Is it just me but do I need to be told, as a host , to ‘sparkle up’ my home for my sitters like an Air bnb host seeking 5 gold star rating? 12 years ago it was an excellant exchange between a pet loving house owner gaining care when away and a pet lover enjoying a working holiday for free. As a cat owner, its not a lot of work. Just a bit of house, garden and pet care and i live in top tourist places which charge £1000 a week at least, in the summer. They are visitjng my home, not a hotel and i wont be leaving them gift packs. Just proper supportive help to ensure they can feed and navigate themselves around from my home.
Having just re started post house moves, i have had very few sitters reply and they clearly have lots of options since they want to fix asap. That is understandably if travelling but are there less of them? Ths could treat us all as adults.
There’s chatter about there being being an overall increase in members with an imbalance towards HOs, as well as fewer people travelling to the UK especially from Australia and New Zealand.
I like sits with a clean and tidy home, sparkling up isn’t necessary and nor are gift packs, at least for me.
I’m most comfortable when HOs welcome me the way they would friends and family. Assuming they like their friends and family, lol. Hotel or Airbnb level is impersonal.
This depends on if you are having trouble attracting applicants that align with what you are seeking and also the reviews you receive from sitters (they rate you on these subcats).
Locations in popular areas like yours probably dont need to be as sparkled up as remote or less travelled, less desirable areas.
Personally, I prepare my house for a sitters as if its on the market for sale or as if its cleaning day (we have cleaning people every 2 weeks). I clean the entire house, clutter put away from counters, stove top, coffee table, end table, sink tops, etc. And I make space in the closet, a dresser, fridge, freezer and cabinets for their food. The applicants and/or the reviews post sit will reveal to you if what you have put out there as a listing is sufficiently sparkled .
I noticed you linked your profile. Its lovely, looks nice, picked up and clean from the pics (aside from the unmade bed). The dog pics are confusing though, especially since the first pic is of a dog, and there is not a dog listed in the Pet Section. Sorry if you have recently lost your dog. Your reviews are great also so things seemed to have been going well for you.
You may be overthinking it. Bottom line is treat sitters as if they were your guests and sitters should treat you like your are friends hosting them. Unfortunately THS marketing has set the bar to meet their marketing needs which, most often doesn’t align with reality.
It’s a knee jerk reaction to the hosts who don’t bother or likely live in a not clean house. A few dust bunnies and the odd cobweb don’t bother me, you’d probably find them in my house. But if it’s sparkling when you pass it over, you want it back like that.
As experienced housesitters then we observe, like @MTBer, that the attractiveness of listings to housesitters varies greatly. Some Pet Parents receive negligible, if any, applicants. Some are bombarded by bountiful applicants.
Quickly reviewed your listing. The UK does have a lot of listings, second only to US, so there is inherent competition. THS does not publish data on number of pet parent, housesitters, geographies or pretty much anything else so hard to objectively assess. But suggest relax - you seem to have an attractive listing - heck, we’d look at it so we’d be surprised if you struggled to attract applicants. That said, we quite often withdraw applications after video calls with pet parents that exhibit excessive privilege or can’t get past ‘free accommodation’. The rental value of your property during peak season is frankly irrelevant as you are not seeking a paying guest but a housesitter.
12 years is a long time and society/expectations have changed. With forums like this ‘informing’ other people that some of us set standards much higher than those others might expect in return for our time/expense to travel to a sit and care for pets/home for free. The exchange is weighted in favour of sitters who can pick and choose at the moment (except for special exceptions). With dozens of sits listed in my home city I could be fully occupied sitting just a few miles from home…. but the majority don’t meet my personal standards so I’ll stay at home. Just a rare sit gets my attention if it’s local….and if a sit is in the two locations I mostly apply for (Perth Australia and Jersey Channel Islands) even then it’s all about standards.
I agree with MTBER. The unmade bed, would have taken you seconds to straighten it out. You only have one chance to make a good first impression. This site is very competitive now, maybe it wasn’t when you first joined 12 years ago.,
Why the cover photo of dog on a beach, if it is now a cat sit, and chickens? (with horses which admittedly do not fall under the responsibility of the sitter). Misleading.
I see your listing states “Currently not in need of a sitter” so obviously you have found someone.
I looked at your listing many times previous to your posting on the forum and to be honest I gave up after about three times reading it. I couldn’t really figure out where it actually was and if the house pictured was the new house or the empty block next to it was where the new house was going. Call me stupid but not being from the UK, I found the multiple descriptions of your location so confusing, otherwise I was actually very interested in applying. Also , as @RedLassie and others mentioned, I was a bit thrown initially by the cover picture of the dog on the beach. Why?? I’m not after a free holiday by the way, I do it because yes, I love traveling, but I also do it for all the pet love.
As a sitter, I don’t expect a “sparkling” clean home but I scroll past listings that have an unmade bed. If a homeowner can’t present a made bed in their listing, I wonder what the rest of the house looks like.
I would never sit for hosts who have the habit of docking stars here and there at the same time saying would like to have the sitter back. Do these hosts think it’s a cool thing to do to sitters? and I wonder what kind of sitter would like to sit for them again?
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. But if it’s sparkling when you pass it over, you want it back like that.
