Hi everyone,
I am trying to fill my 2nd posting for which I need to be out of the country so I’m really nervous to find the right sitter(s).
I posted my dates a few weeks ago but so far have only had 2 applications from people new to TH and living out of the country. I think I’d be too nervous leaving my dogs (one of whom is blind) with young unproven sitters even more so when they don’t know anything about living in this country in case problems arise and I’m not nearby.
Could it be because I’ve asked for 9 days instead of 7days? Is that an awkward number?
I wanted to arrange an overlap to run thro the boys routine before I go away the next morning and my return flight lands late at night so I thought any sitter would rather stay that night and leave next morning.
I would appreciate any feedback from you experienced sitters as I don’t know how I can change anything to make it sound more appealing?
I had a short sit with 2 sisters a month ago as a trial for my boys without me. They left ( I think) a slightly off-putting although positive review and I wondered if that might be causing a problem? Does it make my boys sound like too much hard work to look after? They are really not, and are quite happy to sleep most of the day after their morning and before their afternoon/evening walk.
Can anyone help and advise me if I have a problem with my post or the review written? I’m beginning to panic that I might have to cancel this trip which is in 4 weeks time.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer…
Please link your listing to your profile here on the forum, so we can advise on the description. It is very difficult to give suggestions without seeing your listing.
Ok great, I think I’ve done it now.
Thank you so much for your help. 
Kim
@KoS you need to provide a link to your listing so that people can see the things you are referring to.
At the moment I have no idea what pets house or country you even live in
Your listing looks great. My only suggestions are:
- Put a photo of the dogs as the primary photo.
- Remove some of the dog photos. 2 of each dog is enough.
- Add details such as how long the dogs can be left alone, and whether there is good public transport available.
- Add “family-friendly” if appropriate.
- Change the headline to tell sitters something relevant, not visible in a thumbnail, e.g. “easy senior dogs, walkable quaint town” or similar.
Thank you Lassie!
I’ve followed your suggestions, apart from the family friendly point which I don’t feel is appropriate for this house.
Keeping everything crossed that someone suitable and experienced will apply now. 
Many thanks again.
Kim
Is there a local walker or even friend or neighbor that you trust to take your dogs out if you need to miss a pee-break walk? Is there a doggie daycare in the village? I see you live very near Bath, and Salisbury, and some really beautiful countryside that many travelers would love to explore. Someone travelling could potentially stay at your place and take day trips or hikes to some spectacular places if a dog walker could come just once a day on a few of the days they’d be there. Sitters aren’t looking for money, but they are looking for the freedom to travel, and being able to leave for 10 hours at a time a few days might make your sit more enticing.
Hi @KoS your pups and house look great. You could add something about your blind pup being easy to walk and care for despite being blind, if this is the case. You did well to respond to your previous sitter’s feedback to correct them as 2 x 1.5 hour walks a day would put off most sitters, which is not what you are saying is needed.
As sitters who rely on public transport or the HO letting us use a car, I would suggest you include details about this in your listing. Look at it through the eyes of a sitter. How will I get around without a car? Would the owner pick me up & drop me off at the train station? How far is it to walk from the sit to the nearest bus or train? Where is the closest grocery store, can I walk there and carry heavy groceries home or get a bus? How far away is the closest cafe or pub for dining out?
You mention some beautiful close by towns we have previously visited when we were sitting not too far away from Frome. It would be good if you could mention if they are easily accessible by public transport or if sitters need a car.
These are some of the things we look for in sit listings.
Hi Crookie,
Thanks for your very helpful input. Yes I tried to very tactfully correct my only review from my first sitters as I had told them the dogs weren’t walked that long. Right now they are only getting an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening as it’s too hot to walk too far.
I appreciate your comments on the car situation. I had thought that was something I would discuss with sitters when they applied as I didn’t want to make my post so long people were put off reading it.
I’ll be taking my car when I go away so can’t offer use of a car, but I didn’t have a car for the first 8 weeks after moving to this address and managed very well with local shops and buses. I would of course be happy to meet/collect and drop off sitters at the local train station when they arrive and leave, but hadn’t thought I needed to add that to my introduction page.
I’ll take a look at it again and try to make it clearer and hopefully more appealing. I think it’s a really nice and quite easy housesit - although I would think that of course wouldn’t I. :)))
Thanks again for your honest opinion, that’s exactly what I was hoping for by posting on here.
All the best.
Hi Marion,
Thank you for your suggestions. I’m about half an hour from Bath and an hour + from Salisbury, but there are lots of lovely places to visit much closer to Frome.
I am renting my present home so don’t have a support network of friends and neighbours I can call on to help out unfortunately.
