House Sitters UK Arvostelua 

Very disappointed first time using this service.
You do not vet your sitters properly resulting in me coming home to a disgusting place with garbage left on the balcony, burnt microwave, cigarette butts in the bedroom and missing Moncler jacket and phone charger (so far...)

I didn't even use this service but I need to share my experience with the product. I actually bought the membership as our sitter recommended it. After I read many reviews, I was left petrified and had to cancel the membership immediately to receive a full refund. I was terrified to see that even some pets had died in the care of someone from THS. Another complaint was that the customer service was really poor. I even tried to contact them and got nowhere. I would not recommend this service as it's simply too risky. Apparently, it was really good a couple of years ago, but not is not trustworthy at all. Reviews seem to be fake and the site nudges customers to put only positive feedback. I encourage you to read the feedback before you buy this.

As a sitter, i've been using this site and THS for 3 months. This site seems to be stuck in the 90's.

1) There is no requirement to add photos. Half the listings have one photo and some have none at all. How is a sitter supposed to know whether the pet/house is suitable on one pic?
2) The 'reply rating' is only for first replies. Some owners will reply saying they are checking applications, then you never hear again but they still retain the 5 star reply rating.
3) There is no 'confirmation' of a sit to remove the ad. Some ads are up from dates in the past which the owners haven't bothered to remove. It's impossible to know whether an owner is actually still looking for a sit.

The only good thing about the site is that you can quite easily sort by dates and the mapping feature is more accurate than THS.

What a waste of the membership fee. Sitters, save yourself the hassle and use THS where you can easily get sits, and you actually know whether you are being considered or confirmed for a sit.

As a sitter we have learned the best way to get results. Don’t expect to find a result days after an announcement. The early bird catches the worm.
We had a awful experience of somebody who pretended to not know how to send photos, very necessary beforehand.
The site responded to my email pdq. We have and do continue to enjoy meeting new sits. We are happy sitters.

I recently joined this site as a sitter, and have been very impressed with the responses I’ve been getting from pet owners.
The site is easy to use, and updated regularly. Obviously, use due diligence either as a home owner or a sitter and hopefully you’ll have the same experience as me.

As a home owner the main issue I have is that sitters regard the sit as free Airbnb and are not prepared to honour their promises to care for the pets and home . We have had a series of bad experiences. The only good sitter we had from the site now charges for sits. Also, much time is wasted contacting sitters who are available according to the site but when contacted reply that they are on a sit during those dates.

Don't bother. I was lucky to get a response 1 in 6 and then it was only to say they already had found someone.
I would have been keen to help out but am frankly tired of no or slow responses then being ghosted.
*updated following a response from Housesitters*
You need to write a profile in accordance with our guidelines - which I did as best I could, including a few pictures of myself.
You need to be verified - which I did, including uploading documents to verify my identity.
I was informed that owners have 5 days to respond to your application. But seriously? Who lives their life waiting 5 days for an email response.

I registered as a housesitter and it all seemed pretty straight forward until the credit card company suspended my card due to what they described as suspicious activities. I guess the company’s bad reviews are rooted in some sort of dodgy activity.

Too bad as we would have loved a holiday playing with someone else’s dogs.

Head office never answer phone or return messages or answer chat complete waste of time have tried for 6 weeks

Bit stunned really...
We booked a sitter to look after the house, 6 dogs, 2 cats,our tropical fish and our hens and ducks whilst we were on holiday.
She charged us, as that's what she said she did for a living.
We paid for her to stay in a local hotel the night before we departed, so she could get to know our animals and their routines.
We got lots of photos whilst we were away.
On our return, one of our dogs refused to come into the house (and is still traumatised and shaking 5 days later when we bring her indoors).
The sitter left wearing my wellies, and clutching every single one of our last forever shopping bags.
She had helped herself to my shower gel, shampoo and deodorant, to the beer from the fridge, and to a month's worth of Persil liquid and fabric conditioner.
When we got upstairs later, she had been sleeping in our bed and had left bloodstains all over the bottom sheet. The toilet seat was covered in blood, and there were wads of bloodstained toilet tissue dumped around the shower room.
The water in the fishtank was very cloudy, and polluted by many, many algae wafers. She had received written instructions on feeding for all the animals and fish.
The sitter didn't mention anything about any of this whilst we were away, or when we arrived home. She had, stolen from us, abused our trust and showed us not an ounce of respect.
I sent an email to housesitters uk, asking them to ring me. Their response was that they only communicated via email.

It has worked ok. so far but sometimes lack of info from the HO and late or no reply.

I am absolutely tired of this website. This service suppose to be an exchange service between pet sitters and owners: free pet sitting ( although some will charge depending on the season, distance from home and the number of pets) in exchange for HOLIDAY ACCOMODATION. There fore I really do not understand why many owners are allowed to put sometimes very demanding adverts ( not all of course) asking to be with a pet 24/7, pets number 3, and no one photo!
Everyone has different standards and I think everyone would like to know how the property where you will be spending time looks?!.
It literally looks like a pet sitting charity, we are expected to do everything for free and not even know weather the bedroom we will be staying is clean.
I do agree as well that it often takes lots of time to communicate with the owner and often it occurrs the as is not valid any more and it's still on. I politely asked few owners to take the and down so it won't confuse the pet sitters but some of them they feel like they can do anything.
And just to be clear here...I actually had pretty good interest on my account. I have 5 amazing reviews and clients who come back to me but I the efforts I had to put in to get them is not eaqual to the amount of holidays I received. Not to mention that it's us pet sitters who pay for a membership not the owners. No wonder they feel they can do anything.
Also I did contact the customer service about this situation describing exactly the situation as I did here. Their response was honestly a bit lame. They basically said that if they ask for photos to everyone they will not have many adverts from the owners. I am sorry but that is ridiculous!
This is my last year with them.