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Article updated on: March 2026
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📊 QUICK FACTS:
The fee: $12 USD / £9 per confirmed sit, paid by both sitter and homeowner
Who pays: Basic and Standard members only. Premium members are exempt.
Refundable? Yes. As of 2026, THS states refunds are now automatic when a sit is cancelled. Monitor your account as community reports suggest the system occasionally glitches.
Still worth it? Over 10,000 active sits as of early 2026. The platform has not collapsed.
Better value threshold: If you are doing more than 5 sits a year, Premium likely makes more financial sense
Regional note: For France, Nomador dominates. For Australia and New Zealand, Aussie House Sitters and Kiwi House Sitters are stronger options.
We were in Cortona, Italy when the email came in. Mid-sit, good dog, great house. Caro and I read it, looked at each other, and said: well, this sucks.
The timing was particularly sharp. We had launched this blog about a month earlier, built around recommending TrustedHouseSitters as the best global platform for house sitting. And here they were, introducing a per-sit booking fee out of nowhere. We genuinely wondered whether we should keep promoting them.
We decided to push forward. This article explains why, and it gives you the honest numbers to make your own call.
TL;DR: If you do more than 6 sits a year, the $12 per-sit fee makes Premium the only logical choice. If you are a casual sitter doing 1 to 2 sits a year, stay on Basic and absorb the $12. It is still cheaper than upgrading.
What the TrustedHouseSitters Booking Fee Actually Is
TrustedHouseSitters introduced a per-sit booking fee for Basic and Standard members. Every time a sit is confirmed, both the sitter and the homeowner pay $12 USD or £9. This is on top of the annual membership fee, and it applies to every confirmed sit, not just the first.
The fee is not a one-time administration charge. It stacks. Do five sits a year as a Basic member and you are paying an extra $60 on top of your membership, before the homeowner has paid their share too.
Premium members are exempt. That exemption is now one of the main selling points of the Premium tier.
The fee applies after your next membership renewal. Sits confirmed before that date are not affected. That detail matters if your renewal is coming up and you are weighing whether to upgrade.
How the Community Reacted, and Where Things Stand Now
When the announcement landed, the reaction was loud. Reddit threads, social media comments, review sites with one-star ratings. People were genuinely angry, and some of that anger was fair.
The issue was not just the fee. It was how THS communicated it. The announcement read like a generic corporate list. We need this fee to improve the platform. We are investing in the app. The usual. What it did not include was anything specific: which features were being built, when they would arrive, how many support staff were being hired. If they had said any of that clearly, the response would have been different. People can accept a price increase when they understand where the money is going. Vague promises of improvement do not land the same way.
That said, a few months on, the conversation has quietened. It flew past as quickly as it appeared. As of February 2026, TrustedHouseSitters still has over 10,000 active listings globally. The platform has not collapsed. The sits are still there.
Whether that holds over the next year is something we are watching. If listings drop noticeably, we will update this article. We have committed to that. But right now, the numbers do not show a platform in freefall.
Who Should Pay the Fee and Who Should Upgrade
This is a maths question more than anything else.
If you are doing fewer than 5 sits a year, staying on Basic and paying the per-sit fee is probably the cheaper option, depending on your membership tier and the exchange rate. Run the numbers on your own usage before deciding.
If you are doing 5 or more sits a year, the cumulative fee cost starts to approach or exceed the cost of upgrading. Premium also includes the sit cancellation plan, which covers up to $1,500 in costs if a sit falls through under qualifying circumstances. For frequent sitters, that coverage has real value.
If you do decide to upgrade, use our 25% discount code for TrustedHouseSitters before you do. It takes the edge off.
| Basic Plan | Standard Plan | Premium Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual cost (sitter only) | $129 USD | $169 USD | $259 USD |
| Annual cost (sitter + homeowner combined) | $209 USD | $309 USD | $399 USD |
| Per-sit booking fee | $12 / £9 | $12 / £9 | $0 (exempt) |
| Sit cancellation protection | None | None | Up to $1,500 |
| Breakeven sits per year | 1 to 4 sits | 1 to 6 sits | 6+ sits |
Pricing as of early 2026. Verify current rates on the TrustedHouseSitters website before purchasing as these can change. Combined figures reflect both sitter and homeowner paying separately. Note: while the fee is listed as $12 USD / £9 GBP, TrustedHouseSitters applies its own conversion rates for EUR, AUD, and CAD. Check the final confirmation screen before completing a booking, as the amount you see can shift with the market.
If the maths points to Premium, do not pay full price. Use our 25% discount code for TrustedHouseSitters before you upgrade. At 25% off, the saving covers the cost of your first five or six booking fees straight away.
Is the Fee Killing Weekend Sits?
This is something worth thinking about separately. A $12 fee on a two-night sit changes the maths entirely. The accommodation saving on a weekend is already small compared to a month-long sit, and adding a fee to both sides of the confirmation makes short sits feel less worthwhile.
From what we have seen in the community, some sitters are now handling repeat weekend sits with previous homeowners informally, outside the platform, to avoid paying a fee that costs more than the petrol to get there. That is understandable, though it does mean neither party gets the review or the platform protections.
