Trusted House Sitters

I have been doing house/pet sitting privately and through this site for 3 years along with other work overseas. It's a great way to travel and meet new people and their pets but it is also very competitive out there. I have been lucky in my experience but you need to be on the ball and to treat it as if you are applying for jobs. Don't rely on just one application. The membership is quite steep given that you might not actually get a house sit. The customer service I have received has always been prompt and efficient but I find the live chat option to be the best when it's available.

If you're a homeowner I'm sure this is an excellent service - skip boarding costs and take your pick of eager-to-please animal-lovers offering to take care of your pets. As a sitter, however, I think it's pretty obscene that you have to pay for the honour of trying to sell yourself (as the site recommends, "tell them why you'd be perfect for this sit!") to dozens of homeowners only to be declined, days to weeks later, without any communication or basic acknowledgment that you, a human being, took time over your message and might have plans of your own to think about. Bottom line is there are way more sitters than there are homes, and the entire system operates on the unpaid labour of people who can't afford to pay for private accommodation. Sitters should not be charged, or, at the very least, should be refunded having tried the service if they have not secured a sit.

We enjoyed staying at Juliet and Martin's farmhouse. The accommodation is old but comfy, especially at night with the wood stove burning. Picking and eating field mushrooms, fresh apples, raspberries and blackberries was a lovely treat. Chilli the cat is very affectionate and we fell in love with Cassie the dog who never seemed to run out of energy. You definitely need a car for this one as it was so far from everything and everyone, except the lovely, friendly neighbours up the lane.

I live in New York City, where I have three small dogs who have never been boarded. I'd always relied on a family member but her job and location changed, and with that, given the cost of pet care in this town, my ability to take long vacations all but disappeared.

I was very skeptical when I first heard of TrustedHouseSitters, because a pet sitter who would work for free sounded much too good to be true. But because I don't want to board my dogs, I signed up with the site and published my vacation dates. I was incredibly impressed with the caliber of applicants and my biggest initial difficulty was choosing among the many excellent sitters who responded.

I have since used TrustedHouseSitters several times. In all cases, I was able to find friendly, dedicated, dog lovers who got on well with the dogs and who allowed me to keep my plans while knowing that my pups were in good hands.

I was referred to this site while posting on Facebook to find a cat/house sitter. I've typically paid $15 per day for someone to come and watch my kitty, but she really loves being by a human's side all day so having someone stay here is ideal. This website and service is saving me hundreds of dollars, and I love that you can post reviews like on airbnb. I also like that there's insurance in case something gets broken or goes missing. I have been recommending this service often to my friends who travel and love pets like me!

After retiring and then having to say goodbye to our last elderly dog life was strangely different. We were suddenly free to travel after years of caring but were missing the company of a furry friend. TrustedHousesitters has filled that gap perfectly. We can travel the world and at the same time enjoy the company of an animal whilst making new friends and being helpful to owners. The staff have been super helpful, the site easy to negotiate and to date we've had some wonderful stays in Guernsey, Italy and the UK. Thank you TH for making it all possible. (We're just off to pack for our next adventure!)

We joined TrustedHousesitters at the beginning of 2018 foolishly not realizing that they would be asking for extra confirmations that cost money. We also were ignorant of the fact that many places require for you to have a car, and that you are in "competition" with THOUSANDS of other applicants, all who have more experience than you. It's an uphill climb.

We gave it a-go though. It was a fair amount of money to just toss out the window. We made contacts, we created a video, we got the background checks, we asked friends to vouch for us, and we created a thoughtful profile - and even contacted their customer service.

But at this point, I think they are well-saturated with home-sitters and homeowners; so beware. Unless you are in a metro area that's very popular, independently wealthy, I would not get your hopes up. I wish I had avoided it all together.

Trusted House Sitters took a brilliant idea and figured how to make it work for their members. They provide help by phone if you are new to the site. Once used to the site, I have found it very easy to use.
It is wonderful to be able to travel without worrying about leaving a beloved pet behind, moping in a boarding kennel. For the sitters, what an opportunity to travel, enjoy animals, stay in comfortable homes or apartments, and not have to pay expensive hotel costs. I have had 2 sitters, and my dog and home both were fine when I returned from my trips.

Some good some bad.
Their customer service is the worst ever. I've been on the site for 10 years and had some wonderful people come and stay with my dogs. There were two that were not so great. One guy managed to let my little dog out of the house and shop owner on a busy street found him. Recently my sitter put an 11-year-old Chihuahua in a bicycle basket without being tied down and she jumped out and fractured two ribs. Since I have been a member of the site for 10 years they have just automatically renewed my membership and never told me that I could upgrade that would include accident insurance. So far the vet cost me $400 and this is just day one! Be very careful with who you pick. Some people are in it for the vacation and don't have that much experience with dogs. In this case I cut my visit with my son daughter-in-law a new little grandson short by a day to get home to my poor little girl doggy

I found this site quite a while ago but it wasn't until seeing a house sit in the city center of Stockholm that made me sign up. I love to travel but in order to get reviews, did sits closer to home. Each experience has been wonderful and the home owners, even better. It really helps to have the reviews to get an idea of what you're headed in to however, I've mostly sat for new members. I'm looking forward to doing future sits in Norway, Sweden, anywhere and everywhere. I'm completely happy with this site. (Attaching photos from my fun sits.)

My friend and I just returned from doing our first house and pet sit. The people we sat for were lovely and their home was clean, modern and beautiful. The cat was great! The owner kept in touch with us over the 4 day sit, which we appreciated.
We chose to start locally in order to get some reviews and already we are receiving more requests. I have read the other recent comments on site jabber and I feel for those who have had a bad experience with their sitter. There are good people out there! Both owners and sitters. I do not agree that Trustedhousesitters should remove a review. (If this is the case, as it is not fair to owners, or to good sitters).
Carla

Since returning to Trusted House Sitters recently (member since 2012) my experience has been very good.
We have been offered most of the house sits that I have applied for and we already have bookings up till the end of January 2019. One house owner has booked us for four different periods totaling eight weeks.
Its a major decision to trust your home and loved pets with strangers but the reference, review and application process seems to work very smoothly.
Ron & Joyce

There is no good way to reach this company. The phone number goes straight to voice mail and it took 6 days to get a response via email. Understand that they offer NO guarantee that you will find an acceptable sitter. Their terms say that once you have placed an ad, you give up your right to a refund (why in the world would you request a refund before you've tried a product?) We have a really cool home in a very popular area and received 4 applicants for our sit. I'm pretty sure one was mentally ill, and another one homeless. Two of them were ok, but not really qualified besides being warm bodies. We needed more experienced people to manage our home and pets. I think this concept is a great idea, but if a consumer ends up not using the service, they should be entitled to a refund. I think the company is based in the UK, because this type of customer service does not fly is the US!

We love the site and have had many positive, if not perfect (!), experiences so far as house sitters.

The only feedback I would have at this point (members for over 4 years and 7 sits completed) is for home owners to be required to respond to an application within 2 or 3 days with SOME kind of personalized reply (not a copy and pasted template). The reason is because when applying for a house sit the house sitters are working with scheduling: arranging multiple locations/times/transportation/flights etc so it would very helpful to know one way or the other if you are considered a or not for that house sit. Often an application can go unanswered at ALL and the applicant is left waiting and wondering. Perhaps some kind of point system or requirement or rating for the home owners in terms of response times could be added to their profile/listing ("this home owner usually replies within 1 hr, 1 week, 2 weeks or more etc)?