Why is it so many homeowners have the incorrect town listed in their listing? They always pick a bigger city nearby but they’re actually located 15-30 (or sometimes more) minutes driving away from that city. (I almost exclusively look in the UK)
Last year I went to a sit and I hadn’t received the full address a few weeks before the sit was supposed to start (my bad, should’ve asked) and it turned out to not be in that city but rather a small village about 20 minute drive away. Another bigger town was actually closer to the house than the one they listed. And I would’ve preferred staying in the bigger town they listed.
And now, when searching, I keep finding places listing a bigger town, but in the description they list the real location. Happy of course they are listing it (instead of hiding it until the call), sometimes I would actually prefer the smaller town over the big town they list… but why? Is THS pushing for this in their signup form?
I don’t believe they have control over where the site shows them. They put in their address and THS says they are the city even though they know they live in the countryside.
Ah, the old age problem of we are near X but actually live up this dirt track, 20 miles at Y.
Yes, it’s good to do a little research and actually ask where the hosts live. We have been caught out a few times, nothing drastic but maybe a few miles further away from where we actually want to be.
Yes, please list your property to the nearest large town but actually put the village or area where you live in the description.
Hi @Wraldpyk,
It’s not really the owner’s fault as they are asked to put in the nearest town, city or village. With many million places in the world, not all can be found so owners hopefully put the next best thing. Even sizeable towns can be missing from THS’s list.
When I signed up as a HO, I was asked to put my nearest city, town or village. Since we are very rural and not even in a village, I put the name of our French commune. But as I was on my computer and geo-located, it dropped the pin exactly on our house. I vaguely remember a note about not listing your exact location “for security reasons”. I wasn’t worried about security so left it as is.
I like the way the map of the country shows the location of the housesit on offer. In the home and location section they go into more detail which works for me.
Some owners innocently indicate the wrong city/town, but others are purposely deceptive, in my opinion.
They ultimately are hurting themselves, and hopefully sitter applicants are savvy enough to ask for more precise location before committing to sit dates.
I sit mainly in the San Francisco, California Bay Area, and there are many cities in this area, as well as many waterways and bridges. Location is important. I have seen many, many owners state the wrong city. It is really silly, and owners DO have control over which city appears on the label below their cover photo.
