Hi all. We’ve recently done our fifth sit and have another soon coming up. All have been perfect, really – the pets, homes and owners. And we’ve received great reviews, all honestly mentioning that we took great care of the pets and left homes spotless (thanks to my wife, mainly). This said, there have been a couple of times that the petowners have subsequently signed up other sitters, which is certainly within their “rights,” rather than reach out to us for follow-up sits. One caveat is that I had turned off my THS notifications because it just got to be too much.
Not to sound insecure or paranoid, but any thoughts?
We get invited back quite often but we prefer to explore new areas so usually decline (unless it’s in our top three sits). I’m guessing Home Owners, likewise, like to meet new people as well so they throw the net wider, which is their prerogative. I wouldn’t take it personally.
Most homeowners only use THS a few times a year if that. They don’t think about the ins and outs of it. They may think that if you want the follow up sit and can do it you’ll apply. Have you applied and they’ve chosen someone else? If that’s the case, then there was possibly a reason even if it wasn’t stated in your review. But the reason might be less personal than you think. The other person could have applied sooner, or also sat for them before etc. As a homeowner, I have been in this lucky positon where more than one previous sitter wanted the sit and I had to basically flip a coin or use logistics to make a decision.
Sometimes homeowners do reach out and invite sitters for a return visit before listing publicly, but some homeowners might not know this is an option or might have been met with a “sorry not interested in returning” and stopped the practice.
As a sitter, I’ve sometimes asked homeowners to let me know dates because I’d love to come back, but then I haven’t been able to on that date, and the invitations stop!
Because I travel a lot and live in a popular area, I have a list of sitters I contact for return visits, but it’s still a rare pleasant surprise when schedules align and they can come back. (As I have used THS for years, it’s now about a 50% chance I won’t have to make my listing public to find someone.)
So here’s what I’d recommend: If you are especially interested in a return visit, explicitly let the homeowner know and ask them to please send a “private invitation” before posting if they want to avoid vetting someone new. If you already sat for them and you are applying, and you don’t get it, you can always ask why not.
Also note that the inbox has changed making it a little harder to find previous sitters. It can be done easily directly from the reviews below the listing, but it used to be easier to find and contact people through the THS mail system. I believe THS made it harder in order to “encourage” hosts to publicly list more sits instead of finding sitters another way.
Sometimes reaching out can help. I was trying to fill a sit a few months ago and the past sitter couldn’t do it but asked specifically about Labor Day. At the time I had no plans, but then looked at a wedding invitation and realized that was the weekend! We added a couple of extra days travel to prolong the weekend and I contacted the sitter. it was perfect for their needs!
If you are keen to return to any sit in future I would mention it in the review - something like ‘we would be happy to return if the dates worked out’.
If you have not responded to previous reviews you could do a response as there is no time limit and say something similar.
Most hosts have asked/said they want me to return while we’re trading msgs directly. So they will text or WhatsApp to ask about dates. But it can be hard to coordinate timing and, if they ask repeatedly and hear no, they’ll stop asking.
You could let hosts know if you’re open timing wise, or check well ahead. Like some hosts offered me a slew of dates when they know they’ll be traveling. Those are the planner types. Some ask before they even book.
In other instances, I’ve received repeat offers when we’ve exchanged holiday greetings, with hosts saying, we’re planning X at X time.
Thanks very much. All great points.
Thanks very much. Great points.
If we are interested in returning to the same sit we let the hosts know in our final handover - had a great time with xx ( pets name ) , we would be very happy to sit for you again .Please feel free to contact us if you would like us to sit for future dates .
We have had dozens of requests for repeat sits . The owners message us before posting dates and if we tell them that we are available they’ve sent us a private invitation on THS.
As a HO we’ve loved most sitters we’ve had and would welcome them back, but we wouldn’t reach out to them unless they indicated that they wanted an ongoing relationship of some sort. So one couple we communicate with on WhatsApp regularly, and they’ve been back for informal off platform sits and visits. They take the lead and make sure they reach out to us with periodic ‘hello’ messages, and a year end ‘Happy Holidays - Here were our highlights of the year’. They also thoughtfully send us a holiday card each year. That all said, I don’t reach out to them if I need a sitter, I post the dates. Because they have there own travel goals (but end up back in our area at times because they have a son who lives nearby) it would never work out if I reached out to them and asked are you free x dates? Because most likely, as sitters with 70+ 5 star reviews, they’d be enjoying an oceanfront holiday somewhere LOL. That’s all good, but they make an effort to maintain the relationship so we still have them over once in awhile. Fun to catch up and my pup remembers them!
So if you have locations you would like to repeat sit in, make an effort to reach out to them off platform once in awhile. That will help it seem more like a general ‘love to be back sometime’. And the yearly holiday cards, whether physical or electronic, are a nice touch for the HO you want to repeat for.
As a homeowner, I have never contacted a prior sitter to see if they want to return. I figure that if they were interested, they would apply for my sit. Even if my sit had reached 5 applicants before they saw it, they would have my contact info from before to reach me.
I imagine that most sitters are like me, and unlikely to be available for the dates on the invitation. I’ve only done one sit where i was invited. That was a prime location in NYC and the HOs had invited me back a couple of times where I declined. Even though it didn’t really suit me to do the last dates they invited me for, I didn’t want to drop off their list of favorites (and I love NYC) so I did it!
As sitters, we’ve done many sits for homeowners where we were there first sitters and the homeowners were pleased with how everything went and asked us back. We accommodated when we could if we also enjoyed the sits but then there came a time when we weren’t available and they moved on to other sitters. It’s always nice to be asked back to a sit that was really enjoyable. We just had an invite from a couple who we haven’t sat for in two years and we are delighted to return as it’s one of our favorite sits. Unfortunately, one of them was dealing with health issues and they weren’t able to travel for a couple of years but are heading off again. We are so pleased they thought of reaching out to us again to sit and so happy for them they are off on vacations again!
As HO we always give our pet sitter the choice to come back next time. We travel once a year always 8-9 weeks in January-February-March. Because of this our first sitters on THS repeated for our first 6 sits. They couldn’t come back this year so we wound up choosing a new sitter on another site as our confirmed sitters with THS had to cancel less than two months away from the sit. When you find good sitters why change if they can come back? Our cats are familiar with them and they are familiar with the cats, the apartment and the area.
I have done 18 sits in 4 years and several more coming up in 2026. Some were repeat sits or 2 dates agreed for in the same application. But most HO expect that you not only want to petsit but also meet new people & pets and visit new destinations.
How could you possibly know what most hosts expect their sitters to get from pet sitting?
Because it’s the type of conversation you have with hosts and peers in the sitting community & is therefore a sensible comment based on both experience and common sense…. #oddobservation
It’s not the sort of conversation I have with hosts at all. I prefer solitude and the company of animals and prefer to avoid interaction with others during my sits much preferring to focus my attention on loving and well behaved pets.
I can’t figure out how to block a particular person, I’m so ready to block a person here it’s driving me nuts!
Click on the users profile then click their name next to messages where it says normal with a bell icon there is a drop down where you can click on ignore.