Hi guys. I’m completely new here. I created my listing at the begin of October for Christmas period and only 1 person applied during a month. They cancelled after a day as someone else accepted them first. Location is not amazing as it is Luton, England but still pretty close to visit London! Im not sure what I did wrong, maybe my listing needs to be better? Im panicking a bit. Any advice will be apprieciated
First, Christmas is an INCREDIBLY competitive time to find a sitter. You should always have a backup plan, but you definitely should with a holiday sit.
Some notes on your listing:
1 - your photos look decent, that’s a good first step.
2 - Your title is the first thing people see. you need to spice it up. i’d probably make it something along the lines of “Flexible start, 30 minutes to St. Pancras station London” or similar or some other selling point.
3 - You need to flesh out your intro. You are selling yourself, your pets, and your sit. You need to give more information so people know why to choose you. Show your personality a bit.
4 - Home and location should include: how much time to get to the station to get to London by walking/bus, how quick to get to groceries/shopping/restaurants/entertainment by walking/bus, what is there to do in the immediate area, any special events people should consider attending, etc. Basically if someone was coming to your town on holiday what would you suggest they do? I’d also give timetables for how long it takes to get to London and which station they leave from/arrive into so people can do some research. Again, you’re selling the sit, you need to work it.
5 - My translation for your responsibility section: Company for the cats from 5/6 = no going out at night. Many people might not like that. Active at night = they’re going to keep the sitters up all night. Frankie burning energy = destroying the house. I would reword this so it’s a bit less concerning unless all of those things are accurate. You should also include if there is a max time they can be alone, what time they need to have breakfast, if they need to sleep with the sitter, if the bedroom door is closed will they freak out and keep the sitter up at night, etc.
6 - Arriving on Christmas Eve is a big ask as it’ll make it difficult to get settled in, do a shop, etc. before things close for the holiday. I’d recommend being flexible about the arrival date and allowing people to come a bit early and stay with you if that’s possible. It should be mentioned in your title and first paragraph if this is something you’re open to.
Once you tweak the content and get more feedback, I’d delete your dates and then add them back so it’ll be new again and more enticing this time.
Good luck!
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Hi there, I took a look for you.
Christmas sits are highly competitive, and most sitters already know what they’re doing for Christmas and booked their Christmas sit months ago, but there are definitely improvements you can make to help you. Overall your sit seems relaxed and very easy, which is a big benefit, and you have nice photos. Here are some suggestions:
1: your title could be a lot more engaging. You don’t need to state ‘petsitting’ in your title, as sitters here are already sitters and know what they’re here for. Try something like: Christmas in Luton (just 1hr from London!)
2: your intro is very minimal. Tell sitters:
- about yourself & positive qualities of your cats
- what is there to do & see in Luton & what can your sit offer sitters over Christmas?
- what are your expectations around arrival & handover?
3: your home & location section is also quite minimal. Try telling sitters exactly what they can expect to see & do over the Christmas season in Luton & London and why they should choose your sit. You really need to sell yourself here. Good hospitality will go a long way - can you collect sitters from the nearest airport or station? Will your home be nicely decorated for Christmas?
Here is a blog that might help:
Hope that helps!
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Thanks a lot! A lot of good suggestions! I will work on it during weekend and hopefully I will find someone.
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Another note is that the image of your Christmas tree would be a much more fitting & attractive cover photo for a Christmas sit 
(Lovely tree by the way!)
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Thank you. I love Christmas and I have Christmas tree in every room 
The biggest one is in living room and we have a tradition to buy every year one/two decorations…most of them are a weird handmade creatures
I had problem to preview my listing so wasn’t sure what photo will be first. I’ll change it for sure.
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The other thing is to move very quickly if you get an application. If a sitter looks suitable, get back to them ASAP, get a video/phone call in ASAP, and get it all confirmed.
If you look at the wider London area there are over 100 Christmas sits. Available sitters will apply for several at once.
Not impossible, but this near Christmas, have a plan B, as most think there are more sits than sitters for this period.
I can’t see your listing - are you near the airport? Could you offer to collect from there? What can you do to make things easier arriving then?
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You’ve received great advice @MartaM as you really do need to “sell” your listing to sitters. There are always way more sits listed than sitters available for the festive season. At present you are competing against 657 other UK owners wanting a sitter for this period! You definitely need a Plan B! Remember public transport shuts down over Christmas and New Year so that restricts your applicant pool if they rely on public transport to travel to/from sits. As suggested, if you can offer them a day or two earlier to arrive, then change your dates to reflect this. Good luck!
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It is a Christmas sit?
@Colin yeah, from Dec 24th - Jan 8. The 24th will be a tricky date to arrive, hence suggestions for an earlier arrival & handover
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@Nagy26 I was referring more to your comment that the Christmas tree pic was not fitting for the dates of the sit. Surely a sit starting on Christmas eve could not be a more fitting date to have a Christmas tree as your main pic?
@MartaM - I think most of your photos are a bit dark and gloomy. I would take them all again. Be sure to have all the lights on and curtains wide open. Choose the brightest time of the day too.
Ordinarily, you will have no problems finding sitters but , as others have said, Christmas is by far the busiest time of the year for sitters.
Don’t panic yet though! You still have time
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You could also point out other places nearer to Luton such as St Albans (fabulous) and Peterborough (great shopping too) Alexander Palace (what’s on over Christmas) and even Cambridge albeit by car I guess.
To be honest, I wouldn’t book a stay in Luton (My daughter did her teacher training there so Ive spent some time there) if I wanted to visit London whether Christmas or not, because if someone wants to go to London, it’ll be for more than 1 or 2 days. But the positives with Luton is the excellent rail and bus services to other places as well as London. And the airport is there.
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Yes I tried to do my best with photos but England is at it is… I was waiting for a better day and more light and it is the best I could get
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I did work on it yesterday and changed my introduction and responsibilities section. Today I will change rest about house and location.
I put a note in first line about being flexible in dates. Should I change dates too? I assumed I need to choose exact dates when we will be away and everyone know they can come earlier or leave later… if I change dates it may change into much longer sit that someone wish to take. What do you think?
Personally for me traveling at day before Christmas is not a big deal, I have a flight on the same day too and we don’t prepare a big meals
I have plan B :), to stay home if it will not work out
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I completely understand your point especially if I live quite far from town centre. It suits me because I drive and I like to be away from noise but it is not for everyone.
I think you misread it - I said the tree would be a more fitting cover photo lol 
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@Nagy26 - That makes more sense, my apologies, when I looked at the listing the tree was the main pic which gave your wording a completely different meaning 
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24th of Dec is a big problem for you. The thought of being stuck in traffic on Christmas Eve just isn’t appealing to many of us. If someone is sitting over Christmas they usually want to enjoy that time and be already settled at a place by Christmas Eve. So if you are flying, perhaps make the start date a day or two earlier, and you stay in an airport hotel just before you leave, that way you can both enjoy Christmas.
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I don’t mind someone coming earlier and it is marked in my introduction in first line, should I change it in main dates? Ive never noticed any heavy traffic tbh, 24Dec is a normal working day. Im Polish and we actually celebrate at Christmas Eve so straight to airport I will go to Christmas dinner. But I agree that this doesn’t leave a lot of time to prepare anything or do some shopping.
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