Hi There, I’ve posted a listing for Christmas this year for our two lovely Labradors. We’d love some feedback from any potential sitters please. Please check out the link to home in the beautiful Scottish Borders in my profile. We look forward to hearing from you all. Kind regards
Hi @gmilne
Welcome to the Trusted Housesitters Forum!
I’ve added your listing to your Forum profile, so that our members can give you some feedback on your listing.
Hi there,
I took a look a for you. Overall your sit looks lovely and you have very nice descriptions of your home - I see that you already have an applicant, so I hope it works out for you. Here’s some ideas to consider if it doesn’t:
1: Try an exciting title related to Christmas (e.g: Celebrate the holidays in the Scottish borders!) and use a cover photo that reflect the Christmas/winter season, not Autumn.
2: In your intro, consider that people from any place, culture, age & English language level may be reading your listing - ‘bumpkin’ is an unfamiliar word for many. Your intro should also tell sitters who you’re looking for (singles, couples, people with or without pets etc) why they should sit for you (especially over Christmas!), when you’d like a sitter to arrive & depart, and create a strong reason why somebody should keep reading & engaging with your listing.
3: Your home and location section has some lovely descriptions, but make it relevant to Christmas & winter. Why should a sitter spend Christmas at your place? Will your home be nicely decorated? How’s the heating in your home? Do sitters need their own car? Can you collect sitters from the nearest airport or station?
4: Your responsibilities section is quite minimal. Tell sitters:
- How long can the dogs be left? (If you ticked a box for this, tick-boxes cannot be publically viewed).
- Where do they sleep? (Note: in the room with a sitter is a deal breaker for most)
- How do they behave on walks?
- What are their personalities?
- Can they get along with other dogs?
- Can they be taken in the car with sitters?
- ‘Regularly let into the garden’ is ambiguous; how often, exactly?
- Are there home maintenance tasks to be done such as snow blowing & winter maintenance?
Hope that helps 
3 Likes
Your pics show Colonel and Purdey in the back of a car, is a car necessary on this sit? If so, it’s worth mentioning in your listing. On that note, are there good walks from your doorstep (it certainly looks like it) or will a sitter be required to transport the dogs? If so, are you hoping they will do so in their own vehicle, or will you be making yours available? All points to mention (and I understand from other threads on here that making your vehicle available to sitters does increase the number of applicants). For info, we travel in our own vehicle and are mindful that sandy or muddy dogs means a bigger car clean-up at the end of a sit, despite us using liners/protectors, and especially so for 2 sizeable dogs.
And that reminds me of another point: do you hose or towel-dry the dogs after a mucky walk? Is there anywhere they can dry off? Where do the dogs sleep? Issues worth mentioning in the listing, please.
Since this is a Christmas sit, it’s always more tempting when the first pic is of a wintery scene. However, I note your mention in your listing that you’ve only recently moved in, so that may not be possible this time.
I’d recommend adding a pic of a roaring fire in the log burner. Also, is there a sofa in your living room or just the two chairs? Maybe include a photo if there is, and one of the television might help attract sitters for this winter period. Move the cardboard box and re-take the bedroom pic, possibly with the vase of flowers from the kitchen placed on the chest of drawers. Basically, sitters need to be able to see themselves living comfortably in your living space and want to be there over the Christmas period, when there are more sits than available sitters. State whether or not your home will be decorated for Christmas, as this might sway some sitters, one way or the other.
You state ‘no parties or events’ at the end of your listing. Make it equally clear if you will not allow visitors, since some sitters will arrange to be near family over the Christmas period or potentially ask if it is possible to have a guest (this is not a foregone conclusion, but is something we have asked the hosts at our present sit which will extend over the festive period, and they’ve happily agreed). Transparency is important in all sit situations, so maybe make that clear at the beginning of your listing, rather than adding it as your closing sentence.
Jedburgh is a wonderful area and the setting of your home looks idyllic. Your two dogs are gorgeous (we particularly love Labs!) so I’m sure you’ll have no shortage of applicants.
Best of luck to you!
2 Likes
Great advice given. As Christmas is high season and demand for sitters is high (especially in UK with many listings) and sitters applying for multiple sits at a time - do assess applications as you get them, so you don’t lose a good match because you were slow and they got another offer.
If it seems a good match, get a video call and see Where it brings you. If everything is fine and your gut feeling is good, confirm the sit.
Never make an agreement if something feels «off». Trust your instinct.
3 Likes
Agreeing with all of the above suggestions. One further point - you mention the use of a “shared bathroom”. Shared with whom? I presume it is for sole use by the sitter(s) during the sit - perhaps you mean it is also your bathroom whilst you’re at home and not a dedicated guest bathroom. This might be worth clarifying.
2 Likes
Agree with all suggestions above before. First and foremost, your pictures are beautiful and your dogs look adorable. I would definitely think you will get a sitter in no time…just give it some patience.
Our biggies to update:
- Shared bathroom, with who?
- Would put less about the towns activities (these are things you can share with a sitter on welcome guide or in person handoff)
- Bumpkin (change the wording)
- Charming (can be off-putting to a lot of Americans. To us, this means small or old)
- Put Christmas in your title somehow
- Talk about public transport in the home and location part. Will you be willing to pick up sitters? What is nearest airport to fly in to?
- In dog section, are there walking paths nearby? Do you have to drive dogs to a park?
- Are dogs used to sleeping with you? If so and sitter is not okay with this, where is the alternative for them to sleep?
- Lastly, how is the heating in the home? Is it central or wood fire? If so, will you be leaving wood stocked from their time there?
- Since you will probably be getting international sitters, I would list in the opening introduction if the dates include a night prior with you there and/or when you actually leave or depart. Will give sitters more of a gauge to look into flights, etc.
- Lastly, I would update the listing with current pictures as to what the house looks like now. Anytime we see “updated photos to follow” (or something similar) it is very off-putting to us because we think people are trying to conceal something.
Best of luck to you! 