So between this site and 3 others (including paid sitters) I have, over the past 2.5 months been rejected by so many sitters itâs unreal! Itâs by far mostly because of lack of availability for our dates and NOT because our sit is unattractive. We have slightly more complex animals than your usual feed and leave cats but nothing onerous I promise! The house and location are wonderful. Iâve checked local sits and there are an awful lot with low applications. Canât even blame Donald Trump for this
Umm Iâm not sure why youâre contacting sitters though as this really isnât how it works at all, Iâm wondering why you think it works like this? Did you misinterpret the marketing/website instructions maybe?
Think of it like this:
Youâre a flower trying to ATTRACT a bee. The bee must notice how lovely your flower looks and smells ahd then comes closer to check the flower out in detail then it lands âŚahd has a root about.
Make your listing as appealing as possible, sitters who are free for your dates and location WILL apply and will send WhatsApp mob numbers to have a video chat to explore if youâre a match for them. If they donât then thereâs maybe something youâre not aware of in your listing we can all help to identify any issues.
Youâve come to the right place for assistance.
Edit: youâve asked for help before I now realise so this is your 2nd post. You received lots of great suggestions on the previous thread and youâve updated your listing. Yours is the wobbly cat listing and you ask for a couple not solo sitter⌠and a car too.
Wow @BonnyinBrighton i find your comments super unhelpful. I canât believe you are criticising me for being proactive to get my sit filled. I have had loads of positive feedback about my sit - just unlucky with the dates itâs seems. You have really put me off this forum.
Well thatâs a shame- however I have read many other HO posts who believe that they fill their listing by asking sitters, so it was worth me taking this approach in case you were in fact new also for any other new HOs reading this thread in the future. I then read your link and recognised the sit from your previous âspecial needsâ post âŚ. thatâs why I edited my comment.
Your sit is in an out of the way location.
The cats need more help than most.
A sitter probably needs a car.
I donât think the tone of your reply to me is going to help you find a sitter though, other sitters take note of these discussions. I had favourited your sit as I have friends in Bridgwater, but Iâll be removing that 
now.
If youâve checked local sits and theyâre low on applications, yours will be even more challenging to fill, given pet special needs and basic wifi, plus erratic mobile signals.
Given that, you might want to line up a fallback plan sooner than later.
Have you actually posted this sit, or just sent out invitations? Invitations donât very often work. The words âspecial needsâ might be putting sitters off. Makes it sound worse than it is. They donât sound like very hard work. Just slightly more than normal cats.
The link to Emilyâs sit is available on her forum profile 
@emily_Quantocks I have read your listing for many days now, over and over, wondering if it would work for me. But as I have no car, two weeks with no public transport around you and only delivery available for food/grocery options is just far too difficult for me personally. Apart from that I wouldnât have a problem.
I would not be using special needs as a header as from what I read, your cats are quite easy to care for despite a few minor things. Iâve sat for worse! I would delete that and just mention in your responsibilities, which you have done, and leave it at that. They certainly donât sound like special needs, just a little more attention required. So many unfilled sits in the UK at present with none of your associated minor issues like transport, Iâm afraid itâs just a waiting game now. Also for two weeks, if it were a digital nomad sitter, having an unpredictable wifi could be a problem as well. Your home and cats look lovely, a very peaceful getaway, and had the situation been a little easier I would have applied days ago. Good luck 
Thanks for updating the forum. Itâs good to hear from a hosts perspective.
I understand that you want to get a sitter confirmed asap . However I do think that for a sit end of June thereâs still plenty of time to find someone .
You do have an application now - Hopefully this will be âthe oneâ 
Between ______ [the] Iran [situation] and the associated jump in fuel costs (and related disruptions to travel), many people are having to restrict their movements. A year + ago, I would think little of jumping on a plane for a nice cat sit.
(Political remarks removed as per the Posting Guidelines)
Plenty of British sitters. Thousands.
You donât think many British people may be similarly affected? Seems they are, given the difficulties UK HOs are having filling sits.
@BonnyinBrightonâs âcriticisingâ is the standard advice everyone receives on this forum if it is clear that a host is directly inviting individual sitters. That is not how the vast majority of hosts match with sitters. Your profile suggests you are new(ish) to THS and many new hosts start out trying to invite sitters individually with little to no success. No one is criticizing you. Theyâre just trying to help.
As far as your listing goes, it looks great and, in normal times, itâd be surprising if you didnât match with a good sitter. Unfortunately, these times are far from normal and it will take months (at the very least) for things to return to normal. For at least awhile, itâs natural that people are taking a wait and see approach to travel over the next few months. You still have time to find a good match.
I would suggest a few tweaks to your listing. First, you describe the cats as âspecial needsâ but on the web version of your listing, I canât find what those special needs might be. If the Introduction is as short as yours with âspecial needsâ prominent, special needs is the first impression sitters will get. Itâd be better if the first impression was a landscape photo of your setting or maybe the local pub and an Introduction that sells your sit. Maybe move the âspecial needsâ bit to the Pet Responsibilities section and add more detail? Iâd also reorder the photos to home setting/yard, living areas, sleeping areas, bathroom, in that order. Photos of the cats can be mixed in for best impact. Finally, I donât know what âbasic WiFiâ means; do a speed test and describe the upload and download speeds it reports.
Patience and good luck should prevail.
It seems one cat is âwobblyâ probably meaning its mother had distemper and it has the neurological effects from that. Says you need to place her in the litter tray when she gives a signal she needs to. That would seem to indicate that the sitter cannot be gone for long, though I donât see that OP has filled out the bit about how long the pets can be left alone.
It does say pets can be left for up to 6 hours (Iâm looking on website, donât know if it appears differently in the app).
@Jenny, may wish to consider merging this thread with the materially identical thread posted by same Forum member two weeks ago (weblink per @BonnyinBrighton post).
I can also understand now having circled back to the advice/comments on the previous thread why this HO started to reach out directly inviting sitters, for them it was Phase 2 not Phase 1. For a HO in the midst of their own story this mightâve seemed obvious, but to me reading their OP here it read like a new HO so I responded in the usual way.
Youâll get a lot of people telling you not to bother trying to contact sitters and just made your listing as attractive as possible. Thatâs a sensible approach. But swimming against the tide, I donât think it does any harm to reach out to particular sitters, if they really seem a good fit for you. Iâve only ever had four invitations whose dates I could manage. I accepted them all and they were great experiences - returned to one of them twice. If you really need a sitter, try all means open to you, including sending out invites. It makes sense.