Hello,
So far I have not received any applications from sitters. I know it can be a challenge to find a sitter around Christmas time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Edited to add listing to forum profile.
I’m not a sitter but a HO (house owner) like you. Two points to add to your Responsibilities section:
- For how long can Sugar be left alone?
- How long are her walks? (Any additional toilet breaks?)
I know you’ve most likely answered both of these questions by selecting and ticking boxes when you wrote your listing, but unfortunately that info is not visible for sitters.
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Hi there, I took a look for you. Overall, your sit looks positive & inviting, but isn’t relevant to the winter & Christmas season and misses some key details. Here’s some ideas to consider:
1: Use a title that’s 6 words or less - after about 6 words, titles cut off in a listing’s preview, so try to use key words in a short sentence (e.g: Christmas near San Fran with a Lovebug dog!)
2 : Your intro is 1 sentence, which doesn’t serve your listing at all. Your introduction should hook readers and tell them why they should engage with your listing and why they should sit for you over Christmas. It should also tell sitters about about yourself and your dog, who you’re looking to sit for you (singles, couples, people with or without other pets, etc - you have mentioned this in the responsibilities but it needs to be mentioned from the start), and when you expect sitters to arrive and depart.
3: Home and location section:
You have great info about your home, but not much about the local area. What can somebody do in your area and why should they spend Christmas there? Will your home be nicely decorated for Christmas? Can you collect sitters from the nearest airport or station? Is there food & grocery delivery available? Christmas sits are very competitive and most people already booked their Christmas sits months ago, so you’ll need to really sell your sit and have strong reasons why somebody should spend Christmas at your place. Also, if public transport is infrequent and not very realistic for a sitter, then why list it as accessible via public transport? It’s misleading - simply telling sitters that they’ll need a car is more transparent, otherwise you give sitters who only use public transport false hope.
4: Responsibilities section. Tell sitters:
- How long can Sugar be left?
- How long are walks?
- What is Sugar’s personality?
- Can sitters bring their own pets on this sit?
- Does your area get snow? Are there responsibilities for snow & property maintenance at this time?
- If there is heavy snow or bad weather conditions, should sitters still take Sugar for walks, or can indoor games be played?
- You mention Sugar has her own bed if sitters don’t want her in their bed, but is this still expected to be placed in the sitter’s room? Note that many sitters don’t appreciate pets having to sleep in the room with them, as they may make noise during the night and is a deal-breaker for many.
5: Your profile picture is currently your lounge room - try changing it to a nice image of your dog and add some pictures of your home in the winter season to make it more relevant to your dates. Do you have images of your Christmas tree you can add? You also only show a picture of a single bed for sitters, but mention that you’d be open to couples sitting for you - where would a couple sleep? Sitters want to see pictures.
Hope that helps, and here’s a blog that might also be helpful:
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Great advice and thoughtful responses. Many thanks! 
Nagy26, thanks so much for your input! I will make those changes.
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CatsAndDog, thanks so much for your input! I will make those changes.