Hi, I’m not having any luck getting applicants or having any luck getting approved for a sit in the city I’m traveling to…I paid for the premium dual membership so this is discouraging. Any advice?
Maybe link your posting to the forum, you will receive wonderful advice on how it could be improved to entice sitters.
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For Owner Listings:
- Go to the main TrustedHousesitters website and LOGIN to the DASHBOARD. When you PREVIEW the listing you don’t get the full URL in the same way you do with sitter profiles. You will see something like this (without the spaces):https: // www.trustedhousesitters. com / user / listing / 123456 / edit / listing-preview/This is not the link another person will need to view your current listing.
- You will need to find your listing on the website. Do this using “Find a House Sit” and search for your location. When you see your listing, click on it and then copy the URL (Ctrl + C) from the browser bar, ready to paste it into your forum profile. It will look something like this:https: // www.trustedhousesitters. com/ house-and-pet-sitting-assignments / france / burgundy/ painblanc/ l / 123456/
- Go to the FORUM and CLICK on your USER ICON in the top right corner. CLICK on the “head and shoulders” icon and from the drop down menu, select PREFERENCES.
- On the left of the screen you will see a further list. Select PROFILE to open up a screen that will show your PROFILE text and other information. You can add a link in the text section and/or you can scroll down to a box labelled WEB SITE.
- Paste the URL you copied earlier (CTRL + V) into this box. If you’ve lost the URL, don’t worry, just go back to your TrustedHousesitters dashboard and copy it again.
- Once you’ve added this link, don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the screen and select the SAVE CHANGES green button.
7.Now anyone who clicks on your user icon, will see your link(s) and be able to make contact using a DIRECT MESSAGE by clicking the green MESSAGE box.*
The process is slightly different for owners and sitters.
Note - We would recommend you do this on the desktop version as it’s easier to manage unless you are very adept at using smart devices 
For Sitters:
- Go to the main TrustedHousesitters website and LOGIN to the DASHBOARD. Here you can PREVIEW your profile (green block) and copy (Ctrl + C) the URL in the browser bar, ready to paste it into your forum profile. It will look something like this:
- Go to the FORUM and CLICK on your USER ICON in the top right corner - this may be a photo if you’ve uploaded one, or a letter in a circle. Then CLICK on the “head and shoulders” icon and from the drop down menu, select PREFERENCES.
- On the left of the screen you will see a further list. Select PROFILE to open up a screen that will show your PROFILE text and other information. You can add a link in the text section and/or you can scroll down to a box labelled WEB SITE.
- Paste the URL you copied earlier (CTRL + V) into this box. If you’ve lost the URL, don’t worry, just go back to your TrustedHousesitters dashboard and copy it again.
- Once you’ve added this link, don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the screen and select the SAVE CHANGES green button.
From a sitters point of view:- Maybe it’s because you are travelling to sit??? We joined as sitters in late March, and we are pretty much fully booked already with pet sits up to the end of Sep. But we had a plan in place, we stuck to travelling within 1.5hrs-2hrs of my home town so that pet owners could rely on us for future years too. That way we can also build up our reviews to, which we have now got, so we have just applied, & been accepted for, our first sit overseas later this year.
Put yourself in the pet owners shoes, without any reviews of official pet-sit reviews, how would a pet owner know you were any good, or that you were a dog/cat lover, or that you would even turn up when you say, especially when you are travelling out of your area. The majority of sitters on here adore animals, and a lot would have owned pets before, so you need something a little different to make you stand out from the rest if you have no reviews. What have you got that others haven’t?
Maybe just get a couple of local sits under your belt first to pick up some reviews, even just a couple of days sitting here and there. Maybe that would help.
Hope you get sorted soon
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@CeciAndRune I have added both your THS home listing and THS sitters profile link to your forum profile.
If you click on your user name you will see them both there and other members can now view them and offer feedback
Your listing as a HO/PP is pretty thorough. Maybe a few too many photos of the rabbits. House looks nice, comfortable. I’d worry as a prospective sitter whether I would be expected to sleep in a child’s bunk bed though. Clarify why that’s in there. Are families permitted to stay?
