Our renewal is coming up in a few weeks and I’m torn. We never intended to be full-time sitters, nor did we intend to use pet sitting gigs for the majority of our travel. We thought it would be a fun way to get our “pet fix” since we no longer have our own pets, and also a nice option to extend our travels in places we already intended to visit.
We did 10 sits in our first year, but only one short sit in the past year. We’ve relocated from CA to FL, across the US, within the last year, which took a lot of our focus, and since our move we’ve been busy engaging in our new neighborhood and area. Also, we’ve just done a 2-month trip to Europe which did not include any sits by our choice. We were too busy exploring to attend to pets during our trip, and we didn’t stay in any one area longer than 9 days.
I’ve been browsing the sit opportunities and am struggling to find sits that attract us and fit in with our calendar, as we are quite busy with friends and family when we are home. The vast majority of posted sits seem to be in the UK, Australia, and US, and in locations at time when the weather is less than desirable. Many of the sits are longer, with pet parents who want sitters to mostly stay at home, which doesn’t really suit someone who wants to travel and explore. I’m starting to wonder if this site is best suited to those who want long-term sits and work from home so don’t mind not being able to go out for the day.
We are retired and now live in a 55+ community where loads of people want neighbors to watch or visit pets while they’re away, so we can easily get our pet fix without doing THS sits. Really the only reason we should continue our membership is if we can find sits in places we want to visit and owner expectations that allow exploration of the area.
Just wondering how other occasional sitters feel. I hate to cancel and lose the profile and reviews we’ve worked so hard to attain, but on the other hand, continuing to pay for a membership we aren’t using doesn’t make sense either. Is anyone else struggling with this?
I think that your profile doesn’t go away right away, but maybe someone can comment on how long you have to come back and re-join in order to preserve it? If it’s a significant time, maybe you can take screenshots but also keep an option to re-join later when you might have different needs/plans?
I’m considering doing this as my renewal is in January and I have a sit already scheduled that lasts until late April and then I’ll be busy with personal stuff for at least 6 months. So I’d hate to pay for a year membership and then not use it for most of that time.
It sounds as though you have definite ways to get that ‘pet fix’ without necessarily needing to be on THS.
I enquired about this myself a while back with the help desk and was told that my profile along with all of my reviews would remain technically archived for two years and could be brought back once I re-subscribe sometime within that two year period. To me, that was very reassuring to have that option and not forfeit all of those hard-earned reviews.
I did not renew in June. I had made a petsitting trip in England in the spring to take advantage of all the opportunities that THS has in the UK, but after that I went back home.
I did a repeat sit i Groningen in July, and I have another sit in the Netherlands in October, via a Dutch site that is free for sitters. I thought I might sign up for Nomador because of the greater number of sits in continental Europe, but I am waiting with that because my life is changing a bit (in a good way - love).
So I made screenshots of my reviews. I understand that THS will restore my profile if I renew within two years, but it does not really matter if it would get erased after that. Or I might sign up again for another tour of the UK.
We sit full time, but you don’t have to cancel, you’ve obviously got some amazing memories, so why not just spread the word, if 6 people use your referral code to sign up in one year, then it will be entirely free for you for a whole year, and then you wouldn’t be torn at all, you would simply just keep your profile just in case. We’ve got ours free until July 2028, simply by getting 2 months free each time someone uses our code. We love THS, it’s changed our lives so we naturally rave about it. See if you know anyone that wants to use your referral code over the next couple of weeks, and it will extend your membership by another 2 months each time, and give you time to think.
My membership was coming up for renewal at the end of August. I won’t have as much flexibility to sit this year as I did the past few years so I was on the fence about renewing. While I was thinking about it, I toggled off the automatic renewal option in my account. I immediately got an offer for a 20% discount if I renewed. That was enough to tip the balance. And I have the basic sitter membership, which keeps the cost down.
Plus, it only takes 1 night of sitting in a great location to pay for an annual membership, given what I save in hotel or Airbnb costs.
I was told via email that our account would remain archived unless we told THS to delete it - so unless I got incorrect information, the 2 year limit doesn’t exist anymore. We decided to take a break after a string of sits where the pet owner was, to my mind, quite misleading over the quality of the sit. I’d like to try again in the future though, perhaps in the US - it felt like the quality of sits over there was higher than in the UK
As others have mentioned you could try to get some referrals. There’s a THS subreddit on Reddit, you’re almost guaranteed some extra months if you post on the referral thread.
Thanks for your responses! I didn’t know the account could be archived. That may help me decide. Also, we are premium members now because of the insurance benefit, but now that I understand how that works, it’s not that helpful so if we downgraded our membership and then got it discounted, it could be worthwhile to just give it another year.
I have given my referral code to a number of people, but so far only a couple have joined. Win/win, but not enough to cover that many months. I don’t like to send people links unless they ask me for it, as I wouldn’t want my friends doing that to me.
Hi @LovingLife
Do you have the very old basic membership before the tiers were introduced?
I understand that, if you turn off Auto Renewal, then you can no longer use this Basic Membership as it is no longer available and you have to pay for the more expensive Standard Fee
Hi @Itchyfeet I’ve been a member for 2 years. In my account, my membership says “Basic sitter” and I have the option to toggle off auto-renew. If I do that, it says: “Once your membership expires, your annual rate of $129 p/y may have increased if you decide to return at a later date.” It’s sort of a vague threat with no real teeth.
