We’ve recently registered on Nomador as we’re in France and sits here are quite scarce on THS at the moment.
Of a dozen applications, fewer than half the PPs have actually responded (applications submitted between 1-2 weeks ago), and those that did respond, declined us. Maybe it’s because we’re new and have no reviews on that platform, but I did include links to our profile and reviews on here and wrote the applications in both French and English.
I don’t think we’ll be bothering with it again.
This is definitely the case.
And lots of them are last minute, sometimes extremely last minute.
My next sit is a repeat sit in the Netherlands, starting a week from now. I will keep an eye on Nomador and I may join when something nice comes up that would fit. Otherwise I will just go back home to Sweden again. So I am curious where I will be a month from now 
I don’t think it’s even because you’re new with no reviews - we started out with pet sitting on that site, and people did not seem to mind that we had no reviews. I think it’s mainly that people don’t speak much English and won’t accept an English speaking person, and also a lot of the listings are really old / not relevant any more, and they just leave them there.
@Nagy26 When registering on the site, you have to state which languages are spoken. I can get by in French but wouldn’t claim to be fluent, so didn’t check that box. I did wonder if that was part of the problem, so thanks for your thoughts.
Our THS account renewal is due after our next sitters leave. We live in France and have no problem getting sitters from this site but they’ve all been from outside France. We’d like to build up a pool of local-ish sitters. I’m thinking of not renewing and trying Nomador for the next trip and just take the 29€/3 months option. Have any HOs on here tried this site for finding sitters?
I’m not a HO, but I do often come across listings on Nomador that specially say they are only looking for local / French sitters or for people that only speak French. I don’t know what their success rate is, but you could certainly try.
I just recycled my THS profile on Nomador and pointed to my THS reviews and didn’t have problems with getting sits, including unsolicited offers in French, which I don’t know.
I stopped looking on there, though, because I booked so many sits on THS. I won’t be renewing on Nomador. The platform is just too amateurish, IMO. And I have no interest in sitting in France. I joined to see whether I could get sits elsewhere. I did land NY and Hong Kong on there.
One of my favorite features on KiwiPetsitters is the Reply Rating. Non replies there are very rare. This is our first one in 2 months and here is the email we received.
Unfortunately, a first contact message you sent 5 days ago, received no reply.
As a result, the recipient has had their Reply Rating reduced by a point.
We have also archived the original message in your account as a reply is unlikely.
Message Recipient: K****
WHY PEOPLE DON’T REPLY:
Often, the reason is simply that people find it difficult to say “Thanks, but No”. Then of course, there are things like illness or computer issues. Either way, we actively encourage a culture of courtesy and cooperation, hence the Reply Rating.
THE REPLY RATING:
The Reply Rating is one of the ways we work to maintain a high quality member experience across the board. For first contact messages, we send a number of reply reminders to the recipient, before we apply a penalty (reduce their Reply Rating).
We trust you have a better experience with other messages.
This is a good idea. I know when I’m comparing Airbnb listings I look at the response time of the host. If it’s more than a day I choose somewhere else. And if there is a toss-up, I choose the one with the fastest response time.
Yes, some time ago I suggested that THS might bring this in. People voted for it and there were enough votes for THS to consider implementing this system. However, as usual nada
Curious. The absence of significant, nevermind any, skin-in-the-game by homeowner would not attract me as a housesitter. Too easy. If a home/pet owner can post for zero cost then some portion may be tempted to post listings as a curiosity and/or without travel commitment. As a housesitter, if I’m going to commit my time; organize my life; and incur travel expenses then I expect that the home/petowner is commensurately committed to the housesit (e.g. flights booked). In any case, if a home/petowner is not willing to pay a penny to have someone look after their pet(s) and property - hopefully important to them - then this arguably reflects poorly on their priorities or expectations. No thanks to free listings.
Quick FWIW on Nomador. I immediately recognized the first sit listed for a time frame I am looking to sit because they are also listed on THS.
Hi there! Did you ever get a sit with TMPS? We joined and paid earlier this year but have not been matched yet.
Not yet. But to be fair they did try to match us with one but we dont do dogs. And i would give them our availability, fill the gap with a THS sit quickly and then have to change our availability again. We are sorted til xmas. But I might tap back into them for the New Year.
They offered us a sit that didn’t match the availability we’d given them.
I would worry they don’t value the agreement with the sitter as much. People who don’t pay are less invested. This is a big problem for us at work. We invite to free of charge conferences and see clearly that the rate of no-shows rise compared to events where one pay. That is a big problem because then we have booked a venue and food/ beverages for a certain number that is wasted money and/ or they have taken a spot that we could otherwise offered to someone else.
With this experience I would actually have less trust in an agreement with a host that don’t pay.
Another factor is that the host can feel more entitled towards the sitter, thinking that their contribution (the home) is more valuable than the conttibution of the sitter, and treat the sitter accordingly. I would never want to sit for someone who does not regard it a mutual exchange. Just the thought of it… 
100% agree @Garfield , we have exactly the same issue when giving “free stuff” in competitions, work events, webinars etc, there’s no concept of value or appreciation in the same way as there is when you pay. Both members sides paying the same sets up the relationship as a mutual exchange which is exactly as it should be. We’ve also used MMH @Pawzzle and it was pretty poor (45+ other great sits through THS & the odd FB group in Asia), the HOs were flaky, the responsibilities info very weak and lots of the sit listings are months & months old. #eachtotheirown
The last time I checked MMH, it gave me 3 search results for the entirety of next year. Lol.
Maybe it works for some people, and that’s great, but it’s always been hit & miss for me 
Just checked now @Nagy26 and there are only 199 live sits on the entire site globally!! #thatsminiscule