Hi, I’m new to this so looking for a bit of advice on my home listing? We have a family home and pretty low maintenance animals so happy to have kids stay. It looks like all listings have ‘low applications’ at the moment, are people still getting sitters? How long does it usually take to get applications? Thank you 
Edited to remove link in line with forum guidelines
Hi @LaurelG and welcome - you need to link your listing to your forum profile so we can offer help & advice
#giveitago
You can also check out this blog I inspired for THS about mistakes to avoid when creating your listing. Hope that helps! 
Welcome to the forum @LaurelG -it’s great that you have a family friendly sit -
I’ve had a look at your listing and can see that in many ways this will be a great sit for a family .
The big turn off for me is the photos of the bedrooms - unmade beds and piles of clothes / laundry -
If you wish to attract more applications- tidy the bedrooms , make the bedrooms look more welcoming for guests ( which your sitters will be ) retake the photos showing the bedrooms as they will be when your sitters arrive ( remove the piles of clothes / make the beds up with fresh bedding ) and then asap update your listing with the new photos .
However - It’s important that your listing is accurate so if this is how the bedrooms will be when the sitter(s) arrive then leave the photos as they are.
House looks nice as does the lounge & gardens @LaurelG, the pets sound easy (let sitters know how long they are okay at home for on their own) and the location sounds nice and chilled. The bedrooms though, would be a no-no for most, they don’t say clean or “welcome” so your pics need updating unless as @Silversitters says this is what they would arrive to. Competition is fierce for good sitters in the UK so it’s worth making your listing as attractive as possible. Think Airbnb & of your sitter(s) as guests in your home. #loveacleanbed
I took a look as well. Overall your listing appears very friendly, welcoming, laid back and certainly a great mutually beneficial exchange. However, I definitely agree with the above suggestion of having better photos - your current photos of unmade beds etc don’t serve your listing well!
Your listing’s profile picture doesn’t do much to attract me either - can you use a nice image of the pets or your local area instead? It is also misleading that there is a dog infront of the house in your profile picture, even though this sit has no dog. I would delete that image so you don’t confuse sitters - remember that the first thing sitters see of your listing is your profile picture, and having a dog in it may mislead people to think this is a sit with a dog, before they’ve even clicked on your listing.
I would also add in your home and location section how close (on foot) you are to public transport and amenities.
Hope that helps!
Thank you all so much, I was in a rush to get posting up but will take time to get better photos this weekend!
100% agree with @Silversitters . There’s always lots of advice on here about how to improve listings to attract more sitters, but it’s really important to properly represent the property condition and presentation which sitters can expect to find. I prefer to see living conditions which represent the pet parent’s normal, everyday, then it’s easier to make an informed choice regarding whether to apply. I don’t feel a cosmetically sanitised version is always the best way to go, either for sitters or PPs.
I didn’t bother reading the ad after I looked at the photos. No photo of kitchen, bathroom or bedroom but lots of tourist noticeboards instead. Sitters want to see where they will sleep, cook and wash.
Definitely need better photos to “sell” your sit. Think of it like you are viewing your home as a buyer. A home with pets, if you will.
Focus on all the areas the sitter will be using: kitchen, lounge, bathroom, bedroom, and make sure those areas highlight what you have to offer.
And very importantly… make sure those areas are as they were in the photos when the Sitter arrives.
When I took photos for our home’s listing, I did an instant declutter by shoving into shopping bags or moving out of the frame all stuff I didn’t want to show. I used the wide angle function on the phone to show all the parts of a room. I made the beds and made sure all drawers and cabinet doors were closed. (I did do a proper declutter and deep clean a week before the sit.) The first two sitters were secured easily and were fine but then I spent several months lurking here and taking note of all the information sitters said they looked for in a listing. I added lots of details about the layout of our home, where the pets sleep, how long the dog needs to be walked and can be left alone, etc. We just confirmed a third sitter and they said they chose us over two other nearby sits because of all the details. You can’t really get away with just declaring that your house is lovely and the pets are low-maintenance — you have to prove it.
Hi @LaurelG and welcome to the forum.
I think you’ve done a good job with the wording in your listing. Based on your write up of the home, area and animals and the information on the Amenities section, I really like the sound of it. It sounds like the sort of sit and location my family would enjoy.
I can see from the comments that you have taken on board some of the feedback you have already received, and have taken out some of the photos ready to replace with improved ones. We would love to see photos of the bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom, and maybe a better photo of the living room.
The THS app website can crop photos, especially if they are in portrait orientation, meaning that the photo we see on when viewing your listing is not the whole photo, and sometimes important parts of the photo have been cropped out. It’s a good idea to take photos in landscape orientation, as these fit the THS software better.
Confusingly, there is also some information that you are prompted to complete that is not visible to sitters viewing your listing, but is just for THS data collection purposes. This includes details like how long your pets can be left alone. So it’s a good idea to include this in the text of your listing as I see Kitty Joan needs to be let in and out of the house.
The default order of listing on THS is to show those with “Low Applications” first, which may explain why you are seeing so many listings with that tag. It can be changed to display “Newest” first. The Low Applications tag applies to listings with 0-2 applicants. Listings can receive 5 applicants before the listing automatically goes to “Reviewing Applications” status.
thank you for having a bike available! I agree with the other folks, need more pictures of your home. Looks like a lovely sit!