I’m sure others will weigh in, but your listing as sitters leaves a lot out. In your HO listing, you say you travel with your dog, but that’s not mentioned in the other listing.
Mostly, I’d be concerned that you have no way of supporting yourselves as “professional pet carers” when THS does not support paid sits.
Need more photos.
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Hi and welcome @CeciAndRune ! I’m a HO, so I took a look at your sitter profile. As @Katie mentioned, more photos and more info is needed, as well as some external references.
Photos: You need pics of you with the animals you’ve taken care of: cats, dogs and reptiles. Also, as you travel with children, some pics of them with animals would be great (with blurred faces if needed).
Info: You mention you have tons of experience with other peoples home and pets. Go into the details and give some examples! What animals, where, for how long? What do you actually do as a petcare professional? How long have you been doing it? Also some personal info would be great. What do you enjoy doing while traveling? What are your hobbies? How many children do you have and what age? Do you/have you owned any pets?
References/reviews: I assume it might be very hard to get a sit without any references. So, ask some of the people whose pets you’ve taken care of to write you one, maybe 2-3 would be great.
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There are two children’s bedrooms and an adult bedroom…so yes our home is equipped for a family stay if need be.
I’m not sure what you mean by support myself. My partner and I own a business as pet care professionals and we travel when we have time, thus I have put pet care professional. We do not live paycheck to paycheck if that’s what you mean?
THS doesn’t allow sitters to charge. Given that you do sitting professionally, some HOs might hesitate to choose you, thinking that you might expect to charge them. It would help for you to make explicit that you won’t.
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Sitter listing - I agree with other comments about making it clear that you know THS sits are unpaid. Add the fact that you will be travelling with a dog. Add more details about your experience - large dogs, medicating animals, puppies, etc. Also expain that you have experience taking care of a house.
Homeowner listing - change the first photo. It needs to attract sitters, so maybe one of the cat or rabbits. Delete some of the rabbit photos. Add a photo of the sitters’ bathroom. Be more specific about the location 'Close to…" is subjective. Instead, say “20 mins drive from…” Add local attractions. Change the headline to attract sitters who just see the thumbnail. Maybe say “Family friendly near beach, huge yard”
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We are aware of this and I’m assuming all members of THS are also aware of this…if that is the case why would I need to explicitly state it? It seems redundant no?
Hi @CeciAndRune,
I think what @Maggie8K and a others are suggesting is a simple but transparent comment that assures other members you are well aware of the no exchange of money between parties…Could be something like “While we are professional pet care providers that own our own business we will be using THS to travel when we have time and understand there is no exchange of funds between parties.”
While it might seem redundant what it does is tell those looking at your profile that might think…“hmmm maybe they want $$ because this is what they do for a living,” that you indeed are not and you would be a great candidate to choose because of all your experience! In some cases it’s better to “spell it all out” so to speak rather than leave people feeling uncertain.
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There’s room for questions and, if you don’t mind some HOs skipping you because of that, it doesn’t matter.
Some HOs have posted that they’ve been asked by some sitters for some sort of compensation, against THS rules. That probably adds noise to the mix, which you could get caught up in.
The answers here about making it clear you do not charge for sitting is very important as there have been a few sitters who have asked for compensation (which is not allowed and needs to be addressed with sitter). You just need to make sure all potential HO’s are aware you are not expecting any sort of compensation for staying with their pets while under the TrustedHousesitter platform.
Hi Carla - so am I to understand w/ premium we have TWO profiles? Hmmm. I didn’t realize that, I thought we only had one, I’m only looking for sitters right now, but in future I may want to sit so I can travel. I added my ‘owner’ profile to my forum profile, but I’m not sure what my actual sitter’s profile is.
Hi @Myka,
I’ve taken a look at both your homeowner profile and your sitter profile. Your sitter profile looks like it’s already off to a great start! Because you are a combined member when you are ready to try sitting your profile is there and ready to go. You could also add your sitter profile to your forum profile if/when you want to. When you’re ready to use the site as a sitter you would just switch to that part of your profile on your dashboard and apply to sits.
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