New to THS and curious what I’m missing for applications for the dates I’m looking for a sitter. We have plenty of photos of our dogs/house/what we offer
I’ve tried to invite local sitters to come stay at our place, with my ghosts or no replies. What am I missing
If you can’t find it, send a comment and I’ll try to post more details
(Post edited by the Forum Team to remove listing link as per the Community Rules).
You need to link your listing to your forum profile. A quick forum search should help you find that info.
Thanks lets try this again
(Post edited by the Forum Team to remove listing from this post as per the Community Rules. To confirm, this is now showing correctly linked under their Forum profile).
Try this link to help @capfan31
#giveitawhirl
Thanks updated profile with the link
Just a quick glance. Your home and dogs look lovely! You should mention where the dogs sleep.
This is a simple thing, but as a couple, we need to have clear access to both sides of a bed. Perhaps move the bed in the photo over a foot or so, to show that 2 people can easily get in and out of bed.
You might find a couple who want a small town “staycation.” We generally do not do sits that are for less than one week, and some people probably have their “saved searches” with a filter for only one week and longer sits, so they are not seeing yours. Maybe try adding days to make it a full week, if that is possible?
With such a large house, do you have a garage where a sitter can park? This is a huge bonus.
Your photos are nice but by open to solo sitters, you will be restricting the pool of sitters. On my own I wouldn’t want to take on 2 quite large dogs. The times of the walks mean a sitter wouldn’t be able to go out for long. Could this be amended to allow the sitter to visit some nearby places. Where do the dogs sleep?
You will need a back up plan as travel to the USA is very down due to border issues, so your sitter will probably have to be from your home country.
Thanks for the suggestions on the bed, I’ll be sure to update that.
Good point on the limited days, we are mainly looking for long weekend trips at the moment, but hope to use it for longer trips in the future
We do have a garage but have several personal items in that location that wouldn’t be available to the guest. I figured street parking wouldn’t be a huge issue since we live on a quiet suburb street area.
Thanks for this. I’ve updated where the dogs sleep (living room) and adjusted the walking schedule times.
I figured a solo person wouldn’t have much of an issue, since one of our dogs doesn’t really need to be walked to be honest. I’ll make that update.
Great point on travel to the USA, I agree that is a limiting factor for sure
First off, your fur babies are adorable. Maybe share a few more of their lovable portraits.
Second, is there a way to include the major city in your title/location? When I look at listings in areas I don’t know, I pay attention to the recognizable cities. You do a nice job of showing off Lafayette but I wouldn’t have looked twice because I didn’t know about that cute small town and also that it’s close to Boulder, etc. Just a thought…
Just my .02 cents.
Welcome to THS and I hope you’ll get some applications.
I would remove ‘staycation’ from the title because some people might think they can’t leave the house! You don’t mention how long the dogs can be left at home once they’ve had their morning walk. This is something sitters need to know. I would expect at least 4 hours.
This looks like a really enjoyable sit! I’ve favorited it for the future 
A couple minor suggestions:
Consider what your best cover photo might be. (A scenic nearby view? Maybe the ‘greetings’ mural? Or possibly the photo with Rudy hiking, since it shows the beautiful hike nearby – although you’ll get different opinions on this as a cover photo, since it’s somewhat limited in what it shows.) The bedroom photo is clean and very nice but doesn’t really pop out, which is what you want for the cover.
Is there any flexibility on the sitter’s arrival/departure? I can’t tell whether the sitter is staying in the master bedroom or a guest room, but if it works for you to allow them to arrive a day early or stay a day late, it could help them out in their arrangements. This might particularly apply to the July 4 sit, since it may or may not make sense for everyone to travel on the 4th.
On a related note, if there’s anything worth calling out / mentioning regarding the 4th, you could potentially include that in the listing. For example, if Boulder does something special to celebrate, you could mention that. A sitter may be interested in moving on from your sit to spend a night in Boulder on the 4th, in that case? Just an idea.
I do think the short duration is working against you on this one, combined with a general decrease in travel, unfortunately… Hope you find someone soon though!!
Sad that sitters aren’t giving any reply. I would follow up with them (if you haven’t already) just to give it another shot.
In your invites, you could also butter the sitter up a little by saying something personal that you like from their profile and indicate that you would love to have them in your home. Unfortunately, invites often don’t work but they do sometimes lead to great matches!
In general this is a very good listing and I agree with the feedback of others, like the bed that appears like only one person can get into it - I would have passed right by that. The biggest drawback to me is the length of time. For the sit ending on the 4th - many people won’t want to travel ON the 4th, which this year falls on a Friday. Could you consider extending your stay away until the 6th, which would be a Sunday, and would make the sit appear in the searches that specify a week or more?
Same for the three night sit in later July. The only way I can be tempted to a sit less than a full week is if it specifically says that a professional cleaner comes in when I depart so that my only responsibility is pet care. Otherwise I’m spending hours cleaning before I leave and I won’t do that for a three-night sit.
I wonder if putting “Rocky Mountains” in the title might help? I’m not a mountain person myself so not the best judge, but it feels like it might help people orient to where you are.