Hi. Yes, 28 days would be a long sit. If you’ve already booked the cruises, I would post early. That way you get the greatest visibility and can confirm your sitters in advance. For sitters, the sooner we confirm, the sooner we can book a flight (at lower pricing than last minute). Good luck and happy cruising!
We also enjoy cruising @WingNut and combine our love of life at sea with petsitting. We’ve taken quite a few long cruises, and typically book our sits, 6-8 months in advance, once we’ve made our cruise reservations. Enjoy your upcoming adventures!!! 
Hi @WingNut definitely post your sits now. You can lock in your sitters and then have less things to worry about. Sitters who are looking for longer sits like yours want to take advantage of cheaper flights that get more expensive the closer to travel dates
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Yes, I came here to say this. Nothing wrong with people who like to do things more last-minute, but “opposites attract” isn’t always true! I tend to have friends who are detail-oriented planners and organizers like me, even though I’m sure there are people who think I’m too uptight and predictable. 
I suspect that I’ll be more comfortable with sitters who are similarly organized and detail-oriented – which is exactly who we found for our late-August sit! We were so happy to confirm them last week!
I do think it’s also true that the less desirable your location, the better off you are allowing plenty of time for it to attract a sitter. Since we don’t live in London or on a gorgeous Thai beach, I didn’t think we’d get people flocking to our door. I suspected we’d need to give it time for the right person/people to come along.
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Hello WingNut,
This is my first year of a HS here on Trusted. I have had sits that lasted as short as 3 days and long as 2 1/2 months. So, Nope no length to long… some sits are too short or listed too late to make affordable travel plans.
All the best, I know you will enjoy your cruises and have great sitters.
LuvPets
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We as sitters love advance notice. We too have lives … and would love to plan around your sit. In the same breath, after posting you should decide within two weeks. It would be great if more did this! Good question!
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The sooner the better from our perspective as sitters.
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We are nomadic and look for sits 6 to 12 months out. For example; this year (2023) we already have sits booked for all of April, May, August and September, half of October and November and December. Why wait? if you know your dates, secure your sitter. One less thing to stress about.
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Hi @WingNut definitely post your sits now.
Many full-time sitters like to plan well in advance. I can give an example of myself as a full-time nomadic sitter. I have already confirmed a 30+ day sit for Jan/Feb 2024 which is a repeat sit for a host who, like you, is going on a cruise. I have also confirmed two sits of 50+ days for this year as well as three shorter sits (between 2-3 weeks).
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My wife and I are retired. Sometimes we travel with our pets, and sometimes not. I am looking forward to a good experience with THS.
We have a two month trip coming up in May. This is our first experience with THS. We posted in January, and have now had two sitters cancel on us (one a valid reason, and second not so much). Is two months too long?? How has your cancelation experience been?
Should I split it into one month sits? Should I make it optional for one or two months (if so how do I post that)? Thank you everyone!
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Sorry you’ve had bad luck with concellations. However I am currently on a 3 month sit and I know from other comments on this forum that plenty of people like to have longer-term sits. So, it’s not too long for many people and I do think you have just been unlucky. Of course offering the option of splitting might increase the number of people applying but I have no doubt there are plenty of sitters out there who’d jump at the chance to secure a two month sit.
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Hello @CrazyJ Welcome to the forum community and I am really sorry to hear that you had those cancellations.
You can post your TrustedHousesitters listing link to your forum profile so that others can view it and give you feedback and advice.
Here is how:
https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/how-to-add-a-listing-or-profile-link-to-your-forum-profile
If you need any help just let me know.
Best wishes Carla
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Welcome, @CrazyJ. I agree with @LizBCN: two months is not too long. The longer the sit, the more coveted. You’ll know your sit is in demand if a lot of sitters save/favorite it, and if you hit the 5-app pausing limit quickly.
As @Carla noted, please add your listing to your forum profile; it’ll help us understand the context, and we can give feedback on your listing.
As nomads we look for sits 3-6 months out.
We are pretty much fully booked until October 1st 2023.
