As you all know, the Forum is an amazing place for sharing knowledge and advice. We thought it would be fun and insightful to discuss how each of us got started as a sitter and what led to our very first sit!
Was the forum the most helpful part for you? Did hearing about othersâ experiences and having the chance to ask questions make you feel more reassured and informed? Maybe getting feedback when you linked your THS sitter profile was especially useful.
Or perhaps you discovered the Forum Community later on, and other resources helped you get started, like the blog, FAQs, Membership Services, or any other THS tools?
Maybe you didnât use any of these resources and figured it all out on your own. If thatâs the case, was there something that could have made your journey easier when you were starting out?
Weâd love to hear your stories about how you got started and what led you to that very first sit!
Hi @Carla
I joined THS in May 2022 and got my first sit a month later in June 2022. I made the beginner mistake of applying for many popular location sits. I saw the suggestions on this community to apply for local or last minute sits when starting and 23 applications later I finally got my first pretty local sit (about 20 miles from my London home).
It can be frustrating starting out on THS until you build up some good reviews especially with the 5 sit application rule but 21 sits later THS is worth it!
Thank you for getting the discussion started @richten1
Iâm so glad that the forum community suggestions for applying to local and last-minute sits helped and that 21 sits later you still think THS is with it
Our family had already been traveling for 2 years fulltime with our motorhome. It was great except my daughter kept getting sad everytime she saw other campers walking their dogs. We lost our last dog at the beginning of covid. I met a fellow camper who was new to camping but not traveling. I asked if she traveled by staying in AirBnbâs. She said no. Instead she explained they did petsits. I tried talking my husband into it and he said, âwhy would we store our rv and then have the responsibility to watch peopleâs pets?â I said, âbecause your daughter misses our dogsâ and here we are on our 21st petsit 15 months later.
I participated in a webinar a few years ago through the Nomadic Network with a sitter from THS. I loved the idea of it and filed it away in the back of my mind. After we said goodbye to our wonderful dog in the late winter I decided to give it a try and I love it.
I became a member two years ago, but it took half a year before I got my first sit, mostly because work got in the way. Then I retired and was free at last!
My sixth application was accepted, and I spent the second half of December with two dogs in Brussels. A bit rainy but very enjoyable.
After that, most of my applications got accepted I think. Luckily, I started reading the forum only later on. Now on my 17th sit, a very easy one, for an outdoor cat in Bath.
I believe I first saw THS mentioned in a Facebook travel group a good few years ago. We finally signed up in December â22 somewhat impulsively and applied for our first sit within an hour of joining for a New Yearâs sit. We scheduled a call with the HO for the next day and were confirmed within the week - very lucky! Weâve since done 20 + sits and will head back to our first sit for the third time this summer! I didnât join the forum until this year but I have found it quite helpful. I actually wasnât aware of certain THS rules that were in place before but now feel more informed. So thank you THS forum members
I read an article in âThe Sunday Timesâ back in 2010 or 2011 by the founding couple of THS. In 2012 I joined as a sitter anticipating doing sits for holidays from full time work. I didnât use it so didnât renew my membership. Later I decided to fulfill my ambition of âdoing New Zealand properlyâ having done a 3 week Contiki trip there 30 years before so joined up again late 2018 and spent 6 months housesitting in the UK before travelling to New Zealandâs North island for 6 months. Since then, after the pandemic, I spent 6 months in NZâs South island and 8 months in Australia housesitting and roadtripping. Currently on housesit #80 and loving this lifestyle.
We started sitting just over a year ago, and loved our first sit so much that we went full time straight away, now weâve got 27 x 5* reviews on THS, and 3 x 5* reviews with another site (but we prefer THS for the feel-good factor). We were fully booked for the whole year within 3 months of signing up with THS. Nowadays we return to a lot of the same pets, unless we fancy a change of scenery, we love it.
Was the forum the most helpful part for you? No definitely not, itâs a very negative place that highlights problems that we have never had, however, I do like helping solve the problems of others, which is why I try to help if possible. Did hearing about othersâ experiences and having the chance to ask questions make you feel more reassured and informed? No, I am not influenced by others, Iâd rather make up my own mind. We simply tried it, loved it, and have never looked back. Maybe getting feedback when you linked your THS sitter profile was especially useful? I have never asked for feedback, we typically get chosen for the majority of sits we apply for, so we have never needed to ask for help on that front.
On another note, the one thing that was very off putting as a newbie in the beginning was both the APP and the calendar, both are so out of date, and yet so easy to fix, and they still frustrate me now.
