Detail of searching for sitters

I’m fairly new to THS - have just had one sitter thus far.

Desperately searching for a sitter for one month time period. I leave in one month! I’m finding the site incredibly inefficient (and therefore frustrating) to find sitters who are available. I tried applying the “dates” filter but it does not work. I’ve just been randomly selecting people from my state and neighboring states and immediately look at the calendars, but often they do not show availability. Is there a way to apply a filter to *only show sitters who are available on the dates you need?

I also find the response rate 50/50 at best, which is disappointing.

Thanks for your help!

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Hi @Tales
You’ll find that a lot of sitters don’t update their calendar for availability but is automatically updated when sits are confirmed.
It would help if you linked your listing to your profile and we can have a look to see if it can be improved. Here’s how to do that:

Once you’ve done that, do take on board any advice seasoned sitters, and owners, give you as it may well increase your chances of finding a suitable sitter or sitters.

2 Likes

@Tales welcome to THS and all it has to offer. You are going to find a great deal of help here on the forum as well.

I took a look at your pics and I have a couple of suggestions. First, your sits are both in the summer but your lead pic shows snow on the ground. For all of us looking forward to the warmth that both Spring and Summer bring, this might stop someone from looking further into your listing. I would suggest you change out your pic to one showing what your home looks like when a sitter would be there…whether just green grass or if there are flowers blooming, I would definitely showcase that! And on that topic, I would make a pic of cutie pie Maddie the first pic that is on your profile. This will let the sitters see how adorable she is!

Next, I would suggest you link your member profile to your forum profile here at How to add a listing or profile link to your FORUM profile - Owner & Sitter Exchange - TrustedHousesitters Community Forum. This will give your listing added exposure to our members for advice and suggestions to help make your profile the most desirable it can be. This will help you attract more potential sitters.

I wish you the best of luck!

Hello Tales, these first sentences of yours will certainly attract the attention of some forum members who are desperately looking for a sit - but your location is missing!

Putting your place and the month of your holiday (such as “Colorado in June, sitter needed”) into the headline of this post could get you some applicants straight away.

From your description I understand that you are searching for sitters with the “Find a Sitter” feature and you are contacting sitters living in your region. This is the wrong strategy. Those sitters are most likely not interested in sits near their home town (there is no motivation other than perhaps getting a first review) and/or they are just doing house sits somewhere else in the world. For example, I regularly get invitations from home owners from Southern England, but I have not lived there for the last 8 months and intend not to return in the next years. I am travelling through Europe and Africa and am looking for a sit in Germany next month and in Norway in August. So, my home location is of no use for people looking for a sitter. There is no feature for us sitters to indicate in our profiles where exactly we are right now and where we are looking for sits in which months. So forget about that part of the website.

The only reasonable way for you to get a sitter is to place an ad on the website and offer your sit with place and dates. Make your location clear for people who do not know your region yet. If you live in some little village or town district which nobody knows, put the nearest famous city into the headline. “Family home 50km from New York” is clearer than “Residence in Breakneck Ridge”.

You will then get up to five applications. Respond to them quickly! Schedule video calls and select one candidate. Confirm the sit and wait for the counter-confirmation. Done!

The Search Sitter feature is, in my opinion, only useful if you have heard of or have met a particular person and you want to find them or catch up with them, but don’t know their contact details. However, their place of residence will never tell you whether they will be available for sits in that area. You have to place an ad and wait for applications instead.

Hello Debbie!

Thank you so much for responding to my panicked note from a few days ago. I very much appreciate it!

I just wrote to another forum member who also responded with the same advice about linking my profile to my forum profile. I honestly can’t figure out how to do it! It says:

"Go to the FORUM and CLICK on your USER ICON in the top right corner.”

But I don’t see any icons in the upper right hand corner! What does it look like?

As far as your suggestions to provide pics of my house in springtime that did occur to me and I’ve taken a few pics t add. But I went tony listing to add these and it seems that your web site is having difficulties - I keep getting an error message that “something went wrong”.

And I was assuming th profiel pic should be the house, as I’ve seen with most profiles I’ve looked at. But I do like your idea. Would that be under “Home” or “Location”? As I said I can’t access them right now.

I really need to find someone, so I hope this can get resolved soon!

THANK YOU!

Edited to remove personal information.

Hello, @Tales Debbie is currently offline so I am more than happy to help you. The icon in the top right is your forum user photo. If you click on that then a drop-down menu with options will open.
In the meantime, I have already added the link to your THS listing to your forum profile from your previous post. I can also get Membership Service to reach out to you to help update your photos and check that your listing is working as it should be. Please look out for their email.
If you need anything else feel free to let me know :grin:

Hi Smiley!

Thanks smooch for responding to my THS forum question. Several of you responded with the same suggestion about linking my profiles and I’ve been in touch with them, as I’m having challenges with the web site right now.

Take good care!

Hello Romana,

THANK YOU so much for responding to my panicked note of the THS forum! I very much appreciate it!

And you are absolutely right: the “Find a Sitter” tab is just about useless! I have suggested to the that they find a way for travelers to indicate their *current location, but I get no where with them. The more people who request this, the more chance they will listen! So I encourage you to let them know that this would greatly benefit their members!

Re: people in New England, there *are people who, for one raisin or another, wouldn’t mind a local sit. But with the sane line of thought as you suggested, I have been inviting people who live in the city or by the ocean who might want a change of scenery, since I live in the country.

PLEASE DO TELL ME MORE ABOUT PLACING ADS! I assume there is a cost? Where do they show up?

THANK YOU!

Rona

@Tales , I think @Romana was using “ad” interchangeably with “listing.” She’s saying to post your listing and wait for sitters to apply, which is what you are now doing.

Your listing will be more attractive once you change the home pictures to reflect the current season, which must be beautiful where you are! Your home looks very comfy and inviting. I don’t think you need to mention anything about clutter. Your pictures will show the level of clutter, which doesn’t look like much. Maddie looks very sweet and I think you’ve included important details about her care. How many miles is it to shops and culture – Northampton, you could mention Smith College and U of Mass, Amherst and their cultural offerings, also Mount Holyoke, isn’t that close by? And how long can sitters leave Maddie alone in the house?

Hello Rona,
Yes, Mars got it right, I indeed meant your listing when I was talking about your “ad”. But also your post in this forum can work as an “ad” for you, provided you include the most important details in the title which are time and place. And there is no extra cost other than your annual membership fee. I wish you good luck! Sadly I am far away from New England, USA, myself.
Cheers,
Romana

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Thanks so much, Romano - I’m working on getting more info up on the site and will re-post not the forum!

Still having trouble linking my profile to my forum profile….

Here’s To The Stories!

Edited to remove personal information

Thanks, Mars! All good suggestions. I live in the hills - slightly higher elevation and so a bit cooler than in the valley, so my flowers have not yet bloomed! But I’m buying some annuals to brighten things up and take a few more photos.

Yes, mentioning the universities dan colleges would be a great idea!

Thank you!!

Rona

Hello @Tales If you click on your user name, you will see your THS listing link there. Please see the screenshot for reference:

Screen Shot 2023-04-29 at 11.54.53

Any questions just let me know :grin: