With THS, you’re supposed to be living in their home, staying overnight and such. How would someone juggle that? THS doesn’t allow overlapping sits, for instance.
If you’re saying you could hire someone to drop in, that’s not equivalent.
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Oh yeah I was referring to paid sitters. THS sitters are travelling and would need some firm dates for sure.
My comment was because you mentioned that paid sitters may be otherwise booked if needed or have to turn away another client. In my experience especially with emergencies they juggle things to accommodate an existing, established paying client.
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I pay someone to sit my dog. I wouldn’t want them suddenly juggling him if they accepted another job.
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If it were an emergency, you might?
And I know my paid sitter(s) well enough to know they would still provide great care for my pets. They would get help themselves but they would manage.
The thing with paid sitters is once you send a client away somewhere else - they may not come back. So they are very motivated to keep existing clients.
In fact most of the best local paid sitters rarely take new clients. They have enough work from the ones they have established relationships with, and only add new clients selectively (easy drop ins, or an opening because an existing client had a change of circumstance - ie move or death of the pet). And the new clients they take are referrals, not advertised on Rover or the like.
I don’t know any pet sitters who care for one household at a time. For dog households, we usually get paid for three or four visits a day, and for cats it’s usually one or two. We are not paid for hours on end to hang out with the pets. When I was in my peak working years, I would often have 8 or more dog walks midday while clients were at work, plus a few visits for pets whose owners were away. Sometimes I get paid to stay overnight, but it is never with the expectation that I will have only that one house.
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True for me as a professional sitter. I have been considering putting up my business card at local stores and vets’ offices again, which I haven’t done for many years, because I have lost more clients than gained in recent years due to people moving and pets dying.
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@Jay, if a tactic doesn’t work then try another tactic. Blind invitations from hosts rarely result in confirmed sits - as others have noted. Encourage focus time on refreshing your listing; incorporating helpful feedback from fellow Forum members; and reflecting on dates. Few volunteer housesitters would consider a sit of unknown three of twelve days - if that’s the case, and condolences, then suggest consider a paid local housesitter for this situation.
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You need to update your first paragraph about the flexible dates, as a matter of urgency. Sitters won’t apply for a sit without knowing the exact dates, I’m guessing this is why you’re not getting any interest. As for the calendar, ignore it, it’s useless and has never worked.
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Yes, THS sitters are one household/per at a time as they are also touring.
No paid sitter could exist doing only one pet at a time.
Even overnight paid sitters I’ve used head out during the day to walk and/or drop in on other clients (which is fine as long as it’s clear when they need to return for full time overnight duties).
Also (I’m sure you’ve thought of this but just in case) make sure to ask your current clients for referrals, and also leave cards (or link up on social media) with the top local trainers. They also refer a lot of clients (many trainers board a few client dogs at their homes but only have so much space…). I usually ask our trainers first as they know our dog the best!!
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The majority of members (both sitters and hosts ) agree with you about this @Jay and have been asking for this for a long time .
I have in the past kept my calendar updated - the dates in green are the ones where a sitter has indicated that they are available. I could indicate that I am available BUT I can’t state which location I am looking for a sit or the sit duration . So it’s not helpful at all .
For example if I am available in April and looking for a 1 month sit in Australia - and available in September looking for a 1 week sit in Cotswolds U.K. and available Dec looking for a two week sit in Spain. All a host can see is that I am available but not which location I am looking for or how long I can sit for .
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The struck through dates are when a sitter has a THS sit confirmed so they are not available.
There has been an error with the App where a sitter can’t edit their availability calendar - I reported it to THS last year it’s still not been fixed .
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They can’t know about other preferences either. For example, I don’t mention in my profile my preferences regarding number or type of pets, number of hours I would need to be away at a time, etc. Regarding those, I go on a one by one basis. I may be willing to look after 5 dogs (I have) if they are small and well behaved but I wouldn’t even look after two large dogs. I don’t mind looking after a tortoise but I don’t want snakes…
So, yes, the calendar is useless for an endless list of reasons and is not worth putting any effort in fixing because it would take far more resources than THS seems to have or be willing to spend. They are not willing to even just change things that would only take a change in typing or adding or deleting something.
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The calendar is a useless feature.
Do you seriously expect every person who has a sitter account here to add in every date that they have to work, have a social function to attend in their home town, a family birthday meal to attend, a hospital appt?
The system here is you list your sit, with dates, and let sitters who want to travel to that area, on those dates, with those animals, apply to sit for you. simple.
Also, this sentence is totally irrelevant, no one chooses a sit based on the HOME OWNERS Hobbies.
“We enjoy our home but also enjoy travelling. Jeff’s interests are cooking, reading, music, learning to play the saxophone and watching crime dramas on tv. Janet enjoys cooking, reading and knitting, knitting and more knitting (and teaching Jeff to knit!)”
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It seems that is not the case. OP seemed to be surprised by that assumption and wasn’t aware that their listing is not fully updated.
Which is another thing which keeps some people from applying.
@Jay, it’s really worth
every time you advertise new dates. When I see inconsistencies in the listings, I don’t usually apply. I am more interested in clear, detailed listings that align with my preferences, rather than getting engaged in communication with people that might or might not be good at clear communication.
I don’t know if this will do the trick, but improving listings certainly helps.
Good luck.
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If it is boardgames, art collection or lego, it does make the sit more attractive to me. For me a host listing their hobbies is something I might relate to, and something that helps me gauge how they are as a person. It is not necessary, and it is far more necessary to have facts about dates, home and pets, but I dont thinks it is a bad way to fill the “about us…” section of the listing. I have a pet peeve about listings where the “about us…” just lists things about the home and pets - and then repeats that in the corresponding areas.
I myself struggle at what to write in the “introduction”, so I understand that some hosts go trough same struggle. For me, telling about hobbies (and especially in the listing of OP) comes across as warmth and down to earth. Its not like they are writing excessively about that either.
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Exactly. Plus I have my own kitty to feed and spend time with.
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I don’t think the HO hobbies are irrelevant. We state what we like to do so the sitter gets a feel for us and lets them know something about us. We don’t go into extreme detail. When we look at sitter’s application, we look to see the type of person they are also. It’s not just about the pets, it’s a match for both sides. We don’t do blind handovers and we really look forward to meeting people and getting to know them who are in our home looking after our pet.
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That you all for your help and advice. As a result I realised that I had not deleted the first introductory paragraph on the listings which was from our previous sit in January. This is what caused the confusion.
I also amended other things that were pointed out. Thank you all so much.
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