Why Some Homeowners Are Getting No Applications on TrustedHouseSitters

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Quick Facts

A thread appeared on the TrustedHouseSitters community forum in December 2025 with a title that captured something real: "Attracting Sitters Seems to Be Hard Now." The homeowner behind it had never had this problem before.

Previously getting applications within 24 hours. Now, nothing. The replies that followed surfaced a mix of causes: the booking fee, the time of year, the US political situation, and the growing imbalance between homeowner and sitter numbers on the platform.

Based on 20 sits across 12 countries and three years of watching this community evolve with TrustedHouseSitters, here is the real picture.

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What Has Actually Changed: 12,000 Sits and Counting

The most important thing happening on TrustedHouseSitters right now is not the booking fee. It is the listing count.

As of writing, there are close to 12,000 sits on THS alone. A significant proportion of those are in the UK and US, which together account for over 10,000 of the active listings. That number represents a platform that has grown significantly. And the growth has been disproportionately on the homeowner side. THS has invested heavily in advertising and the result is a large influx of new homeowners. The sitter base has grown too, but not at the same rate.

The consequence is simple: sitters now have far more choice than they have ever had. Where a sitter in 2022 might have found a handful of sits matching their target dates and location, the same search today returns dozens or hundreds. Sitters are no longer competing against each other as intensely for good sits. They are choosing between them.

Caro and I have benefitted from this directly. With an established profile and a strong review history, we have been selected for what I would truly call luxury house sits. Homes with pools, saunas, stunning views, and homeowners who clearly looked after their properties. We could afford to be selective. We were selective. That is the new reality for experienced sitters and it is the direct cause of some homeowners not getting applications.

The listings that sit empty are not the beautiful, well-run homes with clear and reasonable expectations. Those still fill quickly. The listings that struggle are the ones where something is off. And the larger the listing pool, the more obvious that off-ness becomes.

The Booking Fee: Real But Overstated

The December 2025 forum thread featured the booking fee prominently. One member declared that experienced sitters were leaving because of it. Another pushed back, pointing out that the fee had not even fully come into effect yet for most members.

My read, having watched this play out: the booking fee has had some effect on sitter sentiment and has probably contributed to some departures at renewal. But it is not the primary cause of what homeowners are experiencing. The booking fee is a genuine grievance. It changed the value calculation for frequent sitters. But the platform has continued investing in improvements and the listing growth has continued regardless.

Caro and I upgraded to Premium independently of the booking fee. We took a Black Friday offer that made it economically sensible. And a month later the booking fee announcement arrived. As it turned out, we have done six sits in the time since, saving $72 in fees we would otherwise have paid on Standard. Premium was the right decision regardless. The vet helpline alone justifies the upgrade for anyone sitting regularly. We mention it to homeowners during video calls and they are consistently impressed that this resource exists.

My advice remains: start on Standard for the vet line, test the platform, and upgrade to Premium at the next Black Friday sale. Refer everyone you know to THS. Caro and I now have years of Premium membership accrued at no additional cost through referral credits. That changes the financial picture entirely. Our full plan analysis is in our dedicated TrustedHouseSitters plans guide.

The US Situation

The forum also raised the US political climate as a factor reducing applications to American listings. European sitters citing border uncertainty and the political environment as a reason to avoid the US. I think this has had some effect. But the more significant driver in my view is fuel costs and travel expense. Rising travel costs push sitters toward local and regional sits. Which is not necessarily bad for the community. More local sitters means the house sitting ecosystem becomes more self-sustaining in each market rather than dependent on international travellers. If US sits are filling with American sitters rather than European ones, the exchange still works. The dynamic changes but the value remains.

What Actually Makes a Listing Fail

With 12,000 sits available and sitters choosing between them, the quality gap between a good listing and a poor one has never mattered more.

Messy photos. This is the first and most immediate filter. A sitter scrolling through listings makes a split-second decision on each one. A photo of a cluttered living room, an unmade bed, or a dark and unflattering interior tells the sitter everything they need to know before they have read a word. I have scrolled past listings that made me wonder whether the homeowner understood that this is their advertisement. The photos are the first impression, the cover of the book, and for most listings they are doing the work before any description is read.

Photos should show the home looking its best. Clean, well-lit, tidy. The pets should be featured because people want to see who they will be caring for. Local attractions are not what a sitter needs to see in a listing photo. The house and the animals are the product.

Unreasonable expectations. Some listings read like a job advertisement for a full-time carer. Sitter must not leave the house for more than two hours. Dog requires four walks a day and cannot be left alone. Multiple pets with complex individual routines. Sitters must keep a daily diary. Extensive garden maintenance expected.

None of these requirements is inherently unreasonable on its own, provided they are honest, proportionate, and clearly stated upfront. What fails is when the requirements are disproportionate to the offer, or when they only emerge at the pre-sit call after the sitter has already committed interest. Our misrepresented listing guide covers what happens when expectations do not match the listing. The equal exchange principle matters: if you are asking for a level of care you would normally pay a professional to provide, the listing needs to reflect that in truth. A homeowner who requires essentially full-time pet and garden management and offers a modest property in return will struggle for applications. And that is appropriate feedback.

Zero applications is a useful signal. It means the market has assessed the offer and found it lacking. The correct response is not to wait for a sitter who has not yet realised what they are signing up for. It is to look in truth at the listing and ask whether the exchange is fair.

