The only way that could happen is if their friends are also sitter and then the sit was arranged on THS. You can easily check to see if sitters are legit, by clicking on their profile to see if they’ve done other sits as well. At any rate, I highly doubt any home owner would go through all the trouble and expense of arranging for fake sits/reviews.
It wouldn’t be a fake review if it was done with both people being THS members but easy enough for THS members to give their friends reviews. There are always ways to something appear to be good.
Great idea, a list of questions to confirm with HO’s before confirming a sit. Travel dates and times specifically…
Great advice, I do the same thing, inputting their contact info in my phone. This helps when they call and I don’t recognize the number letting it go to voicemail. During the sit I put their contact numbers into my 
Favorites list on my phone.
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I have no petsit reviews either (newbie) but got several sits based on my personal references. My HO’s appreciated what the people that personally know me have to say.
Check out my house sitter profile in Flagstaff, Arizona on TrustedHousesitters
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This is really good information. Often owners post a sit but their dates were still not locked in, and they neglect to update the posting. A sit we are doing in Tucson has a similar situation, the owners posted June 1-June 14th, but when we chatted they mentioned returning on the 13th. We missed applying on another sit that started on the 14th but we didn’t think we were available (with travel distance).
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We are a month out from our three Cotswold sits and haven’t interacted with our home owners since Feb.
I just sent them each a THS message to touch base, remind them of our overall UK plans, plus clearly go over our understanding of our handover dates/times on both ends of the sit. I always include the day of the week, the day of the month, and time frame in order to catch any potential errors or misunderstandings on either end.
If there’s anything else specific to the sit that we have agreed upon and I want to confirm, I mention it in this message as well.
I like to do this on the THS website/app so we have a record of the conversation, although I sometimes also WhatsApp them to let them know the message is there.
A couple of times, we’ve had home owners contact us close to the sit to let us know they made a mistake and they are coming home a day later or whatever, so I really like to get that kind of thing cleared up ahead of time.
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I’ll be doing exactly the same @Kelownagurl in a couple of weeks time, including requesting their Welcome Guides.
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Yep thats us Jocks for you, try, try try again, if nothing else we keep on trying 
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As an owner who LOVES getting frequent pics, especially of my dog at play, I fully agree with this one. Of course, I always ask for them, but it’s definitely worth bringing up or even featuring your willingness to do so in your initial contact message.
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Be uber communicative! As an owner, I read into how quickly people respond to messages. If you don’t care enough to reply in a timely manner (24 hours max), that gives me reason to believe you won’t care much for my dog.
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You are my kind of homeowner!
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I totally agree. I always get a wee bit stressed out when I apply for sits in the UK and the home owner answers me when it’s the middle of the night here. I try to let myself go back to sleep and respond in the morning when I’m thinking straight, but at the same time, I’m worried about making them wait 8 hours for a response. 
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Sure, with technology most people get emails and notifications on their phones, but not everyone does. I’m very active on THS, but even still it takes me longer than 24 hours occasionally to respond to a message or invite.
Perhaps the person takes longer than 24 hours to respond pre-sit because they have other responsibilities but when on sit their main priority would be caring for your house/pets and therefore being able to respond faster.
If you’ve stated in your application where you are and there’s a time difference I don’t think you need to stress about your delayed response! Most host/sitters would surely give each a few hours at least to respond. I’d always give them a day or two but if I see a host has read my application but doesn’t respond after several days I usually just move on. But if it goes unread for a few days I usually think they are away and just haven’t been on the site. The last Sit we confirmed was one I’d given up on (5 days unread) but since I had not booked the dates elsewhere i just left it open and suddenly they made contact and later that day we confirmed the sit!
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P.s Its also a good idea to turn off your phone at night so you don’t stress yourself with worrying about responding instantly!
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I don’t think some homeowners appreciate that we have other stuff going on, other sits, but ALSO, other work, other obligations, whatever.
Of course, they want to pick the best person, just as I want to make sure that I’m investing my time the best way for myself… But what if I was the best person, and something else came up before they confirmed?
If I book a sit, it is carved in stone. Period. However if I book anything, it is also carved in stone! So if someone doesn’t answer my application, I’m moving on. First come first served.
Hi @MissChef don’t you think that perspective works both ways? Owners have many other things going on in their lives too and the process for choosing a sitter can be time consuming especially for new members who are unfamiliar with how it all works … If a sit arrangement doesn’t happen for whatever reason, perhaps it wasn’t the right one anyway, although that may be too simplistic for many.
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Of course, everyone’s busy! I’m just mystified as to why a HO would stall on a pool of applicants for days.
HOs want to select from a large pool of applicants, but if sitters are applying for an opportunity, it’s likely that any other sits they’ve submitted applications for would overlap one or several for those days. If they’re sitting on applications like a dragon sitting on gold, well, this princess is going to be in another castle.
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