@Amparo @Colin You guys make valid points and I guess that’s why we see sits in great locations go quicker than some more regular places. It’s a combination of pets and places I guess. Trust and responsibility comes into it as well.
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Maybe your listing had explained the cats and their needs and habits very well? I am trying to recall if there were ever any calls where I failed to ask questions specific to the animals. I don’t know. In most cases, I’d say the HOs had discussed the animals’ needs adequately and perhaps I replied with small follow-up questions.
People tend to approach those calls differently too. Many HOs have used it to just finalize the arrangement, while others are “interviewing” several people.
As others here have already said, the sitter invests time, money, and effort into getting there and back–and while there, there are always responsibilities related to pets and home. So I’d just be looking for someone responsible and caring.
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We as sitters care deeply about animals and even when we’re in amazing locations with a lot to offer our priority is always the pet! I think a HO can easily weed out sitters that are not suitable by using their gut feeling, e.g. if a sitter doesn’t ask a single question about the animal involved. We only experienced this once when we handed over a cat sit to another couple (“friends” of the HO) who were clearly uninterested in the instructions / advice given. We’d not have picked them and the HO came back to quite a mess one month later.
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Angela, I can’t read the full article as I need to subscribe but I do get what you are talking about, click bait, attention capturing headlines etc.
However, I still maintain the ethos of the site is changing and it’s on both sides. Maybe it’s because people are more aware of what they can or cannot expect or what they can or cannot get away with. But the expected standards are far higher now then when I started five years ago. A good thing? A bad thing? I don’t know. Im biding my time to see how it develops.
I am a great advocate of THS and the whole ethos of the site. But if talking to someone who is interested in the concept I probably over emphasis the pet part. I just feel some people (house sitters and pet owners) are getting bogged down on the costs, work involved, cleanliness, facilities. It’s definitely not a holiday in the usual sense but there should be some time to get out and about to see the location. Some of the listed sits at the moment are full time jobs if the animals are to be looked after properly to the pet owners specifications. That’s only one example. There are lots more.
We have pet owners on the forum worried that their house isn’t clean or posh enough. They ask what food to leave. Stressing that the garden is too big. Would that have happened two years ago?
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Great and valid points but I am going to address this really huge little bit…
Before this forum existed, though I knew that home and pet sitting was “a thing”, a thing I wasn’t certain I would fit into and then slipped in like Cinderella, I had no way of knowing anything about anything except my own trial and error which I loved. There was no one to ask, no one to compare with so I had no expectations. I just went with it, adapting, correcting, making mistakes and just figuring out what worked best for me.
I felt like a total oddball, alone, not lonely or scared but isolated with my little wonderful secret recipe for a wonderful life.
and then I met all you other weirdos 
and life is complete.
The difference; most of us just did it, now we have lists of expectations…
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Yes, all of us weirdos found each other 
Yay! This community is great because, even though we’re each weird in our own ways, we all love animals and travel, and we help each other as we go.
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@Amparo as I read your response, anticipating your usual pearls of wisdom, I thought you would hit on the point of all of us, pre-forum, being in somewhat of a bubble when it came to what other sitters did. @ElsieDownie, the valid points you’ve mentioned - about discussions of being clean enough, or posh enough, and what food to leave - I was oblivious to most of that before the forum. I just did my own thing, as best as I could (and mostly still do).
The extent of how other sitters and owners operated I sometimes figured out from reading reviews/feedback, or chatting with the owners and sharing some tales. Now I’m so much more aware of the wide range of expectations and experiences - the good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly. However, it’s still relatively a little knowledge, and a little knowledge is often dangerous as it can be misleading.
@Amparo, as to weirdos - I often ask my closest friend why all his friends are strange and weird and why I’m the only normal sane one. He just gives me a look 
and smiles and 
Hmm 
I wonder what that means? 
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The idea behind the Web was - platform independent environment where everyone regardless of soft/hardware could have access to the same documents (information). Once the big corporations followed by the big masses understood the Web´s potential the ideology was trashed and the Web turned into a money-making machine.
The idea behind Airbnb was - an air mattress and breakfast in a private home in exchange for a bit of cash. Interaction with locals. Win-Win. A few years later locals are evicted from their homes which are turned into Airbnbs.
The idea behind THS was “free & unique homestays around the world, in exchange for caring for adorable pets”. Win-Win. A few years later and THS is no longer looking for support and customer service staff but data analysts
The vast majority of people are simply followers.
I must ask the question, “Why did you choose my ad?”
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Truly, the animals are the favorite parts of my sits and I remember each one and miss them at times. I absolutely adore the cat I am sitting with now! I am even bonding with the chickens! For me, the joy is in the bond and time with the animals more than any other aspect. 
I might not ask tons of questions about the animals because I already know I am going to love them! 
I am not sure if I will like the rest of the sit.
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Ha, Jilly, my husband likes to do all those odd jobs too. He’s been known to descale kettles, deep clean dishwashers, take leaves out of gutters, washing windows etc.
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@Pawtastic this is not directly related to the topic of this post but I get what you are saying about only around 5% of members are on the forum.
I do think being on this forum has changed my perspective on things.
I have been shocked at the ‘demands’ some people have and horrified at times by reading about how things can go wrong.
I have also been un-nerved by reading the expectations of both owners and sitters regarding cleanliness. I always leave a place clean, often doing lots of extra jobs if I can find any, but reading some of the posts on here I wonder how anyone, or any home, could live up to some people’s expectations.
I have been thinking about this recently and I sometimes wish I was still one of the other 95%, living in sweet oblivion. 
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Forums can be very (for the lack of a better word) “dangerous/shady/educational world”. My experience with forums goes all the way back to BBS - year 1978. I dare say I know a thing or two about forums therefore I was very, very, very reluctant to join this one. Thinking … sitting pets? how “dangerous” can that be, and needing some info I joined. Big mistake.
This is the way to go
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@RadarInc it’s a bit like reading reviews on hotels, restaurants etc, it’s much more likely that people write a review when they are complaining. I often find myself rolling my eyes at what some people actually complain about though.
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Humans are 11 times more likely to complain than compliment. Our ethos is trust your gut, know that you can’t please all the people all the time and take the naysayers with a pinch of salt 
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Me to. Maybe it’s a case of too much information.
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YES! Absolutely, I thought that too. Talk about ‘mixed messages’! THS is at risk of shooting itself in the foot here with this banner.
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THS would have sanctioned the article and the banner.
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Most greedy people, disinterested in looking after animals, will ignore the article content and remember only the heading. That’s human nature. They sign up, and become really poor custodians of people’s houses and pets, tarring the good sitters with a very bad brush.
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