Hi everyone!
I’m trying to plan ahead for a transition period I would ideally like to spend sitting - around October/November.
In your experience, are there any months in the year when things go a bit quieter in terms of sits available? I was thinking that this might be the case for example outside of holiday seasons, and these two months might as well fall into that category.
Curious to hear from more experienced sitters!
Hi @baltarmanoela. Welcome to our community here in the forum. I’m glad you found us. I’ve been sitting for over 10 years and have been able to find sits year round. I’ve even found many sits along my path from one place to another, such as in New Mexico in the fall when I needed to go from visiting my mom in San Diego to meeting my husband in Dallas. You still have lots of time to find sits for Oct/Nov.
You’re right that sits are more plentiful during summer and the national / school holidays, but there are lots of people who prefer to travel during the shoulder- or off-season (think people who want to get away to see beautiful fall foliage, or go to a warm location during winter where they live). Do you have specific locations in mind? If so, set up saved searches for those locations and date ranges. That way you’ll be notified when such sits go live.
There also may be fewer sitters looking for sits during the slower periods. So you may be able to use that to your advantage.
Happy sitting!
Hello
My husband and I have been sitting full time for almost 10 years and we have never had an issue. Yes certain times of year will see a big increase, like summers and holidays. But people travel all year long for all different reasons, and especially on a site like THS, there will always be a good amount of listings.
The biggest issue a sitter will encounter with filling sits is if they have a very specific region or itinerary in mind since that can narrow down options considerably.
The exceptions to this would be areas like the UK or the US which literally have thousands of listings active year round–if you were to search for any specific time frame of a least a few weeks, you would likely find at least a couple of hundred in regions like this.
So no matter when you are planning on sitting, you should be good
I have never noticed a quiet time so you will be fine 
I am new to this site. Do you pay for your airline tickets or do the hosts pay ?
As the sitter, you pay your own travel costs @Juliew
@Juliew - Sitter pays for all travel and food costs
It depends where you are. For Europe, not being UK, I usually find that the number of available catsits becomes low to very low in the October - mid December and the Jan-Feb period. These are the times I’m the least likely to encounter a suitable sit
It also depends on which hemisphere you’re wanting to sit in during Oct/Nov @baltarmanoela as it’s warming up in Oz and NZ so a great time to sit Down Under!