The cutesy profile problem. I regularly browse listings and occasionally land on ones where the tone becomes so heavily pet-anthropomorphised that it reads as a warning sign rather than an invitation. "We are a tight pack of five doggies and we need a pack member to join our family." The intention is warmth. The effect on experienced sitters is the opposite.

When a listing frames pets as humans, requires the sitter to match an emotional register the homeowner has built around their animals, or buries practical information under layers of personality, it signals something about what the sit will actually involve. Good sitters have learned to read this. If you dig past the warmth and start looking at the specific requirements, the reviews, and the practical details, the red flags often confirm what the tone suggested.

The advice is simple: keep the listing clean, welcoming, factual, and reasonable. Mention the pets by name, describe their personalities accurately, and be clear about what the sit involves. Let your personality come through in the pre-sit video call, not in a listing description that reads like a children's book. The homeowners who write clear, honest, professional-but-warm listings attract applications from clear, responsible, professional-but-warm sitters. The framing you use attracts the kind of person who responds to that framing.

The One Fix That Makes the Biggest Difference

If a homeowner is struggling to get applications, the first thing to fix is the listing description. The most effective way to do this in 2026: use AI.

Not to generate a description from nothing. To clean up and restructure one that already exists. The specific approach that works: ask an AI to interview you about your home and pets. Answer the questions as you would in conversation. Then ask the AI to produce a listing description using your own tone and writing style from those answers, making it welcoming, clear, and factual.

The result is a description that sounds like you. Not like a template, not like it was generated. But that is structurally sound, covers the essential information, and reads the way a good listing should. This takes 20 minutes and produces a listing that is categorically better than most of what is currently on the platform.

After fixing the description, fix the photos. After fixing both, look in truth at the requirements and ask: if I were a sitter reading this, would I apply? If the answer is no, something needs to change in the offer.

The AI Prompt for writing a professional House Listing Description

I would like your help writing a perfect TrustedHouseSitters listing description. Before writing anything, I need you to interview me first. Ask me between 5 and 10 questions — one at a time — to understand my home, my pets, my routines, and what I am looking for in a sitter. Do not ask all the questions at once. Wait for my answer before asking the next one.

Once you have all my answers, write a listing description using my own tone and writing style from the answers I gave you. The description should be warm and welcoming, factual and clear, and give a sitter everything they need to decide whether our home is the right fit for them.

The description must include:

Do not make the description sound like it was written by an AI. Use the natural way I spoke in my answers. Do not use clichés like "fur babies" or overly cutesy language. Keep it professional but personal.

Start by asking me your first question now.

Why This Matters for the Community

I am building housesittersguide.com specifically because I want to grow the house sitting community. A healthy community needs roughly equivalent numbers of sitters and homeowners. When they are well-matched, sits fill easily, homeowners travel confidently, and sitters find great opportunities. When the balance tips heavily toward homeowners, the best listings still fill but the average ones struggle. The sitter base needs to keep growing to match the homeowner growth THS has generated.

Competition within the market is good for everyone. More platforms, more sitters, more homeowners, better features. More sitters applying to more listings benefits Caro and I directly because we get access to more extraordinary homes. It also benefits every homeowner who has been sitting with an empty listing wondering what went wrong. The answer is almost always fixable. Fix the photos. Fix the description. Fix the exchange. The applications will follow.

For new sitters reading this: the current landscape is actually excellent for you. With 12,000 listings and a sitter base that has not kept pace, a new sitter who builds a strong profile and writes good applications will find significantly less competition than existed three years ago. Our hidden cameras guide is also relevant for homeowners who want to understand what sitters expect regarding security and privacy.

Our guide on getting your first house sit without experience covers exactly how to enter this market. Our house sit checkout guide shows what top sitters do at the end of every sit. Our van life and house sitting guide shows what is possible when you chain sits on a route you are already planning.

Join TrustedHouseSitters with 25% off and DM us @housesittersguide on Instagram. We answer everyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why am I not getting applications on my TrustedHouseSitters listing?

  The most common causes are poor listing photos, disproportionate expectations, and listing descriptions that do not clearly communicate the exchange. With close to 12,000 active THS listings, sitters are more selective than ever. They apply to listings that look appealing, feel fair, and are clearly written. Fix the photos first, then the description, then assess whether the expectations are proportionate to the offer. A well-written welcome guide also signals to sitters that the homeowner is organised and communicative.

• Has the THS booking fee reduced the number of sitters?

  Probably to some degree, but less than the forum discussion suggests. The more significant driver of homeowners struggling to get applications is the rapid growth in listings. The platform has attracted homeowners faster than sitters, leaving more listings competing for the same sitter pool. Experienced sitters who want to avoid the booking fee have moved to Premium. Our plans guide covers the cost breakdown.

• What makes a TrustedHouseSitters listing attractive to sitters?

  Clean, well-lit photos of the home and pets. A clear, factual description of what the sit involves. Expectations that are proportionate to the property and the pets. A sitter should be able to read your listing and feel the exchange is equal. Our what not to do when house sitting guide covers the sitter perspective on expectations. If the requirements are extensive, they need to be clearly stated upfront. Not revealed during the pre-sit call.

• How do I improve my TrustedHouseSitters listing description?

  Use AI to help rewrite it. Ask an AI to interview you about your home and pets, then use your answers to produce a listing description in your own tone that is clear, welcoming, and factual. The result will be significantly better than most listings currently on the platform and takes around 20 minutes.

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