An online group of house sitters and pet lovers, has partnered with a verification and background checking provider, to provide identity, document and criminal checks to its network of 300,000.
Founded in 2011, TrustedHousesitters coveres pet owners across 140 countries, connecting them with animal lovers who are willing to provide free live-in care for pets in return for a place to stay. Since no money is exchanged in the process, the members run on trust. Onfido was selected to provide identity verification and background checking to the platform’s members. Onfido says that its software is powered by machine learning, and offers a way for businesses to verify identities and carry out adverse history searches remotely and at scale.
Once a TrustedHousesitters member has verified their contact details and received an external reference to gain basic verification, two further levels of checks will be offered. The standard level requires the user to hold up an identity card (driving licence or passport) to their screen, from which Onfido is able to verify that the ID is legitimate and matches the user’s identity. The enhanced level allows house and pet sitter members to carry out a full certified criminal background check.
TrustedHousesitters CEO, Andy Peck said: “We’ve built a community of 300,000 pet lovers based entirely on trust, and as we continue to grow, we want to introduce even better and faster ways for people who use our site to verify that the house sitters they are welcoming into their home are trusted.
“This is where technology plays an increasingly powerful role – and there is no more advanced data verification expert than Onfido, already tried and tested by some of the world’s leading banks and businesses. We’re proud that we now have the most robust verification check that is available on the market.”
And Onfido CEO Husayn Kassai said: “Onfido prides itself on being the most scalable and effective solution for building and maintaining trust in the sharing and on-demand economy. Enabling TrustedHousesitters’ rapidly growing community to establish greater security and forge deeper bonds of trust is immensely satisfying; we’re very happy to have partnered with such an exciting and innovative company.”
Onfido is also used similarly by companies Deliveroo, Handy and Uber.
Pictured is part of the profile of the TrustedHousesitters site’s content marketing executive and travel writer, Charli Moore.
