We joined on a Black Friday deal one November and were very slow off the mark! The first year we did nothing at all except gradually build our profile which I stopped & started for months on end! We got two references from friends and we copied and pasted a bunch of great airbnb reviews (nowadays you can just link your profile) When it came to renewal in November of the next year we finally decided to look for a Christmas sit!! We were in Bali at the time so we applied for several sits within short flying distance of Bali e.g Thailand, KL, Singapore and Perth, Australia. We ended up in Perth for a month by the sea with 2 cats! The hosts were extremely young first timers- off to India to get married- and we just had a phone call and a few messages (this was before video calls were standard) We took a chance on each other and did not actually even meet! So much trust involved! They flew to India a few days before arrived and we flew in from Bali and overlapped a night with the mother who was flying later. That was 7 years ago and it was a really great first sit experience! We are forever grateful to this sweet couple (she was only 19!) who gave us our first break and a fabulous review to boot!
We accepted a couple living in Germany with no reviews last year. I didn’t even realise they had no reviews, just references, until we’d confirmed them. What sold us on them was:
- they were 30-something Europeans from 2 different countries who met while working in China. That told us they were at ease in a multi-cultural situations. (We are 2 different nationalities living in France.)
- They rescued a dog in China and brought her back to Germany. So we knew they were kind people.
- The sit was over the Easter period and the woman’s birthday was on Easter Sunday that year. Her partner wanted to find somewhere special to spend her birthday where they could do the activities that they enjoyed doing together (hiking, mountain biking). That told us they had a solid relationship.
- The woman mentioned that she doesn’t drink alcohol, and that her partner doesn’t when they’re together. Whether a pet sitter drinks alcohol is of no concern to us, and she turned out not to be a complete teetotaler (she had a half a glass of wine during the dinner we shared the first night) but I wonder if she might have been concerned about her compatriots’ reputation for heavy drinking. Anyway, that detail stood out in my mind because we have wine and spirits in a cabinet. When a sitter says they don’t drink, you immediately see in your mind’s eye your bottles of wine and check that off as something you don’t need to worry about. Even if you haven’t given it a thought in the past. I’m not proud of my reaction, to be honest, but that was the reality.
Edited to add: they were great sitters and our dog had a wonderful time with them.
I applied for a local sit that was needed at fairly short notice. It was also only for 3 nights, with another weekend sit required the following month (I applied for both). This meant I could go and meet the dogs and their owners rather than have a video call. I think owners probably prefer this because they can be reassured seeing how you interact with the pets. A short sit is probably less attractive to lots of sitters so there are likely to be fewer applicants, and the fact that the sit was only a couple of weeks away from when I applied meant there were probably fewer sitters available. I also had 4 references, 2 from people who had known me for 50 years and from people who had entrusted their dogs to my care.
However, it could be that they are teetotalers just because the had been alcoholics, and that the bottles on display might be too much for them.
I once had couchsurfing guests and when I returned home in the evening one of these young women had emptied a bag-in-box of wine and could not speak Swedish anymore. Her friend explained that she had stopped taking her medicine.
I was in MI, it was Jan and I took a sit in Grand Rapids with a reactive pit. I walked him 4 times a day, and played ball with him in the backyard, in winter. It wasn’t a lot of fun, but got my 5 star review. Then I did a sit in an RV with 2 puppies in Fl. They expected me to take them in my car, no money for gas or petrol, every day to the dog run. After a week it was about $40 US in expenses. But it got better after that.
Welcome @Rena
I started on THS 4 years ago and like everyone had no reviews to start with. I applied for 23 local and last minute sits until I got a fairly local one. I then got a last minute sit in Denmark followed by a number of nearby sits. I built up my feedback so I had 10 5 star reviews. I was then getting at least invited to a video chat and have since travelled all over Europe. I currently have 26 5 star reviews and 1 4 star reviews. I still get declined for some sits I apply for but many times I get the sit I apply for.
Good luck.
I think having good recommendations helped? I got my first sit fairly easily. I had maybe three friend recommendations that they could look at. And then just what I wrote in my profile…? And the pictures of me with the animals. I don’t have that many with me of the animals just mostly the animals and my hand.
When I write my application… I always tell them I’m a big homebody because I am and so I have lots of time to be with the animals and I always tell them how I feel that it’s important to leave places as clean as I found them. I just recently started putting in that I am very reliable and I’ve never canceled a sit once I commit.
I tell them I’m happy to water or take in mail. I always tell them when we have our video meet and greet that if something happens when they’re gone and they need me to mail a package or get a number for them. I’m happy to do that.
I have a lot of pet care experience. So that probably helps. So I always reference that briefly in my application. And then I always tell them to ask me any questions.
Hi @Rena I was lucky for my first sit which was in peak winter season in Florida. I had much in common with the host, had definite plans to be in the area (family, booked AIRBNB) and offered to do a meet and greet a couple weeks before the sit date. We clicked on the Zoom call and she took a chance on me. I have been favoriting sits in Ireland, as I plan to visit in June. I have been surprised at the number of past sitters for whom the sit was their first or second. These have been in more out of the way areas, not Dublin. It seems that for the UK, you shouldn’t have trouble unless you want to be in very popular areas. Create a very strong profile that helps potential hosts get a sense of you and your qualities. And, what everyone else said! Good luck!
I think for me it was timing. It was a Christmas sit, at 5 weeks notice. Also it was fairly local, 30 miles, and I was able to go for a pre visit.
the woman told me her daughter who she was off to visit for Christmas, had just qualified from Uni and was getting knock back from job interviews due to lack of experience, so she wanted to give an unexperienced pet sitter a chance, believing in Karma.