New here - short or long listing?

Owner Questions, Advice & Chat
1

Hi I have just joined and advertised our home, we are looking for sitters for a long sit over Xmas and new year and also two long stays next year

As we have no reviews we have added a short stay in October - questions

Is this a good idea will we attract anyone with less than a week stay?

Any feedback on our listing gratefully received

Is a cleaner an asset or not?

Thanks so much these seems such a friendly forum :grinning:

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Hello @Newtothis - a perfect handle! Yes we think you’d easily attract someone for a week, they might even do it as a test run for the longer sit if they’re in Hampshire already. A few bits for you would be to move a good pic of the girls to the first image to capture those cat loving sitters. Maybe change the title to something like “Chilled cat sit close to Portsmouth in comfy, spacious home.” Or similar. Looks like a good sit for remote workers or digital nomads. Could you make it family friendly as well to open up the pool of sitters? Is it easy to access you by public transport and if so, explain this a little and maybe offer to collect sitter from Portsmouth if needed. Maybe add the draw of HMS Victory and the Mary Rose and Southsea etc as they’re all an added pull. A cleaner is always a bonus for a sitter too! Best of luck. Am sure they’ll be more input coming from other members.

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Just looked at your listing. I doubt you will find it difficult to attract sitters for your kitties. It’s unfortunate we’re not in the UK at the moment or we would be submitting our application to be considered. We’re not in the UK until April 2024 we would love to be considered for future sits.

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You can always ask if the sitter wants the cleaner during their stay for the short sit.

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Welcome @Newtothis!
Looking at your profile, I think you’ll find a sitter without any problem. A lot of us full time sitters are looking for the longer sits and others are looking for shorter sits. Your cats look lovely and home looks nice. From a sitters perspective it looks like a very nice sit and I believe you cover the bases very well. If we were going to be in the area, we would certainly be interested. The cleaner issue isn’t really a big thing for us. We don’t necessarily want or need that, but if one is planned, we’re ok with that if you don’t want to interrupt the cleaners job.
Dan and Nan

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A cleaner at least indicates that the HO values cleanliness enough to pay for it, which is a good sign. At homes I’ve sat where they’ve had cleaners, they’ve kept them on as usual. You can always ask the sitter.

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Hi we will be posting a sit from late April to October - just waiting on dates to come through next week

Then another from Nov to March 2025 not sure if we should break them into shorter sits to make them more appealing?

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Thanks for the feedback really helpful

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Hi @Newtothis. Your kitties look adorable. I’m actually feeling sorry for them as it sounds like you’re really going to be away for basically 12 months so they’re going to miss you, even though they’ll hopefully have loving sitters.
You might like to use the spyglass and put in “Split Sits” to get an idea on how sitters feel about this and what problems can arise where you mention breaking the six months into shorter sits as I’m assuming you would not be returning during this time but having sitters take over from each other.

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Hi

Yes we will be away April to October and then home for about 6 weeks and then away for about 4 months

That’s why we are having live in sitters rather than have people come in and feed them

They are sociable and I think they will be fine x

Thanks for the feedback