Agreed on Oman, it’s fabulous. I’ve got other non-sitting commitments that overlap with the sit, plus I’d hesitate for a mid-summer stay. That’s seriously hot.
Fabulous, thought it might be your type of place. We lived in Saudi for 3 years 
so okay on the heat. Even home in Kalkan is 40+ mid summer these days! #airconisyourfriend
@catscatscats24 we are also largely limited to the school holidays and I sit with my 2 sons. We have been sitting since 2019. The boys are now 17 and 15 so adult sized.
There has always been a family friendly tag, it isn’t new, just now in a different place for hosts to select I expect. At any rate, it is no longer terribly useful to us as my sons are taller than me and won’t fit a child’s bed. My older son even travelled ahead of us and did the in person handover for our last sit!
Most of our sits are rural or semi rural in the UK so we rarely struggle to find something. Occasionally we will choose a city location, and again we normally find something we like. May half term this year was a bit unusual, as my sons have just finished a 3 day Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition over the Bank Holiday weekend - in the heatwave! As a result we only wanted a sit for the second half of the holiday and we ended up confirming the same sit in London for the end of this week and the early May Bank holiday.
Having said that, there are a couple of events we like to attend in the summer holidays and we haven’t found a sit we like for one of them. This is unusual as there are normally quite a few that we would be happy to apply for. I’d seen appealing sits in the area for dates earlier in the year, but it seems to be very slow going for sits during the summer holidays. Mainly the same ones being posted as new again. Maybe I am getting more fussy? I don’t think I am though, I’m just filtering out sits that would not be a good match for a variety of reasons
Ultimately, if I don’t find a sit I think we will enjoy, I’ll just book paid accommodation, or maybe dust off the tent!
@august, thanks for sharing thoughtful observations.
We do apply to listings with new hosts but, in the world of fair trade, there is usually a notably attractive aspect to the listing.
As noted in prior threads, we separate our processes into ‘feature sits’ and ‘filler sits’. Former with one or more great aspects (location, duration, pets, property, etc). As full-time sitters, latter type lessening paid accommodation (modest expectations, such as newbie pet parent).
We have certainly met pet parents, including recently, that see to somehow run a fair selection process. Typically working professionals and accustomed to interviewing staff. Good luck with that mindset in housesitting 
- guess people have to learn for themselves! We find that there’s often a moment of realization during video call - they determine interest to offer sit and solve the ‘problem’ (pet care) but that we may decline and say ‘no thanks’. Perhaps they didn’t appreciate that call is exploratory and we, as volunteers, may well have parallel conversations. We all learn.
We see no problem at all in a housesitter withdrawing an application, or a pet parent withdrawing a listing, before a sit is confirmed. Prior to that is just exploratory conversation.
Yeah i have kinda given up now.
There are plenty of last min sits but i dont want to be in a city in this heat. I also dont want to drive far… i am being fussier than i used to be for sure!
As for summer, i have requirements like coastal and unusually specific dates due to other commitments.
I look forward to the days when i can see a sit thats for 3 random weeks and i dont have to consider school holidays at all!!
That sounds amazing.
But the heat would break us. Melting in 30° 
One reason could be people, hosts and sitters, moving to different platforms. A couple I sat for last month invited me back for October which I couldn’t do. They advertised on THS, got one application from a young girl saying, “I want to sit for… see my reviews”, which were only references from friends for sitting their dogs at weekends. The couple re-listed - nothing. They then moved to another platform and got a very experienced couple within 48 h.