Hi, I’m still waiting for my listing to be reviewed… in the meantime trying to figure out things; like will I be able to see everyone else’s listing only after I am approved or am I just not finding them? And when I look at my listing now some sections are not showing. My main description is, but not “my home” “responsibilities “ etc, although the saved info and pictures are there when I hit edit button. Hoping all this will resolve when I get reviewed and published! Can’t wait to link here and get your advice and tips! Speaking of reviews, I read somewhere that it’s good to get a local stay first, so that I get get a real live review of my place and dog, but now I can’t find that tip! Any advice welcome
1 Like
You’re a home owner? The recommendation to do local sits is for the pet sitter, not the homeowner. Also, the boxes you tick off on your end don’t end up being seen in your post. Let’s see how it all looks when it’s published.
1 Like
Hi there & welcome to THS!
I see you have tried to link your listing to your bio, but this is the wrong link. Here’s how to link your listing: How to add a listing or profile link to your FORUM profile
As @DianeG mentioned, the suggestion of a local person is for a sitter, not an owner, so that a new sitter can build up their reviews (if they want or feel it’s necessary) before they head abroad or elsewhere for sits. It doesn’t matter what sitter you choose in terms of where they are currently located unless you specifically want somebody from closer to home if that’s what you feel more comfortable with. It would actually be harder to find someone local though, as this site is intended for travellers, not local pet-sitters, and not many sitters want to sit in their own area.
You can check out this blog to make sure your listing is as attractive as possible 
Applicants are the best way to secure a sitter, rather than sending invites (you’re welcome to try with invites but they often have a low success rate). Hope that helps!
1 Like
Yes, thank you, I see that it does look a bit disjointed now that it’s public! I think/hope I have added my listing in my profile info now
1 Like
Yes, your link is the correct one now I took a look for you, and overall your listing sounds very friendly, warm & welcoming. However, it could be improved with more detailed & specific descriptions. Here are some suggestions for you:
1: Change your profile picture to the one of the dog on the beach - this is much clearer, matches your title & will attract more applicants.
2: Remove ‘our girl can’t wait to meet you’ from your title, as it’s very long and we can’t see more than the first 5 words or so in your title anyway before we click on your listing.
3: Your home & location section sounds nice but it would help you to mention:
- Where is a sitter sleeping & how big is the bed
- How close to public transport you are (on foot)
- Can you be a bit more specific with things to see & do in the area rather than just ‘beaches & mountain.’ Give specific examples & write something exciting that makes people want to come and sit for you! You also mention that you can get to those locations by bike or car. Do you have a bike or car available? And what about sitters who only use public transport? It is always misleading & unhelpful when a listing says it’s accessable via public transport but then you later discover that you actually can’t access the listed top attractions without a car
4: Responsibilities section needs more detail & specifics. A sitter needs to gauge how much leisure time they would have outside of pet-care duties.
Tell sitters:
- How long can the dog be left for? (Less than 4 hours and many people will skip your listing because it’s not a fair exchange for an unpaid sitter).
- When are the 3 walks per day, and for how long? (Note: Many sitters won’t choose a sit with more than 2 walks per day, or a sit with a midday walk, as it’s too frequent and doesn’t give them opportunity to go on a day trip anywhere).
- How long should beach or forest time be? Can a sitter get to those locations by walking or will they need to take transport there with the dog?
- How long should playtime be?
- What is her feeding schedule?
Sitters also want to know:
- Where does she sleep?
- Does she have any medications, medical conditions or behaviours that a sitter should be aware of?
- What is her general sociability with people & what is her personality like?
- Is she okay with other dogs and what is she like on walks? Does she walk on or off leash?
I would also suggest avoiding use of old-fashioned/less frequently known terms such as ‘jaunt,’ ‘romp’ & ‘abust’ - applicants may be from anywhere and English may be their second language, or they could be from a younger generation less familiar with such terms, so use simple & direct language.
Hope that helps!
