Homeowner Asked for My Social Media: Should You Share It?

Home > Blog > A Homeowner Asked for My Social Media

Quick Facts

Nobody has ever asked us for our social media in twenty sits across twelve countries, and the reason is that our profile and our application message already do that work. House sitting runs on trust, and a profile that is genuinely you, backed by reviews from owners who let you into their homes, is worth more than any account you could hand over. If a homeowner does ask, the answer is yours to give. Share what is already public and relevant, decline the rest without apologising for it, and if that is a problem for them, there are far more sits than there are sitters and you can move on.

If you are interested in getting into house sitting, our book Travel More for Less puts the whole process in one place: clear, step by step guidance from your first questions to your first confirmed sit, and the reviews that open the door to the next one.

We read a thread on Reddit where a homeowner asked a sitter for her social media before the sit was confirmed. She refused, and her reasoning was short: she had more than twenty reviews on her profile, which is more than enough for anyone to work with. The homeowner was new, with no sits behind them, which explains most of what was going on.

Our position is that she was right. We have never been asked ourselves, and the reason is not luck. It is that the profile and the first message answer the question before it turns into a request. What follows is how that works, who tends to ask, what we would actually share, what we post during a sit, and the one sit we walked away from.

Why Nobody Has Ever Asked Us

Trust on this platform is built in two places, and neither of them is social media. The first is your profile, which should be exactly you. Ours has photos of us, photos with the animals we have looked after, and nothing dressed up or left out. We are not fabricating anything and we are not hiding anything, and that is the whole trick. An owner reading it is not looking for polish, they are looking for a real person they can picture in their house.

The second is the application message, and we would argue it matters more than the profile. We read the listing properly before we write anything, and then we write something specifically for that owner, answering the worries they have already hinted at in their listing. A generic message, or an AI one, is obvious from the first line, and it loses owners who would otherwise have clicked through. Make the message the priority, get the profile to the point where it reads as trustworthy, and then ask for a video call. That sequence is what has kept the conversation on the platform in twenty sits.

The Owners Who Do Ask Are Usually First Timers

When the request does come, it comes from owners with very little experience, and it is worth understanding why before deciding how to feel about it. A homeowner with ten sits behind them can read your record competently, because they know what a good sitter looks like in practice. A homeowner with none cannot, so they reach for the one kind of checking they already understand, which for most people means a social profile.

That is usually clumsiness rather than suspicion, and it is up to you whether you send anything. Nobody is entitled to your accounts, and nothing about the membership depends on handing them over.

What Twenty Reviews Already Prove

Reviews are not testimonials you collected. They come from members, they are attached to a completed sit, and they cannot be written by someone who did not host you. They also sit on a profile that carries ID verification and, for US sitters, a criminal background check. Our guide to verified reviews covers how the systems differ, and the piece on the blind review system explains why both sides writing before they can read each other matters.

Twenty reviews means twenty homeowners who let a stranger into their home and were then happy enough to say so publicly, permanently, under their own name. That is a track record other people assembled about you. A social page is a track record you assembled about yourself, and an owner weighing the two as evidence about reliability should prefer the first.

It is not perfect evidence. Reviews say nothing about a sitter nobody has reviewed yet, they are written by people with different standards, and a five star sit in a studio flat is not proof that someone can manage a farm. The point is comparison. Against a nervous owner, you want your strongest evidence in front of them first.

On References, and Why We Would Decline Them Too

This next part of our position only works because of the record behind it, so read it that way. If an owner asked us for references today, our honest answer is that twenty reviews from twenty homeowners already say more than two instagram profiles would, and we would rather move on to a sit where the record is enough. There are more sits than there are sitters at the moment, somewhere between 9,000 and 12,000 listed depending on the season, so walking away from one conversation costs us very little. If that upsets an owner, they can find a sitter who is happy to do it.

If you are new, none of that applies to you and we would not pretend otherwise. With no reviews, references are the only evidence you have, so offer them before anyone asks and treat them as the thing that gets you your first sit. Our guide to building trust as a new sitter covers what else moves the needle before you have a record.

