I have now experienced several times that the sitter’s location is given completely incorrectly.
The country I live in is probably pretty desirable for certain countries and regions of the world.
I have now had several applications from sitters who say they come from a city in my country, that they are nearby and would like to make the sit. When I go to their profile and look at their photos, I immediately see that they are not from my country, but probably from very far away. Before I start a longer conversation or even suggest a video call, I ask where they originally come from. The answers are mostly adventurous, mostly from another continent and most of the time they don’t currently live in my country at all, but also in a completely different continent.
I clearly signal in my listing that I only accept sitters from my continent. I’m now wondering whether there are sitter’s who, for example, want a certain sit and then adapt their location to that sit. Unfortunately, I have to say that over half of all the sitters who contact me give completely incorrect information about their actual location.
I don’t think that’s okay. What experiences have other owners had, what do you think about it?
It is not a trend but rather a common pet-sitting planning strategy. Sitters may reside in country A but visit or plan to visit country B where they would like to pet sit. There is nothing wrong with that.
Please note, the profile does not explicitly state the country of residence but asks ‘Where are you located?’ Sitters may be located in your country/town or on their way there at the time of application.
This is SOP for some sitters. We do this, for example we are currently looking for sits in Italy so we change our location to Italy so HOs can invite us to a sit if they wish (we live in Portugal). While it’s not the most transparent system the THS site doesn’t allow for better flexibility. If you only want sitters that are currently “in country” I would highlight that in your listing. Good luck.
We also do it as we travel to sit. We change the country or city to one we are in or headed to shortly. 3 years of full time sitting and it’s never been a problem, owners like it as they know you’re coming to their neighbourhood. THS isn’t more flexible than this suit’s a “fix”. Good advice from @Oztravels “In country sitters only please” or similar.
Yes. We do it too. We’re currently in the Philippines, then heading to Singapore and Thailand for sits. We want our next sits to be in the UK, so thats where we have set our current location. But it isn’t really dishonest. Well be in the UK well before we would book our next sit. Then I’ll change our location to France where we’ll spend much of the summer.
@Coclico THS doesn’t have a function for sitters to show where they are looking for sits. It is a frequently requested feature . Until that function is added the only way for a sitter to indicate the area that they want to sit is by setting it as their location .
Many full time sitters do not spend the whole year in one country or continent so have to pick one for their profile.
So in most cases it’s not the sitter trying to mislead, it is a sitter using the only available functions of THS to indicate their desired location for sits.
I think all members( both sitters and homeowners )would find it more useful if THS added a function for sitters to be able to indicate ( if they chose to use it ) where they are looking for sits and on what dates .
If this additional function were added it would enable homeowners to be able to search for available sitters based on their desired location for specific dates. This would benefit sitters too as it would stop them receiving requests to sit in locations that they are not available to travel to.
We too dont have a permanent address so change our location regularly.
The location you see is the location we are heading to so Im not sure why you would object to this?
We are UK based, are very reliable and will travel anywhere to sit. We have been all over the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand and have never cancelled or been late arriving to any sit.
Just remember that THS is not really intended for local sitters and it may be difficult to find sitters that are in your exact same town or area, or come from the same country and cultural background as you. THS is as much of a travel and culture exchange as it is a pet sitting service. It is designed to be a mutually beneficial exchange site, where sitters from a different location from you gain a free stay in your home and opportunity to see that area in exchange for their free pet sitting services. You will mostly only find sitters here who are travellers from abroad or different area of your country. If you are lucky, there may be a few local sitters or people who are currently not too far from your area, but you cannot expect that they come from the same country or cultural background as you. Staying open minded to all sorts of people, cultures and travellers is key to success on this site.
The very nature of house sitting means many sitters do not have a fixed, permanent location so there is nothing sinister about them changing their location to reflect their current place. There is nothing necessarily “wrong” - it is simply reflecting the reality of their situation.
If the OP is simply concerned about unreliable travel arrangements for those travelling long distances then I think they could be reassured by reading potential sitter reviews to check that they have always been reliable, on-time etc.
I have not travelled intercontinentally for THS sits, but in my applications I always mention how I intend to get there and where I will be travelling from. That could be from home or from a previous sit.
Just within in Europe, and even then HOs may be a bit anxious about the distances. Now for my upcoming sit in the UK I bought a ferry ticket early and sent them a copy to reassure them.
We are travelling sitters. We’ve had no fixed base for the last 12 years. In our profile we are very open about this. We also state where we are from and our nationalities. (I have dual nationality) We set our location to where we currently are or where we wish to be. Its not in anyway misleading. We are as transparent as the THS system allows. In the early years we put a location in UK (where I am from) and we got a lot invitations to sit in UK -often we were on the other side of the world. Once we realised we could change location we first did it to prevent unnecessary invitations and later as a way to encourage invitations to countries we were headed to. Many hosts do seem to look for sitters in their locality therefore it makes sense for sitters to mark that place as their location if that’s where they’d like to sit!
It was understandable in uncertain Covid times that hosts requested more local or in-country sitters because of all the risks of travel restrictions/positive testing etc
We do it, there’s nothing underhanded about it, as it’s the only way a sitter can focus on the specific area they want sits in, so that HO’s in that area know we are available to sit there.
With ourselves, we have more than enough sits in within a 2hr drive of our home town, we don’t ‘need’ anymore as we have HO’s that repeatedly book us. So I don’t want to waste any HO’s time, by them reaching out to us, when we are likely to say no to them.
There is only one place overseas where we want to be, because our family lives there, so that is the place we choose to display on our profile, so that HO’s in that area know we are sitters who want to be in their area in particular, so if they reach out we are very likely to be able to help one another.
With ourselves we know exactly what the visitor restrictions are of the country we are interested in, and we’re learning the language so most HO’s we speak to are happy when they chat to us, because they know we are serious about wanting to be in their place, plus we have a real reason to return year after year given our family lives there, and that help reassures HO’s that we are reliable too.
In my thinking, the name of the platform being “Trusted House Sitters,” although catchy, implies an inherent imbalance toward the home host that is somewhat supported by the t&c and MS and THS’ organizational positions.
It also seems the more the company grows, the more diluted the initial concept becomes.
Perhaps with all the reworks…and updates, the company name should follow:
“Trusted mutually benefical exchange between people who want to experience different geographic locations regardless of their reasons and people that have homes in those geographic locations who will welcome people to stay in their home as a proxy of themselves during their designated absence for whatever reason.”
When you say the sitter has to be from your continent do you mean born there, citizen of a country in the continent, legal resident or just currently living there?
I am from a country that I am not currently living in, citizen of another country that I am not always resident in, live in more than one country and can be currently staying in many more. My THS sitter profile could be any one of these.
Many sitters set their profile to where they currently are or where they plan to be with no intention of deceiving anyone.
I have marked my location as the place I’m trying to “get to” next. THS has shifted the boxes around so right at the top of “experience,” I have a shouty all-caps indicator of where I reside and where I want to head.
There is no way for me to indicate where I want to go other than the “countries I’m interest in” list, which I can’t imagine anyone even really looks at.
If you have specific parameters for your sit, then just post those in your listing. If your location is as popular as you say, then you shouldn’t have any issue finding someone who fits your requirements.
But no, this is yet another way to hack the platform, not a real intent to deceive.
Probably having to do with being (I assume) EU-based, and all the problems that come with things like pandemic travel restrictions, strikes, cost of transoceanic travel, etc.
