I included my profession in the title because it’s incredibly relevant; I’ve designed and built P2P and B2C marketplaces for the last 20 years, I’m not your typical user.
I’ve been using THS for a few months now and I wanted to pass along my suggestions for improvements. None of these are major a undertaking. They would be relatively simple to implement yet have a large impact on usability.
Sit Locations Need Greater Precision: As a sitter, I am only interested in ‘city sits’, meaning downtown. It is incredibly difficult to know which listings are actually in the city/downtown. At least 70% of listings that appear to be in a city are actually in the suburbs, sometimes 30+ miles outside of the city. And each is located in a town/city with its own name, so why isn’t that the location that is shown on the listing? For example, a home in Lakewood, CO, which is a suburb of Denver, will have the location listed as “Denver”. It makes no sense.
Let Pet Parents Decline Individual Sitter Applications: A frustrating aspect of being a sitter is waiting for a pet parent to make a decision. I’ve had applications that were under review for weeks. So, instead of waiting for the parent to choose a winner, so-to-speak, why not let them decline individual applications as well? This could really help sitters know if they are being actively considered or not.
Show Upcoming Sits on Sitter Profiles: Currently, I have just two completed sits. I am on my third currently, and I have two more booked. Displaying this information on our public profile would help to improve our reputation as a sitter. And it would help us stand out more to the sits we apply to.
Allow Sorting by End Date: Some of us have a lot of availability. In practice, that means we often have to string together multiple stays over the course of months. Sorting by start date is no doubt helpful, but being able to sort by the end date would be useful as well.
Agree on the location issue, that’s been discussed here in the past.
HOs can decline individual sitters and often do in order to be able to obtain more applicants.
I would not want upcoming sits on my profile. Anyone can view our profiles, I don’t personally want any random person to be able to see where I will be and the dates I will be there. That also means people would be able to see when a sitter will be away from their own home. Safety/security concerns with that one.
I appreciate the information about declining individual sitters, I wasn’t aware it was possible.
Regarding upcoming sits, I should have been more specific. I didn’t mean that all of the details should be visible. I was thinking more in terms of a metric/statistic. For instance, most of my marketplace expertise is from a B2C site that connected moving companies with people who are moving. On moving company public profiles we would show helpful metrics like: # of Completed Moves, # of No Shows, Acceptance Rate, Response Rate, etc. In context to THS, I was thinking of something similar, like “# of Booked/Upcoming Sits”.
I don’t think adding number of upcoming sits would really be that helpful. But I’m a sitter, maybe an HO can weigh in. The important part is the reviews from completed sits. One or two great reviews means much more than the number confirmed sits that have yet to be completed. As a sitter I read HOs reviews very carefully, if I knew they had additional sits confirmed, that wouldn’t really provide any useful additional information.
There are lots of issues with the platform that I would prioritize over adding something like this. Believe me, with your background, you will find more issues with the platform that will leave you shaking your head and wondering why they don’t fix things that would be very easy to fix.
I agree with the security concerns; I really don’t want anyone knowing how many sits I have coming up or when they will be. And some homeowners actually think sitters with lots of sits upcoming are “worse” than sitters with a few - it is a matter of preference. I have had homeowners ask me on video calls how frequently I sit, and I’m happy to offer that information in a call but not on a public platform visible to all kinds of people who don’t need to know.
In addition to doing a “reverse sort” by start date as @bscivolette suggests, I would love to be able to sort by duration. Sometimes I want a shorter duration, sometimes a longer one, but being able to sort by duration would be super helpful.
More search specificity in length of sit would be great too. Many, many homeowners post 6 night sits, but I can only choose between 3 days and 7 days. I’m willing to do 6 nights but not 3.
There are lots of issues with the platform that I would prioritize over adding something like this. Believe me, with your background, you will find more issues with the platform that will leave you shaking your head and wondering why they don’t fix things that would be very easy to fix.
I agree with @systaran. I’m a sitter and home owner. As an owner considering a prospective sitter, it’s of no interest to me what future sits a sitter has as long as they are available for my sit dates. I can see on a sitter’s calendar on their profile if they have confirmed THS sits, as those dates are marked out. Additionally stters can only apply for sits if they are available for the entire advertised sit period, as there are no overlapping dates allowed (unless you are in the beta test group). If I was interested in what a sitter was doing after my sit I would ask them during our video chat. However that information usually comes up organically when discussing arrival and departure details.
