I am very new to the platform and created my first sit. Our travel or sit dates are very very flexible. I hesitated about putting in specific dates when they could vary by 30-45 days. I wish there was a slider that says the owner is flexible. We can slide our dates in the calendar and also slide the length of our trip. As a new member, the support options are horrible! Chat is a joke, emails I have been pounded with from THS do not accept a reply. Looking for a email contact online is non existent. Im looking for advice on how to alert possible sitters that my dates are open to slide. Any advice would be great! TIA
(Member’s listing has been added to their Forum profile by the Forum team)
Put flexible dates in words as part of your title/profile headline, it’s a huge selling point.
Also, just bear in mind that even though your dates are flexible, if a sitter is busy during the dates you have set, the system doesn’t let them reach out to you (I presume it’s to prevent those pet owners in big tourist destinations from being harassed), whereas owners can reach out to sitters.
And yes, Frankie the chatbot can be frustrating, so tell him your question and tell him you want to speak to a real person, if no-one is available they will email you. If he takes you around in circles, just keep saying ‘speak to a real person’ or human until he takes notice.
Your best bet, for anything that you can’t find an answer to, is this forum it’s a font of knowledge, and you may get the answer you need much faster, because everyone tries to help each other on here.
There’s also an emergency telephone number at the bottom of your dashboard, but it’s not for non-emergency things, so not helpful in your scenario right now.
Probably it could be worth listing two separate dates: one representing the closest dates where you will be traveling and the other, a fake one, much further in the future. When they stopped allowing sitters communication for overlapping dates, some hosts used this strategy when their dates were flexible so that people interested but having conflicting dates could still get in touch to negotiate possible dates.
If you choose to do that, you should warn people that the second date is not real.
I suggest you to change the dates to April 1st to May 30th because sitters create filters based on dates in the system, so you might miss good sitters who have filters set for May.
The way you have your post worded is perfect and clear. But I suggest to remove “THE SITE WILL NOT LET US MAKE DATES FLEXIBLE!” because sitters understand the site limitations and that extra line comes across as hyperactive.
Once you receive applicants and meet with them on camera ensuring everyone is on the same “date line”, you will be able to change the dates before extending an offer, the sitter will be able to accept the new dates, then you make the offer. This is the way homeowners have done it to me in the past.
Also, as another suggested, you could make multiple listings which I have seen many homeowners do.
You have plenty of time to find the perfect sitter. All will work out fine.
Mmmmmm… there’s nothing wrong with putting ‘fake dates’ as long as your transparent, but I wouldn’t post these particular dates as ‘fake’ dates, because only sitters who are available for the whole period of April and May will be able to apply.
Some (like us) will already have a sit or two booked in for then, so they wouldn’t be able to apply at all. If you are creating ‘fake dates’ which a lot do, I’d just make it a 2 week period, and then you’ll have a lot more sitters apply who you can then start a conversation with, and take it from there. That way you open yourself up to a wider range of potential sitters to begin with, so you increase your chances of finding your specific perfect sitter.
That’s quite a big difference in flexibility. Is your plan to fix your dates once you’ve found the ideal sitter(s). I would love to visit San Miguel de Allende and your listing looks great but I wouldn’t be available until later next year. I’ll favourite it.
I see that you are in the reviewing stage atm. Good luck!
@PV592 , no please read it again, they do not need a sitter for 2 months, they just need a sitter for 14 days to 25 days within those dates.
That’s why I thought you must have been suggesting it as fake dates, if they put a 2 month period, they would be totally misleading sitters when they only need 25 days worth. But also they are limiting the amount of sitters that could potentially apply anyway.