You are definitely on the wrong platform. Perhaps try housesitters of America, they do free and paid. I strongly oppose changing the platform.
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That is not true
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Also both sitters and PP are being paid just not with money. Itâs called the barter system. Still popular today in many cultures. You do a service for me and I will provide you with something you need.
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This is exactly it! 
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Me too!
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I intentionally signed up not to get paid. When money comes into it, itâs a job. You are an employee.
The way TH is setup itâs just an exchange that helps both parties. Itâs respecting one another. Iâve made a new group of friends by doing this. Iâve gotten to travel to various places. Money changes that. I would have applied to Rover or other sites if I wanted money.
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You can see what members of THS on here think, plus you canât ignore the Trustpilot facts for how many happy customers like the way it is.
So please consider the amount of time you would have spent in setting up a petition when itâs an uphill battle because the majority of paid members disagree, the responses have shown that.
And instead spend that same amount of time learning how to directly market yourself to pet owners instead, without having to rely on third party sites. If youâre after payment, the easiest way is via repeat sits year after year
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@Aurora THS is designed to be different from paid sitting service . It provides the opportunity for unique travel stays . Either in your own country or abroad .
There has been much discussion about whether unpaid house sitting is regarded as work by the respective authorities and therefore requires a work visa .
You can read the thread here :https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/challenges-with-border-guards-re-the-laws
If sitters started to receive payment for sitting then it would without a doubt be regarded as employment and sitters travelling to another country for a house sit would in many cases require a work visa . Most international sits therefore wouldnât take place.
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This has come up many times beforeâŚand itâs true that it would make things a lot more complicated. Taxwise, visa-wise, plus Iâm sure the HO expectations and demands may evolve as well. I have heard of sitters receiving cash âtipsâ at the end of sits, up to a few hundred dollars.
Surely there are many problems with overly demanding and even exploitative HOs, which many of the threads here are about.
I wonder if, instead, TH could make it optional for sitters to add a âpayment requiredâ to their profiles, even if itâs sit-specific. Like something you could set to always be on, or something you could toggle on or off depending on the requirements of the sit. There are definitely a few sits Iâve done on TH that I wished I had been paid something in the endâeven a tip like mentioned above. Especially the ones that wind up much more high maintenance, or during which there was some unexpected issue that cost me time and money.
I think a lot of sitters also mention that they get great benefit out of things like a fully stocked kitchen and fridge as well. So maybe it could be a checklist?
Exchange required: Accommodation, Payment, Board (Meals/Groceries), Pickup & Dropoff, etc. and you check one or all.
And this is getting closer to that idea of the âsitterâs requirementsâ doc or part of the profile, which I am really considering more and more and it would be amazing to have that built into the platform, especially for experienced sitters or those attempting long sits in places away from their homebase.
It might also be nice to add a âgive a tipâ option into the reviews for HOs. But again, I donât know what this does in terms of taxes and visas.
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Note: If you receive cash or in-kind tips, youâre supposed to report and pay taxes on them in various countries. And if THS helped formalize such, they might suddenly have to help account for such âincome.â
Please, letâs try not to reinvent someone elseâs business with no understanding of what theyâre up against. If you want to do that, you can always start your own company.
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Just wanted to say, as the huge userbase of this company, we are a part of it too. That is why they add and evolve the UX of the site and its features, and that is why they check the forums.
I would 100% leave the site if it expanded to include optional payments or demands for a fully stocked fridge or whatever and especially an âadd a tipâ function. There are issues with growth attracting people who donât understand the value of the concept and try to game it on either side, but for me, the answer isnât to try to include those folks, itâs to better screen users to ensure itâs a good match.
THS as it is is a niche market. It doesnât and should not appeal to everyone. That is its value proposition.
ETA: as an HO currently, I would support getting rid of the âpay utilitiesâ option for sits.
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I sit and I host. I sometimes do compensated pet care for neighbors. (More neighbors all the time.) I would probably quit the platform if it went to paid, which it wonât. Most of the sitters who come here are coming from a distance because they want to be in my city. If I were going to hire someone, there are plenty of local people I could hire. In fact, many of my neighbor clients would be happy with an exchange of services.
If you think this site is exploitative, please donât participate in it.
Also as many have pointed out, there would be no more international sits. They might be problematic now, but theyâd be disasterous if people required a work permit.
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People are saying when money comes in you are an employee. Nope, youâre an independent contractor. Your own business like other service businesses. You handle your own taxes, etc. If TH did change they would not be employing you, they would still just work the same way but what you charge would probably be on your profile and probably you would now be able to contact PP I would guess. I bet there would be a lot that say, I charge 0.
I think it would be nice if TH did put in their material to PP, there is no money exchanged but sitters always appreciate a gift card to your local grocery store or cash tip at the end. This is strictly voluntary. If TH nudge them more will do this. I think the sitters that take care of several high maintenance pets at once certainly deserve this. Especially those on long stays.
My employers past and present have used independent contractors and thereâs a bunch of red tape and expense involved with that. On top of that, various U.S. states have taken a very skeptical eye toward contracting, because theyâre trying to eliminate exploitation by companies that use contracting to essentially hire people while denying them the benefits of full-time employees. There are legal landmines involved (the pricey cases against companies like Uber and Lyft were an example), which weâve shied away from by tightly limiting where and how we contract. And if you hire contractors across countries, itâs an even bigger nightmare.
Personally, I wish the above werenât so, for our own business purposes. I doubt that THS would want that can of worms, with little likely return in the process.
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I agree, I would not participate. I also will not consider a sit which requires utilities payment. If people want to offer on their own fine.
Also, I believe sits of all kinds would decrease drastically. The reason there are so many more sits than on other platforms is because it is an exchange. Add money to the equation and itâs just one more of the same as everyone else.
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Of course TH is not changing their business plan. I would see them as the same middleman they are now though but with more problems. PP now complaining that the sitter charged them so and so and didnât do certain things as promised and now wants TH to reimburse them the funds they paid the sitter. The money didnât go to TH, they are not responsible . Or a sitter saying I never received reimbursement from the PP. I think TH should stay exactly how they are. Also, with sitters being reimbursed, all the coverage both PP and sitters have would be thrown out the window. Changing to paid sits is a very bad idea IMHO.
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Even an independent contractor (or a self employed pet sitter) has to pay taxes. I agree THS doesnât pay them but the person who gets the payment would. Contact every countries tax department you sit in to pay. Then reconciling with your own countries tax department would be very complicated and time consuming. Every person is obligated to declare everything the earn.
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This is a hard ânoâ for me. There are other sites & apps for this, and if I want a paid gig Iâll use those.
If Rover et al doesnât have a model that lets you apply to sits, Iâd consider contacting their product support team to submit the idea to them. Itâs actually not a bad idea â it simply doesnât belong here, & brings in a whole other level of issues, complexity, & staffing requirements etc.
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