2 Likes
So helpful, excellent revisions, thank you! I will add the info and visuals you suggest! I will also search the forums on the car question, but I’d like see how people experience loaning a car. I have one available and it would make many more places accessible. It’s funny to hesitate when you are trusting someone with your home and beloved dog, but cars are inherently risky…
4 Likes
No worries, you’re welcome You never have to loan your car if you don’t feel comfortable, that’s totally fine! But if having a car would be ideal for this sit, perhaps consider listing it as not accessible via public transport to make it more transparent & state that although there is transport into town, for example, a sitter will need their own car to get to the beach & mountains etc. Hope that helps
I love the way you have phrased it
“ We have bikes to share and maybe a car - let’s discuss! ”
You keep control of the offer and you can loan it or not depending on the situation and the feeling of trust you get when talking to prospective sitters. You may, in the meantime, find out about insurance issues to include the sitter, perhaps they could pay for the insurance extension or may be able to use their own insurance. You may even have suitable sitters with their own car or happy to use public transport. Perhaps you could offer to pick them up at the airport.
Another thing that I like about your listing is that you mention the dog weight. For me, that is important because it helps me figure out if I can handle the dog it she reacts or pulls.
With @Nagy26 suggestions your listing will be perfect. The most important part is the responsibility section. I think @Nagy26 has covered it all but there’s a specific thread with many contributions about what information should appear in the responsibility section that you may find useful.
It will save you time and effort to weed out any prospective sitters who are not happy about the requirements of your sit and it will also prevent possible conflicts in case relevant information has not been disclosed.
Some owners may think they will attract more sitters if they don’t give a long list of responsibilities, others may not even think of the details because for them it’s a normal routine. But at the end of the day, you want your dog healthy and happy and you don’t want a sitter canceling because of undisclosed issues.
What I think most of us sitters don’t like is a responsibility section that is too rigid and doesn’t allow for any discretionality. Like: 6.30 wake up, 7.00 breakfast, etc.
Also, although it is not common practice to mention it in the listing, stating that the cost of vet is covered via account, registered credit card or otherwise, can give prospective sitters peace of mind in case an emergency occurred and will also make a good impression, IMHO.
3 Likes
I’m thinking of listing my house for sitters. We live in the suburbs so we are not served by public transport which is fine as I’m not a big fan of waiting in line etc. We have a spare car that our kids used to drive and I was thinking of allowing sitters to maybe rent it from me at a discounted rate (rental prices are thru the roof here) but someone told me no money should change hands between the sitter and the pet parent except for utility bills as per the terms and conditions. But you say I’m allowed to ask them for payment for insurance etc. That’s great news!
1 Like
In the US the car is insured. You don’t have to pay additional for an authorized driver to use it. When I made my car available to a sitter, I just had a conversation about them paying the deductible in the event of an accident.
1 Like
Yes but it’s good to know I can charge the sitter for insurance if they use my car. It’s a bill I have to pay.
I meant an extension of the insurance or, as @Cleeflang says, an agreement to pay the deductible in case of an accident. I guess you can ask for the proportional amount of insurance but you should also be aware that charging for utilities is not very popular. My suggestion for @Mary61 was to negotiate it and that depending on the number of applications she gets and the situation of prospective sitters who may be a good match.
Anyway, I guess you could say something like “use of car negotiable” or “car can be loaned if insurance paid”
Okay that’s a good idea. Does anyone know if you can charge sitters a cleaning fee? I’d obviously want everything to have a thorough cleaning after having sitters. I usually hire cleaners to come after my family look after my fur babies but you obviously can’t charge family.
I guess family are already doing you a favour and they don’t clean after themselves. THS is about a freely chosen, mutually beneficial exchange. Sitters usually clean after themselves and will leave the house as clean as they found it, so no need to hire cleaners. There was a thread where a sitter suggested the possibility of paying a cleaner instead of doing the cleaning themselves, some people agreed but not many. You can discuss the options with prospective sitters. As I said, it’s a mutual agreement.
