When is the best time to contact sitters please? I had a sitter booked for this coming Dec-Feb but they had to drop out for medical reasons. I have asked dozens of couples who have declined saying it’s too far in advance yet or can’t do those dates (I am checking their availability calender before asking!). Yet I have a lovely couple booked for August 2024! Totally confused so any feed back appreciated please. 
Any time is a good time to post, to allow sitters to apply for your sit. Especially if your Dec-Feb sit isn’t in a warm place like Florida for the winter. 
Some sitters like to book well in advance, especially if international travel is involved. Others like to stay flexible and only book a few days or weeks in advance, especially if they are arriving by car or come with their own accommodations, like a camper van, which allows them to stay extra days in a place they like.
I’ve booked places to sit anywhere from two days in advance to nine months.
In this moment I’m currently looking every day for sits around two cities in August 2023 as I’ve booked a ticket to visit my family for a month but would like to break up the visit a little bit to have some time away from them and to see a new area.
As a first step just post it for Dec-Feb, lots of sitters like to plan their travel early to get a good price if they are coming from a distance. Maybe you don’t even need to contact people in that case, the interested ones will find you. 
Thank you that’s very re assuring. Good luck with your trip and hope you find a lovely sit in August.
There are no rules but here are patterns I’ve noticed as a sitter and as a homeowner on this site.
- Long(er) sits: 30+ days - These are often popular with full-time sitters that book and plan in advance so I usually post a couple of months ahead if possible.
- Short(ish) sits - For popular locations, these seem to be pplied for regardless, but I’ve found super short sits like weekend ones are not usually posted and applied for far in advance.
- Holidays - Christmas sits can be hard to fill really close to the date of the sit.
- Cultural nuances - I’ve observed very broadly that some cultures tend to post far in advance and others not. For example, UK sits are often advance posts, while Italy posts are not.
Just my observations after 5 years, 25 sits as a sitter and 6 sits as a Homeowner.
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Like someone mentioned above, there really aren’t any set rules for when to post, and sitters vary greatly in their selection process, and how far ahead they book.
Generally speaking, I think assignments in popular tourist-like locations, and sits that are longer–a few weeks to a month–would get more applicants further out than shorter sits.
think this is especially true for the ‘popular’ locations because it seems that many sitters don’t sit more than a few weeks out of the year, and they may plan their sits much like a person would plan their vacations, which is often many months ahead.
As a full time sitter, I probably wouldn’t book a shorter sit (which for me is less than a month or close to it)too far in advance unless I already had my schedule planned up until around that point, and it either filled a gap we still had open, or was in the same general area of the sit that would be just prior to it, and we wanted to remain in that region for longer.
If we weren’t booked that far ahead yet, and still had a lot of open time to fill, committing to a shorter sit that far ahead, and then having to plan around it,would make booking other assignments more challenging since we would have a narrower range of dates, sit length and locations to work with. This actually applies to booking a longer sit farther ahead as well if there is still a lot of open time before it.
From what I have seen here, many sitters plan their schedule up to a year out or more, and you never know who is looking to go where and when, so it is always a possibility a HO posting a sit of any length, pretty far ahead, could easily find someone.
For example, I am from NJ originally, and my husband and I look to get sits there (which barring ones near NYC or the beach, generally aren’t too in demand) for extended periods to visit with friends and family. Once we determine when we are likely to head back there, we look to fill that time with sits of all lengths. And we often book many of them, even shorter ones, several months out because we know we want to be there for at least a few months.
Regardless of sit length, but especially for shorter sits, if you are posting several months out or more, and you aren’t getting a lot of applicants, this is most likely the main factor.
Hi all, we’re newbies to THS. I’ve listed our home for Xmas 2023 for a 2 week period, but had no response. We’ve got 2 large dogs in a beautiful farmhouse in an idyllic village in Hertfordshire. As it’s months away yet, should I be worrying about the lack of response? Is Xmas a difficult time to get Sitters, particularly for a 2 week period?
Also, should I be approaching potential Sitters directly?
As it’s our first time, I need advice on whether I should just be patient, but then I’m worrying about having to get someone booked in and not leave until the last minute and panic!!
I’d appreciate peoples opinion on our listing if you get a chance to take a look.
Thank you.
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Hello @GreatDaneMum and welcome to TrustedHousesitters and to the Community Forum 
For reference you can also add your TrustedHousesitters profile on to your profile on here by following the attached link, should you wish. This will then enable others on here to offer you helpful advice and feedback and of course will also give your listing extra exposure!
To answer your question, you still have plenty of time to find suitable sitter/s as your sit is still 8 months away so you certainly have nothing to worry about. Some sitters like to make sure they are booked up in advance and other sitters leave it till much closer to the dates to apply so it really varies. You should not have any problems finding sitters for 2 weeks, this is not considered a long sit by any means.
You can of course also reach out to potential sitters, both locally and overseas as there is nothing quite like receiving a personal invitation to sit. Always be sure to check their calendars before sending them an invite, just to be sure that they are not already booked!
Once you have added your TrustedHousesitters profile on to your profile on here it will give other members the opportunity to chip in and also give you their advice. If you are unsure how to do this or if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask, we are all more than happy to help. 
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@GreatDaneMum I just wanted to follow up on @Samox24 fantastic welcome and say that it is lovely to have you here and here are some previously discussed topics that might be helpful to read.
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Your listing is lovely @GreatDaneMum as are your pets. I remember visiting your village and loving it! Quintessentially English and great for Christmas. Only sorry we don’t sit in the UK so can’t help. The only thing I would recommend is removing the “sitter needs a car” tab if the dogs can do without and a bus goes from the village for London trips etc. It puts a lot of people off sits that are otherwise perfect. Is that possible and if not, could you offer sitters use of your car? Best of luck. Lots of time yet 