Excited to join this community of pet parents! I’ve read through a few posts with ideas on how to spruce up a profile/pet sitter request, but if anyone has additional ideas, please let me know. I’m hoping to find someone to spend Thanksgiving in the PNW while I join my kids at my dad’s old home in southern Missouri. Appreciate any thoughts, as I haven’t had any applications yet (though it’s a fairly new post) - thank you so much!
Please add a profile link to your forum profile
Renee, If you add your listing link to your forum profile, I am sure forum members will help you!
Thank you! I think I just did that, but I’m not positive . . . I changed my photo as well - for some reason I thought the photo and listing was automatically brought over into this forum from my THS profile/page.
Hello @Renee63 & welcome. Have had a look at your sit and looks low key and easy which is great. A few thoughts/tips for you. Add a picture of the bathroom not just the loo. Bed size would be handy and state if you’ll take a couple as well as a single sitter. Could you lend them your car as that would open up your pool of international sitters? How long can the pets be left for? Where do they all sleep? A bit more info on what their habits are and how you all hang out would help paint more of a picture. How good is the WiFi as in would it suit a home worker? (Probably yes as you work but say that in there). Button is amazing at 16! Best of luck & am sure more members will offer help too🤞🏼
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Welcome! I just looked to see how many active listings there are in “Portland” for the latter half of November. There are over 50 listings! Wow! That is tough competition.
For anyone who might be visiting family in Portland for the holiday, it might be nice to include the name of the neighborhood in SW Portland. Some people might want to be “really close” to family, so the name of the neighborhood/area might pique interest. I live in Garden Home, near Multnomah Village.
Oh, wow. I didn’t realize that - thank you for looking. I’m new to this, so will know to check my competition when I post something. I have a friend from Colorado who recommended using this site as she’s had good luck with it - win/win situations. I had no idea it was so competitive. For Thanksgiving I will likely just pay someone to come to my house a couple of times a day to feed my animals. Don’t have lots more time to spend on making my ad/site look better than the other 50 requests at this point. But I will definitely add the neighborhood - that’s a good idea. Fingers crossed I can get my site/requests to look more appealing in the future. Thank you so much!!
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Thanks so much for taking the time to have a look at my post and provide feedback. Re: the bathroom, unfortunately that’s (in the current photo) is all there is (it’s small). The other bathroom is being remodeled and not photo-ready (or ready to be used at all). But I’ll see if I can take the photo at a different angle and make it look better. Will also add the bed size. I thought I added all of the info about the pet sleeping & how long they could be left alone & the wifi, but maybe that was in a different part of the site (the area with the detailed info for when a sitter has already committed) or maybe I didn’t save it . . . I will spruce it up as I have time. When I joined THS, I had no clue how competitive it was and how much the marketing of your site/request played in whether you received applications. I don’t have too much more time to spend on it before this trip, so will likely need to pay someone to come in and feed the animals this time and hope things will work out for my next trip. Take care & thanks again!
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You are welcome! We are neighbors! Don’t forget to mention Maplewood Coffee and Tea, John’s Marketplace, several food trucks, Lucky Lab, Papa Murphy’s pizza, Old Market Pub, Trader Joe’s—all within walking distance! I see there is a seasonal farmer’s market on Fridays in Multnomah Village. I never knew that!
I also had first joined during a holiday and was unsuccessful in filling my very first posted sit 
I never have any trouble getting sitters EXCEPT during Thanksgiving and Christmas! It really is the worst and most competitive time of year. I’m not a sitter so I don’t have any specific feedback, but from my HO perspective your sit looks lovely and I’m sure you won’t have any issues getting sitters at other times!
@Renee63 Welcome!
As a sitter, your listing looks great to me! Except for being in Europe now and already booked, we’d consider it if we were in your area.
It looks like a wonderful area and would work great whether a sitter wanted to chill at your place, explore the area, or visit people in the area.
I love the Great Northern Railway in your living room. My wife’s grandfather worked for them and I worked for BNSF which includes the former GN.
While we book quite a ways out and are usually looking for longer sits, I think you sit is appealing and hope you find someone for this and future sits.
Dan and Nan
Yes, I’m a sitter and a homeowner, and so far, I’ve never listed our house for a sit during vacations (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc), because family comes home during that time. As such, I never sit during holidays and change my calendar to reflect that. I know it’s tough competition during the holidays. Maybe one day, when my kids decide to go elsewhere for holidays, I’ll start sitting during the holidays.
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I think reaching out to local sitters would be a good idea.
For my first sit, I didn’t get applicants after a few days, so I invited some local sitters to apply and it worked out. This was a random week in early summer, not a holiday, but it was fairly short notice.
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