Hi there…New to this site but not new to animals and house sitting. We have done home exchanges over the years and routinely watch dogs on Rover.com (volunteer at our SPCA).
Question: some of the HO profiles allude to wanting sitters for “ongoing use or future travel”; some vague potential opportunity. Yet it appears that a sitter cannot reach out to introduce themselves for this purpose unless there is a specific date and the HO profile is open to applications. We are looking specifically for sits in Spain and Portugal for March/April 2023. So it made sense to me to reach out now and establish a conversation with those HO who might not currently have a date for that time period, but would like to know about our availability and capability. Am I missing something here?
You can’t contact home owners unless you apply for a specific time frame.
I guess the only way to talk about potential future sits is to use the forum here.
If anyone has a better idea I’d love to hear it!
Hello @Ilovechris and welcome to the community forum and to TrustedHousesitters. @andrealovesanimals 's response is correct. The TrustedHousesitters website is set for sitters to apply for specific listings, not for general interaction.
You can embed your sitter profile in your forum username/profile, to give you more exposure to forum members. You can also set up a saved search for specific locations and either have a daily email (if done on the website) or individual, quicker notifications (if using the app and your phone is set up correctly).
If you need assistance with those steps, or have any other questions, you can search key words using the magnifying glass and will likely find related posts.
Francine
Volunteer moderator 
thanks for the clarification. i’m trying to figure out how to embed my profile into the forum profile…at first, I didn’t realize this was 2 separate things.
@Ilovechris Can you see where I hyperlinked the instructions in my reply? - shows in blue - just checking that you realize it’s there, that’s all. 
Hello,
Could you please explain how to do this: “You can also set up a saved search for specific locations and either have a daily email (if done on the website) or individual, quicker notifications (if using the app and your phone is set up correctly).”
Due to the limits on sitter applications I can no longer see sits I want to apply too. I currently only receive a daily email alert which recently is proving useless as I usally have my winter plans in place by now but not this year!
Keep in mind that I have a basic membership, which restricts me to three saved searches. If you have a higher level one, you have unlimited saved searches.
Here are the instructions from the help section of the website:
How to create a saved search on the app
How to create a saved search on the website
I have two saved searches set up on the app, for my areas of top interest. I get push notifications on my phone of any listings (including ones I’ve favourited) that fall within those two saved searches areas. Those are my top interest locations, so I want to know straight away.
My third saved search - a wider geographical range - I set up on the website (e.g. if you were watching all of the US or UK) . If I did it on my phone, my phone would be constantly pinging. I get a daily email for all new or boosted listings in that area, regardless of whether I have them as favourites. I view the email on my laptop, then go to the app and favourite any there (I prefer to view listings on a bigger screen). It’s a daily task that doesn’t take long but keeps me current on my areas of interest.
If you decide to create searches on the app, make sure your phone is set correctly. Vanessa has provided good instructions on setting up push notifications on your phone (the display messages or sounds) - you may find posts 13 & 14 helpful there.
I realize it’s a lot of information to absorb at once. You can direct message me (click on @Snowbird) if you later have any questions.
Francine
Volunteer moderator
Hi all, we’re aiming to spend some time in northern Italy in May and June (and maybe again in late summer/fall) and want to make ourselves available to sit. We see several potential listings we like but none are currently seeking sitters.
We’re specific enough in our dates and desires that we’d like to proactively contact some HOs to introduce ourselves in case they’re making travel plans they haven’t posted yet. It seems like this would be beneficial to both, but I don’t see a way to do it. Does this functionality exist, or if not, does anyone know of a workaround?
Thanks!
The functionality doesn’t exist. See the thread
This has been discussed many times in the forum. If you search via the looking glass you will likely find more on this.
@Michael1 there is no way to do this but my suggestion is to save those listings by clicking on the heart in the top right section of their listing. That way, they will know you are interested and when they become available you will be notified.
Thanks for the thread
Thanks, we’ve done that, was just hoping to do more.
Your question has been asked before on the Forum. I would take the advice offered above.
There are really few sits in Italy, you can have a look at housesitsearch as well to see if anything pops up on other platforms. Italy in spring / summer is popular so you’ll have to constantly check for new listings. Facebook groups for pet sitting in Italy might also be helpful.
I guess you could also adjust your profile. You could change your location to somewhere in Italy, so HOs might find you in a local search. Obviously clarify your true location in your profile.
And since your dates and desires are “specific enough,” you could also put those in your profile, perhaps near the top. In theory, you could customize your entire profile to appeal to an HO in Northern Italy. Just make a backup of your profile info, so you can paste it back later.
Best of luck!
It works. Some are hesitant to change their location because they feel it’s not honest but you can say whatever you wish to disclose in your profile.
Mine says where I’m from and where I’m looking and why. Simple.
I’ve contacted homeowners as if I’m applying for their sit and have always had a reply. I explain that I’m not available for the dates they have listed but would like to be considered for future dates and have been “invited” to sit for future dates. I figure “nothing ventured, nothing gained”. At first I was hesitant as I didn’t want to appear I was imposing but I’ve always had friendly responses from the homeowners.
We’ve recently adjusted our location to our current country as it made no sense getting so many invitations from hosts thinking we are in the UK when we are on the other side of the world! Actually I have not lived in the UK for 20 years but I had to put a location when I opened our account and the UK is still my residence for all official/ banking etc purposes. My husband I live a nomadic lifestyle with no fixed base but we clearly state our nationalities (English/German) on our profile. I don’t know if its going to make any difference to invitations/applications having our location as over here but since we actually have no fixed base anyway it seemed the most logical thing to do!
When I made these changes, it helped tremendously to decrease the number of invites that were not aligned with my interested location. This was even before moving to another country that is not a “hot spot” with numerous listings.
But I will say, being in a place like that also gives you the edge when the demand is there.