We’ve set up our searches for Oct 1st to Jan 31st 2024. Looking for 2+ week’s minimum.
Love it when we find sits of 3+ weeks and would really like to get some multiple month sits.
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As this is my first day after posting, I’m looking for feedback from more experienced owners.
Question: How far in advance should one post? I’ve read a few comments that longer lead times can lead to cancellations. Does this happen?
Question: Should owners post their restrictions in the listing, or hold them for follow up (for example, no guests, no extended periods leaving the pet alone, etc.) And is there any way to monitor such requirements, or is it all based on trust?
Thanks
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Hello @aivset ! Welcome to THS and the forum!
In my experience as a sitter with only a few sits booked far in advance, they did not cancel but the dates ended up being tweaked, they were either extended or shortened. We, as sitters, ended up having to cancel the sit that was shortened as the exorbitant price of air fare for a shortened stay was not feasible. The other sits went through and were fabulous.
This has been discussed in the past. Read the posts that precede yours in this topic and take a look at this one too:
https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/list-now-or-closer-to-october-sitters-what-do-you-think/
And yes, you should tactfully post your restrictions in your listing, i.e., we request no guests. And you should certainly state the length of time the pet can be left alone. This is important information for sitters. Only sitters who can comply with those requirements will apply for your sit. And yes, it’s all based on trust but you have a sitter’s profile, reviews and application in front of you, and after that, you should arrange a phone or video call. All of these components will help you know if a sitter is a good fit.
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Aivset,
Welcome! As a full time traveling sitter, we are currently booked up through the end of the year. In my opinion, people who are looking to commit to a sit that far in the future would likely be committed to their sit. I’m sure others have different experiences but I know where I’m going to be and of course something could go wrong between now and then but I guess the same could be said from the sitters perspective. I believe serious, committed sitters are frequently booking out in advance.
I do believe you should put your expectations in the original post as some may be an issue for sitters and if it would be, there is no point in wasting anyone’s time with the follow up. i.e. If you have a timeframe that the pets can’t be left alone or a requirement of no visitors, someone who wasn’t comfortable with that wouldn’t be applying. But as another thread has pointed out, don’t use the term “sitter will be expected” as that appears to offend some people. 
Dan and Nan
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We’re more full time sitters who are also fully booked till late Nov 2023 and have some sits already booked for 2024. Most involve flights & considerable costs so for us those are firm commitments. We’d want to know clear expectations before applying for a sit, not in the connection call later, it makes it awkward. Ask for what you need & want for your pets and your home and someone will come along that will be a fab fit. Best of luck.
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We’ve been using THS now for over four years as the sole way to find care for our dog when we go out of town. We tend to post our dates as soon as we know our travel plans. So typically that is anywhere from 2-6 months before our departure. We always post our holiday dates well in advance as I have found that sitters tend to get booked in advance during those peak times. We live in San Diego a location that more often then not people want to travel to anytime of the year. That said, the only time we had a harder time finding a sitter was when we made last min. winter holiday travel plans and only got three applicants when we would typically get loads within the first evening of posting.
Your other question about being upfront about “restrictions” I would say to discuss during the interview. At least that’s what we do especially if it’s an important issue to you like having guests over. We ask in the interview “will you be wanting to have a guest or guests over while you’re pet sitting for us?” Depending on how they answer we discuss further. A few of our sitters have had family in the area and have wanted them to come over for dinner or breakfast but it should always be discussed with the homeowners IMO. We once had a sitter have more than one guest over and left these guests alone with our dog…the sitter never asked for permission and we only found out about it from our outdoor security cameras. So now we ALWAYS bring this up in the interview.
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I just finished a sit that I booked six months ago, as a matter of fact, most of my longer sits are booked months in advance. I’m committed right now until mid-November and have applied for sits beyond that. Cancellations can happen at any time but each time someone has cancelled on me it’s been just a day or two beforehand.
About your second question, these are things I would want to know before applying because certain restrictions or too many requirements would be be a no for me.
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