Trusted Housesitters' Reviews

I was with Trusted Housesitters for many years. However, as the company grew, and was eventually sold off for $100 million to Mayfair Equity Partners (a London-based private equity firm that focuses on growth capital and buyout investments) I noticed (at least, what seemed to me) a huge shift in their priorities.

I feel they went from a company whose most important concern was the welfare of pets and homes to a new #1 priority - making money at all costs. There are numerous stories in unofficial THS groups about horror situations that home owners and house sitters found themselves in - including when pets had died due to the neglect of the sitters, or the police had gotten involved due to the dangeroues situations sitters found themselves in.

Not once did THS remove the offending paties from the platform - because they would have lost out on the annual membership fee these people paid.

For me, it all came to a head in late 2025 when the CEO issued a sentimental feel-good statement about how the company would always put pets and people first - and then less than a week later they rolled out a new "enhancement" to the platform. From now on, on top of the annual membership fee (ranging from $US129 a year to $US259 a year) they would be adding a $US12 PER BOOKING fee charged to BOTH the home owner and house sitter. In return for ... NO ADDITIONAL BENEFITS for either HOs or sitters.

I felt that the money grab was bad enough - but I thought the sneaky way it was rolled out was deplorable. All THS members were locked out of our accounts (including people on current sits whose only method of communication with the HO/sitter was via the platform). We could only get back into our accounts by agreeing to these new terms and conditions - BEFORE WE WERE ABLE TO READ THEM.

This created a lot of bad blood in the THS community - their rating on Trust Pilot dropped from 4.9 to 3.8 in less than a week - a 22.45% decrease. For me, it was the final straw regarding a company I had been growing increasingly concerned about - particualry when they tried to fob it off as, "Think of your membership fee as your passport and the booking fee as your boarding pass". Nope, never paid for a boarding pass in my life after buying my ticket.

So, I left the platform in December 2025, but I had the forethought to screenshot my reviews before I left (hee hee).