Hi @Mish2B are all 4 dogs walked together or is it separate walks ? It wasn’t clear to me from your listing but maybe that’s just me .
Where do the dogs sleep ?
How long can they be left at home alone for ?
Your listing is certainly looking better in terms of the content, but I really strongly suggest you still tidy up, take new photos and change your listing’s profile picture. There are far more sits than there are sitters, and if you want applicants, your pictures - especially your profile picture - really needs to stand out and attract attention for people to actually click your listing. Simply explaining yourself with text under every image won’t help much.
A quick search shows me there are currently 36 other listings in and around the area of Carlisle. If you take a look at some other listings, you’ll see what the their profile and house pictures look like. You certainly don’t need to have any kind of fancy show home, but having pictures with dishes in the sink, an unmade bed (with a dog on it!) and quite a lot of clutter won’t serve your listing well and won’t help you gain applicants. Neither will your profile picture, which doesn’t compliment your title or show any kind of compelling reason why a sitter should click your listing. A random image of a back fence tells sitters nothing about your sit and why they should pick you.
Remember this is an advert, so it really needs sell your sit. Try an image of your dogs, a nice image of your home from the front, or a nice shot of your local area instead!
Hope that helps!
It doesn’t have to be a show home at all, but to attract sitters it probably does have to look tidy and fairly clutter free unless you live in a reall sought after location, I’ve done some really messy sits in cities that we wanted to visit. If decluttering is hard because of the number of people/pups could you decide to take a bedroom out of action for the sit, keep that door shut and put clutter in there so sitters will have space. I appreciate for the two days sits that might not be worth the hassle.
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The other thing to think about for a 2 day sit is simply paying someone and then setting yourself up on THS for longer trips. It’s a lot of work for the HO to get a home ready for a sitter for a weekend and a lot of travel and logistical planning for the sitter too so these super short ones don’t always work unless they’re places for a sought after city break. Totally up to you. #foodforthought
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Agreed - I’m not sure many sitters would opt for a 2 day sit, unless they had a 2 day break between sits (but most would just book an Airbnb somewhere!)
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A short sit such as yours might attract more of a local sitter/s, someone who wants to build up their reviews or want to go away for just a couple of days.
Since your sit is so short, would you feel comfortable mentioning in your ad that sitters do not need to worry about cleaning at the end of their stay?
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I took a look at your listing this morning before anyone had responded and, to be blunt, it actually did tell me what I needed to know: The photos depicted a cluttered home with multiple large dogs on beds and furniture and the write-up confirmed that some of the dogs have challenging behaviours. This might work for some sitters, but not for others.
You certainly can improve the listing to better attract sitters - and have already received some great advice - but after amending both pics and wording, please do ensure your place really is clean and de-cluttered prior to the sitter’s arrival and please don’t minimise the dog’s behaviours and subsequent sitter responsibilities. It’s important for sitters to know what kind of experience they can expect.
Best of luck with it
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