification. For prime locations, that can make a difference.

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This was my exact worry when we did the jump to sit in North and South America. Would people want overseas sitters? Transport? Vaccinations? Culture differences? Language? The unknown? Issues about travel arrangements? We have stressed about many things but got there in the end. It’s the first one that’s the difficulty. Think of it as starting over again. Make your application more Americanised or wherever you want to sit. Even look for ex pats or people with the same interests are yourself. It’s hard.
We got accepted for a sit in Panama and whilst there a honey pot of a sit in NYC. Now we are on our third sit in Georgia and looking forward to working our way up the east coast to Canada this year. Mexico in the winter then west coast 2023. Hoping to get to Alaska!
Word of warning. It’s a huge country so expect to use Airbnb or some other short term rental company getting from a to b. We bought a car and now looking forward to some road trips in between sits.
PS I too come from Scotland and know exactly what you mean. We went one step further, when we retired we eventually bought an apartment (which is rented out at the moment) on the South coast in Dorset. It’s not always sunny but least the temperature is above freezing most of the time.
Good luck.

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Hi @Genevere, I’ve just read your profile. You have great reviews and owners can see you are experienced. However, you could I’m sure include more information about yourself. If I was an owner with pets I would be a little concerned because, to me, you emphasize wanting to travel and house sitting being a great way to do that but do not mention caring for pets. Pets only get a mention in the ones you have personally had. I would be thinking you’re really wanting a holiday in the warmth and pets would be secondary as that’s how I interpret your profile and also your comment starting this thread as pets aren’t mentioned in it either. Maybe a bit of tweaking of your profile plus a few more photos of you with pets would help.

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@Genevere,

There might be some truth in it. Nomads, especially digital nomads working from home, and consequently staying at home with pets most of the day keeping them company, might be a more attractive proposition than regular travelers doing touristy things most of the day and potentially leaving pets alone most of the day. Even more so at attractive locations like big cities.

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Sorry to hear that you’ve been receiving a lot of rejections lately. That must be hard, especially when you’ve already completed so many successful sits.

However, I’m not quite sure why you think «nomads » are being prioritized over you. While I can only guess where you may be applying (Spain, Italy, South of France, Greece?), there are many THS sitters who are citizens/full-time residents of those countries, not only nomads. Just as HOs in the UK may be more inclined to invite a sitter living in the UK, the same is true in Europe. The HOs may prefer a local sitter because they can drive to the sit, know the language, are familiar with the culture, etc.

While THS is based in the UK, their sitters live in many different countries. I reside in Switzerland, where there are many active THS sitters. The same is true for Italy, Spain, France, etc.

Good luck finding your sit in the sun! :sunglasses::parasol_on_ground:

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We’re such nomads but we actually never apply to sits beyond our current country because we feel we need to be 100% reliable and rules / regulations for entry can still change on a very short notice. If you look at the map you can also see that there are tons of sits in the UK (most with very few applicants) while there are only a few in sunny countries (often with more than enough applicants).

Thanks everyone for your helpful advice

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If you are only looking for sits in beach/sunny areas I would think the competition is more likely to be coming from ‘holiday sitters’ rather than from nomads.
Whatever the reason, I think you have a good head start as an experienced sitter with good reviews so not getting despondent and sticking to the tried and trusted adage ‘if at first you don’t succeed’ is the way to go.
Good Luck!

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I think you need to elaborate a little more about yourself, why you want to sit (make sure you are saying how you love animals and not just trying to find a free place to stay). Owners want to know you are there are their babies first and foremost, and then that you want to explore. Try not to talk about hotels vs. staying in a home with pets.

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I get lots of private invites and they say I’m just what they are looking for to look after there pets and home. but it’s a two way thing and it’s not what I’m looking for.

Everybody is different and for me your profile is lacking all that @long1016 pointed out.
At least you have enough very good reviews to show, so I would probably think it’s not all about a free stay and doing sightseeing for you. If you were a new sitter with this profile I would dismiss it right away and I don’t think I would choose to invite you to sit our cats.

A thing, which one often finds in older people, is that suggestions from others are not taken into consideration, because they have done things “always in a certain way”.
Trying a different approach doesn’t hurt and you can always go back to what you’ve always done if it doesn’t show the desired result. Why don’t you give it a try?

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How do you know the owners chose nomads? Did some owners tell you that or do you assume they went for nomads? Cause if you don’t get chosen, you don’t know which person they did go for, right?

We have definitely noticed that already being in the country is a massive advantage. With the travel restrictions that were going on in the last few years, it’s logical & I think a lot of people are still cautious.