We’re fairly new here, our first sitter was fantastic. We had a response for our second sit, the sitter said she earns $80/day on Rover and wants similar. Nothing is mentioned in her profile. Is is a common occurrence, requesting payment? Thought THS was free in exchange for use of home. Also started stating that our dogs would need more attention without meeting them.
Yes, THS works on a mutual exchange basis and no money changes hands. Rover charges owners and sitters are paid. Please report the sitters to THS membership services.
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Your sitter gets to earn nothing going through THS. It is a violation that will get them removed from THS if you report her. You should report her and then decline her application.
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Report, report, report…. !
I’m curious if she had any other reviews. She’s got to be new with no idea how THS works??
Hope you find a great sitter.
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report. Totally against the ethos of THS. #scammeralert
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No this is not allowed on THS. The ethos is that sitters apply because it is somewhere they’d like to stay, would enjoy the company of the pets and feel the pet care is a fair exchange for this. If a sitter feels the level of pet care requires payment they should not apply.
Has the sit already been confirmed via THS?
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She had numerous excellent reviews, that’s why we contacted her
How do you report someone?
Report it, I had a someone request recently that thought it was a paid sitter situation as well. She said she must have been confused on sign up.
Email MS support at support@trustedhousesitters.com with a link to the sitter and a screenshot of the request for payment qnd ask them to contact her asap. I’d also ask them to update you on what action will be taken as this is is a big no-no on THS. #keepusposted
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The issue might be that you “contacted” her. The best way to find a sitter is to list your dates. That way up to five sitters who are looking for sits during those dates and open to your area and pets can apply. If any of those sitters are unsuitable, you can decline them and open up the listing to more applications.
Generally, if you “invite” a sitter directly though private invitation, especially a local one, they might be inclined to refuse because the point of the site is travel. OR they might tell you that they only do local sits for pay. Some distant sitters who not incliined to take the sit might also say they need traveling money or want money for the sit.
Really what they should say quite clearly is that they don’t do local sits through THS period, and that if you can’t find a THS sitter you can contact them off-site to discuss a paid sit.
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I don’t know what you mean by “private invitation “, I used the INVITE TO SIT button in THS.
Yes I agree with @Marion this is likely what has happened.
THS concept was designed for travelling to visit new destinations away from home. The majority of sitters use THS for travel .
THS “invite a sitter function “ is not well thought out as it defaults to local sitters . ( who generally have no incentive to do an unpaid local sit via THS as they can earn xx for local sits ( via other platforms) .
@Dogpop The most effective way to find a sitter is to post a listing and sitters wanting to visit your area will find you and apply.
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Yes. This is exactly what I mean by private inviation. The usual process for finding a sitter, is not to look for one as strange as that sounds. The process is to create and post a “listing” for the specific dates you need. Then sitters who are looking for those dates and that location can find you and apply to the sit. That helps ensure that sitters who apply can do the dates and are interested in your sit. You can then review their profiles and reviews to see if they are suitable. You can send them questions through the online messaging system. You can meet them for video chat using WhatsApp, facetime, zoom, or another platform (THS does not have its own video platform). You can then decide if you want to offer them the sit. They can decide after asking their own questions, if they want to take the sit.
To do this from the web application (I sit and host) go to your dashboard. I’m not sure of the steps as I currently have upcoming sitters and it might look different but you should see something about “managing” or “posting” a listing. I think it will say “Your Dates” somewhere on the dashboard and allow you to add dates and post the listing. If not, please come back to the forum for more help!
Did she apply to sit after you posted your sit dates, or did you send an invitation?
The consensus seems to be that if you invited her without her having applied then it’s kind of a grey area. I’d probably still mention it to THS but it’s not as egregious as it sounded.
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I think it could be egregious depending on how someone phrased it even with an invite. Nobody should be asking for pay for a THS sit. I also think as a homeowner, I’m beginning to see some “tells” for this on sitter profiles.
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Folks, we’re going all over the place.
I listed dates for a sit on THS. We received a few responses that didn’t seem to fit with us. We received an email from THS saying to invite sitters if the responses weren’t a fit. We did so and got a response that discussed payment. I believe that this is contrary to what I believed THS rules were and that is my concern. THS has responded and verified that payment is not part of THS. Our first sitter was a local, so it’s not exclusively for sitters from afar. My comment was about asking for payment similar to Rover on THS without mentioning that in their profile
I think if the sitter mentioned payment on their profile, it would swiftly be picked up by THS. No sitter should be asking for payment whether you invited them, or they applied. No grey area. It’s strictly against the rules. Plenty of other platforms, Facebook groups etc if payment is involved.
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If you don’t want to report the sitter, that’s a choice you can make. But if the sitter was offering to sit through this platform for pay, it’s a big deal. Please don’t pay Trusted Housesitter sitters. Some sitters on the site are petowners like you, who are doing this for travel. Some sitters do compensated pet care locally – or when travelling if available – but NOT through Trusted Housesitters. Some may be people who can’t have their own pets now or have different types of pets, but really just love taking care of animals. The dymanic and relationship between sitters and housesitters is supposed to be equal here and it’s not when money is involved. It’s also not when there is so much work involved that sitters won’t be able to enjoy the stay.
It’s possible if you weren’t getting suitable replies, that there is something in your listing that could be revised to make the sit more attractive to sitters. You can come to the forum and ask for help/advice on the listing. It’s possible you didn’t give enough lead time before the listing. It’s also possible there is something about your listing that will make it difficult to find the right sitter. One example could be an anxious pet that can’t be left for more than an hour or two. Many sitters feel that those aren’t “equal” exchanges of sitting for petcare. If you can’t find a way to make the listing appealing, then possibly this won’t work for you.
Just to clarify, I agree no sitter should be asking for money for a THS sit, but if someone reaches out because they can’t find a THS sitter I see a li’l grey area that may not warrant a complaint. She may have been offering to sit outside THS and said “my normal Petsitting rate is x” because she wouldn’t be interested otherwise. She’s not out there applying to sits then extorting people.
I would just let it go and work on improving your listing to attract a great sitter. Sometimes it takes a while for the right one to find you.
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@Shafofo I agree. There are sitters that use THS for travel and do paid sits locally, there is nothing wrong with that. If they receive an invitation for a local sit and respond “thanks for inviting me, however, I only do paid sits locally and my rate is X,” that’s establishing that they don’t do THS sits locally.
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