Hi all,
My name is Karin and we are based in Guildford in the UK. I only recently joined and posted my listing for a sitter for our 2 doggies 4 days ago but have had no applications. Our trip is booked for 21 - 29 August and I am now starting to panicš³ Does it normally take a while for people to apply, is it too soon to look for a sitter? Is it acceptable when panicking to reach out to potential pet sitters? Is there something I could do to make it more appealing for sitters? Is there a way to refresh your listing to make it go back onto the first page? Any help / recommendations would be much appreciated as I am new to the siteš
Sorry for all the questionsā¦just want to be sure I am doing all I can to find a suitable sitterš¤·š»āāļø
Just found this forum. I have sat for 13 homes to date and after experiencing my first sit which was appalling I now always ask for photographs of the interior of the houseā¦or what are they hiding? 4 days seems a long time? Depends where you live also?
We have booked for 8 nights actually which may be the issueš¤·š»āāļø I have posted photos of all the areas that will be available to the sitters including the bedroom, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, lounge and bar as well as the outside deck area with Firepit, BBQ accessories like the Weber and a tradition South African drum braai (braai loosely translates to BB with wood coals and the drum used for wood fire cooking) and we will even supply the wood for BBQ & fire pit. We are based in Guildford UK.
Well I would be well happy to sit but I donāt look after dogs as I have no experience. 8 days is not the problem. Unsure what it could be? I am sure you will hear very soon, regards and good luck.
We have noticed there has been a huge increase in house sits in the south of England in the past week. Itās the area we usually sit in during the summer as the husband is a glider pilot at Lasham near Alton.
Maybe thereās nothing wrong with your sit, just there are so many to chose from in the area. I would definitely help, however, we are always super organised and are (usually ) booked up six months in advance. It works normally but this year we are kicking ourselves. There are some honey pot last minute sits.
Thanks Elsieā¦that makes sense as I have noticed a lot of sits in the Surrey areaā¦and yes some of them are real beauty spots which we canāt compete withā¦hopefully I am panicking too soon and will get some applications. Alternatively is it acceptable to approach pet/house sitters if they show availability for our dates? I have noticed there is a tab āInvite sitterā.
There just seem to be so many sits on offer now and I donāt know how to refresh my post to get it back onto page 1
Hello @123kitty and welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear your first sit was not the best, but glad the subsequent sits were better. Youāll be pleased to hear that we are now making sure that new listings have at least five pictures, and we are actively guiding people to show internal pictures of their homes. Some just donāt think to do this, so the team are continually looking at ways to improve the user experience and guide our members with best practices. This forum is a great place for that sharing of experiences too. All the best, and enjoy finding your way around the community and connecting with other members. All the best, Vanessa.
Hello @karinsangiorgio and welcome to TrustedHousesitters and our community here on the forum. Iāve taken a look at your listing and it looks good and appealing - it is in a lovely part of the country (Guildford was once my local shopping town).
In times before Covid I would have said 4 days was a longish time, but at the moment while many people are posting sits at the same time to take advantage of easing of restrictions, it can take a little longer, depending on where you are in the world. But you are in a beautiful part of the UK with 2 gorgeous dogs, so I would hope youāll get some responses soon.
Give it a few more days, maybe another weekend, but certainly use the option to reach out to potential sitters. That is totally acceptable and something that many owners do. Youāll likely get some good tips from other owners too. Let us know how it goes over the rest of this week. All the best, Vanessa
Good idea. Read all the profiles and reviews carefully so you get a really good match for you and your pets. Donāt just press the invite button randomly. Fingers crossed it works for you.
@karinsangiorgio - I would not panic yet - your listing sounds lovely. I think there are some UK sitters that are still nervous to sit and sitters from abroad that are still not travelling so the pool is smaller than usual. If I was you I would wait until after the weekend then contact a few local sitters directly using the āfind a pet sitterā tag. There are currently 151 sitters listed in the Surrey region and quite a few specifically in Guilford so you have a really good chance of finding one that is a good match for you
The best thing to do is to direct message the owner in the forum and you can find our from her more about finding her listing so that you can apply through the TrustedHousesitters website. If you need help with direct messages, let me know
Iāve just checked how many sits there are in England listed from 5 - 31 Aug and there are 318! So @karinsangiorgio, unfortunately, you have a lot of competition but hopefully you will have success and get lovely sitters.
We are asking people not to post links in topics as it has become a little confusing and difficult to manage for both new and established members wondering what the process is (as per the updated forum getting started guide).
The best place to view and apply for sits is on the website so that all best practices are followed, and thereās equal opportunity for everyone, and the owners donāt get approached from outside the system. We are however, looking right now at a way to trial a method of helping very last minute sits or cancellations, so more detail will be shared on that here in the forum soon.
Hi thereā¦ Iām going to tag @Angela_L on this as I think itās something that needs to be managed by membership services, but Iām not totally sure. Angela will know though I am sure
