When we are actively looking through the list for a pet sitter there seems to be only one way of contacting potential sitters and that is bye looking through their own information and feedback and then sending them an invite.
I’m not quite sure what is implied by invite in other words is this a confirmed invite or an invite to discuss the possibility of them coming. This seems very important as it may well be that four or five people who you ask do not want to come and if you can only ask one of the time this may be a very long prolonged process. If on the other hand it is acceptable to write to people saying I’m asking a few people to find out someone or a couple who would be interested then it would be acceptable to ask more than one person.
I’ve just really trying to find out what the etiquette is here. One wants to find somebody reasonably quickly but at the same time not upset people and I’ll be very grateful for feedback
Inviting sitters does not have a high success rate so it makes sense to invite multiple sitters at the same time. To be sure everyone is clear I would state in you invite that this is what you have done.
As a sitter we receive quite a few direct invitations to sit. We view them as an invite to get into a discussion but if we are particularly interested we answer ASAP with the thinking that we must have a decent chance by definition of the personal invite.
Think of it more as an invitation to apply rather than a confirmation of the sit. Invitations have a relatively low success rate so you should definitely reach out to more than one person at a time. Just as sitters generally apply to more than one sit at a time. Good luck!
I am doing just that right now. I have sent a message to a few potential sitters stating “I am pro-actively searching for pet/house sitters by sending this email out to a few with available dates (since I haven’t heard from anyone yet).”
I can only hope someone applies. I will have to cancel my trips if there is no response so I am trying this approach making it clear to the sitters that I am reaching out to more than one sitter at a time.
Hi @ellenaj I have taken the liberty of boosting your listing. There is now a New little button there. It also goes to the top of the website and is sent out to all our available sitters. This should also help gain attention.
Kind regards
Therese
Agree that it looks great. I would suggest adding a photo of the bedroom and bathroom the sitter will be using. It’s a frequently requested thing. good luck @tombell13 !
Yep - I have done over 100 invites to people who were supposedly available with ZERO success on my last posting, and it took a few days and several hours of my time to do so. I went through every single page of sitters through location searches and screened every single person for their calendar availability, but none of them were available. I won’t ever do it again.
We are stuck once again for the third time in less than a year struggling to fill another date. Maybe I will try this broadcasting invite thing? If not, we will have to cancel our next trip.
When we found no one for the last trip, we brought our pets with us, but the cat got motion sickness 5 minutes into the drive (both there and back) messed all over himself, and didn’t eat for 4 days. I thought he was going to die. I can’t put him through that stress again.
It just blows my mind that we struggle so much in a highly desirable location to secure a sitter.
That is really so disheartening for you @mattersfact2. You have a desirable listing. I hope you have requested feedback from your last sitter as I notice there is none yet but you gave them a review. Sitters learn from past feedback and it can influence whether they will apply for a sit or not. Good luck!
@mattersfact2 I noticed exactly the same point as @temba, and I’ll take it one step further. The one review you do have merely says that your home is ‘very spacious’. I know nothing about your home, so there’s no judgment on my part. However, you will read of many who have written reviews where they expect people to ‘read between the lines’, or ‘read by omission’. Someone putting those two together might wonder about your home, regardless of your photos. Couple this with your admission that someone in the home who smokes cigars may narrow your sitter options, these may be some of the reasons why you don’t have sufficient applicants.
You may want to consider having your listing promoted on social media. If so, you will need to direct message @Angela_L as she will need your permission.
Hello Therese, when we signed up last week, I noticed that with our annual plan we could boost our listing. I haven’t found the place to do that yet. I posted the listing a couple of days ago for a trip mid May. I too will have to cancel if sitters aren’t found but I am not giving up yet as it’s still early with the listing. The boost sounds fantastic and definitely a perk. I just need to find it. Thank you.
Hi @tombell13 I have taken the liberty of boosting your listing. There is now a little New button on it and it goes to the top of the website and sent out to all the available sitters.
(As a Classic member, you do not have the boost button under your Manage Dates)
Regarding your bathroom photo. Would you me able to DM with a jpeg photo and I can try to put it up correctly for you.
Kind regards
Therese
@SunshineNCoastlines Please go to your Dashboard … Manage dates and the button is there. Once you have used your boost quota, it will grey out, but please feel free to come back to me if you need help to boost it again.
Kind regards
Therese
good luck!
Thank you.