What makes you choose to use THS over the other house and pet sitting platforms that are our there?
The quantity of sitting opportunities. The membership costs more than other sites but because THS have far more listings at any time, it is the best value by far.
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Same as @Colin , because of the choice of sits.
However I have noticed that there are less European sits than before and THS seems more focused around the UK, USA, Canada and Australia lately, whereas one of the competitors definitely starts to diversify around Europe.
Thereās place for many players on the market, all the better for us sitters 
THS seems more focused around the UK, USA, Canada and Australia lately,
Yes IĀ“ve notices this myself too.
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@Pawtastic Mmm, since this is a THS forum, I probably shouldnāt āadvertiseā competitors. Iāll PM you 
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When I started sitting in 2018, I was already location independent and just a few months into retirement. I started with another company with a very low membership fee. I felt fortunate to find a sit in a beautiful place with a lovely woman and gorgeous kitties who I sat for about 3 weeks every other month. In between I found others but they were hard to come by and required lots of road travel.
When I joined THS about 6 months later, not only was there an abundance of available sits in countries I love and wanted to experience, I noticed a difference in the quality of sits and subsequently so were my experiences.
Now I am part of a community with wonderful friends. I am happy and it gets better every day.
I feel no need to look for anything else.
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English speaking countries may be easier for THS. No idea if Brexit comes into play but could also have an impact as a UK based business.
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The old sayingā¦āIf it aināt broke, donāt fix itā
Although we found THS in October, itās met all our needs and more!!! With petsitting, travel, meeting amazing pet-loving like-minding folks, itās truly more than we could have imagined. Iām completely aware of the other sites out there, however I have no desire to look elsewhere, when weāve found exactly what suits us at this time. Quality and quantity come to mind, whenever Iām searching the listings. Weāve been extremely pleased with every experience.
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Although THS was the first platform that I used I also use another one as the number of sitters responding to sits on THS appears to have fallen dramaticallyā¦.I am undecided whether I will rejoin next year atmā¦ā¦ā¦
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Oh really? I wonder why that might beā¦
More sits than sitters maybeā¦ā¦ reading the posts there seem to be a lot of people struggling to get any applicationsā¦ā¦the last two sitters that Iāve had came from a different platformā¦. Weāre quite lucky in that all the sitters whoāve been to us are happy to return for subsequent sits if they are freeā¦ā¦
I feel the same. Twice before Iāve used THS earlier this year and found suitable sitters very quickly but sadly due to recurrences of Covid had to cancel both of these sits. We are now planning a third trip back to my partnerās home country in Europe and over the past few days I have invited no less than 22 sitters who I felt would be a good fit. Some responded quickly saying they were already booked (but their calendar hadnāt been updated!) a few are unread but the majority have been read and not replied (Rude!). I prefer private invitations to sitters as I research them before inviting them to check the fit but think I may soon have to open the invitation out and see if I get a better response.
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What do you mean when you say THS is focusing more on certain countries?
Do you mean THS the company itself is doing something specific to focus on certain countries?
Or do you mean to say there seem to be more home owners from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia travelling lately?
Inviting sitters personally is always going to achieve little success. Even if you only invite a selection from those that haveā liked ā your listing, the chances of them wanting or being able to sit for you at exactly the dates you are looking for is really slim.
The majority of sitters that do not keep their calendars up to date is because it is really complicated to do on this site and not just a case of blocking out dates as you would think - so you can blame THS for that one rather than the sitters themselves.
I can understand you thinking it is rude of sitters not replying but you have to remember that you have contacted them unsolicited and some sitters get a lot of these invites! it can be complimentary to be asked but when you are having to respond sometimes multiple times daily the compliment can wear thin on occasions.
I try hard to respond to all our invites but must admit that I no longer reply when I have āNOT AVAILABLEā emblazoned in capital letters on our profile
Your chances of finding the right fit is much greater by opening the invite out.
This way you do have to spend more time sorting the ones you think will be a good fit from those that you are not so keen on but at least you know that the ones you like are definitely available and are as interested in you as you are in them.
- Disclaimer* We did, on one occasion only, accept a private invitation so this route is not a completely fruitless exercise! - Good luck!
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I would have to agree. We get invites from time to time and they are almost always local. We only sit internationally so itās rare that we get invited to sits from afar unless it happens to one weāve favourited in the past. So far, weāve yet to accept an invite.
Just a note, since I started changing my location to where I am interested in sitting, I no longer get local invites but I am getting invites to where I am going. Itās fascinating and I love it!
Also like Colin, I have had to put it in my headline the where and when of my availability. It just seems that most do not look or use the calendar.
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Iām hesitant to do that because I feel like itās a bit deceptive to home owners, although I think for nomads itās a great idea!
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You can include in your profile where you hail from and that your intention is to go to x place. This is what I do. I say very clearly who I am and what I do, how I live. At least that is how I intend it to be understood.
So far it works well. Try it, do your own ātestā and let that feeling subside.
We are not that different.
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I meant that there are more sits for those countries lately.
If Iām not mistaken, THS did a massive marketing campaign in the USA, so might have something to do with it?
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We started with a different (lower-priced) platform in 2015 and we join local platforms for target countries where the platform has a strong presence (Mexico, New Zealand, for example). Still, of 46 sits (we have done quite a few long ones), 80% have come from THS. Last year we dropped others and only belong to THS, though we will adjust that as our travels warrant.
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