Hello Kali,

That is a great question. We are in the process of looking into our owners also completing verification levels.

What we recommend as with meeting anyone new via an online platform is to do as much due-diligence beforehand as possible. Skype, phone calls and meet the owners before the sit. You can arrange to meet them and their pets in a public park for example if you will be caring for their dog. Choosing like-minded owners that you can connect with and start building a relationship with before you meet and care for their pets.

You can also choose to sit with a friend and add them for no extra charge to your sitter's profile.

Making sure that you are comfortable with the owner and location before you agree to the sit. Following normal safety precautions such as giving a friend the address, you will be staying at and checking in when you arrive etc.

We have never had any reports of sitters having safety issues with owners as ultimately owners are also paying a membership fee to find someone to come to their home and care for their pets. We manually approve every home listing that we receive making sure that it meets our guidelines and reach out to the owners if we have any questions.

Look for listings with sitters feedback as this will help you know what the house, owner and pets are like and how previous sitters have got on staying there.

If you have any more questions please do get in touch via www.trustedhousesitters.com and you can live chat, message via our help centre and we can give you further information.

Thank you

The TrustedHousesitters Team.

Sitters do review the owners, look for those reviews. Remember that there are new on the other side as well. We've done 14, some without reviews, and we've enjoyed all.

Great question! I learnt the hard way. Home owners need to be vetted too.

Of 12 sits had one bad one. Misrepresented on the post. Place was filthy, smoke odor filled the rooms and was in the heavy curtains. Did not even use the kitchen. I should have left on arrival, but lots of things were in motion that prevented that. They complained to TH about the fact that i used $70 USD of their that they left for dog food on things to keep my food separate from theirs and cleaning items. I responded and had photos... TH put their complaint aside.

Taught me a big lesson. Get good pics of the kitchen and bath and other key living areas. The other is if all that bad (and this was) just leave rather than suffer.

It's about time a proper check on listings accuracy is initiated!

As a pet/housesitter approaching 10 years housesitting internationally... 6 years with Trusted Housesitters.

I wonder what housesitters are paying more for?... from my experience no help/contact forthcoming when onsite help is desperately needed

I've confronted a couple of housesits where blatant mistruths or crucial information has been withheld until arrival. Too late then.

Respect for housesitters is needed... the site is making money from their work, & wouldn't exist without them.