What do Sitters look at, or look for, when applying for Sits??
Is it the pets, the home, the location or the dates?
Have to say mostly for us we see the pet photo and think - Yes, we definitely want to spend time with that adorable animal.
Sometimes we see a Sit come up and it’s a location we really want to visit.
At the present time, it’s dates we are mostly searching for.
But hey! A sit with Alpacas 
- then any home, any location, any dates - we would be on to it 
… join the queue eh? 
Alpacas? Wow. That would be interesting. We always filter initially on dates, then pets, then house, then location. Never bothered too much about location as long as it’s reachable by public transport.
Yes that sounds good planning. It’s definitely dates for us at the mo.
We really take our hat off to you two, no car, we surprised ourselves 3 months in Thailand taking local bus and train services, oh yes and a Tuk Tuk:grin:. I’ve got a ‘thing’ about Alpacas 
and at the moment, in Scotland, we’re loving the Heilan Coos 
. We want one:smile:
A car does make life easier but the expense (no incomes) and environmental impact make it a no-brainer for us currently. Bit of planning for public transport and we’re all good.
That is true, we have considered not having a car, when we recently returned from Spain because of covid, our car was off road, we had a family loaned one until we got ours back on the road. Actually, this is a nice story, we were isolating at that time near a previous HO, he was in the classic car business so we phoned him to ask if he could recommend a garage for our car Mot/service, we didn’t know the area too well, he could recommend one, and we booked in etc. When we went to collect the car the HO had only gone and paid the bill!! How kind was that, it made me cry, such kindness.
We are always on a budget but pretty sure we get a lot more pleasure from the treats because of that. Expect you are the same, I remember reading you carry Oatcakes with you, we do too, always. Not very often we get a piece of £4 carrot cake with our coffee when we’re out walking 
. Do you find your journey with pensions perhaps…don’t answer if it’s rude of me to ask.
So rude! Kidding, we’re not old enough for pensions yet. Could be a few years until they come into play.
Oatcakes are an essential part of our travelling kit and buying cake and coffee out is a rare treat indeed.
Usually we sort by location (with alerts set up on the THS app) for where we are looking for house sits next. We are full timers so we plan our year out of the general area we want to be. So country is number one, then whether we could do the dates. This we determine at a glance and then we actually look at the ad to see if its accessible via public transportation or a car will be left for sitter. We are also full timers without a car, for the same reasons as @Jon-JWalking - expense and environmental impact. We love caring for most pets! Though not too keen on farm animals, so more alpacas for everyone else! 
Dates are a first, then location. Once we have a basic outline of where we will be, then we look at location first, followed by dates, to help fill in gaps in our schedule.
Responding to if you need a car or not, we rarely have a car when we are in Europe. We find we have not needed one, especially in the UK, where you can even have your groceries delivered right to your door. In the US it is another story, it is rare to find a sit that you don’t need a car, although they do exist. Of course, NYC is an exception.
So for us, it is a general location, like a continent, then dates, then specific location.
I (used to) scroll twice a day and often would let the pet/home/location determine where I would travel. I saw an Iceland sit last year, and applied so then I was going to Iceland!! I hadn’t made any plans to do that until I saw that sit (it didn’t hurt that one of the dogs was called Zoe, too). I travel as much as possible using my intuition and that has allowed me to have some purely magical experiences where everything feels so aligned!
If I have sit gaps, then date and destination searches can help to fill those, but on the whole, pre-COVID, I enjoyed my daily scrolls.
Ditto, I do, do that too. We have been places I would never have dreamed of. It has been a fab journey. I am glad you mentioned scrolling. Smile.
Oh sorry 
, you certainly don’t look old enough for pensions, but people sometimes retire early, was my thinking 
Ooh! Alerts set up on the App? That’s news to me (as I generally prefer a Web page in a browser. Why? Just that simple portrait/landscape thing on an iPad. I hate being forced into portrait mode!)
Now that we have a forum I’m quickly learning that so much on my wish list for using THS is actually available but I just don’t know how to use or achieve it!
It’s great that we are all learning so much more through this Forum and I really feel if I need to know more about any questions I have someone is out there to help with a reply, working just how THS wanted it to I really think.
Happy October 1st ladies. Julie, you are spot on. One of the reasons for creating the Forum was for members to help one another achieve success around their pet and housesitting expectations and goals, when our members talk to one another magic happens and inspiration begins.
Membership Services are always on hand to help of course but the experience, insights, help and advice our members are able to share within the community is invaluable. New or experienced every member’s input has value and relevance.
Thank you both.
@Julie Some days I look like I’ve been drawing my pension for years!
Us too, in fact today, you may know we’ve been camping… It doesn’t suit us. I need a magnifying mirror 
That’s always our main concern if we didn’t have our own transport, if there was an emergency with the pets.
this is also a concern for us without a car, which is why we believe that the homeowner should provide everything needed to take care of their pets. If they are able to leave a car, that’d be the best, otherwise they should pay for emergency pet transport.
Yep, even better! That’s why wsually we sit in urban areas and no car is needed.
Not all taxis will accept an animal, especially one that’s ill. Hire cars companies expect you to declare that you will be transporting an animal and then add a cleaning charge to the bill. We’ve twice had to get an animal to the vet in a taxi. We paid return taxi fares and vet’s bills but were refunded immediately the owners returned.