I don’t want to put my dogs into doggie day care as my blind dog would find it really stressful being left in a strange environment, when he can’t see where he is and what’s going on around him.
We have only recently moved to the UK after living in Hong Kong for many years and I have found the boys although settled when I’m around, do get a bit stressed if left alone for too long. I am gradually increasing the time I leave them, now it’s up to 4-5 hours, but would feel it cruel to leave them for much longer than that at this stage.
I guess I’m hoping to find someone who loves dogs as much as I do and would enjoy spending time with them at home, as well as exploring locally.
Thank you again for your suggestions.
You’re ad looks great, but I would change your main place name. You are narrowing your audience by putting Frome, as not everyone knows it. We live in the North East of England, and we know it, it’s beautiful… but we’ve watched Pam Ayres & Penelope Kieth talk about it on TV and we’ve also been there… so we’re in the minority 
. I’m not sure if others in our area would know where it was unless they had been there, and definitely not if they were coming from overseas.
So personally I would change your main place name to Bath, that way you appeal to huuuuuge audience. How many people visit Bath as their main destination in comparison to Frome? Then in the location part of the generic text put that you are in From, and how far from Bath etc you are.
Also, I would remove the part about being there while you decide where to live, as some sitters may prefer places they could return to, which they could still do if you were 10 miles away. It’s kind of like a pet-sitter saying they don’t know whether they will still be doing it next year as part of their profile, it may have put owners off that would have preferred someone they could repeatedly rely on. But by all means when you are chit chatting and building rapour if it forms part of the conversation, just not as a first impression, when it’s a total stranger reading your profile.
Hope that helps, lovely pics by the way.
Frome and Bath are about 15 miles apart, so that would be very misleading.
My POV: Say something like X miles from Bath in your headline. That way, people know exactly where you are, without needing to recognize the name of your town. That’s how I ended up with a great sit outside of Cambridge. Obviously, I’d heard of Cambridge, but if the HO had just used their village name, I would’ve never even looked at it. There are way too many places that many sitters don’t have any idea of, name wise. It’s laborious to check each name and no one is going to do that.
It’s totally up to you, 15 miles is nothing. It’s what a lot of owners do when they live in a place that has a low population size or is smaller, where people won’t know where it is.
There’s plenty of owners on THS that do it. It’s not misleading when you place it as part of your text part. It just gets people clicking ‘into’ your ad and reading more, instead of the place name being unfamilar to them therefore not clicking through.
If we as sitters had to click into every ad just to see where a location was it would take us forever to go through them when there’s so many others to choose from that we instantly recognise the location of, that we either want to visit or don’t.
I disagree. Whilst it’s normal to use a post-town (UK) if you live in a village or hamlet, if you live in Town A it is misleading to put your location as City B.
Maggie8k’s suggestion is better, to offer proximity in the headline info.
Thank you Maggie8k, HappyDeb and Ketch for your input. I will amend my place name to make it clearer where I’m based. As Ketch commented Bath is about 15 miles (20-25 mins by car) so not on my doorstep but certainly near enough to visit.
I will also take your advice on removing my present temporary situation, as there’s every possibility I may end up staying in this area so revisits would certainly be a strong possibility.
Thank you again! 
This is the input I was hoping for from people who know what they’re looking for in a sit.
Thank you all again. 
If you take @ketch as an example, he is an owner in Salford, which has a population of over 250000 people. A lot of people in the UK know where Salford is, but also those 250000 all have families, so there’s a much higher chance of sitters wanting to visit a family in that area, just simply due to the numbers. So not only does it attract normal sitters, there’s a much higher chance of sitters with family in the area, and it covers a huuuuge area.
Also, put your mind in the sitters shoes. We as as sitters WANT to know where a location is quickly, you’re not misleading us, you are doing us a favour! Our first thought ISN’T one of seeing a cute pet and flying around the world to care for it, no, our first thought is built around location, so you are doing us a favour by pointing it out without us having to click to dig deeper (which some won’t), and then placing Frome within the text part helps us to clearly understand the location.
Hope that helps
I strongly disagree with changing the main location to Bath. There are a few threads where sitters show their frustration with this type of clickbait. This is just one, and there is a more recent one that I can’t find immediately: Home owner be honest about your actual location & expectations. 15 miles isn’t far, but it is misleading.
I do agree with the other suggestions to add “near Bath” very early in the main text or in the first few words of the headline.
@HappyDeb i disagree. As a sitter, I want to know if you are in Bath or near Bath. That’s why the proximity is important in the heading but very misleading when it’s the location listed. Any search will list the surrounding area but won’t mislead the sitter into thinking you’re in another location.