Yes, thank you for clarifying. I meant a licensed business.
Great! If that’s your motivation and view on the concept, you should absolutely have the opportunity to share it in your profile. That’s exactly why a section like this is important, thank you 
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Why is saving money a bad reason to be on this platform? It’s perfectly reasonable to think of that. Along with other good reasons of course. Not everyone sitting or hosting here is rich!
Yet it seems taboo to mention money.
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Thank you @andrealovesanimals I don’t consider it a taboo at all. I find the site’s calculator on professional services problematic, but for reasons far beyond money.
I sure hope that the time and effort invested on both sides carries far more weight than money - including the time spent understanding the concept before publishing a listing or profile.
If time isn’t the true currency here, that strikes me as the real taboo.
Exactly! It really doesn’t take much to understand and highlight the many advantages for both sides
My profile text is an oven for bad chocolate..it melts away and self-eliminates at least half of that box of “surprises.” …So far, so good, but yeah, you never know completely 
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Same for us. We’re in a remote area of France and nobody local does this for pay. We’ve had friends stay but no one wants to do it twice. The nearest kennel is an hour away and our dog is used to a lot of freedom so he’d be miserable and fear we’d abandoned him. If we wrote all that as our motivation would sitters think we didn’t “get the concept”?
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@KChev …your motivation to host? Cause, yeah, you do seem to have skipped that part - and that’s exactly what travelers on the other end of the arrangement are expected to be able to answer and share. So they’ll reasonably be looking for that from you too
That said, I would certainly think you “get the concept” of paid pet-sitting and there are people for that too.
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I think I see what you did there. If I’m correct, my reply is that yeah, I don’t understand what all the concern is that sitters might reject our listings if they don’t approve of our motivations and agendas as they pertain to what brought us to the site originally.
If I misread your post and that quoted line wasn’t meant as “tongue in cheek” then my reply is “I think sitters will be good with your reason to be here” and you have nothing to worry about.
Sometimes I think I save a lot of money using this platform as both a sitter and a host. Then I realize that this leads me to travel more and not only is there airfare or car rental or other transit, but there are usually those “tacked on” extra days for vacation, so a sit in southern France also involves a “side trip” to Paris and 4 days in Seattle turns into a car rental and hotels for 4 nights on the Olympic Pennisula. Wait a second. Maybe I’m not saving money considering those trips wouldn’t be happening at all if I didn’t have “free” sitters at home and “free” accomodations to entice me!
Anyway, “saving money” is a commonality that both sitters and homeowners have. Sitters save money on accomodations. Homeowners save money on petcare in their home. People are doing this voluntarily, but no one is a volunteer doing this out of the goodness of their heart.
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Some seem to believe that THS sitters do it out of love for animals and nothing more, while hosts do it because they believe THS sitters provide a service to their pets that is superior to what can be found elsewhere.
I’m not agreeing just observing.
I’m really getting sick of reading the copy & paste “the pets prefer to stay in their own home”. Of course they do!
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Some pets prefer leaving the home for a week or getting treats from all the neighbors😅
@Crookie Yeah, that one’s kind of overused..it’s explaining the obvious, it’s like saying Rome is worth visiting… well, yeah, we know, that’s why we’re planning on going there😅
To me that is perfect motivation, your pets comfort is your priority. As long as you are a good host too, no problems with that.
Exactly, this is voluntary. Both sides are travelers and volunteers, each with their own reasons for choosing this type of exchange and matchmaking. I don’t see why anyone would find that scary to explain, especially since one side is already required to and has no issues doing so.
And I don’t see any reason for THS not to add this single Q&A, not even from a PR perspective. There are only positives, as it may not only lead to better matches but also, from a financial perspective, influence the number of unmatched new members (and therefore money-back claims).
All it requires is implementation.
Yes, tongue in cheek.
As a home-owner, I dont really want to fill in that section. I do kind of cover it in the About Me section.
I specifically came to THS because I love the concept, I would love to be a sitter. For people to sit, there must therefore be home-owners who offer sits!
Yes, the money saving aspect is a great incentive to use THS, but I do balance paid sitters with THS listings, so THS isnt the only way I seek out pet sitters. I dont differentiate the way I treat paid or non-paid sitters - I look for mutual convenience and ability to care for my pets competently and diligently, I want them to be as comfortable as they can be in my home. What makes it special is when I can see they have fun with my pets, which I think I see more of with THS than paid sitters.
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@Ketch Those seem like very reasonable reasons, so why wouldn’t you? …Is it because it directly touches your function within the agreement?
You are wrong. Why do you think other people are only motivated by money? One of the owners pointed out my main reasons: the sitters are vetted and reviewed in one place, they tend to be reliable and nice people, and it is not easy to find local sitters in many places.
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Not true at all.
Good for you.