I’ve got several travel dates posted - some as far out as September, October and November this year. While I’m happy when applications come in for those far out dates, I’m hesitant to confirm anyone so far in advance. It’s happened twice now that the applicants are very new to the platform so I think that’s primarily where my hesitation comes in. I do acknowledge that I’m new to THS also, though. Am I being too cautious? Should I wait to see if any other applicants come in? I don’t want to put anyone off by waiting but I do want to find a sitter who is the right fit too, not just choose someone because they’re the only one who applied.
If you’re ‘hesitant to confirm anyone so far in advance’, why post your listing now? Sounds like this is wasting everyone’s time (including your own). I’d suggest listing your sit when you’re ready and able to progress things.
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I would wait. And I know people often like to have their travel plans set well in advance, but I would never apply for something that far out. Stuff happens. My farthest-ahead sit was 5 months, and 2 nights before I had to leave I almost had to cancel because my plant-watering guy ended up in the hospital. Uncertain Life Stuff means I look at sits not more than a couple months ahead now.
I suppose you could at least message and acknowledge the applicants and say you are leaving the applications open for a while, considering it’s so far in advance.
You should also not be disappointed though if some of the early birds withdraw their applications because they got something else or because “if you don’t think I’m ‘the one’ right now then I’ll move on”.
You have plenty of time… hope you find good sitters.
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If you are not ready to confirm a sitter then don’t post the listing yet. Sitters who apply are not going to wait months for you to contact them. Some people like to plan far ahead and others don’t, so do what you are comfortable with. But wait on posting the listing if you aren’t going to confirm for months. Personally, I’m a sitter and I like to plan my travels pretty far ahead, I’m currently booked until October other than a couple weeks.
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You will instinctively know when you find the right sitter/s for you. We’re sitters and we have two sits booked in for NEXT year already… 2026!!! We also have a quite full calendar for this year.
The benefit of posting your dates so early, is that you have time on your side to find the perfect sitter for you. The one’s that have applied so far, don’t sound like they were right, because your gut would tell you if they were perfect for you. Trust your intuition.
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I prefer to plan well ahead - partly because I’m working and need to schedule my vacations well in advance, partly because I use THS to travel and flights tend to be more expensive the closer you get to departure. So for some locations it wouldn’t be worthwhile to apply to some sits as airfare has become too expensive, if they had posted and confirmed before I might well have applied.
If you are not ready to commit - don’t publish dates. If a host posts dates and then can’t go forward, it might be a red flag for some sitters that host doesn’t act in a timely manner.
If you are not comfortable with an application/ sitter, just decline. Better for everyone that an answer is given. If you get a good application, go forward in a timely manner and schedule a videocall. If everything feels alright, you can confirm. You don’t need many applicants - you need one good sitter you are happy with.
If you only get newbie-applications, it could be your listing. There are some things experienced sitters tend to avoid. If you’d like some input on your listing you can ask the forum community for input.
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Posting your dates and then not making a decision and keeping sitters hanging will be to your detriment. Most experienced reliable sitters will see that as a red flag and withdraw their applications if you are indecisive.
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A stay that is several months long one would like to plan well in advance. But to me this sounds like a number of short stays. Then it is probably better to just mention that in your listing, that more sits will be coming up in those months.
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I had a look at your listing and you state that the dates are not definite .
In my view that’s why you are not getting many applications.
Sitters need to make travel plans , (e.g book time off work , purchase flight tickets , or fit around other sits or other commitments/ appointments ). So for most of us ( whether it’s a sit in the near future or a long way off ) we still need to know the definite dates before applying . It’s a waste of both the sitters and your time if a sitter applies but later on you change the dates and they are not available for the altered dates .
I recommend that you remove all of the dates that you are not certain about and re-list when you know the exact dates and are ready to make a decision about the sitters that apply.
The dates you have listed are mostly short stays so most likely the sitters who apply will be someone local starting out who wants to get reviews or someone who has a connection to your local area ( friends or family that they want to visit in the area ) or a full time sitter who needs those dates as a gap filler between other confirmed longer sits ( so would apply closer to the time when they have the other sits arranged ) .
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Along with what @Silversitters mentioned, you have an elderly cat — enough of us have had sits canceled because of pet illnesses or deaths to either avoid them or know to not book far ahead with such issues. Plus, pets with bowel issues put some sitters off.
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Someone who carries out the earlier dates may be happy to return later if you ask them after the earlier sittings end
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Thanks all for the feedback. To address some of the points made:
- my dates are posted so far in advance because, for the most part, they’re less than definite but more than tentative (I know I will have travel but flights aren’t booked yet). I’m not sure what’s best practice - I’ve seen plenty of commentary on both sides. That’s why I mark the dates as tentative when I list them.
- I have had lots of feedback on my listing when I reached out via this community for such feedback when I got started so I’d hope it would be pretty good at this point?
- To be clear, my primary area of hesitation to book someone so far in advance is because the couple of times it’s happened, the applicants have been new to THS (like me, I understand) and I don’t know if I’m being overly cautious or just waiting to see if I’ll get other applicants. I appreciate the response reminding me to go with my gut. I like to ask for a video chat to make sure we’re a fit for each other.
