You’re very welcome Ben - thanks for looking into!
We too are getting invited to sits for dates that we have already marked as unavailable. Like @mars said I don’t think people even look at them.
Personally I feel that the profile page needs redesigning to make things more obvious. Things like the calendar are so far down the page that people aren’t going to read that far. Even our about/experience paragraphs are way down beneath all the reviews.
Reading this thread today prompted me to look at my ‘availability’ and to try to update it. Within 5 minutes I’d given up: I was reminded why I never access the availability calendar: it is so user-unfriendly. I am probably losing out on being invited to sits, but spending 20 minutes trying to navigate an unwieldy and cumbersome calendar which lacks logic and common sense is beyond me.
Hi @LTD
Exactly my thoughts
On the plus side, I received an invitation a couple of weeks ago. I apologised profusely that I was unavailable and that it was near impossible to manually change dates on the calendar. She replied to say she understood and would put me in her favourites for next time.
I gave up on the Calendar a few years ago. Just not user friendly enough for me.
I wish the availability calendar could be deactivated, as I have never used it and don’t want to, but owners can look at it and believe I’m available - though I don’t think they’re meant to draw that conclusion from blankness. Then I get messages saying ‘I see you’re available’, followed by an invitation.
Probably this has been raised before, but I don’t see how to search.
Thank you for this valuable feedback on the calendar … would be interesting to hear what members believe would be a practical, workable and user friendly alternative
I don’t use the calendar so I don’t know what mine looks like. You say sits are automatically put on it but today an owner wrote me after seeing I’m available on a set of dates where I have for several weeks had a different sit agreed. I will send you a screencapture if you tell me how to find the thing!
I consider my calendar private so only want to be able to hide it from my profile. How do I get to see how it looks? An owner contacted me today because she ‘saw I am available’ during dates when I have a TH booking.
Hi Angela. I do keep my calendar current, but don’t think it’s ideal to default to me showing when I will be available. I think it would be better to default to the current blank (white) version as being available, unless marked otherwise. THS would continue to cross out dates, when a sit is confirmed. Then, if for any reason the sitter wants to block out date ranges where they’re not available, they can manually mark those in some way.
As full time sitters, the availability calendar looks after itself. All we did was make ourselves available until whenever then as the sits came in they are automatically recorded on the calendar and it shows we are unavailable in those dates.
Pet owners have used it as we have had requests to sit on available dates and we have accepted as they were the sort of sits we enjoy. It is a useful tool for pet owners who have also read the sitters profile and reviews. A lot of work but it can be worthwhile if parties find a good match.
Elsie
I use the map for this. Narrow down to the continent/country or countries and that will show the available sits. You can also use the duration and dates filters.
Never bother with the availability calendar.
I agree with @Snowbird. I would like to see the calendar continue to use a black slash mark to automatically cross out dates I have booked sits and also give me the option of marking dates I am unavailable for reasons of my own, perhaps with a different color slash mark, like gray or red. Or show those dates in gray font instead of the usual black. That would make it very clear to a homeowner who wants to extend an invitation. On the other hand it would also make it harder to refuse an invitation you don’t want.
You have nicely refined my idea with specifics. Thanks. As for the refusal, I think a prompt, generic reply thanking them for approaching you but that it does not fit in well with your current plans. I don’t think you need to be any more specific. It’s worked for me so far, with pleasant replies back from homeowners.
To me - the biggest confusion is that dates available are marked green, dates booked by a housesit are marked with a slash through it, and unavailable dates aren’t marked at all.
I think it would be much clearer to just mark all dates that you can’t do - whether you are on a sit, or just can’t do the dates as red. Think this would make it much clearer to prospective homeowners. Mocked it up below.
Homeowners should also get a message if they are inviting you to a sit that clashes with unavailable to dates. Asking if they are sure they want to invite.
Personally as a full-time sitter, it would be easier to mark the dates we are unavailable for and the rest of the days to be marked as available by default. Maybe some sort of toggle to select whether you want to mark days as available or unavailable by default
As far as I am aware, the problem has always been when a sitter wants to manually strike out dates when they are unavailable as they are spending time at home or doing something else.
All we want is to simply strike out a date or dates rather than the convoluted process that is there at the moment.
Can you tell me how to see my availability calendar? It isn’t showing up in Preview or Edit Profile. Preview also only shows me reviews, nothing else.
Hi @Lauraa - if you go to your dashboard, click PREVIEW on your SITTER PROFILE, then scroll down past your reviews, references and your profile details, then directly after “pet care experience” you should see “availability” and your calendar. This is on the desktop version. I can see your availability so have another look - it may have been one of those temporary glitches, slow loading or something similar, but do let us know if you still have problems. Hope that helps.
Hi @Lauraa and thank you @Vanessa_A I’ve just checked your account and it is there on your public profile and on your account (desk top) I’m DM you the screen shot showing the calendar
This is the calendar owners can see? Different colours for dates aren’t visible to me using dark mode, though a red dot is visible. But as I said, I’ve been contacted by an owner who says she can see I’m available in mid-August when I have a TH sit booked, which should be impossible if it looks blocked out to other…
