This site is called Trusted House Sitters – great! As a sitter, I really appreciate that focus.
I see myself as honest, discreet, somewhat direct and not afraid of mentioning mishaps (they happen). I’m an experienced sitter: friendly, open, well-organised, safety-oriented, practical, connected, and a problem solver.
But here’s something I’ve noticed:
Nowhere on the site is there any mention of what a Trusted House and/or Pet Owner is.
Home and pet owners create a listing and, apart from the practicalities, it’s not always clear to me who the trusted host really is.
Are you:
Easy-going, specific and no-nonsense?
Interested in real people and genuine connection?
Just in need, maybe looking for a budget-friendly option?
Truly reciprocal, friendly by nature, happy and grateful?
Someone who enjoys sharing their home and pets with others?
I’d love to hear more from the home and pet owners themselves: Who are you? And how do you read between the lines (and the images) when choosing a sitter?
Please share your story below — I’ll give you mine in the comments.
Yes, it sure does say a lot about the climate and attitude towards sitters by select hosts, especially since the thread starter didn’t even respond to their own thread by answering their own questions as promised.
@idocsteve, i would have replied but i thought i would still wait for a home owner to reply. Are you a homeowner? If yes i would be really interesting in reading your view on what a Trusted Homeowner would mean and maybe other homeowners would join the conversation.
@Worldsitter1 Thank you for your reply. Happy someone did bother to write a reply after all this time. I would absolutely welcome the Home owners take, either hosts with lots, little or no experience. Also thank you to mention that you enter the conversation from a sitters point of view.
Yes I’m a homeowner. I posted an honest and thorough property description and provide a comprehensive welcome guide that details every possible scenario and details the tasks required of a sitter, with nothing left as a last minute surprise.
We are reasonable people and don’t make odd or unfair requests of the sitters. In return we expect sitters to represent themselves accurately, and we consider their review history more than anything else when deciding if we will trust them with our most valuable assets, that being our home, our pets and sometimes our car. I don’t consider the review system to be entirely accurate as we’ve had one irresponsible sitter with multiple 5 star reviews from this site.
Truth be told, we are somewhat uneasy with the concept of leaving such matters in the care of perfect strangers, and we’ve had undesirable results more often than not, however it’s a better option for our pets than putting them in a kennel and using this platform saves us thousands of dollars each time we take an extended vacation. Despite inconveniences, disappointments and some property damage, along with traumatized pets on one occasion (not from a THS sitter), generally speaking the benefits outweigh the downsides so here we still are.
@idocsteve, kudos for such honest transparency. Fundamentally understandable. Thought attempt to provide support.
There are no easy choices. Pets are wonderful. “it’s a better option for our pets than putting them in a kennel and using this platform saves us thousands of dollars each time we take an extended vacation” is absolutely spot on. We perceive housesitting as the best difficult choices and, after two parallel experiments, have settled on THS as the best platform.
After 50+ sits then we find pet parent primary motivation varies. For most pet parents, that we’ve encountered, the primary objective is pet care - owners self-assess that their pets will receive better care and joy in their own home. For some, it’s all about the cash, in terms of saved kennel fees. We prefer the former.
Hardly scientific method but we observe that pet parent mindset evolves with experience. First-time pet parents can be anxious … about their pets, their property, about strangers … all sorts. For example, our current housesit is for first-time pet parents and they expressly seek twice daily WhatsApp updates. That’s a first for us but we respect their inexperience and - in the context of a fair trade - said no problem. As pet parents gain experience then they typically become increasingly relaxed about various matters that are inherent in THS (strangers, housesit process, pet care, documentation, communication, …). They also often become increasingly appreciative of THS value proposition and of good housesitters.
We have never been pet parents. And we can easily empathize with your uneasiness. But we know that we limited our travel plans when we had a pet (not know about THS). And, through THS, we’ve met some really super people. Some for whom we’d happily hop on an international flight. Several that have asked for our future availability so that they can book extended vacation around our plans (wild, who’d have thought that was even a thing!).
Keep smiling. Deep breath. Informative listing, attractive opportunity - like yours, we’re headed to Crete for Nov/Dec - thoughtful due diligence and you should be able to take extended breaks with negligible concerns. Seems an attractive and attainable goal. Have faith.
To clarify, we prefer this platform to paid house sitters, but would prefer either one over boarding the dogs. We’ve found in the past that the dogs are never quite the same, sometimes for weeks after being boarded. There’s nothing like the safety and familiarity of their own home.
We’ve lived in Greece for almost 2 years and have had 4 different sitters, 2 not from THS, and one of those did repeated sits, most of which went well until the last one where the dogs were basically abandoned and left to wander in the street among other things.
Out of the 4 different sitters, except for 1 (from here), the rest were a matter of damage control when we returned from our trips. Going forward we expect problems and will be pleasantly surprised if things go as planned.
Also not ideal. Sounds like you have plenty of opportunity for future upside. In case helpful, we observe from conversation that some pet parents seem notably specific in the profile of their desired housesitter. Not just reviews/experience but demographics/location/pets/other factors. May be based on pet care needs, property specifics, geography or otherwise. No right or wrong profile. But we suspect that a clear upfront target applicant probably helps to secure a good fit housesitter.
Please share your story below — I’ll give you mine in the comments.
- thoughtful due diligence and you should be able to take extended breaks with negligible concerns. Seems an attractive and attainable goal. Have faith.