- I do understand that if I don’t book someone right away, I could lose them to another listing. That has happened with one sitter couple I really liked but I didn’t have my travel dates solid yet and that’s ok. I know that’s a possibility.
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I mentioned above that I typically book several months out. However, seeing that your dates are very short, you are unlikely to get applicants for short sits that far out. I book longer sits far ahead and might fill in gaps in my sitting schedule with shorter sits, so I wouldn’t book those until later. I wouldn’t want to miss out on a long sit because I already booked a short sit that conflicts with it. I don’t typically do sits of less than 5-7 days, I prefer to just get a hotel if I have 3 or 4 days open.
As others have mentioned, the fact that you state your dates are not definite may be a problem. I would be concerned that I might waste my time applying and then you adjust the dates to dates that I’m not available. Or, that you might just cancel those dates altogether since you don’t have definite plans.
I would recommend firming up the dates for the upcoming sits. You may get applicants from local sitters, newer sitters looking to build up reviews, or sitters looking to fill in short gaps in their schedule.
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This is a good idea . We are sitters we always have a video call before agreeing to a sit . Arrange this asap and then make a prompt decision after the conversation.
We’d agree with @systaran that short sits are much less likely to get booked well in advance, it makes little sense to commit way into the future for only a few days. We have a 2026 house sit booked already same as @HappyDeb but it’s for 5 weeks and is a repeat. Probably a combo @Sculls-sodium-0j - this far out they either need to be longer sits or you need to wait until closer to the time, or find a repeat local sitter that does all of them would be gut feeling on this one. #takesallsorts
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A few thoughts:
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Since you’re new to THS, I’d recommend trying to go with an experienced sitter with excellent reviews for your first sits. For us, it was reassuring and helpful having experienced THS sitters the first couple times.
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When I have several trips coming up I post only the first dates. I post 2-4 months ahead, depending on the trip length. In the listing I mention if I have future travel planned, note the approximate dates, and ask sitters who are interested to please favorite my listing so they will receive an alert when I do post.
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As mentioned, if you’re not ready to select a sitter there is no reason to post yet as many applicants will have already chosen another sit or withdrawn their application by the time you circle back.
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Do not go with a sitter you aren’t completely comfortable with. You should have good rapport on a video chat or in messages and both feel confident it’s a good match before confirming.
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On a practical note, the THS inbox is hard to organize and may be complicated by apps for multiple sits so unless the sits are close together or urgent I’d personally just do one at a time.
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If this will be the first time you are having a sitter I suggest just posting one definite sit dates. After the sit you may want to adjust your profile as this first one will be a learning experience for you. You may now require something else about the pet care or house care that you only realized after your first time hosting.
All of us sitters had a first time sit on this platform so I would not disregard new sitters. Would you like sitters to pass you up because this will be the first time you are hosting and have no reviews? You may like the sitter so much that you ask her to return for the other dates and they may accept.
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I have done 1 sit which was my 1st one in Nashville. As soon as I was approved I booked flight and sent confirmation. I have just been accepted for one in Northern Cyprus, as soon as accepted I booked flights and sent over confirmation.
As a sitter I too need confirmation and confidence that the host is not going to cancel on me, as flights from UK are not cheap.
I look in advance as I have an old dog to which I need to book him in with my daughter’s for care, so being accepted early suits me needs.
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Ok so I pulled down all of my travel dates that were not confirmed. As I do finalize all travel plans, I’ll list the dates as far in advance as possible. I also updated my listing with a brief explanation about planned travel & listed these tentative dates there. I wanted to be clear that these dates are more than “TBD” but might change by a day or two when flights are booked.
I also updated the language around my cat’s current physical condition since one response indicated that some sitters may be hesitant to accept sits for animals with “bowel issues.” My cat was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in December 2020 (it’s like kitty Crohn’s). While there is no cure for that, it has been WELL managed since then and he has NEVER had “bowel issues” since then. I would NEVER leave him with a sitter if that was the case - I feel it’s too much to expect of a sitter and I wouldn’t want to leave my sick child.
There were some other comments about the length of my planned travel which may or may not be attractive to some. This I cannot change. I don’t travel for weeks/months at a time. I travel for work or pleasure which, for me, isn’t typically more than a week at a time. Hopefully there are sitters out there (locally or otherwise) this will be ok for.
Thanks for the helpful feedback.
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I think this comment was just to let you know that, however well managed, the fact that your cat has IBS will be offputting to some sitters. Any sitter who knows anything about it will be aware that IBS can flare up at any time and can be influenced by change or stress, which of course can mean when strangers come to sit. That’s not a criticism of you, or of your listing, and of course is nothing that you can change - indeed, it’s essential to be clear about this condition in your listing so that sitters can make an informed choice, and you end up with a sitter who is knowledgeable and prepared for any potential related issues - it’s just to advise you that this may limit your number of applicants. I think another point may be that, sitters will be aware that there’s more risk of cancellation when confirming a sit far in advance for a pet who has existing health issues.
Again, this observation doesn’t suggest that you should change the duration of your travel, but is to advise you that sitters - especially those who sit full time - use shorter sits as ‘fillers’, so will be less inclined to book way in advance.
I’d suggest the best course of action is to list your sits much closer to their dates - a month or two in advance is much more likely to attract applicants.
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