I joined a month or so ago. Found THS completely by chance googling pet sitting on the Internet. Found some fantastic sits in locations weâve been keen to visit with pets that matched our experience so applied. With no THS reviews didnt expect to get them but fortunately after video calls weve been chosen. First sit was amazing & doing a repeat sit next month. Have had good contact with HOs for other sits - so far so good.
I have been a full time traveler since December 2011. My husband and i started house sitting in the summer of 2012 while sitting out the boating hurrican season in the Southeastern US. We mostly sat for friends in our old neighborhood in Atlanta. We did this for 8 years and towards the end would be booked solid for 4 monthes over the summer, many of those sits booked a year a head of time. We did this the same we use THS - as a trade, accomondations for watching pets and homes. This allowed us to be in one place all summer and work- because we soon found out that sailing is expensive!
In 2021 my husband and i had separated for a while. By this time we were traveling in a van. During our reconciliation, he decided that he wanted to go out to the Southwest for a while. He bought a SUV to live in. I suggested that since we had so much pet/house sitting experience that he sign up for THS.
Im not sure how i first became aware of THS - maybe on a sailing or van life group. But also one of our regilar pet owners told us about using it when we werenât available. I also made an overlanding friend who had used THS after her and her husbands sailing journeys came to a end.
Anyway, my husband signed up and headed west. I think he started with 5 or 6 outside references. He ended up doing maybe 4 sits over two months (mostly last minute sits). Not all of them were great. Three of the sits got cut short and one of them was actually nasty to him.
I finally joined him out west and we traveled in our van. We started doing sits occasionally as a break from the road (we no longer needed to work over the summer).
I dont know how long ive been reading the forum but it has been super helpful to refine our sit applications and to help us know what we really want out of sitting. It is also great to have a community to share with, which i didnt have for 9 years.
My husband and I were on a first time cruise going from Singapore to Dubai in 2016. We met a couple from Liverpool who we became very friendly with. One night at dinner together, they started talking about their pets. I asked who looked after them and they said THS. Iâd never heard of THS and was instantly intrigued. We joined as soon as we returned home and within a week applied on our first local sit which was in a beautiful oceanfront home. We continued to apply on local sits and were very successful in getting them. After a year as members, we did sits in the U.S., Ireland and Australia. Weâve done over 40 sits now and so far have had nothing but good experiences.
We were cycling throught France in 2010 and staying in a B&B and enjoyed it so much we asked owner if we could extend and he said he was busy and it was impossible. However he suggested another B&B in another close by town and we ended up staying 4 nights becoming quite friendly with the Champage company owners who asked us if we would be interested to return in 16 months time to look after their magnificent home and pets. Of course they were talking about housesitting which we had never heard of or considered. I think it took a quick glance at each other and the decision was made then. We continued on a bike trip and a month later were forced by rain to stop in another small village in the Lot region of France and stayed in another cosy B&B for 4 days and again became friendly with the owners who invited us to come back at Xmas for 2 months to look after their property, dog and 2 cats. So we finished our bike trip in August, returned to Australia, packed up our house and travelled worldwide for 10 years straight living out of a backpack. Now 175 housesits later I would have to say it has been a wonderful experience.
And we followed you by a few days around NZ early 2020 and found each other via TwitterâŚ.we were in a Motorhome and you were always just ahead of us one day weâre destined to meet
We started soon after our family pet died, when we were on a video call with a friend who mentioned we would be perfect pet sitters. We met the friend through a nomad group âfireâ (financially independent retire early) where there is a strong community of travelers who like to save money.
We had heard of pet sitting before, but felt tied down by our own pet.
The forum was very helpful and mostly supportive. A few times people have made hurtful or judgemental comments, but on the whole I have learned a lot and found people to be friendly and willing to share their experience.
The most surprising and controversial topic for me was around doing laundry when leaving a house sit. Expectations vary a lot, so now I ask the host what they want us to do.
I did not ask for feedback on my sitter profile, instead I reviewed the profiles of a few other sitters to get ideas.
When I started, I was frustrated by the calendar functionality and the need to close the app in order to refresh messages. The time estimates of when messages were received also confused me, so I try to get home owners onto another messaging platform asap now.
I think reading the forum posts is a positive experience for me, from finding meet ups, to seeing photos of pets, to helping new home owners with their listings. It has also helped me learn to be more tolerant of the dirty houses, lack of instructions on pet meds, undisclosed pet behaviour, etc that is sprung on us, as I know it happens to other people as well.
one day weâre destined to meet 
