Hello - From a new member - Some Questions Also

[Estelle]

Hi everyone, we are Charles and Estelle and we live in Shropshire. Only registered a couple of days ago following the recommendation of a neighbour. We go away quite often and having to pay for pet/house sitters added a small fortune to the cost of the holiday so this is a real win win solution. We’ve placed our first request and are awaiting applicants. Just a couple of questions please to the more seasoned users of the site - How long prior to your holiday do you recommend a request is posted - and more worrying … what happens if you book a holiday and no one applies !!! Has anyone been in this situation? Looking forward o hearing from you. Best wishes Estelle

[Colin]

Hi @Estelle - welcome to the group.
As a sitter, I would say 2-4 months before your holiday is a good time frame to post your listing. There is a large pool of great sitters looking for house sits so the secret is to make yours as appealing as possible. A picture is worth a thousand words so add a good selection of pictures, a couple of your pets and also a good selection of your accommodation - sitters want to know where they will be staying.
You can add a link of your listing onto your profile - This means sitters on the group can see plus give you any advise on improving it if they feel they can help at all.
Here is a link on how to do that.
Good Luck!

How to add a listing or profile link to your FORUM profile

It’s important to firstly understand that your FORUM PROFILE is different to the profile you have as a member on the main TrustedHousesitters’ website. We do not allow links to profiles or listings in forum topics or posts (see guidelines here), but you can add the link of your TrustedHousesitter website profile or house sit listing in your FORUM PROFILE. The process is slightly different for owners and sitters. Note - We would recommend you do this on the desktop version as it’s easier to ma…

[Angela_L]

Hi @Estelle welcome to our community forum, thank you for joining from beautiful Shropshire … we have done a number of sits in and around the country.

I see you’ve had some great feedback from @Colin and no doubt other members will contribute to the advice, there is also some great articles on the web site blog Blog | TrustedHousesitters.com

I’ve had the pleasure of viewing your listing, the boys are adorable, your home is lovely and the location so attractive, a great opportunity for an enjoyable sit.

As Colin says add your listing link to your profile so that members can view your listing, offer feedback and who knows your sitter may just be here on the forum.

Enjoy connecting with members on the forum.

Angela and the team

[Estelle]

Thank you Angela. We’re in a lovely location. We did have an application and they seemed perfect but have no car ( we’re out in the sticks a little) they also asked for us to fund their rail travel which I understand is against the rules

[Estelle]

Thank you. That’s all great advice and something that I will definitely look at.

[Angela_L]

HI @Estelle I’m sorry you had potential sitter ask for travel expenses, if members come to mutual agreements then that is their choice, however asking for expenses is not.

[Colin]

Hi @Angela_L - I am a little confused with your statement

@Angela_L

if members come to mutual agreements then that is their choice, however asking for expenses is not.

Whilst the only very rare scenario I can think of that we would ever ask for travel expenses is if we were really ‘coming to the rescue’ and only doing a sit as a real favour to help the host out. Would the mutual agreement in that case not be that we would come to help them if they were happy to pay our travel expenses.?

[Angela_L]

Hi @Colin any financial arrangement is based on a mutual agreement between the members and depends on the circumstances however it is not normal practise for sitters to ask for travel expenses.