We always need to have 2 bedrooms when we sit. We’ve done about 10 sits in our first year with THS, we have had a high success rate with applications so far, but have recently had a few declines in quick succession, which has got me wondering. (Obviously we explain this in our applications, and only apply for sits which say 2+ bedrooms).
Sitters who ask for 2+ bedrooms, how much do you think it affects your success in getting sits?
I’ve had periods where we’ve been declined for a few sits in a row and it does get you thinking as to why that is! But it’s probably not to do with the bedrooms. Me and my partner like to have a second bedroom or a nice sofa available for if one of us isn’t sleeping well but it’s not a deal breaker. So if the house is big enough and the HO seems chill we’ll sometimes ask if we can use a second bedroom. I bet there are other reasons for being declined though. Are you looking in popular areas? One thing I won’t do is apply for sits where the sitter has to sleep in a rubbish guest room on an uncomfortable pull out bed!
Realistically this won’t work for lots of people, even if they have two bedrooms they may not want someone staying in their main bedroom or the extra work of having to get two rooms ready for the sitter. But then again if it’s a sit with low applications they might be willing to compromise especially if you wash all the sheets used before they get back!
We only accept sits that can offer us two bedrooms and have a fairly high acceptance rate, although we do get occasional spurts of declines and it is impossible to know whether this is because of our two-bedroom request or another of the other multitude of reasons that the home hosts can choose to decline us for.
We never apply for sits that say the property is one bedroomed but do apply for sits when we think the property is more than one bedroomed even if the listing insinuates that only one bedroom is available.
I always explain that we are a happily married couple but ask for the use of two beds because one of us is a snorer, It is our alternative to divorce so is non-negotiable!
@Colin - you never used to be such high maintenance 
@Twitcher , There are two people in this relationship, only one is high maintenance. I won’t name names as I am not that petty, but I will say that it isn’t me 
Say no more @Colin!
I think it’s helpful to first look and see if the space would accommodate that many people. Also, many HO’s (like us) will call out how many people they’re willing to accommodate). Our place rn could technically house 4, but because we do overlaps at start and end, we accept 1-2 sitters at a time.
So it’s less of a request and more this is what we can do. With most sits I’ve done, I just share in my first message how many people I’d have with me. The bigger issue I’ve run into is if you try to bring someone not represented in your profile, which is totally fair, but we’ve never gotten pushback on us wanting to use more than one bedroom after the HO’s have left if we want or need to.
There’s no hard and fast rule though…all you can do is share your expectations and it will either work or it won’t. If it isn’t working, maybe ask in a different way or with different wording next time or scan the listing a bit harder to look for context clues.
My sister sometimes sits with me so two beds (not necessarily two bedrooms) are required by us. Like @Colin, if say four bedrooms are mentioned in the listing or the home looks spacious and it’s just a couple living there, I ask about possibility of two beds being available in my application. Of late, I’m having success, even though only one bed is mentioned or photographed but we also get rejected too.
My beautiful wife sometimes snores Iike a chainsaw on heat so two bedrooms are a must. We usually check out the listing first and establish if two bedrooms are feasible. We then apply and ask if the snoring kicks in can I sleep on the lounge or in the spare bedroom. Every HO was ok with this and we have never been rejected on these grounds.
We ask for 2-3 bedrooms. We definitely get our share of rejections as having five people coming into a home is just too much for some hosts but it’s fine because we still get many confirmed sits.
We sit as a family of 3 or 4 so need at least 2 bedrooms, ideally 3. We only apply for sits that appear to be able to accommodate us. We might sometimes get declined because it’s just less hassle to prepare 1 guestroom. On a recent video call, the home owner said as they had 3 single bedrooms, the boys could have one and a half each! I suggested they could save me one to escape the snoring!
I’ve just sadly had to turn down a very nice family who I would happily have accepted if they were arriving after we left. But they would have needed to borrow our car, so there would have to have been overlap so that they could drop us to the airport, and the logistics of another 4 people in the house while we were getting ready to go would just have been too much, especially as we have an anxious teenager who will be in a bit of a state coming up to travel time.
My point is there can be a few different factors involved- whether there is an overlap is relevant as well as how much hassle it would be to get extra rooms ready- we have a granny flat so it’s much easier to have that ready for sitters and just shut our bedroom doors rather than do a huge clean up after ourselves as we pack. But if we didn’t also have the anxiety situation to manage, it would be more doable.
I would have really liked to accept this family, they sounded great.
Thank you for posting on this topic! I felt like we were the only couple asking for two beds all this time. My partner and I love each other dearly but we sleep so much better separately.
Getting sits has not been a problem, but I always agonize over when to bring it up. Do couples who want 2 beds mention it on their initial application or wait to ask if you get a video chat? We’ve been asking in the video chat and we’ve never been turned down. I’d love to hear how other couples handle this and I’m so glad to know there are other 2 bed couples out there 
Yep, we’re a ‘two-bed couple’ too I address this in our application so that it comes up early on. It is non-negotiable for us. We do sometimes suffer through the first handover night, if there’s only 2 beds in the house and the owners are still there.
We do the same as @botvot , always mention it in our application.
Its amazing how many home hosts ‘confess’ that they also sleep separately and totally understand the reason for our request.
If this is a deal-breaker for a sitter – that they require two bedrooms – they should absolutely place it prominently in their application or profile.
Otherwise, you’re putting the HO in an awkward position during the video chat when you raise the issue. That’s happened to us and it was uncomfortable.
I agree @KenandMary1998 - deal breakers should be in a prominent position on the profile (sitters and homeowners). Saves time and embarrassment all round.
Time to review my profile to ensure that is the case.
tbh it’s rather personal info to put out there on the internet when anyone who knows us might read it! I always put it in my applications though, would you say that’s fair?
I can only suggest you do what you are comfortable with @outdoorsy. It has obviously worked for you in the past according to your original post.