Hi everyone, I am a new member in Hampshire, UK and was very excited to find THS. We have a beautiful home and the right person could have a beautiful Christmas in the Hampshire countryside but - have so far been unsuccesful to find a sitter for the Christmas period yet - so getting a little nervous…

Hi and Welcome @Orkus You have joined at a very busy time of year - lots of homeowners wanting to get away and less sitters available. Most members have already made their arrangements. You can invite as many sitters as you like but it is not a very good strategy. Create a fabulous listing - lot…

Welcome @Orkus . Unfortunately, THS’s marketing is giving new owners the wrong idea of getting a sitter. Inviting sitters rarely works! The idea is to create an attractive listing (think real estate listing) with clear photos of house, especially rooms sitters will be using; why sitters would want to…

Many thanks, yes I realise I left it quite late…and your kind reply confirms this. Thank you. I will try and heed the suggestions and fingers crossed. Best wishes Andrea

Thank you - that is very helpful. I was concerned leaving it late but did not know the invites would be kind of ‘hit and miss’ and the competition so strong. It makes complete sense. I shall explore other ways too! Thank you and best wishes Andrea

Hi Actually contacting sitters directly rarely works though it does sometimes! What you need to do is actually ‘post’ your dates. Take into consideration if you would like them to stay the night before and host them and if so make this clear in your dates and mention this in your profile. Once you …

[image] largo: As you reply to other sitters to decline them this automatically opens your dates for more sitters to apply to the max of 5 until such time as your dates are confirmed by a sitter. Excellent advice except I think the homeowner has to unpause the listing - it is not automatic.

thanks! you may well be correct as it’s been a while since I posted ‘open’ dates! :rofl:

@Orkus I have found your listing so here are a few suggestions to perhaps improve it. Do you normally decorate your home for Christmas? If so, a photo of how it will look could be very appealing to sitters and could be your first photo to grab sitters’ attention. Your outside photos do not depict …

[image] Twitcher: Excellent advice except I think the homeowner has to unpause the listing - it is not automatic. This is correct. I suppose this is not an issue with all hosts, moreso those who get such a high response rate that they fill the application buffer before selecting a sitter or d…

Huge thanks! I will do all of that and change where needed. All best Andrea

Christmas period listing help please

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat

Cuttlefish 5 November 2025 12:43 15

Here you go @orkus this should work

#helpisonhand

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Christmas period listing help please

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