Hi everyone, I’m so excited to join this community as a housesitter. I’ve had my eye on a membership for a while now, but I finally pulled the trigger because of the Thanksgiving sale. I hope I’m able to meet some of your friendly felines soon!
As I get oriented, I’d love any thoughts on the following:
Best thing to read to learn how the logistics of applying for a sit work?
Are longer stays generally more popular among housesitters than shorter stays? Or do longer stays generally get split depending on housesitters’ availability? And, if I’m interested in applying for (say half) of a longer stay, do I just write that in my application?
@Lorem-Ipsum welcome to the forum and to TrustedHousesitters! You are going to love it here. This is the greatest community of like-minded people who all love our pets…whether we are sitters or pet parents/owners.
I know you have so many questions and I will let our knowledgeable members help answer so many of them, but I would start by adding your member profile to your forum profile. If you go to your Dashboard on the TrustedHousesitters site, scroll to your green profile box, preview and with that link, copy and paste to your forum profile here. https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/how-to-add-a-listing-or-profile-link-to-your-forum-profile. This will give other members easy access to help provide feedback that will make your housesitting adventures so much easier.
I couldn’t find your profile up yet and maybe it’s because you just joined, but as soon as you are able to, make sure you get some great pics, great references from friends, family and colleagues who can attest to your character and love of animals. This makes your journey so much easier and quicker.
Once again, welcome and good luck getting that first sit!
Welcome @Lorem-Ipsum to the THS community. I’m sure you’re going to have a great time.
I won’t answer your questions as, if you do a search, you’ll find they’ve been answered before many times within the forum.
Best of luck!
Welcome! As @Smiley noted, you can search the forums for answers. You can also read the Help section of the TH website/app. Then there’s the official TH blog, which you can also search. Here’s a blog article just to get you to the right site:
As a new sitter, Christmas is a great time because there seems a lack of sitters. Though you still need to be responsible and responsive! Consider trying to do a local sit or two this month. It’ll be good experience for you.
For example, I know @GardenCat has been looking for a sitter!
Thanks! I really appreciate you sending me that link. Again, I’m excited to be here, but I’m having a very difficult time finding information on how to use both the main site and this forum, so this was very helpful!
Thanks @geoff.hom! The link you posted is a great point in the right direction, which I definitely needed because I’m unfortunately finding both the main website and the forum very unintuitive to use.
And thanks also for tagging @GardenCat! Maddie and Moishe are adorable.
Yes, “unintuitive” is a euphemism. Looks like we’re both experienced in tech, so our expectations may be higher. For example, why do we even have to register separately for the forums, or manually link our profile/listing to our forum profile?!
However, I’m learning to roll with the punches and that we can’t control everything. It’s good training for taking care of more dogs and cats … especially cats ….
If I had to choose some quick tips for a newbie like you (me with my 2 months of xp Lol), I’d say:
Feel free to report bugs/etc. to TH directly or via the forums. But “take charge of your own health.” It could be months/years/never before TH fixes something.
Most advice is just guidelines. For example, the official blog suggests using a listing title that can last forever. But experienced people here suggest changing whole sections of one’s listing for a given sit. Or mentioning rare perks at the start (e.g., a title of “Car included! …”). That applies not just to HO/PP listings but to sitter profiles.
Similarly, your sitter profile lists your location. Savvy sitters change their location to where they want to sit, not where they live. This aids discovery by HOs/PPs. They update their profile to explain why, of course.
Asking help on the forums is great. So many people here are so helpful and friendly. Plus, they all seem to have various ways to solve problems. As long as people feel you are trying on your end and being communicative, they’ll continue to help.
It’s a marathon, not a race. If you pace yourself, you should find a lifetime of value here. If you push too hard, you may burn out. (Gotta listen to own advice…)
