Owners: Steps in searching for sitters

Owner Questions, Advice & Chat
1

If you decide to invite sitters directly, here are some steps to streamline the process. This is based on searching on the website.

    1. Under Find a pet sitter, add your location in the search bar.
    1. Use the filter for Dates. You then don’t need to check their Availability calendar.
    1. Use the filter for Pets, to remove those that don’t match your needs.
    1. Don’t use the Experience filter, unless you insist on either of those requirements. Keep in mind that filters reduce the number of sitters.
    1. The sitters who are most likely to consider your sit are those who have 3 or more references Screen Shot 2022-06-30 at 5.00.37 PM
      or perhaps 1 review Screen Shot 2022-06-30 at 5.00.19 PM
    1. When someone matches #5, check their headline and the About section, to see if they mention details of any limited availability. Some may say, for example, Fully booked for 2022.
    1. If the sitter’s profile interests you, send them a short personalized message, inviting them to apply.

This may seem time-consuming, but if you are eager/anxious to get your sitter arranged, then the time spent is worthwhile. You may also connect with a sitter who can’t do your chosen dates but may favourite your listing. That will be to your advantage when you next post dates.

Francine,
Volunteer Forum Moderator :canada:

9 Likes
2

Hi @Snowbird
Can you tell me how to amend the heading of my profile as I’m going round and round in circles! I want to add ‘booked until March 2024’ so that hopefully owners will notice and not invite me before then

1 Like
3

We usually write “fully booked” at the beginning of our profile so this is the first thing that HOs read. But we still get invitations, often without a message or without mentioning our names. Not sure there is anything you can do, some people are just writing to dozens of sitters without reading their profiles.

2 Likes
4

Hi @Smiley To change your headline, on the website:

Click on Screen Shot 2022-07-04 at 8.33.43 AM (next to the Availability section)

Then Screen Shot 2022-07-04 at 8.33.57 AM

then scroll down past your photos and keep going until you get to

Screen Shot 2022-07-04 at 8.34.17 AM

make the change & then scroll down & click
Screen Shot 2022-07-04 at 8.34.25 AM

If you check and see that it looks like it didn’t update, it’s your computer displaying what’s stored. It will have updated.

I agree @Timmy that it’s no guarantee, but every bit helps at times. :sun_with_face:

2 Likes
5

Thanks @Snowbird for starting this topic, and for the instructions for updating your profile headline on a computer.

@Smiley if you want to change your headline using the app instead, here’s how you do that on an Android. I’m hoping someone else can chime in with instructions on Apple devices.

  • Click “Me” at the bottom right of the first screen shown when you open the app

  • Click “View & Edit Profile”

  • Click “Edit”. It’s in the top right corner

  • Click “Edit” next to “About you”

  • Scroll way down and update the “Profile headline” field. It’s below your pictures, intro and why you pet sit sections

  • Click the big green “Save all” button at the bottom of the screen

6

Even when I search with date parameters, it generates all the sitters near my area regardless of availability. So I have to scroll on each profile just to see their calendars. Is this an issue with Chrome browser or something else? Sorta hard to sift through 800+ sitters.

1 Like
7

@elcerritopups You may also narrow your search by specifying your pets. Not all sitters use the calendar function, so only dates where TrustedHousesitters automatically marks them for a TrustedHousesitters sit can be assured to be accurate. I don’t think choice of browser affects the results.

8

Thanks @snowbird. It’s just too bad since there seem to be ALOT of folks who don’t update their calendar in my area.

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9

Does anyone know what the actual search area is - for example, if I type in a specific town, over what distance from the specific place are sitters profiles displayed - 3 miles, 5 miles, 50 miles?

10

Can anyone from @TrustedHousesitters answer my query? (or maybe @Vanessa_A?)

1 Like
11

Hi @Andrew Vanessa is offline until later I will tag @Therese for when she is back online, to help you with this

12

Hi @Andrew
A good question. I have had confirmation from our tech team, that it is a 40km radius.

13

It’s the same as a sitter. The website/app is a bit archaic unfortunately.

14

I am very new here and I’m looking for some pointers. I posted my listing a few days ago and I’ve received no applicants and at one point 11 saves. Down to 9 now.

I approached one person with an invitation and it says that that sitter has read the invitation but they have not responded (at least that I can see and for some reason it took 3 days for me to see who had saved my listing).

Is this normal? Granted, my listing is for Portland Oregon in January. Is it too early to expect interest, is it the location? Did I do something strange with the listing and my profile?

Thank you for any insight you might share.

Tracy

15

Hi @Tracybird. It’s not too early to expect interest in your listing, but it’s not late enough to worry either. Some sitters are already booked out six months or more, while many are still focused on getting sits for the holidays. So you have time.

Thanks for putting a link to your listing in your forum profile. Maybe some of our members can have a look and offer tips on ways to fine tune it.

1 Like