Hi there! I’m new on THS, so any and all advice is appreciated.
My partner and I need a sitter over the holidays. My friends who have used this before mentioned that they’ve never needed to reach out to applicants. However, we’re a couple days in now and still no bites. I sent requests to people in the area and a kind sitter informed me that locals don’t typically take local sits (which makes complete sense).
The problem - there’s no way for me to actively look for people who would be in Nashville over my dates. Is there any way for sitters to post where they’re trying to go? How do I know which sitters to reach out to? On the app I’m only being shown sitters local to me, which isn’t helpful because they aren’t going to want to sit in their own area.
We have a strict budget for a sitter, so if THS doesn’t work out in the first 14 days, we may need to pull the plug and get a refund for the annual fee. While I know finding a sitter is not guaranteed, I’d be more comfortable trusting the process after that period of time if I hear from the community that this is likely to get picked up.
Yes the sitter who replied is correct most local sitters would not take local sits it’s usually so people have the opportunity to travel to new places however I think you should give it a little more time yet - there always seems to be a sitter for everyone.
Can I just give a little advice for your ad - your pets look super cute but would you consider reshooting the home pics in the morning not at night - it kind of gives a dark and ominous feel to your home with the poor quality pictures.
Also make sure some of the things are put away and look neat - you’re trying to attract someone to want to stay - maybe straighten up the counters and put the toilet seat down?
Lastly your information on your advert is very sparse and seems rushed with little thought put into making sure that all the details a sitter might want to know are present. Where would the sitter be sleeping? What size bed? How many bedrooms? How many bathrooms? Can you offer a Christmas decoration? Why would it be nice to spend Xmas in your home? What is there to do in the area? How does the sitter get about - car public transport? Supermarkets or coffee shops nearby?
You should really add all of this into the about my home section - I’m not totally sure you’re seeing it from the other side at the moment and you also don’t have any reviews yet so someone would have to take a gamble that you know how the spirit of THS works for someone who would want to sit Voluntarily for you.
Sorry I’m really not trying to be rude just giving advice as I would have been really put off by those things and not applied for those reasons despite how gorgeous your pets are.
Christmas and new year are the most competitive times to get a sitter - you’re already at a slight disadvantage with the dates as they’re quite awkward and don’t cover new year.
Hello
Securing sitters through invitations is challenging in most cases. Like you experienced, the location listed on people’s profiles is often simply where they are from, and most people are looking to sit in new areas.
But, some people do change their location to where they want to be (or where they are currently and hoping to remain) in hopes of getting invitations from owners. For example, I travel full time but like to come back to NJ–where I am from originally–for extended periods so I change my location to my sister’s town. So some people listed in your area may be people like myself, but unfortunately no way to tell.
If your listing has only been up a couple of days, that really isn’t that long and you could certainly still get applications. The only sits that tend to get a lot of interest immediately are ones in very touristic areas like tropical locales, more exotic locations that don’t see a lot of listings, major cities like NYC, Paris, etc.
Not everyone checks the site daily. Not everyone may know their plans around that time yet. For example, my husband and I had tentative plans to be in a certain region and I was monitoring listings in that area. We didn’t actually firm up our plans for a few weeks, and we ended up applying to a few really great sits that had been up for at least a couple of weeks, perhaps longer.
I am not sure how the app works on the HO end. From what you are saying, it seems like it automatically defaults to sitters in your area, but there should be a way to search sitters anywhere or enter in a different city, state,etc. But a search for sitters ‘anywhere’ would probably not be very useful given the number of sitters on the site and the limited filters available to narrow them down.
As for the refund, it looks like you can only claim it if you haven’t actually used the service yet in those 14 days. Once a sitter applies to a sit or a HO puts a live listing, it no longer qualifies.
I would think Nashville during the holidays would be an enticing sit, although starting on the 24th isn’t ideal. Often folks want to be settled in with grocery shopping done when sitting over the holidays. I do agree with the advice above that your listing could benefit greatly from more detail and a little polish. Have you taken a look at the information given on other postings? What activities, sites and amenties are nearby? If your home is not accessible by public transit, then someone flying in will need to rent a car. That’s a big ask. (Are you not IN Nashville?) Could you pick them up at the airport and arrange grovery delivery? Based on what you have now, prospective sitters are really applying blindly.
