Trusted House Sitters

I have completed 3 sits via this site. All have been amazing experiences!

It is more expensive than other sites I have used, but you get what you pay for! There are a wide array of sits, but the best features are: 1) you receive reviews online from verified homeowners. This really increases your credibility - you build your resume as you go. 2) you can provide feedback about homeowners. This allows you to research possible sits to see what others sitters' experience has been and 3) you can have "enhanced verification" done which allows you to demonstrate your credibility and safety as a sitter. 4) they have a guide the homeowner fills out after you accept the sit. It is fantastic! It asks them all of the important details you need to know for completing the sit. Ie. Vet info, emergency contact info, housecleaning details, etc.

The only thing they don't have is the ability to save your personalized searches and then have notifications of those emailed to you. Right now you just receive email notifcations of all new sits, which is overwhelming since they have so many sits! I have learned to do a search then save that as a bookmark on my browser. That way I no longer have to enter all of my search features. Hopefully they will add this functionality to their website.

We have really enjoyed our housesits obtained through TrustedHouseSitters, meeting many interesting people and lots of lovely pets. To try and avoid potential communication problems, we apply to housesits where the home owners have a detailed profile so that we get a feel for them and their expectations. Positive references from previous sitters reassures us that we are heading into a good situation, and finally we have a Skype or phone call so both parties have confidence that we are a fit. Even with these assurances, we realize some sits might prove less than ideal for both sides. In order to lessen the possibility of problems, TrustedHouseSitters might recommend that homeowners provide detailed profiles and references. As evidenced in some of the reviews, they also need to address the issue of no-shows on the parts of housesitters with some kind of notation on their profiles, as well as provide better customer service if people are going to continue to have trust in TrustedHouseSitters.

Since 2 years I'm having sitters from THS. Most times I made good experience. What I really don't like is, that the sitters can write fake (and very good) reviews about themselves. Right now I'm stuck because my last sitter left 3 weeks earlier than planned and I needed somebody last minute. I put the nearest date and whenever this date was reached, THS took my listing away, making it look like I found somebody. Potential sitters where informed that I'm no longer available. It took me a while to figure this out and addressed this problem to them immediatley.
Today, I don't know anymore how many mails I have exchanged with them. But nothing from their side has changed. My cats are alone (!) since 1 month (!) because of the delay caused by THS blocking me from entering new dates. And they do this without even informing me. But letting me believe that I put up a new advertisement. Then they say that can't put new dates in order to avoid double booking and don't care about my answer that if if did not confirm a sitter, I actually don't have anybody yet and can't take doublebookings...

The idea itself is great, and it does work, but their execution is so-so, and it's very clear from the Commmnity Forum that their development team is either severely understaffed, overwhelmed, or mildly incompetent.

Trivial bugs like all times showing in GMT, regardless of the timezone, have been left unfixed for MONTHS. None of the bugs I've reported have ever been fixed, even when I provided the code to fix them.

The reviewing system isn't blind like on Airbnb (where the host and the guest can't see each other's review until they BOTH post it). Rather, as soon as one party posts the review, the other can see it. This leads to artificially inflated reviews, because neither party wants to leave a negative review, for fear of retaliation with a negative review for themselves. So you have to read between the lines to figure out the problems with a sit/home or with a sitter.

The community has been asking since Feb 2021 (if not earlier) for this review policy to be fixed (i. E. made like Airbnb's), but THS has refused without any explanation, despite the change being rather trivial.

Unfortunately there's no good competition (except for the AU/NZ markets), so all new users flock to THS, which has little incentive to fix their issues.

I wanted to write this 'balanced' review, as I can see a few negatives ones, and I know people always read those first - so may not get a fair view. We have been house sitting with THS for two years and have had nothing but good experiences, as is the case with most of the people you can see on here who have given 5* reviews. The concept is brilliant and it works, but if you are expecting to sign up one week and be in Barbados the next, that is unlikely to happen. Building a good sitter account, with solid reviews, takes time. It's also important to write a good profile and include pictures. We started off by applying for many local sits and got our first one about four months after joining. This led to an excellent review, and it went from there. Two years later we have done over 25 sits and completed our first one overseas, in Singapore, in January. And we could probably have gone abroad sooner if we'd been available. We were up against 20 other applicants for that one, and we got the sit because we have a great profile - which has taken time to build up. If you are serious about becoming a house sitter and travelling thew world you need to take the time to do it properly and build a excellent profile. That means being organised and efficient, and of course being a great sitter - love the animals you look after and hand back an immaculate house! It won't happen overnight, but it's so worth it. We've had an amazing time so far, and looking forward to lots more. Thank you Trusted Housesitters!

We have nothing but good things to say about TrustedHouse Sitters, we have been members for 5 years and just love it. When we first joined we provided external references, home/pet owners quite rightly look for people with good references. The first house sit was in an area we knew very well having previously lived there and the owner liked the fact we knew the local parks etc. We then did lots of sits in the UK building up a good profile with references. Along the way we learnt a lot about parts of our own county we would never had visited. Eventually we applied for the first sit abroad and although we were short listed were unsuccessful, however the next one we applied for we were successful. Every sit is different as is every home owner and they are looking for different qualities, when we apply and are unsuccessful we don't take it personally. For example recently we applied for 2 sits one said it had 0-3 applicants and we were unsuccessful, the next one said 41-50 applicants and we were successful. The support and guidance from the team at head office has always been good for us.

I signed up due to the marketing tool they use to say you can travel the world while having a free place to stay. Yes that is true if you joined this site years ago. But now, there are so many experience pet sitters that apply and get positions that a newbie will only get local sit. I joined and requested two local sits to try to get some experience. Then I was looking for some travel sits and noticed they all had 12 to 15 applicants already. Plus most sits require you to have a car. They also request you stay with the pets most of the day or only leave them 4 to 6 hours a day. How can you travel and see the world when you have to stay in a home that long. I requested my refund the next day, within 10 hours of signing up and they refused. They said because I applied for local jobs I benefited. I did not get any response from those jobs and deledted my request and asked for my refund again. They again refused. Do not use this site. You will not have a chance with sightseeing and having a free place to stay. They also will not show you how many applicants there are for jobs until you pay. Then they refuse to refund you.

We love Trusted Housesitters. Always works very well for us. We have free holidays in beautiful houses and animals to love as a bonus. A great way to travel.