Trusted House SittersReviews 1,000

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...

I have finally received back the money that had been taken from my account. I am sad that it took this action to get the company to respond fairly to a genuine grievance. I do hope that there will be changes put in place and that customer services advisors will have appropriate training and not just resort to stand responses. I would also like to see the company comply with the GDPR regulations and have permission to keeps bank details on their data bases.

Various things mentioned in these reviews happened to me too, and I don't get the feeling that the customer care agents cared at all. The power is obviously given to the homeowners, since that is their bait. It is way too expensive to join, and as a housesitter, you have to do everything else for free, including paying for transport to the housesit, daily chores and then pay the annual website subscription. Didn't get good vibes from this company at all and I was with them for 2 years, all sterling reviews, except one bad experience. I learnt the hard way to check out the homeowners too! You never know whose house you will be staying at. I now get repeat requests to return from regular clients, off this website.

I strongly warn anyone who would consider joining. It is like a pyramid/plane concept. There is bunch of people who do sit for a long time and get good reviews and for them this works. Most of the new people then pay for nothing. It is almost impossible to get a chance to sit if you have no reviews and you can't get reviews without getting the sit. CATCH-22. Last year we had a big luck and got a place to sit. The person was happy and so were we, but she left the server without leaving the review. This year I contacted about 30 different homeowners and in most cases they did not even responed, just declined the application. About a month ago they change their webpage so now it hardly works. I've spend weeks discussing the problem with them. They only say they are working on it. Finally I asked for my money back and they refused. I believe it is a scam.

I've yet to find a bad review of TH that seems like the reviewer really understands the site/service. If you can make a great profile, do your research, and realize that this is NOT a chance to just sit back and get all your travel accommodations (if you're a sitter) or home sitting (if you're a homeowner) totally for free and at your complete personal convenience, I think you will really find TH membership worth it. If your profile is lazy, poor quality and self-centred, you will not get people who want to live in your home/let you care for their homes and pets; makes sense. If you don't do your research, you may end up with a property or sitter you are very unhappy with; makes sense. At the end of the day, TH is charging a very reasonable fee for a whole year's worth of accommodation opportunities - do you really expect them to vet every single person and situation in detail as if they're a concierge at an upscale hotel? I can also confirm that they definitely send MULTIPLE emails before your membership renewsI think I got about six! "Your membership will renew in 2 weeks... Your membership will renew in 5 days... Just a reminder that your membership will renew tomorrow." If you've got these emails going into your spam folder or you're incapable of recording in a calendar yourself when your membership will renew... I don't know what to tell you. At some point, some personal accountability is required. Further, I've had nothing but superb customer service whenever I had a question or query for TH, so I have to wonder if some people are very belligerent and entitled, then surprised when they don't get a positive response. Long story short, I put a couple hours into creating a solid/appealing profile, I love using TH to travel and meet interesting people (and pets!), and I've had a really good experience all around. Even if I only made use of this for two weeks a year, that's 2 weeks of accommodation for around just $120come on, now, show me a better deal if you find it!

We signed up because of the rating system and sitter verifications. We are 3 months out from our sitting dates and can't seem to find anyone to sit for us. Our situation: 3 healthy dogs, beautiful modern country home with every amenity ever needed in a crime free golf course community in the suburbs of a large city in Virginia, USA. We are going away for 2 weeks. Our only limitation is that the sitters do not have children because our dogs have never lived with kids and can get nervous around them. Before I tried contacting a particular sitter, I verified that they were available on the dates we needed, were not traveling with children, and that they had a history of sitting on the East Coast of the USA. (A lot of the sitters say that they will sit in the USA but then you look a their history and they have only housesat in the UK, Europe, or Asia.) They also needed to have been verified by the website, which is why I thought that the price was worth the cost. In a full week since paying our $119, we have been turned down by 15 sitters, 3 have simply ignored our offers, and the 2 sitters that proactively contacted us had children (ignoring that our ad said "no children.") The site says to sit back, relax, and the offers will start coming in. My experience: 2 offers in a week with both sitters ignoring the one restriction we had, with 18 verified sitters with a history of sitting near our home turning us down or simply ignoring our offer. $119 down the drain. I put up an ad on a competitor's website that does not charge the home owner and had an offer to sit in less than 12 hours. Unless you live in the UK or in a major tourist destination in the US, Canada, or Europe, you will find it difficult to find a sitter with this website. PS I did contact their customer service 5 days in and was told that they "would keep an eye on my listing." I don't know what that means.

While the sits are mostly great and there is high volume, the company is terrible. The site is constantly changed and not for the better. The rating system is complicated and unfair. There is an overall rating and 5 subcategory ratings. Despite having seventeen 5 star ratings and eighty five 5 star sub category ratings I was knocked down to 4 star overall rating because of one 4 star sub category rating. I have completed 30 sits but now because I only have a 4 star rating I am not getting any offers for sits despite having all 5 star overall ratings.

The customer service person I spoke to Josh was rude and condescending and gave me vague conflicting rationales for the drop in my rating with no reference to any policy they have on their rating system. Don't bother. Use house sittings america or another any other site.

As other reviews have mentioned, there are much fewer house sitting opportunities than the site makes it appear that there are.

Sitters work for free and must pay for their own transport. But if the owner cannot fulfill their end of the agreement or makes a mistake with their own dates, there is no penalty whatsoever.

Customer support is absolutely useless and will deny all responsibility. Instead, they'll just say the owner and sitter need to work it out. So what are we paying the company $150 a year for again? Total ripoff!

After over three years of caring for horses, dogs, reptiles, fish, birds, pocket pets and more, and loving it, a homeowner came along that misrepresented the situation, reneged on the agreement and was emotionally unstable and threatening. The home we dirty and rat infested. When I opted out, Trusted Housesitters bought hook line and sinker the story of the home owner. She was intense, vicious and nasty. I felt betrayed, after all the money I have brought in to TH via new homeowners that I referred to them. They make money off of our work, we work for free, and sometimes it is allot of work. But TH would NOT remove this bad homeowner from the site. This shows me that they do now protect the people bringing in their revenue. Not a good company, I do not recommend them.

I've used Trusted House Sitters 8 times now and have had wonderful sitters. I never approach sitters but wait for replies to my advert from people who want to holiday where I live. I always get at least 10 replies (probably because of my location) so I am rejecting 9 others. I do message and have given advice on how they may improve their chances when applying for other sits.

Most sitters are not looking to sit locally as it is meant to be a holiday for them, so probably not worth contacting. I would imagine most sitters don't know when they are available months ahead so don't update their calendars but instead apply when they are available/interested.

I advertised my house site yesterday and have already a sitter lined up.

Sitters struggling to get a sit I would suggest taking a couple less desirable ones in order to get a few references and get the Enhanced Verification..

I signed up 2 days ago only because it shows many available sitters for the dates I searched for. I have contacted almost all of them and they are booked! One couple even said they were pretty much booked for all of next year. This site is misleading and I would not have signed up if no one was available. They are not honoring the $130 refund either according to Jordan B, who I've been in contact with regarding this issue. Bait and switch. Fraud.