WE have developed our own custom welcome package with a lot more detailed and maps and it would be great if there was an option to just attached a PDF in lieu of filling out the boxes provided. Can we get an either or option?
There’s no reason why you can’t directly send your PDF to a sitter via email or another form of communication. This is quite common between hosts and sitters. So long as sitters receive the necessary information re pets and home after confirmation of the sit, it doesn’t matter how it is sent or in what form.
Thanks, that is what I do. I just want to stop getting the application messages, and it should be an option that a sitter can just pull it down. I could not find a way to attach it on the site.
Unfortunately the site doesn’t provide that option for you.
You can try to fill out only a few lines of the THS Welcome Guide and say “We have a separate non-THS document for you, I can email or Whatsapp it to you. Please message me with your preferred method” then you will stop getting the messages (i assume you mean the one prompting you to “Share you Welcome Guide now” once you confirm a sit)
@phinds, seems a wonderfully sensible request. Cheering on your enthusiasm to provide more information, such as maps 
. We support wise advice from @temba and @MTBer. But even a printed maps/information provided during on-site handover can be valuable.
As experienced housesitters then we find that perhaps two-third of pet parents use THS Welcome Guide and one-third use other methods (PDF of MS Word, Google Docs, other source). Our impression is that newbie, infrequent pet parents or non-tech people rely on THS Welcome Guide - but that more experienced, frequent or tech-friendly people use MS Word or similar.
Welcome Guides vary greatly in terms of the completeness and thoughtfulness of content. We care far more about the content than the format. That said we probably have a preference for non-THS WG as we always seek to have an off-line PDF copy of WG (e.g. need refer to it in area of poor mobile/cellular reception) and this seems needlessly difficult to execute for THS WG.
Re maps, some of the best WG we’ve been provided include maps of popular dog walks or local cafes. This can be low-tech - printouts and highlighted routes. But is super helpful as not only shows dog walks that make dog happy, but also gives credible demonstration of real-world duration/time of walks.