We want to improve our Saved Searches function and make it easier for you to find the sits, that you want to see. Please help by providing feedback on the following survey: https://forms.gle/jKSxALzPBmmsYNim8
Please add further comments and thoughts on this topic.
Thanks, Ben (Senior Product Manager, Trusted Housesitters, Members experience)
I answered already through the site but looking on the app just now i precise
For the search you could add for the location : Europe. Other continents too of course
In Covid times choosing " city " or “beach” can be frustrated as i can’t travel far from France… and other sitters can’t either.
it would be fine to create “dog (s) welcome” for sitters who own pets… it does not exist. Could owners precise that on their request ?
Coming with members of your family is possible among filters but pets are members of our family too.
If owners refuse sitters pets it would be fine to know
Also think there should be a deadline on owners responding to sitters
Its frusting.
They tell you your just what we our looking for .
We will get back to you with details.
We give up waiting
If they don’t reply within 2 weeks bye bye.
It’s great that you are looking to improve this feature. I think it could be a really powerful tool to help us find sits.
Currently we can only have 3 saved searches which is not enough for us as full time housesitters.
As @Provence said it would be useful to have better location filters - whether that is continents or even just be able to have multiple locations. I may have already mentioned this before, but RightMove have a great feature on their website where you can draw on the map the area you want to search and it returns results only within that area.
Another feature would be to just set a start date. Sometimes we have a few months booked up but nothing after. So a search filter starting from the start of our gap running continuously would be nice. Obviously we could just scroll through the calendar and enter an end date far in the future, but would be handy to just have open ended.
On the form you mentioned adding to dashboard, I think this would be good, currently it takes up quite a large space on the search page and if you are extending the ability to have more than 3 it might be too big for there. It might be nice to have alerts saying when new matches have been found on the website as well as the app.
I submitted the survey but I’ll add my thoughts here too. I exclusively use the app, didn’t even know you could do saved searches and alerts on the website. On the app, you get 10 saved searches, and I still don’t find that to be enough. Some suggestions:
1)The ability to search by region in the U.S. (and other large countries). Right now you can only search by state or the whole country. If someone is available to sit in a particular region (i.e. Northeast, Southwest, etc.), they need to search each state individually. In normal times when there are a ton of sits, getting alerts for across the whole U.S. leads to too many irrelevant alerts.
Also agree with @ChrisAndSuzeGoWalkies about a start date filter and @Provence about a “pet friendly” filter!
Today we accepted a sit.
We knew the message had been opened by the HO
So why didn’t they respond to us today.
We returned a message to say we wanted to update calender for this yr.
Our they going away thinking about it.
As we already agreed on a date change on their part.
We our able to sit most of the time around check ups etc.
So why our they getting away with this.
Sometimes I personal think we our the underdog
Ho think we dont have lovely homes of our own.
We own our home outright.
Because we will pull the plug on it.
Because of our last sit.
At present we have a summer sit arranged and Christmas.
With the same people.
On this site they continually remind you that you have a message…
A star is given by your profile on response to your mail.
Think something along this is needed on here.
Brilliant way of getting sound feedback Ben. I have taken part in the survey and hope it will be helpful. I find above pointers from fellow house sitters very valuable, too. I am using THS website daily even if Mr Covid is still hanging around which means we can’t leave our province in the Spain at the moment (luckily we are looking after 2 cheeky beagle boys who keep us happy). I am using 3 saved searches as I am dreaming on visiting these countries hopefully later in the year. I find that the delay of the email alert could be improved so in the future I will be able to apply for a sit immediately when it comes up.
I would like the daily emails I receive from THS to be more specific to me. I have already set my profile for the countries I am interested in and the dates I’m available, but get emails for sit all over the world. If the sits were more specific it would save me time dreaming about other places that I’m not interested in at this time.
Following another discussion; i would appreciate to see among filters
“Sitter’s pet friendly”
“Home swapping friendly”
Agreed. This is why I don’t even look at the emails anymore. It used to be that you only were shown sits within your chosen countries, but recently it’s become every available sit it seems. Not very helpful to get shown sits in Thailand when we’re over here unable to leave the U.S.!
Hi @LynKinn have you used Saved searches this will mean you can create alerts which are specific to yourself. Here is a link to all the info: Discover saved searches | TrustedHousesitters.com
Ben, yes I am familiar with the saved search feature. The is issue having to create a saved search (maximum of 3) when this could be done with the information that is already part of my profile. I thought that was the reason why I entered this in the first place. I know I have entered the countries I’m interested in, dates I’m available, the pets I would watch and attractions. Only a few of the other criteria are missing on the profile page. This is why I don’t understand the need for a separate saved search. Couldn’t this search just be part of your profile? We a nomads and are willing to go anywhere and the limit of only 3 searches at a time really limits us, just saying.
Please add “Must have pets” to the search function we’ll look after any animals but I prioritise horses and currently there’s no way to filter just for them as a must (and any other pets), unless I exclude all other pets which I don’t want!
Did you notice @PetsSit there was a sit for horse riders in France in Rieupeyroux from july until early september ?
Few sitters have replied and there are 6 horses to look after…
I didn’t but until Covid is under control and the travel situation clearer I’ll be staying in the UK. Thanks for thinking of me! 
I guess the owner knows the situation and faced the same risk of cancellation. But it could be an option.
Last year an english family “hired” us in january then Covid came . Until the fortnight before our arrival and their departure for their holidays (in France) we were on “stand by”.
But they still kept us in mind.
At this point I’m limiting my saved searches to those in the USA. It would be helpful to save regions instead of individual states. Right now I’m searching in the southeast so I have to do separate searches for South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and so forth. As a work around I will do a search for the entire country, then go directly to the map and zoom in on the region to see what’s available but that’s not a search I would save.
This isn’t related to searches but it would be brilliant if we were notified when a HO read our message. I’m constantly checking to see if my message has been read and usually, for the more popular sits, messages are not read, let alone acknowledged.
@Alice You can see when a HO has read your message. It’s written “read” under it.
On my side i would appreciate Europe (as already told before) otherwise I’m obliged to search by country. And European countries are often smaller than US states…
Yes but I have to keep checking my inbox. It would be helpful if I got an alert when my message was read.
Usually after about a week or two, if my message hasn’t been read, I know that we don’t have much of a chance of hearing from the HO.
