Hello all!
I’m new to this community and have a question about set up. I’m traveling to NYC (previous resident) with my family this July, and would love to take care of an animal while there. However, I’m coming from California, so I’m wondering since my location is CA based, will NYC owners be able to find me? I switched my location temporarily to NYC, but I don’t want it to look deceiving. Just trying to figure out the algorithm!
Thanks!
Homeowners don’t find you, you find them. You click find a house sit and search New York. You apply to the ones that interest you. I would change back to California so they know you will be flying to them.
Hi @Jillianma8,
Welcome to the forum!
As @SeniorSitter1 has said, most of the time this works the other way round. NYC is a highly demanded city so you really need to set up a search and follow it closely, otherwise, you won’t even get a chance to apply.
If I were you, I would also favourite listings that interest me and for which I fulfilled the criteria. Favourites seem to notify faster than location searches.
Another good idea is to get part of your application ready so that you just have to adjust it to every sit.
If you’re aiming for NYC as your first sit, you might be a bit disappointed. Unless you’re really experienced looking after pets and have some extra qualifications in that regard, NYC is not the typical first sit. You might want to do some short, localish sits in order to get some reviews before applying for NYC. It can be done very quickly, particularly if you apply for low application ones.
Good luck!
Definitely get some local sits under your belt if you are new. Then when you apply, include in your message that you will arriving in NYC on X and would love to care for Sammy (or whoever) to get some animal love while you are traveling. Mention why you want to do their sit, etc. Be very responsive if you get interest and get a chat schedule asap. Good luck!!
If you are hoping to get invites to a particular location, then changing to that place can be helpful. But getting sits via private invitation is usually not something to bank on for a couple of reasons. Many sitters do this and it can be good to note you have changed your location in hopes of showing up in the local search, making it clear you do not live there but will be in the area for X dates.
As for the reasons…
First, locations such as NYC will have lots of sitters so having your profile show up near the ‘front’ is slim, at least on a regular basis–they rotate randomly.
Secondly, the chances of your dates matching with a host who has decided to reach out via private invites is probably slim too.
Thirdly, NYC is a desirable location and hosts can easily get lots of interest so they can just throw a listing up and wait for the people to come to them.
Like others have said, the best bet is keeping a close eye on listings by checking frequently.
If you are aware of recent listings that seem to have gone into review, it can help to ‘favorite’ those in particular since the 5 app limit often means hosts in popular locations need to repost more than once–from what I have observed, notifications of ‘favorites’ seems to come more in real time than sits that meet a ‘saved search’ criteria.
You can also ‘favorite’ any listing not currently seeking a sitter by entering NYC as your location and scrolling past current listings. But these will only show up if you do not put any other filters up–dates, length,etc… The thing to keep in mind with ‘favorites’ is you will get notified for any new listing of that sit as you can’t set filters for dates,etc…
And you never know, if you change your location–just be clear you don’t actually live there–you may get lucky. We booked a sit via private invite the other day to a location that was high on our list of places to visit. My husband and I have been sitting in California since January and are not planning on leaving any time soon so we changed our locale to here. So far we have booked sits through August and have gotten lots of invitations, more than we ever really had previously.
Good luck!
As others have answered – there is no “algorithm” to figure out. You find the sits. Here are some things to consider:
Do you want to sit on your own or is your family coming? Because of apartment size, “family” sits in NYC are rare and most people won’t accept children. Because of the five application rule, the chances of even getting in your application are rare. Because of the competition, getting a NYC sit without site experience is unlikely.
What I’d recommend is that if you have a date range in mind set you parameters for the search and see what comes up. Do this frequently, maybe several times a day. Favorite listings and save your search. This willl give you notifications, but things change fast so the notifications might not be very helpful. I’m a NYC homeowner. About half the time or more I don’t bother listing publicly as I can usually find someone who previously sat for me and can return on my new dates. If I do post, however, I’m picky so I will often decline applications that aren’t a great match. This means that my listing will show up and then go into “review” once 5 applicants apply, but then it will reopen when I decline and “unpause” so it may be worth keeping an eye on listings in review in case they reopen. If you are traveling with kids, you might consider suburban areas near Metronorth or the LIRR or NJT hat will show up as “NYC” in the search as there is much better possibility that they won’t be overwhelmed with applicants and will be more likely to have room for families.
@Jillianma8, agree with @SeniorSitter1.
Recommend that you explore the Saved Search feature. It’s really great for finding housesits in a specific geographic area (city, state/province/area, country) for specific date ranges or other attributes.
We change our location regularly - it is always set to the place we want to sit, never to the place we are currently sitting.
There are a decent number of home hosts who try the private invite route to finding a sitter so changing your location will help these find you.
The other recommendations of using the search feature is correct and important as you will find most sits this way, but do this ASWELL as changing your location for maximum impact
You’ve done the right thing to show up when a host does a search . Currently that’s the best workaround .
If you add a sentence to explain this at the start of your profile that will clarify things upfront .
You could also mention your reason for being in NYC in July, so hosts gain a better sense of who you are and feel confident that you’re committed to being there.
NYC is very popular location for sitters . If your just starting out I also suggest strengthening your sitter profile by applying for some shorter, local sits first to build up reviews.
Thank you!
Appreciate the insight, thank you!
Wow, thank you for being so thorough, it’s really helpful!
Great suggestions- thank you!
Ah, good to know, thank you!
Yes, I will do that!
Makes sense- thanks for the honest feedback on the reality of the listings and chances of a NYC sit. I’ll keep trying but keep in mind it may, at least now, be a long shot!
Oh, and good idea about the reason for going. I’ll add that in!
I don’t know that it is that much of a long shot but it also depends a lot on your needs and flexibility. You mentioned “family” earlier. I would imagine the chances of finding a sit that would accomodate more than two people in Manhattan or Brooklyn would be highly unlikely even for an experienced sitter.
You are very welcome! Good luck with your sitting adventures!