If weekend sits are mainly what you are after, this fee structure is worth factoring into your decision before you commit to a membership. A regional platform with no per-sit charge might serve that use case better.
Is TrustedHouseSitters Still Worth It in 2026?
For us, yes. We are on Premium, so the booking fee does not come out of our pocket directly. But even setting that aside, the platform still has the largest global listing base we have found. Over 10,000 sits, with the strongest concentration in the UK and USA, and solid coverage across Europe.
The fee is annoying. We are not going to pretend otherwise. It adds friction to the confirmation process, and it adds friction on the homeowner's side too, which is the part that actually concerns us. A homeowner who is on the fence about confirming a sit does not need an extra charge at the last step. That is where the real damage of this decision could play out over time.
But the honest comparison is still: $12 per sit versus the cost of a hotel, a hostel, or an Airbnb. On that basis, the platform still wins. You can read our full breakdown in the TrustedHouseSitters review if you want the complete picture of what the membership includes.
If the Fee Doesn't Work for You: Regional Alternatives
TrustedHouseSitters is the strongest global platform, but it is not the only option. Depending on where you are sitting, something else might serve you better.
France: Nomador has 861 sits in France compared to THS's 74 as of February 2026. If France is your main focus, Nomador is the better call. We cover this in depth in our house sitting France guide.
Australia and New Zealand: Aussie House Sitters and Kiwi House Sitters dominate their markets. Both are more affordable than THS and have better local coverage. They are the platforms we would recommend first for anyone looking in those regions. Our house sitting Australia guide has the full breakdown.
UK: THS has strongest UK coverage, but UK House Sitters and the regional UK platforms are worth comparing. We cover them in our house sitting websites UK guide.
Global coverage with THS: If you are moving across multiple countries, THS is still the best single platform for that. The breadth of listings is hard to match. We cover the full international picture in our best platforms for international house sitting guide.
The 10-Day Rule: What to Do If Your Automatic Refund Glitches
As of 2026, TrustedHouseSitters states that booking fee refunds are now automatic. When a sit is marked as cancelled in the system, the fee should be returned without you needing to do anything.
In practice, community reports from early 2026 suggest the automated system does not always trigger correctly. If your refund has not appeared within 7 to 10 days of the cancellation, here is the fastest path to resolving it:
Log into your account and go to the Help Centre at support.trustedhousesitters.com
Open the Live Chat rather than submitting a ticket. For billing issues it is consistently faster.
Have your sit confirmation email ready before you start the conversation.
If you hold a combined sitter and homeowner account, check both dashboards. Fees occasionally get stuck on one side of the system and do not appear as refunded on the other.
Keep any written confirmation of the cancellation on hand before you reach out, whether that is a message thread on the THS platform, a WhatsApp exchange, or an email. A clear and factual message gets a faster result than a frustrated one.
TrustedHouseSitters Platform Status: Early 2026
For anyone wondering whether this is still a platform worth joining, here is what the numbers look like right now:
Active members: Around 280,000 across 140 countries
Active listings: Over 10,000 at any given time, with the strongest concentration in the UK and USA
Platform trajectory: Still growing. The fee did not trigger the mass exodus some predicted.
We will keep this article updated. If the listing count drops significantly or the platform changes its fee structure, this section will reflect that.
Konrad & Caro 🐾🚐
DM us @housesittersguide if you have questions. We answer everyone!
FAQ
What is the TrustedHouseSitters booking fee and how much is it?
It is a $12 USD / £9 charge applied every time a sit is confirmed. Both the sitter and the homeowner pay it separately, unless one or both of them are on a Premium plan. It is on top of the annual membership fee, not instead of it.
Do Premium members have to pay the booking fee?
No. Premium members are fully exempt. The removal of the booking fee is now one of the core benefits of the Premium tier, alongside the sit cancellation plan.
Is the booking fee refundable if my sit is cancelled?
Yes. As of 2026, THS states refunds are automatic when a sit is cancelled in the system. However, community reports suggest the process does not always trigger correctly. If the refund has not appeared within 7 to 10 days, go to support.trustedhousesitters.com and use Live Chat. It is faster than a support ticket for billing issues.
When does the booking fee start applying to my account?
After your next membership renewal. Sits confirmed before your renewal date are not affected. If your renewal is coming up, factor that in when deciding whether to upgrade.
Should I upgrade to Premium to avoid the fee?
It depends on how often you sit. If you are doing 5 or more sits a year, the fees start to add up and Premium becomes worth comparing on pure cost alone, before accounting for the cancellation coverage. If you are doing 1 to 2 sits a year, Basic with the per-sit fee is almost certainly cheaper. Use our TrustedHouseSitters discount code if you do upgrade.
Is TrustedHouseSitters still the best platform despite the fee?
For global coverage, yes. Over 10,000 active listings as of early 2026, with the strongest reach in the UK, USA and Europe. If you are focused on a specific region, a local platform may serve you better and cost you less. See our house sitting fees guide for a full comparison of what each platform costs.
