@anon39388349 - we are in the US and I do think that the upsurge with Omicron is causing a decrease in applications. As both a sitter & a HO, I can see it. Makes it hard to plan a trip as a HO. Once the world is more stable, Germany is on our list to visit. Beautiful county and your place and kitties are lovely! Best of luck on future travels!
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Thank you so much and youāre definitely right that itās Omicronās fault for peopleās reluctance. Thereās still time however and I think when the peak is over, which should be the case before March, that the applications will pick up again.
Even if it isnāt our first choice, we always have a plan B and there is still a neighbor who can feed the cats twice a day, so we would not cancel our holiday.
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Yes. I know many people with 2x vax + booster who have tested positive recently. Most are experiencing only mild (even for a cold) symptoms, but a few are bed-bound.
Weāre also experiencing major weather-related travel delays in the US. It took me 20 hours to get home to Seattle from Bend, OR, after Christmas. (Shuttle van over the mountain to Amtrak Cascades, which was majorly delayed due to frozen switches.) I got home at 4 a.m. instead of 11 p.m.
Yes, it just happened to our hosts as well (2x vax + booster). Now they canāt come home for another 2 weeks. Everyone needs to plan very carefully nowadays and have backup plans for every eventuality. Itās surprising to me that anybody still plans and even books their travels a year ahead.
@anon39388349 Your first profile photo is fantastic! Pretty house plus cat portraits = perfect!
All your photos are amazing, but that oneās such a good intro.
Maybe someday Iāll be able to sit for your lovely kitties. 
@luckycat thank you so much 
, youāre welcome in our house anytime.
I couldnāt decide what is more attractive to a sitter, the pets or the house, so as I like to play with apps anyway, I made a collage. And, like this, I also can keep my profile picture 
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As a homeowner I was curious about your pictures. They are fantastic. I would like to see if I could make a collage like yours. So attractive
Thank you so much 
I made the collage with the app Adobe Spark Post. I
Before Covid we often looked for sits out a year plus and very much appreciated being able to find, apply and secure sits for our next yearsā travel. Especially when we were planning to spend time in the UK, France or Canada (we live in USA). When we were planning a 5 month housesitting adventure in the UK we booked our first sit a whole year out and based our flights and other travel on that sit date. It took about 9 months to actually line up all 7 of the sits in the UK - of course our goal was to find sits that were 2 weeks or more and have as few long gaps between sits as possible so having a whole year to do the planning made that easier. We did not travel or housesit abroad during Covid but now are booked for a sit in late August this year (2022) and that sit was posted in November 2021, which once again actually created our dates for travel, which we then booked in February. We highly recommend listing your housesit as early as you can.
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HI @BlueKitty welcome to our community forum what an amazing feat in planning, well done not easy and I would imagine you also had a very good Plan B after all there are no guarantees and we know life happens.
We wish you well with your upcoming August TrustedHousesitters adventure and congratulations for being proactive and putting a great plan in place.
Communicate, communicate, communicate ā¦ plan your work and work your plan.
Thank you!!
Angela and the Team
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Hi Angela,
Thank you for your comments, you are definitely right about having a plan B, but most of all, just expecting things to go wrong and hoping they go right, and being flexible and thinking out of the box on the fly. We were pretty lucky on the 5 month/7 sits in the UK back in the summer of 2018, but there were a few unexpected schedule and situation changes but every single sit was good and some were fantastic! In fact, all of our 30+ sits have been super (our profile shows 28 but a few went missing when THS re-vamped the website several year back - no problem.)
Iām pretty sure you and I have crossed paths and had discussions some time agoā¦but then most of we active sitters would probably ācross pathsā with you sooner or later. I think I even applied to you for a housesit some years ago, canāt really remember the situation but the sit was in Hove. Was that you? I could be mis-remembering it, but in any case you have also answered questions for me when I needed it.
Thank you for the well wishes for our next UK adventure and the house-sit in August. We are still looking for a second sit at the end of our holidays there - we really want to find a sit in Castle Cary (dear friend there we havenāt seen since before Covid) for the first week in Oct but know that is pretty unlikely being such a small village and such a specific time. But we might get lucky. (Just mentioning it in case you happen to come across a Castle Cary sit, weād love to know about it) We can hardly wait to get back on your side of the planet after the last 2 years here at home (though we have been able to do a few occasional sits here, mostly close by).
Thank you for being there at THS and dedicated to helping us all sort out our issues.
Warm Regards,
Barbara Ueckert
@BlueKitty
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Hi Barbara ā¦ yes we have met and chatted itās wonderful to see you here on the forum and thank you for your kind words, letās catch up via DM as Iām in California until May 1st would be great to have a chat. 
Hi! Me againā¦ 
Iām trying to find answers about the boosts, hoping you can help. I see that it says only one boost per listing, but Iām still unsure of a few things and canāt seem to get to the answer. How long does the boost for your listing last? If I boost it now for a May sit, I canāt boost it again? OR, does it stay boosted during the entire listing? Thanks so much for your help!!!
Hi @SunshineNCoastlines here is the link to āBoosting Your Listingā there is a Help Centre on the website which has the answers to most FAQās
If you still need help Therese will assist when she is back online.
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Well, I did see that, and itās a lovely perk for the owners that need a sit. I think what throws me off is āā¦ it can only be used once per sit.ā Does the boost last until you have a sitter and remove the sit? OR does it only last for a certain amount of time? Thank you. Youāve been such a wonderful help!
Hi @SunshineNCoastlines I am a sitter. If your listing was boosted right now, when I went on the website to do a search, your listing would be on that first page. Then, as new listings get added, and other listings get boosted, they are placed in front of you (above you) on that first page. Then, as those newer/boosted listings go in front of you and fill up the first page, you move to the second page, and so that goes on and on. Itās a moving, always changing, line up of newer or refreshed (boosted) listings.
Itās always a good idea to search your own listing, both once you first post it, and as time goes on. This gives you a better understanding of what sitters see when they search. You can do that by just viewing the main search page (not searching or applying filters), and after searching your specific location.
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Thank you! That was a great explanation.
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Weāre booked until January 2023, so yes, people are looking out up to a year and beyond. Especially if it is a longer sit. Or a sitter from another country. They will need time to coordinate, plan, make reservations, etc. As a sitter, I prefer to plan further out given the need to connect multiple legs of a journey. My 2 cents.
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I hope itās okay to jump in, I have just joined as a sitter. Being self-employed (dog minding) I have to plan my time away a long way in advance, for instance I have already told my clients Iāll be away for the last week of January until the first week of March. Between now and then I literally donāt have one day off and will no doubt be dropping dogs home on my way to the airport! For me the sooner I can hopefully secure sits the better, Iāll be travelling to the other side of the world and love to have plans in place. It doesnāt help I am a complete noob to THS! But everyone is different, some like to plan far in advance, others prefer leaving it to a month or two out.
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As soon as I know of my travel plans (5-8 months out), I will post my house sitā¦Unfortunately, I find that even though I try to get my sitter early, I have been going through unfortunate cancelations from sitters. Itās understandable as we are still in a pandemic, but I just had a sitter cancel on me yesterday.
The most recent almost sitter says that she just went through a bad sit and she is going to cancel her TH membership. This is frustrating, but Iām grateful that at least my sit is about 2 and a half months away vs the last minute. Iām hoping that I will find a qualified replacement. Of course, I could go back to the sitters that were previously interested, but Iām sure that they already have their travel plans set.
Iām just questioning my approach as maybe I posted too early as this leaves open more opportunity for sitters to cancel vs posting 3-4 months out.
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