Some owners have regular cleaners and keep paying them.
THS Sitters are not charging you for their time spent taking care of your pets / they even pay their own expenses to travel to your home / they pay for their own food , why would you want to charge them for cleaning ?
The alternative to THS unpaid sitters is a service you pay for kennels / cattery / boarding or you could choose a paid for sitting service you would pay the house sitters a daily fee for house sitting, plus their travel expenses and with some companies you would pay a daily allowance for the sitters food . You would not charge them for anything .
3 Likes
I mean if they leave my house dirty. I see quite a few posts by pet parents complaining about sitters who don’t clean up after themselves and leave things in a mess. If I can ask sitters to pay insurance for using my car and my other bills surely it’s fine to ask them to pay for a cleaning bill if they made a mess.
Well they’re getting a free place to stay. That’s saving them hundreds if not thousands! If they leave my house dirty after staying there for free it’s only fair they should pay for their mess to be cleaned no? Is that not normal? Or is their some insurance with THS for cleaning a mess left by sitters?
@Devina77 I recommended that you choose a sitter who has good reviews that mention they are clean and tidy - all our reviews state that .
We are not cleaners or house keepers
but we do clean up after ourselves.
If the sitters did leave the home in a very bad state you could send them a bill for cleaning but that would be between yourselves and the sitter to sort out . THS wouldn’t get involved .
If you want a thorough clean as a matter of course you would need to pay for that yourself as you do after your relatives . You don’t charge your family since they are helping you out by coming to stay and take care of your fur babies . Your THS sitters are the same they are helping you out. It’s has to be a mutual exchange .
If your listing says you are going to charge sitters - you are unlikely get any applications and will end up having to go to another company and pay someone to come and house sit . Think about the money you are saving by not having to pay for a house sitter.
3 Likes
You said you have experience as a sitter in THS
So I think you are in a position to answer those questions yourself. Just think it is you, as a sitter, who saw a listing “charging” sitters for all your bills, plus a final cleaning fee. Would you apply? Do you apply for those listings? Would you consider a listing like that for your sit in Chicago? I think your answer will depend on how badly you want or need the sit, the home and location and what the responsibilities are. Maybe if it’s just housesitting with no pets, a really nice house and a lot of free time maybe you are willing to pay the bills.
But your question for me was:
Since, on this occasion, you use the term “ask”, the short answer is: yes, you can ask.
The long answer would be another question: how are you going to get the money after the sit has finished? You can only then know if “they leave things in a mess”. All you can do if they leave a mess and refuse to pay is raise a member dispute but I doubt that you get paid, best scenario: the sitter would be put in a watch list or something similar.
@Devina77 Although it is true that there are posts from owners who’s sitter has unfortunately left their place in bad way, remember that the forum is where people come to vent their problems. There are many stories, many solutions, many people, many scenarios. It is absolutely not a reflection of all & or even most sitters out there. It is simply where people come to when they need help - so you hear of more problems than you do positive stories. Also remember that every story is different, there are always 2 sides to every story, and often when stories like that pop up, there was a clear miscommunication or misalignment of expectations. You might want to give this thread a read to understand that charging for bills or a cleaning service is highly unpopular, and not very indicative of a mutually beneficial, free & fair exchange. If you’re in the mindset of wanting to charge people for amenities, you may find luck elsewhere but not on THS - as somebody who helps people with their listings almost daily, I can already tell you that the probability of applicants for such a request would be very low or even zero, and you are not setting yourself up for success here.
Paying To Sit - Contributions to Utilities
I would advise to you that if you have doubts about THS and can’t show trust, instead wanting to charge sitters out of fear & anxiety about cleaning & amenities, then don’t use the platform. The platform only works if trust & respect goes both ways.
I think we also need to merge or change topic here, as it’s no longer relevant to the original poster @Mary61’s topic 
5 Likes