Hello all, I am new to THS and the forum and excited to be here! I am pretty much a full time pet and home sitter now since retiring. I was just offered my first sit in July and accepted. I have the rest of the summer booked with other sits I had previously secured on my own. Looking for advice from the group, as I am trying to map out what the rest of the year and next spring will look like. I’m planning on spending 3 months with my mom from September to early December, she lives in Europe, and I’m looking for a sit/s when I return, from December’21 through the end of March ‘22. I would be open to sits in Europe or the UK, except I would not have a car, so I’m thinking the US might be a more practical option for me. I’ll be leaving my car in Florida and would be returning in December to pick it up and hopefully head to my next sit. If anyone has some leads on sits from Dec-March (especially Florida) I would really appreciate it!
Welcome to the forum. Looks like you are already doing great as a new sitter with sits already booked through the summer. You can set up a saved search for sits in Florida for the dates that you desire. You should also network with your current home owners to see if they may know people in Florida who could use your sitting services. Since there are now over 750 sits on THS in the US, I would not rush to book things this far in advance and would hold out for longer term sits for now. You can fill in with shorter stays if you need to, closer to your dates. Historically, there has been high demand during the holiday season for sitters. And as travel continues to open up, there will be more opportunities for sitters. Good luck.
Hi @savoryandrose welcome to our community forum and welcome to TrustedHousesitters and our wonderful pet and housesitting lifestyle, @Southernsitter has given you some great advice and you will find our community helpful, supportive and inspirational …
What a great start you’ve made to your new adventure and you’ve joined a unique, pet loving community, with many other retirees enjoying slow travel and connecting with like minded pet lovers and having the company of beloved pets, also many discovering parts of their own “back yard” which they never new existed. As travel opens up across the world there will be more and more opportunities for international experiences once again.
Thank you for joining our forum and we hope you will enjoy connecting with members from around the world and we can’t wait to share in your TrustedHousesitters journey.
Angela and the Team
Thanks so much @southernsitter I set up Florida as saved search. I appreciate the tips!
Thanks Angela!
The winter sits are likely to be fewer for a number of reasons. New Zealand and Australia have still closed their borders and not likely to open till 2023. We are still looking for somewhere to go after October and sits are very few (criteria is temperature must be above 18C).
We shall all just have to wait and see. Re. car, if we fly to somewhere for anything longer than a month we usually buy a runaround and sell it when we leave. It’s cheaper than hiring and yes you do lose money but not as much as you would using other forms of transport.
Good luck
Elsie