I joined THS about 6 weeks ago as 2 trips were scheduled for later this spring and house sitting has become an urgent issue since we moved to our new home.
The first week got 5 responses - alll 5 sitters wanted the job - it was great!! The 2nd week (in late May)…. nada… zip…. .zero. No responses!
Is there a way for me to share the listing and have the community take a look and see if something is painfully wrong (i.e., the date is for 9 years from now… don’t laugh, it happened to me once with an airline ticket). I’m confused as to why we got such great response when it’s NOT pool season - and zero when it is!
If you need a sitter to arrive at 9am then possibly you’re not offering the previous night as a handover, this means only people nearby will offer to sit. Most HOs put ‘to be discussed’ or they offer the extra 12 hours prior to an early start.
If those dates are holiday dates in your location also check the competition in your area and see how many other HOs are offering sits.
Also take your sit down then relist it’ll appear as New rather than low applications. Best wishes
PS I looked at there’s 14 sits in your area.
Hi @kevinsimons If I run a search for sits in Vacaville, CA, it brings up 205, and your listing appears at the bottom page 10. Most are in the surrounding area rather than Vacaville itself, but I’d guess that perhaps people just aren’t seeing it now that it is no longer marked as ‘new’. If you remove your listing briefly and repost, it should become ‘new’ again and move closer to the top. It looks like a lovely home, with a beautiful dog for company, so I’m sure it will be popular.
Looks like an amazing sit! The only thing that might improve your listing is a better 1st photo for the listing. Perhaps one of the front of your gorgeous house in good lighting. Best of luck!
Thank you for the kind words. I took the listing down so it’s not buried on the bottom of page 10 (great advice, as well as the advice for arrival time verbage. I’ll re-list tomorrow.
Change your title, the first 6 words or so are the most important, as the rest sometimes get cut off depending on how a sitter views it. And start with your largest selling points that make your place unique.
So instead of:
Beautiful estate sized home with pool, spa, garden, half-acre fenced, convenient
Try:
Beautiful pool, spa, half-acre fenced, walking distance of shops.
Also, your first/main image is a little dark in areas to make out, so I’d swap it to the evening one of the pool, because a beautifully lit private pool is unique to you, over other places.
On the THS website, click on big dark green button ‘search for homes to sit’. Type in ‘Vacaville’. It currently brings up 249 listings, but if you click on ‘view map’ and zoom in, you’ll see yours is the only one actually in Vacaville itself.
Hi Becca. New owner here looking for first time sitter. I’ve been looking through the Forum because I’m concerned about not getting a sitter since I posted my first sit request several weeks ago. I see your suggestion to remove the listing and repost. I am unable to find a clear explanation on how to do that in the FAQs. Do you mean delete the sit dates and then start a new sit with same dates in a day or two? Thank you for your reply in advance.
Hi @MaritCS It doesn’t need to be for a day or two, I think even just a couple of minutes would be long enough for the site to register it as a ‘new’ listing. I’m a sitter rather than homeowner though, so haven’t followed the process myself - others will no doubt correct me if I’ve got it wrong.