I would also reconsider your photo choices. Although your pets are adorable, you could do with more pics of your home looking tidy and guest-ready. You want to give sitters a reason to spend the Christmas holiday in your home, especially sitters who are flying or driving from afar.
TrustedHousesitters works well enough. But you are competing for sitters at a busy time of year. A little effort will pay off.
Hi @Heaven , you have had some great advice from @Enjaybee - especially about taking new pictures during the daytime, at the moment your home looks very dark and gloomy, not a place anyone would want to spend their holiday period!
Also, you say that “Nettle (the dog) needs to go outside every 4-6 hours during the day.” Be more precise, if it’s every 4 hours that does not leave much time for the sitter to explore your area. If it is every 6 hours then that’s more realistic. If possible, I would go for “up to 6 hours”
I see you have an application, fingers crossed the sitter and you prove to be a good fit for each other, in any case, some small adjustments to your listing will help when needing sitters in the future
Thank you all so much! Very helpful info. I’ll be sure to take new photos in the next day or two. I’m a 10 minute drive from downtown Nashville (I put that in my listing title hoping it would help clarify location). I can include that somewhere in the actual listing too.
I did get an applicant! Yay!
@Colin good to know about the interval specifics! I assumed flexibility in those hours would be a good thing, but I guess I can just put the max 6 hours.
Thanks again and I’m much more hopeful finding someone using THS!
You could mention that Sitters will arrive to your home decorated for the holidays and include a photo if you have one from a previous year showing the decorations.
We’ve done a number of Christmas sits and it was so nice to arrive to a decorated home.
There’s definitely sitters who like to sit in their home area. I always have!
But if they’re actively looking for a sit, they may have already seen your listing and haven’t applied because of scheduling or whatever. Reaching out to sitters is usually less efficient than waiting for applications. But it does work!
The applicant I got was someone wanting to reach out to give me advice because they saw my post on the forum (which was helpful, but unfortunately a liiiiiiittle disappointing). So no applications yet.
I updated my photos, offered flexibility on my dates, and even offered pickup from the airport on the day they arrive. Should I just keep waiting this out? How long has it taken others to get applications?
@Heaven I wanted to see what your first photo looked like when I did a search, as the system automatically crops vertical photos and sometimes it results in a poor photo.
If I use the link in your forum profile, your listing comes up. However, I then searched on both the app and the website and I can’t find your listing at all. I also searched using the Christmas Sits option and still nothing.
Perhaps repeat what I’ve done, as though you are a sitter, and check please. Or maybe another forum member please check my steps. If I’ve done it correctly, that’s certainly why you’re not getting applications.
Sorry everyone, I ended up getting a refund. I cannot risk not finding a sitter, and at the cost of membership I was able to hire someone locally without having to provide all the bells and whistles (less than 24 hours, at the same cost of the membership, and no uncertainty). The gift baskets and letting people borrow my car and decorating my home for a stranger and everything else in between, it was too much for me and my partner to try to accommodate just to find a sitter.
Maybe in the future when I do find myself traveling more I can make this work for me and my situation, maybe not on a holiday, but it didn’t seem to be a good match this time.
Thanks again for all the help on here: the most pleasant experience was seeing how responsive everyone was on a platform like this! You are a helpful bunch of folks.
We’re really sorry to hear that things didn’t work out for you this time, but we’re really pleased that you found the Forum useful, in terms of getting some advice! Thank you to @Enjaybee, @KC1102, @Shella_in_the_Forum, @Colin, @PetSitterBug, @luckycat, @Snowbird, and @Shannon for taking part in this discussion and giving such invaluable help.
We hope you’ll come back one day @Heaven - and the Forum will always be here if you need help should you do so.
I am on my way now to a sit in Stockholm. No car - it would not even be of use to me there. I do not expect Christmas decorations in the home, there are plenty in the city. If there is a hamper it probably is one they got from an employer that they pass on to me, but I am not expecting that.
I always have!
