Hi @clanger32
To reaffirm your answers, yes location plays a part but for many sitters especially those of us that can’t have animals in our home life, to ‘borrow’ ho’s for a short period of time is wonderful.
Potentially that’s the case, but actual remuneration often comes with different expectations. You might need local background checks and insurance (all take time and money), a local right to work and bank account, and following on from that: tax implications. You can also find yourself with considerably less flexibility around your time or more rigid expectations from owners who feel they own your time because money has exchanged hands.
I started out as a backpacker, so staying in somebody’s apartment with cute fluffy companions was far and away more comfortable than a hostel dorm, cheap guesthouse, or couchsurfing, even aside from money saved on accommodation. Now I’m using it as a way to save money while job searching in a city I’m relocating to. Theoretically I have work rights and could seek payment, but I want that flexibility to come and go as I please as long as the pets are happy, because I want to be able to pick up a call from a recruiter or schedule an interview at short notice. Also, quite frankly, as much as petsitting seems like it pays ok, the actual hourly rate and reality of cobbling together a living doing it is not the best and my day-to-day professional skillset pays quite a lot better so I’d rather stick to that.
That’s just my story - everyone here has VERY different reasons for doing it through THS rather than Rover. Sometimes the things we want in life aren’t monetary 
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Don’t think about the sign-up price of THS, as you get your membership extended by 2 months everytime you introduce someone to THS, so for us, yes we’ve outlayed our original cost, but we’ve actually got THS for free until almost 2028 (we’re one month short). So for us, it’s been a tiny cost for years of happiness.
But obviously you will only be recommending people to THS if you have a good experience in the first place (we LOVE it!). But it’s very easy, because you simply pass on your discount code to other people so they get it for cheaper too (our’s have been mainly strangers while we’re out dog walking, and they get talking about holidays).
The longest sit I’ve done thus far was 3 weeks. I purposely don’t apply for long sits (1+ months) because I easily get to the point where I’m ready to leave and move on to the next destination. I’ll take some sits that are a few days long (2-5 days) to fill the gap between sits but those aren’t my preference.
I’m doing a two full days one night local sit to me, it’s a £2 bus ride to get there!
It works for me as I want to do some history research in a nearby churchyard.
There’s a unique HO/sitter for everyone.
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