Hello, we are new to House sitters and have had our listing up for over two weeks now without finding anyone. We have a lovely Cocker Spaniel who loves people but doesn’t like to go into kennels. I have emailed the support line but with no response. Am I doing things the right way? We really would prefer to have a sitter rather than claim our money back. Has anyone any pointers how we can make our listing more attractive. Thankyou
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Hello @DaveandJanet and welcome to the forum. It’s best to first familiarize yourself with the forum and the various categories, as there is already so much information that’s been shared. I’ll guide you to some, but in the meantime we suggest you add a link to your listing so that forum members can view it, and can often make suggestions that can improve your listing.
If for some reason you don’t want to do that, then post your location (city/country, as shown on your listing) and date range so that forum members can find you on the website.
Francine,
Voluntary Forum Moderator
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@DaveandJanet here are some posts that may be helpful to you. Knowing what draws a sitter to a particular listing is really helpful for homeowners to know.
THS listing wish list (from sitters)
Responding to sitter applications
Some important points:
- show interior photos of the living room, kitchen, and bedroom and bathroom sitter will be using
- Only show a car is needed if it is essential. You want to avoid sitters passing on your sit, if in fact they could manage without a vehicle. Many sitters want to avoid car rentals as the price has skyrocketed since the pandemic.
When you have specific questions, please post them and forum members will be happy to share their tips and opinions.
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Thank you @Snowbird, we have done most of the things you mentioned on our listing. From the initial information we had when signing up, we expected to have more responses to our listing as we had the impression that we would be getting plenty of interest. Up to now this hasn’t been the case and we are running out of time to find a sitter. Dave
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Hi @DaveandJanet Thank you for acting on forum feedback, as it is appreciated. I’ll mention two more things for you to consider.
If you have Standard or Premium membership, you can boost your listing once. That moves it to the front of the listings again.
If you would like @Angela_L to promote your listing on social media, please direct message her as she needs your permission.
Forum members, this is a sit in Liverpool, UK, for May 3-15. The train station is a 5-minute walk away, and there’s a pub at the end of the road. 
Jamie, the cocker spaniel, has eyes that are just pleading with you to spend time with him. 
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Looks like a great sit and you’ve done all the right things. I hope you find someone soon. I have favourited your sit for future reference. 
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Hi Edith, thank you for responding, the sit is the 3rd to the 15th May this year and we are located near Liverpool UK.
Dave
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Thankyou @Kelownagurl , much appreciated, we will probably be going away later in the year as well 
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I’m sorry I can’t help. I’m out of the country for your dates. Good luck!
No problem, thanks for replying
Such a wonderful listing. I think the only missing if you’d be open to it, is classifying it as family friendly since you have multiple bedrooms if Jamie is friendly toward children.
I know for myself as a family I usually sort by family friendly but take a peek at other listings not listed as such if they list and show photos of multiple bedrooms (unless of course the listing explicitly says “no children”) .
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Thankyou @thejohnsfam . To be honest with you, we hadn’t given much thought to the point that a family may be interested in sitting as Jamie is not used to children being around, he’s not aggressive, usually the opposite he goes off and hides if children are around. We wouldn’t rule this out and we would look at each request as it comes. We only use two of the bedrooms as the other one is used as my music room. Dave
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Your honesty and openness will help you secure the right sitter . Giving as much info as possible will also help with good pictures of sitters living space. Some say showing showing pictures affects your privacy. Some say we still have privacy in these days of social media and people having to put up with drones hovering outside their bedroom window at 5 am in the morning! Even THS suggest linking to other sites such like LinkedIn. So if LinkedIn is hacked again, it may affect us.
I’m sorry I can’t help, I’ll be out of the country for your dates. Best of luck.
No problem Edith, thanks for enquiring. All the best, Dave and Janet