Where have all the sitters gone to?

The consensus seems to be it’s a combination of things:

  • With covid, people are more likely to be cautious about doing sits far away/in another country
  • Sitters also haven’t had a chance to take a holiday in a long time so some are sitting less and vacationing more
  • There has been a huge spike in demand for sitters to care for the literal millions of new pets that people acquired during covid

I would make sure that your sit is linked in your forum profile. Maybe ask for some feedback as, with the glut of sits, sitters can be much more picky these days so even a small thing can turn people off, use the tools that the site provides such as boosting and social media mentions (i don’t know much about this part as i’m not a HO).

Either way, I would not be discouraged at this point. Good luck!

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Yes, I think I will re-look at my listing, take some fresh pics and sit tight for a bit longer. Thanks for replying

Hi Emma, my situation was very much like yours and after several weeks without any response, booked by dog & cats into kennels. Having forgotten to delete the dates from the site, yesterday I had my first application which I had to refuse having paid a wacking deposit to the kennels. Although I’d always prefer a house/pet sitter, we are going away in 3 weeks time and I didn’t feel happy leaving the organisation of pet care so close to departure!

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I am not sure what exactly you are responding to in this note (below). If you are referring to the practice in which only US sitters have to undergo an intrusive background check but homeowners do not (nor do sitters in other countries) perhaps you might consider: 1) The added risk of cyber theft we are now subjected to; 2) Sitters meet with homeowners at our own risk in a private home or address they direct us to.

There is nothing magical about TH. If there were, then they wouldn’t have asked for my social security number of photo of my license. While I don’t choose to live in fear, I am also not blind to the one-sided fear that TH is buying into for sitters without considering our reciprocal safety. And that doesn’t even get into the symbolism of such a lopsided policy.

<<I actually don’t understand where THS favors HOs. As a HO you have an address, you have either property or all your belongings are in a rented place. You have a phone number and in many countries of the world you are officially registered at exactly this address. What more do you want of a HO?
The HO is not going to take a sitter’s belongings and run away with them, whereas this could certainly happen the other way around.>>

*** AL Post Moderated - DM Sent to author.

@Pommiegran - as a professional house and pet sitter I’m curious about something. You had mentioned not getting any responses and booking your dog and cats into kennels. I’m curious as to why not take the money you paid to the kennel and pay for a professional house and pet sitter so your fur kids could be comfortable and happy staying at home?

I live in the U.S. and have a profile on Sittercity and I regularly check out paying jobs up to 50 miles from my apartment. There also appears to be pet sitting services in your general area so I was curious why not bring in a professional if THS didn’t produce any results? And you may even save a little money depending on the costs for kennels in the U.K.

And if security and safety is an issue, I’ve worked for professional house and pet sitting companies where I had to go through an extensive background check so I could be bonded and insured, this may be the same for pet care companies in the U.K. And with Sittercity I have to submit to a new background check every 3 months and if companies over there do the same you could find someone you could trust. Just a thought…

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@Pommiegran I’m not sure what to make of this, but we live on the London/Kent/Surrey border. We recently posted for a sitter for a couple of weeks in May. Within a week we had about 10 applicants. What I did notice, in comparison to pre-pandemic, was that most of them were in the UK. Previously we think most applicants were looking to visit the UK from elsewhere. So perhaps it is just that people are less willing to travel, international travel is certainly more hassle now.

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I have had the same problem, my dates for July have been up for over a month, and not one reply so far.
I don’t like to mess the local kennels around, but have booked them in there as well as my “plan B”

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Hi @ellieh i am so sorry you have not had the response you wanted initially. I have taken the liberty of boosting your dates, so there is a little New button on your listing.
Do keep in close contact with membership services on support@trustedhousesitters.com if you need more boosts and help.
Kind regards
Therese

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We have had no interest at all

Hi @Coco I would suggest you embed your listing in your forum username/profile, or post the location (city/country as shown in your listing) and the date range. Forum members can then view your listing, and will be happy to give you feedback.

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@Coco I’ve taken a look at your listing. It is certainly in a category that would draw some people in by the range of animals and your beautiful home, and likewise have some pass on by because of the range of responsibilities.

Although you still have some time before your dates, I suggest you consider asking @Angela_L to post your listing on social media. She would need you to direct message her to give your consent. I think it would be the ideal way to showcase your listing.

I did notice that your name and photo are missing from your listing. As I understand it, these are basic requirements for homeowners so you may want to take care of updating that section. If you need help with that, direct message @Therese and she will assist you when she’s next online.

Francine,
Voluntary Forum Moderator

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Trying to do this :: :persevere:

Hi @Coco, your farm looks great. But I’m a sitter and to be honest I would pass because of your need for sitters to have ‘police checks’.
My wife has an advanced DBS check because of the nature of her work (paid for by her employer). Is that what you mean by police check? But I don’t even know how to get one if it is not required for work/volunteering and I can only assume I would have to pay for this myself.
I have nothing to worry about regarding a police check, but that’s an extra cost in addition to my THS fee, and quite a lot of hassle.
Ally

I suggest adding more photos of the parts of the house that the sitter will use (bedroom, bathroom, full kitchen) and fewer photos of animals and cauliflowers!

It sounds like there would be a few hours of work a day for a sitter, which will deter some people. Given the shortage of sitters now, would you consider hiring someone to do some of the chores while you are gone so that the work is less intimidating?

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I was assuming it referred to the police checks done by THS? I know it’s not available in all countries yet though, but we did it in Canada when we joined.

Thank you for your comments and others comments.
Mentioned are too many photos of the animals - the form requests that or may I leave it out. There is only one photo per animal.
I have also been asked for more photos inside the house. This I cannot do for security. Years ago we used to do house history tours. Sadly this had to be stopped because usually within a couple of weeks we had thefts (from the garden and outbuildings). We are now very careful.
Sadly because of so many animals there is a lot of feeding and checking. We understand that this is a house sit that will only appeal to a few and the ones that are keen on lots of animals. I very much appreciate your help and comments.

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Hello there,
We are new to Trusted Housesitters but thought we would join as it seems a great idea.
We have a holiday booked to Greece in August and would also like to visit family some weekends through the year, and need someone to take care of our fur babies for us while we are away.

However, I have asked lots of sitters if they are free on our dates, and none of them are, and no one has messaged me asking to sit either.

I’ve emailed almost 20 people already.
Is this usual, as I’m starting to panic that we wont find anyone.

Has anyone got any tips for me, what happens if I cant find anyone in time?

Many thanks Tracey :dog::paw_prints:

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The only professional sitters that I’ve seen in our area only visit the animals but do not live in with them: I want to know they won’t be alone.

I think you’re correct to a certain extent: many of our sitters over the years have been from NZ, Australia or South Africa. Last year, however, we had two lots of English house sitters and plenty of applications.

Would it be possible to find someone from outside to come and care for the horses so that the sitters would only be responsible for the dogs, cat and chickens? Otherwise I think, especially at the moment when there are more sits than sitters, that not too many will apply.

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