Greetings and questions from Southern Indiana, US

[Sissies]

Hi! We’re Renata and Barbara – retired sisters who love animals (especially ours!) and have lived and worked all over the world. We enjoy travelling (especially off the beaten tourist path) and spending time in communities where we can feel like a member of the community. So we are coming to THS both to seek pet/housesitters for our two cats (our trusty young adult sitters have moved away), and to explore the idea of pet/housesitting for others.

We have a few truly “newbie” questions …

1. We live in Evansville, IN – the third largest city in Indiana, and at the state’s most southern tip. It’s a great little city, with great surroundings, but definitely not a tourist destination. How difficult will it be to attract pet/housesitters to come here?

2. How far in advance should we post our need for a sitter given that we are not in a top ten city ? Do most sitters prefer one-week, two-week, or month-long stays?

3. In getting started as sitters, what will be most important to share with others about ourselves and our pet history (we’ve always had multiple pets at the same time, so in effect, we’ve been full-time petsitters our whole lives!)?

4. How far in advance should we start looking at postings to find ones we think might be a good match for us AND the pet families?

5. For those of you who have done this alot, do you (and the pet families you’ve sat for) prefer to do long-term (month or more) sits, or several back-to-back shorter sits?

Thank you so much for your kind and patient assistance as we start this journey!

Renata and Barbara

[Smiley]

Welcome @Sissies to this wonderful world.
You’re asking a lot of questions and wonder if you’ve had a good read of the website and forum, as most of the answers to your questions you’ll find. Do a search in the forum with key phrases & you’ll get lots of posts.
As for your area attracting sitters, who knows? You need to think of the interesting places people can go to and walks. Are you and the area accessible by public transport or will sitters need a car? If the latter, then are you able to leave them a car to use?
Have a look at some of the house sitting postings to see how others list their homes and pets (not all are great) and make sure you take some good pictures, posting the pets first.

[Michael1]

@Sissies hello and welcome! I can’t see your listing, but I will say we routinely consider and have done listings that aren’t in hotspots. There are lots of things that might make a sit appealing for different people. With a well done listing, I’ll bet you get applicants.

[Danandnan]

Hello and welcome!

1. You should be able to find sitters. While the more “attractive” locations will fill their 5 sits allowed quickly, there are many of us who travel to more out of the way places and wouldn’t have any problem sitting there.
2. My opinion is the sooner the better. As soon as you have a date locked in, I’d list it. That is coming from the perspective of full time travelers who are currently booked through mid January and are currently looking at sits from Feb-August. And for length of sits, there will be people for what ever amount of time you need, especially longer sits. We look for 1 month sits or more whenever possible. With a month, we can travel to the location. Less than that, it would have to coincide with other sits to optimize our travel plans.
   3 I would suggest reviewing other sitters posts to see what they have included plus search for suggestions in the forum. It sounds like you’ve got a great start with your experience.
3. As sitters, again, start looking as early as possible. Create searches for the timeframe and locations your are interested in so you will receive notifications.
4. Again, our preference is longer sits, but we will go with shorter sits if it’s a place we really want to visit or if it fits between other sits. Since we are traveling full time, it’s much more cost effective if we don’t have to travel as much plus we always leave a cushion between sits to account for any problems that arise so it means hotels or Airbnbs.
   Good luck and happy pet sitting!
   Dan and Nan

[mars]

Hi @Sissies , You’ve already received some good feedback from @Smiley , @Michael1 and @Danandnan . I’ll add mine.

Evansville won’t have the attraction of London or New York City, but it still has a lot going for it. And there may be sitters from neighboring cities and states or people who have family nearby who may want to sit there. In your listing, you can mention some of the places of interest: Parks, the botanical garden, museums, some of your favorite restaurants, the nature center, the theater and any festivals that coincide with the dates of your sit. Once you have your listing ready, you can add it to your forum profile and forum members will give you helpful feedback. You can do the same when your sitter profile is ready.

To do this, click here: How to add your listing or profile to your forum profile

There are sitters interested in all lengths of sits – from a few days to a few months. Generally, if your sit is two weeks or more, it will be good to post the dates as far ahead as you can. In general, I would suggest also booking your shorter sits at least a month ahead if you’re able. Some sitters want a sit only long enough to see the area, say 5-10 days. Other sitters, especially nomads, look for sits that allow them to stay in one place for an extended period. Many of these people work from home so will be able to spend a lot of time with your pets.

As for searching for sits, set up a saved search on the app with your desired location, date range and any other search parameters such as type of pets, use of a car, etc., and you will receive a notification as soon as a sit that that fits these criteria is posted. Fyi, the app will send you immediate notifications. If you set it up on the website, you only receive a daily digest and many of the sits are already gone by the time you receive this. Many sits go very fast so if you think you’re interested, send an application or at least a note stating your application will follow, asap.

The other thing I would suggest is just to read the forum. You’ll be amazed at all there is to discuss with re. to this lifestyle. And use the magnifying glass icon above to enter questions and search topics of interest.

Lastly, THS has a money-back guarantee for home and pet owners. The money-back guarantee for sitters is only for those based in the UK:

What is the Money Back Guarantee?

****Our Money Back Guarantee reflects the confidence we have that you’ll find a great sitter and sits.

With our Standard and Premium Pet Parent memberships - if you do not receive any sitter applications within 14 days of posting your first listing, you’ll receive your money back with no strings attached.

To qualify for the Money Back Guarantee, you must publish your listing a minimum of 14 days before the start of the first sit.

With our Sitters memberships - those that are based in the UK can receive their money back if they have been unsuccessful in confirming a sit within 14 days of making their 5th application.

To claim your Money Back Guarantee, or if you have any further questions, please contact our Membership Services team.

Best of luck and enjoy!