Hi there,
Here’s an idea to help sitters (and maybe pet owners) who find themselves with a few days gap between sits or have just had a late cancellation.
Would it be possible to have a page that sitters can post their last minute availability on? We are full time sitters and even with our best organisation we sometimes find we have a gap of a few days between sits. Or there is a last minute cancellation and we are frantically looking for a replacement sit. Or, has happened this time, our next sit has decided to go away a couple of days later.
It would be simple, post the profile, put the dates that you are available and what area you want to sit in. Then pet owners could browse the posts if they fancied a last minute short break, deciding on the dates they would go away by the sitters availability. They would be certain that they could get a sitter and the sitter would have a couple of days with some more fantastic animals. I’d call that a win win situation.
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Good idea! I suppose it would need to be organized by country to avoid too much browsing?
I (sitter) usually just check manually for the country I’m in.
But it would be handy to have let’s say a last minute page for “USA” and then owners & sitters can find quickly what they’re looking for.
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There wouldn’t be too many sitters looking for a sit in say the next week but by country would work. But it also gives pet owners the chance to organise last minute breaks. They would see sitters who are looking for last minute sits in their area.
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Hi @ElsieDownie thank you, this is a suggestion I have made and discussed with members and internally. If it could be workable, on all levels, I agree it could help solve last minute sits, cancellations and increase member success.
Another benefit could be to inspire owners to take last minute trips if they could connect with an available sitter giving a sitter an opportunity they might otherwise not have.
One major caveat this would need to solve problems, not create them.
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I really like this idea. It would have been so useful when we had a sit cancelled on the day it was due to start due to the HO’s covid “FitToFly” test results not being received in time for them to catch their flights. It was completely outside the HO’s control, and they were wonderful at keeping us updated, and the sit was only an hour and a bit away from home.
It would have been fantastic if we could have listed our availability for that week (during the school half term holidays), maybe a family might have been tempted to go on a last minute break.
As it was, we dusted off the trailer tent and went camping for a few days. The children befriended some dogs on the campsite and spent ages playing ball with them, so they got a bit of a “pet fix”!
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Exactly. I’m glad you had a great break anyway. We are busy trying to find a cheapest Airbnb but it’s impossible on the south coast of England at this time of year.
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When are you looking for Hun? @ElsieDownie
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Tomorrow but we have now got somewhere to go. Thank you for your concern.
Elsie
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It would also be really nice if when searching for sits there was a filter for ‘Last minute’ instead of having to scroll through all the listings for a specific area to see what is available on short notice.
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Hi @Kootenaigirl welcome to our community forum, thank you for joining in the conversation, we appreciate all feedback and pass this on to the team, who regularly view these posts and topics.
Enjoy the conversation and connecting with other community members, we look forward to sharing in your THS journey.
Angela and the team
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You can add the specific area you are in to your “Saved Searches”.
You can also filter by specific location and specific dates.
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I think that @Angela_L 's point about inspiring HOs to take last-minute mini-trips without initiating the full post/receive applications process has some merit. Especially if the “availability” details are focused to an area and dates. For our current sit, for example, we had been booked for two weeks, but then the HOs decided to add some time at the beginning and end for other excursions since the work had already been done and we were available. A last-minute, short-term availability option might do the same thing. I feel for HOs who attempt to do this on their own by inviting sitters–we have had to turn down many because the requests just don’t fit our plans. But if we had posted our own specific needs, the match might be more likely.
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ive always thought the same thing. a post where I am and dates I could be available, as im sure some people might think that with the option of a good local sitter they could choose to take the local opportunity to go. Of course it might be filled with lots of people saying they are available all around the world carte blanche? but I think its a good way to offer help
Last minute cancellations happens, but is the sitter protected somehow?
Under the sit cancellation insurance available with the Premium Tier membership the sitter is covered subject to T&C’s
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Hi @deefee welcome to our community forum and thank you for joining in the conversation. All of this feedback is so helpful when considering how we can help members have the very best experience from their membership.
We hope you enjoy being on the forum and connecting with members from around the world.
Welcome again.
Angela and the team
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Let me know if this is not allowed or take it down.
this would be really handy. I’ve done a few sits for a lady in Haarlem and of course the more often you sit the more you feel you’d like to help out if possible. She contacted me the other day as she needed to get away (somewhat unexpectedly) but unfortunately it just coincides with another sit that i had already agreed on. So if there is anyone here thinking of going to Haarlem in the very near future look it up on the location finder and maybe someone can help her out !!!
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I signed up also for another service before I discovered Trustedhousesitters. While I haven’t used them (website is a mess), One of the main reasons I signed up was because some of the hosts offer free accommodations for in between stays. You just go onto the search page and look for a sit and it clearly states by the host name that they are also available for in between stays. That is what sold me to sign up. It’s just not user-friendly. And then I found trustedhousesitters. I thought I’d give my input. Your idea is wonderful! And I’m loving pet sitting in Trustedhousesitters. It’s fabulous! In retrospect I would never of signed up for the other company. It’s just that that perk was huge!
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Oh I do hope your a rock chick with a name like that.
I’ve never tried anywhere else as THS has always fulfilled our needs. I just thought while they were over hauling the site they might like to think about this idea.
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I do think that this is a great idea to connect “stranded sitters” needing a few days of a stay over with possible resources. Other sitters may even be willing to put someone up in a spare room, if they were at home and knew of someone in need of a stay over. Not sure if that would be allowed, since it would not actually be a house sit.
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