We are looking for sitters to cover either one of our holiday dates (16th - 23rd April) (6th - 27th August).
I’m not sure if I’m using the site correctly but when I am searching for potential sitters I’m using the search England category but how do I reach out to potential sitters that will be travelling to the UK from abroad?
Is there a particular way you can do this or part of the site you should be visiting?
I have now sent 100’s upon 100’s of requests to sitters to no avail. I have updated my profile and lots of detail taken from guidance on the Community Forum and emails received from THS administrators - I’m not sure what else to do. We have flights booked as I thought securing a sitter using this forum would have been easy and especially given that there are 1000’s of sitters listed. What do I do if I can’t secure a sitter using the forum as I am doing? Help - regards Julie
I did try searching your listing by your town name but came up with 48 listings. I did find it, however, and will just make some suggestions about your photos. I did not read the listing.
Your first three photos need better lighting. Also, I would choose a photo of your dogs as the first photo, as they are adorable.
Angela after acting on advice to tidy up my profile and details from THS which was great advice thank you - I’m having no luck securing a sitter for my April and August dates - we have gone ahead and booked flights thinking we wouldn’t have any issues securing a sitter - what should I do I have literally invited 100’s and 100’s of sitters for England without success.
Hi @Snowbird, thank you have managed to navigate through and do that - when you say first photo which one do you mean? Do you mean where we have a photograph? Also will potential sitters from abroad now be able to reply to our requests too? Regards Julie
Hello @Julie1 and sorry to hear that you are still not finding the sitters you need for your time away this year. Angela is on her way to the US today from England, but the forum team are here to help with your questions.
I have just moved most of your recently posted questions into this one post to encourage engagement to help with those questions and avoid repetition, and @Snowbird has already given some helpful advice which I’ve moved here too. Now that you’ve linked to your listing in your forum profile I am sure you’ll get some feedback from other helpful members too.
Thank you Vanessa. How do I reach out to potential sitters from abroad though that may be looking to come over to the UK now that the restrictions are being lifted? Conscious that I am currently only targeting England as an area and that most people I’m guessing will want to try for sits abroad now? Any advice Vanessa would be greatly appreciated. Regards and thank you Julie.
Hi @Julie1 and you’ve done the right thing reaching out, and sitters do indicate on their profiles which countries they are looking for sits in. However, that is fairly abstract in that it may be a “wish list” country as opposed to a “prepared to travel their right now” selection.
I’m going to tag @Therese who will be working again tomorrow to see if she has any other advice, but I think @Snowbird’s suggestion to re-take your internal pictures in daylight would be a big help. It might also help to cut down the intro just a little and pop some paragraph breaks to help with readability when members are scanning through sits. You can summarize this and put the full detail in the responsibilities, but I’m not sure what advice you’ve been given so far by the support team, so I don’t want to contradict that.
I’m going to tweak your link in your profile here as it’s not going to your listing, so bear with me on that… it will be sorted in the next 5 minutes.
As a sitter, the first tells me the size of the bed and that I can darken the room. The second one touches my heart and my head - love your dogs, but am I a good fit for their needs. Then I’d read on to find out.
Another tip is to make your headline something unique and appealing for your sit. After all, you are marketing your listing. The information you’ve shown I already know, other than it’s for a holiday. The icons below your location shows me it’s for three dogs, and we all know you need a sitter. Use that headline to draw attention. Maybe read a few others to get some ideas. Use it to tell me why I should pick your sit over others (and not because you have a flight booked)?
Hi Snowbird - ok will go back in and try the things you’ve suggested…thank you…keep an eye out will you and let me know if ity any better - going in now - give me about 30mins
Thank you. Re advice it was suggested to write a little more which l did . I left the original pics up but added some brighter ones too…l can break up the text to read in paragraphs. Thank you for your continued support - l really appreciate it. Hoping between us we’ll get there . Regards Julie
Hi Snowbird, I’ve changed the front cover image to now show the two Gordons followed by Meg, I’ve also been into my text and added paragraphs. The only thing I don’t seem to be able to change is the title - how do I do that please and thank you.
@Julie1 I’ll have to wait for a homeowner or @Vanessa to answer that. As a sitter, I don’t have the same dashboard. I won’t guess as I’d rather those with experience guide you.
Hi @Julie1 that’s what I wondered and it’s much easier to read now with the para breaks
In terms of updating your title this is what you need to do.
Go to “Edit Listing”
6 items down you’ll see “Your Listing Title”
It’s good to see that you have sitters for your middle dates booked, so that should give you confidence that it might just be a matter of time (with the help of these tweaks) before your other dates are filled. Let us know how things progress.
Hi @Julie1
I took a look at your listing and, apart from the great advice already given by @Snowbird and @Vanessa_A, I would question whether sitters needing a car is really necessary?
I know Walsall well - it is well connected by public transport.
We do not drive so the first thing we do when looking for sits is to scroll to whether or not it says ‘sitters need a car’ - if it says this we tend not to read any further as it gives the impression that getting to your home will be difficult without a car.
By adding this to your listing you may be missing out on the many other sitters such as us that do not drive.
Colin
Hi Colin thank you for that. What l had hoped l’d done was say you need a car if you wanted to take the dogs to the field - but take your point on board. How would you word it then? Any advice greatly received. Regards Julie
Importantly, I would remove the ‘sitters need a car’ tag on your listing.
Then in your listing mention that if the sitters happen to have a car there is a field a short drive away but for sitters that don’t have a car it is possible to walk the dogs directly from the house
Hi @Julie1 you have already received nice tips. Since you would like to attract sitters from abroad too, you could highlight nice places, cities, attractions etc reachable easily by public transportation or by car. For example, I am Italian and I don’t know anything about your location.
. Regards Julie