The same goes for anything beyond the platform. We have never been asked for bank details, copies of our ID or an employer reference, and if we were, we would decline. The membership runs on trust, and a profile with real reviews is a strong signal that someone is on the right path. If an owner cannot extend that trust to anyone on the platform, hiring and paying someone may suit them better than house sitting does.

What We Post During a Sit

What you would be handing over is the thing to think about first. Our own posting is deliberately unidentifiable: I look for a backdrop that could be anywhere and avoid anything a homeowner might object to, and if either of us wants to share something more specific we ask the owner first. We go through that properly in our social media guide, which is the longer version of this paragraph.

The second thing worth knowing is that a public feed announces to potentially thousands of people where you are. Posting in real time from a sit tells anyone plenty of information about your whereabouts, which is a risk to the owner as much as to you. If a homeowner asked us to keep their home out of our feed entirely, we would agree without hesitating, and it has never come up, because our habits already lean that way.

We Do Not Look Owners Up Either

One thing we can see coming: this site has only been running a few months and no homeowner has recognised us from it yet. As it grows that will change, and we would honestly rather it did not. Being findable is a side effect of writing about this life, and it is one more argument for keeping identifiable details out of what we post while we are staying in someone’s home.

The same standard runs in the other direction, and in practice we do not go looking. We have never felt the need to check a homeowner on Instagram before accepting a sit, because the platform carries enough information about them and the questions worth asking belong in the conversation anyway. There is something quite nice about meeting someone on the platform, talking to them on a call, and then turning up at their house without either of you having read through the other one first.

The One Sit We Walked Away From

The only time we have pulled out was a sit in Italy. The owner told us he was going to keep the application open for two weeks because somebody else might be coming, which meant holding our plans for a fortnight on the chance that he chose us. We told him we would keep looking too and would let him know if anything changed, and in the end we withdrew. Our conflict resolution guide covers how to have that conversation without burning the relationship.

Nobody behaved badly in that exchange, and the lesson is not that he was wrong. It is that your own comfort level decides these things. If you do not feel comfortable sharing your business or your social accounts with someone, move on to the next house. If you do feel comfortable, share away. Know your own line, stick to it, and you end up with better sits, because the arrangements you accept are the ones you were actually happy with.

What We Would Tell a Friend

Your record is your evidence base. Twenty reviews, a profile that reads like a real person and a first message written for that specific owner will answer almost every worry before it becomes a request. Social media cannot compete with that, and you should not have to prove yourself twice.

If the request comes anyway, answer the worry rather than the request. Lead with the reviews, offer the video call, and if the account you would share is public and about house sitting, sharing it settles the question in ten seconds. If it is your personal account, say no, plainly and without apology, and hand them the alternative in the same breath.

We are Konrad and Caro, full time house sitters with 20 sits across 12 countries, 19,000km driven in Australia and 24,000km in our 1998 VW T4. If a homeowner has asked you for something that felt like too much, or you want a second opinion on how to answer it, DM us @housesittersguide on Instagram. We answer everyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Have you ever been asked for your social media by a homeowner?

  No, not once in twenty sits across twelve countries. Our profile and our application message do the trust building, so the request never arrives. When it does happen to sitters, it is usually a first time owner who does not yet know how to read a review record.

• Do I have to give a homeowner my social media?

  No. Nothing in a house sitting membership requires it, and handing over a personal account is a choice you are free to decline. What you do need is evidence, and your reviews and profile are the evidence the platform is built on.

• What if I have no reviews yet and they ask for references?

  Then give them. A record of twenty sits speaks for itself, but with no reviews references are the only evidence you have. Offer them before anyone asks and treat them as the thing that gets you your first sit.

• Is it fine to share my Instagram if I am comfortable with it?

  Yes, and it usually ends the conversation in seconds. The thing to do is decide your line in advance rather than during a vetting conversation, so you are not working out what you are comfortable with while somebody waits for an answer.

• What if the owner keeps asking after I decline?

  Move on to the next house. Sitters hold the choice at the moment, with far more sits listed than there are sitters to fill them. If a polite no and a video call are not enough, you have learned something useful about how the sit would have gone.

• What if a homeowner asks for bank details, ID or an employer reference?

  We have never been asked, and we would decline. The membership runs on trust, and a profile with real reviews is already strong evidence. If that is not enough for someone, hiring and paying for help may suit them better than house sitting does.