Ideally how far in advance should I be advertising for a sit ?
I’m not in a major well known or popular part of U.K. anymore - so wonderful if I should be thinking about 2025 Holiday dates now ?
Haven’t had any yet for a hols end of September, so I’m thinking more time is needed, and people book their sits a long time in advance 
Hey there!
You can definitely post well in adavance, many sitters like to book early & have their sit calendar all filled out. Just be aware that if you find a sitter a year or so in advance, there is a contingency that plans may change (either yours or the sitter’s) because, life happens and circumstances change. But it’s still certainly worth a shot
If you haven’t had any applicants yet, you can check out this blog to make sure your listing is attractive as possible, and you can also link your listing to your forum bio for members to view & give helpful feedback. Hope that helps!
2 Likes
There is no ideal time. We sit full time, so we’re fully booked for 2024, and already have a lot of bookings in for 2025, and 1 booking for 2026 (we’re not actively trying to fill 2026 as yet though).
If you make your dates live as soon as you know them, then you’ll have a larger pool of sitters to choose from, because if you get applicants and you don’t feel any of them are suitable, then you can simply reject them until you find the right sitter for you, and if it takes a while for you to find the right person then at least you won’t stress about it.
2 Likes
Thank you 
I’ve seen the blog - early days yet - I’ll see what happens 
1 Like
Ok thanks I’ll consider this - I tend to be more last min - but looks,like this doesn’t work well here 
1 Like
I am already booked from May-September 2025. I fly 11 hours to get to my sits in the UK/EU, and stay on the road for months at a time before heading home again. Advanced planning is very helpful.
1 Like
Last minute works better if you have a location that’s in demand, like a London or Paris, with fewer or easier pets. Most sits aren’t that unique.
1 Like
I’m slowly learning that my time and investment is definitely in the wrong place. I wish I’d been able to ask all the questions before loosing £200
Thanks for your reply
Whoa - the more I read and ask, the more I feel I’m in the wrong place.
Wish I’d beeen able to ask all these questions before I’d invested £199 which could have gone to dig care for my hols 
@annepolet it all depends on the location, duration of the sit and the responsibilities involved how popular your sit will be .
However you don’t need multiple applications for a successful sit just one sitter that is a perfect match .
Long sits get booked up well in advance by sitters who do this full time . School holiday dates there are always more sits listed than sitters available to do them so it’s a good idea to list those dates early . However I have noticed that the majority of sits get listed only 1-2 months before the sit.
There’s no right or wrong way to do it.
3 Likes
There could be all kinds of other reasons. For sits in the UK, sitters have a lot of choices. There is no need for sitters to plan far ahead.
For my tour of England this spring, my strategy was to wait for something that I really wanted to do: it was three weeks in Cambridge, there were two very easy pugs, the reviews were all enthusiastic. And I also got an easy cat sit of ten days in Bath.
The sits that I got in between these two I applied for after I had gotten to Cambridge. I was not picky with those, I even applied for a short sit of “energetic” dogs in the outskirts of Warrington because I had lived there once (the times did not fit though). I was a week near Gloucester with two strong labradors.
Much depends on the listing. There is so much choice that I skip making contact when there is lack of information. Or when I don’t find the photos appealing.
@annepolet , add a link to your listing to your forum profile , then members of the forum will see if they can offer any advice on how it can be tweaked to attract sitters
3 Likes
@annepolet
Just sit yourself down, in a quiet place, and construct your listing.
Its far too early to think you have wasted money, all for the sake of a bit of organisation.
When you have listed, pop back on here and ask forum members to take a look for creative guidance.
For your £200, you have a years worth of sitters to tap into, which is probably better value than paying boarding kennel prices.
Push yourself to get it done ASAP.
Good luck.
7 Likes
Thecnically you could have asked all the questions before becoming a member. This forum is open for anyone, so you can join and discuss before paying anything.
But I don’t know how well THS actually advertises the forum. It would be very useful for both HOs and sitters to spend some time here before paying for membership.
4 Likes
@CatsAndDog
I actually recommended to my friends that they join the forum first and get to hear real stories before joining. They did and are still keen on joining.
3 Likes
That’s what I did as well, found it super useful.
1 Like
You haven’t wasted any money, there’s plenty of sitters that only book about two months ahead of time, we’re just not that type, we like planning ahead because we are very focused on specific locations to be within travelling distance of our family.
For sits within the next couple of months you just need to be more flexible about the type of sitter you want, for example, new sitters need a chance and still come with lots of good points because of their particular life experience, but they may not have many reviews, so just be flexible on the sitters you pick if your dates are coming around fast.
Too many new HO’s rule out new sitters, but there’s no reason to, we were new to this until earlier last year, now we have around 30 x 5* reviews, but more importantly we’re beyond-middle-aged and have a lifetime of pet and property knowledge, so HO’s gave us a chance at the start.
Plus you haven’t lost money, you will probably find THS works brilliantly for you, no more pet care worries, and you’ll want to tell your friends and family about it, and if they sign up with your personal recommend-a-friend link then you get two months free each and every time, so before long you ‘could’ get it for free for years to come (we do).
2 Likes
@annepolet,
end of September is not last minute. Last minute will be 10-14 days down the road.
Some full time sitters (and non) like to plan well in advance, many others apply to sits that fit just right into their travel schedules, and some “new arrivals”, who might even be locals and would like to put their foot in the door, may be available on a relative short notice.
I encourage you to stay positive and avail yourself of this community. As @Colin said, do link your profile to this thread, we’ll be more than happy to give you pointers and friendly advice on how it may be improved.
2 Likes
Gauging by this thread and another the OP created, they might prefer to not get any applicants and instead get their money back if possible.
THS works for some folks, but not everyone. If for instance someone doesn’t want to market their sit (as mentioned in another thread by the OP), it’s probably a nonstarter.
Thing is, THS is cheap compared with paying for sitting or kennels/catteries. There’s no free lunch. The reason is it’s so much cheaper is because the hosts and sitters all trade off things and put in effort. Like marketing is a given on both sides. Otherwise, it’s unlikely that matches will be made. And if someone doesn’t want to deal with planning or coordinating schedules, that also makes THS unlikely to work well. Like if someone prefers to do things last minute or serendipitously, the risk becomes higher that they won’t find matches or will have to settle for weak matches, which boosts the odds of sits not going well.
Those are just realities of bartering this way. That doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with such exchanges — they’re just not for everyone.
And it’s everyone’s responsibility to read up or otherwise get info if they’re signing up. Many of us were able to figure things out, because there’s a lot of info on the platform about how it works. That info is available to anyone before they join. No membership required.
We all have different means. If the membership cost is dear to some, then it would seem that they should make even more effort to get informed before signing up.
From the OP’s other thread:
6 Likes
Thanks for the information 