Hi everyone! I am a US/Australia dual national based in Melbourne, Australia. I am traveling back home to the States for 2 months in Nov-Jan and am looking for an experienced, reliable sitter to look after my house and my dog.
Thanks everyone!
Post moderated
Why do you want to ‘invite’ people exclusively? If you post your travel dates people in country or with an interest in travelling to Australia can apply.
Speaking as a sitter myself, I prefer to keep my countries wide open as I don’t tend to make travel plans more than a few months or even weeks ahead so it gives me the widest opportunities and, if I really like the sound of a sit, I’m happy to amend my plans. So much depends on the situation (animals, property, owner).
Hope that’s helpful.
Good luck with it.
If you are looking to have sitters for Christmas, I highly recommend that you post your needs sooner rather than later, instead of inviting sitters. There are heaps of Christmas sits already posted on THS and Aussie Housesitters. We are sitters and we’ve had our 7 week Christmas sit booked for 6 months.
Hi @AussieMum I’ll second the sound advice you’ve already had from two members. An owner directly inviting sitters they have not used in the past is far less likely to be successful. Yes, you may be fortunate, but I strongly suggest you open your listing up on the website (if you have not already done so) and consider the applicants you receive. If they don’t meet your criteria, ,decline them politely and move on.
You are correct in that many sitters do not select their preferred countries, or eliminate ones they may not wish to visit. Many sitters are open to places they would not have considered, so they keep their options wide open.
You can also embed your listing in your forum username/profile to provide a little more exposure and perhaps get useful feedback from forum members. If you have posted your listing and are not getting applicants, member feedback can be particularly useful.
Francine
Volunteer moderator 
Hi @AussieMum we are sitters and HO in Qld travelling to the UK in November for several months. As soon as we decided we wanted sitters we advertised (in June) over 5 months ahead of our travel, and locked in great sitters from 19 applications. The longer you leave it the more difficult it will be to get good sitters as they are getting booked well in advance of Christmas. Demand for sitters will outstrip supply of available sitters. Also many sitters don’t use the THS availability calender so you could be wasting time and effort sending out invitations only to be told over again the sitter is not available. Like the others have said I recommend you list your sit publicly now and go from there as this maximises the number of sitters seeing your listing and applying. However, be aware that your listing will be automatically paused after you get 5 applications so you need to respond quickly to those applicants and decline the unsuitable ones to unpause your listing in order to receive more applications. If you don’t find who you are looking for then defer to private invitations.