@bscivolette if you search “website issues” using the spyglass above you will get lots of threads about the many many issues and suggestions from members
I would start with the calendar. No one uses it because it’s not functional. I would use it if I could put when and where I’m available to sit. The when is useless without the where. I’ve received invites for dates I’m available, but if I have a week open between two sits in England, I’m not available for a sit in the US despite my technically being available on those dates.
Some measure of response time would be helpful so we don’t waste our time applying for sits for HOs that either don’t respond or are very slow to respond.
Filters - we should be able to filter by number of pets and also breed or at least size of dogs.
Lack of ability for sitters to contact HOs if there is even a one day conflict. Sometimes HOs state that the beginning/end dates are flexible, but if the sitter already has a sit that conflicts by a day there is no way to contact the HO to discuss that flexibility
I believe there is a thread in here somewhere with suggested improvements.
I don’t know if this would necessarily help sitters secure more sits .
We have 8 sits confirmed but that goes into 2026 . A host might think that we are already too busy or booked up with sits - when in reality there are months in 2025 where we have availability and are looking to do a sit .
Something basic like a key to explain the calendar would be very helpful .
@bscivolette, as experienced housesitter then here are comments. #1 THS functionality on listing uses nearest large community as location. Pet Parents can add specific detail in listing text. We find many housesits that are a considerably more rural than expected … recommend discuss in video call. #2 already possible within THS functionality #3 don’t understand benefit to pet parent. we list our past and future housesits (brief details, not exact dates) in text format within sitter profile. this seems to provide pet parents with insight on number, profile and geography of experience. More broadly, suggest don’t worry about this … housesitter cannot apply for listing unless they are available. #4 don’t really understand desired feature. in case helpful, we use a shared digital calendar that displays confirmed and applied housesits. We sometimes have time periods to fill and this can require some creativity. We approach such efforts by thinking about ‘feature housesits’ (longer duration, high attractive characteristics) to fill majority of gap period then ‘filler housesits’ (shorter duration, acceptable characteristics) to complete residual time gaps.
As a sitter, I totally agree with you re point #1. I inquired on a sit a couple of nights ago. The homeowners didn’t specify exactly what city they lived in but I garnered from the population of the city and the direction from where I lived where it was. I don’t understand why homeowners can advertise a very desirable sit but totally neglect to say what city or suburb of that city they live in. I’m also only interested in city sits but homeowners advertise their sits as being in “Vancouver” and further into the listing you realize they are on an island which has to be accessed via a ferry from Vancouver. One feature that THS has recently changed which I find really annoying is that they no longer show at the top of a sitter’s heading in their profile where they live. I find this important information. I like to know if homeowners are interested in having “local” sitters or not. Now one has to scroll down into a sitter’s profile to find that info and it’s not always available. It seems like THS likes to fix issues that don’t need fixing but the issues that really do need fixing aren’t being addressed!
When it comes to your first issue on location for a sit, hosts have on several occasions here on forum - by sitters - been encouraged to put their location to a nearby well-known town/city/destination, as sitters wouldn’t otherwise know where the destination is and the sit might atttract less sitters. Being too accurate with location for a host (or sitter) is for me also a safety issue. All listings are available online for all and the platform is not restricted to paying members. In my opinion this is a major problem, but currently that is the situation. For a host I wouldn’t think it was a great idea to mark my home on the map with great precision, incl. photos of my home and dates publishing when I will be away having left my home to a stranger and with indoor cameras switched off, re. the terms of THS.
I agree with everything you listed. Regarding ‘some measure of response time’, this is a common metric named “Response Rate”. It’s very easy to implement, assuming THS is already logging event history in sufficient detail. Typically, this metric is displayed to end users as a variation of “Typically responds in under an hour”.
Two Factor Authentication (2FA) to improve security for all users, I doubt this will be implemented since it can’t be monetised and made into a revenue stream.
I’d like to see HOs automatically nudged to respond to applications within the suggested timeframe. Many don’t and it can be very frustrating, HOs miss out on some excellent sitters who see this as poor communication skills.
The team have let me know that they’re currently working on 2FA as a priority in the next few months I don’t have anything more specific, but it sounds like it’s coming!
I’ll be happy to provide another update if I hear anything else.
Point #1: Agree. Very frustrating. It helps to sort by “distance” as THS knows exactly where the homes actually are, and at least if you start at the top of the list, you see the closest listings. In cities, it is also helpful if the owner mentions their neighborhood, but many people don’t.
Point #3: YOU could place this on your profile, right at the top!
2FA would be my priority atm. When you consider the type of information and what someone could do to your reputation with a hack, I find it irresponsible that the system doesnt have this.
I’ve passed it over to the team.
I don’t have anything more specific, but it sounds like it’s coming!