I am interested in knowing how many sitters there are in the THS versus how many sit requests. Lately I have not been getting as many applications and most of the applications are very poorly written.
Weâd love to know that too @shayeandcelia but very doubtful THS will share that info with any of us #topsecret 
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If we told you weâd have to kill you
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The number of sitters total appears to be way more than the amount of sit requests available at any given moment. If you search for sitters in the US or UK for example, each area always shows 10,000. I imagine it is probably more than that but perhaps that is the max number that displays.
Most sitters only sit part time, and even with such a huge membership, the chances of large numbers of people being available for the exact dates, and wanting or needing to be in that particular location is probably still pretty small. I remember seeing a post on the forum awhile back where one of the moderators mentioned the average sitter does 30 days a year. I would have guessed much more.
I occasionally look at sitter profiles out of curiosity and one thing I notice is that many only have a handful of reviews with the last one being quite some time agoâoften a couple of years ago or more. Obviously they are keeping their membership active since they are showing up in search results, but it seems that many of these people have not been using the site for years.
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Thankyou posters for your insights.
I guess one of my bums on the applicants is the complete lack of a write up. One sentence does not make an application, which is what I have been getting. This makes it seem like there are few qualified candidates.
In the app I clicked search
Then there is this landing page
Then I clicked sitters under the search
And got a total of 81 (I counted) but all were in NH or Mass.
Is this narrow view is searching for sitters new to your own area?
Donât take this the wrong way, but maybe your profile has changed and thatâs why you arenât getting the type of sitters you need?
I know you have had great reviews in the past, so I know your place and animals are good, so itâs just a thought, but perhaps your profile was different in the past if that is the type of application you are now receiving?
The reason I say that is because I had a glance and your âresponsibilitiesâ part starts off with a very negative employee type of tone, shame to treat all sitters like that. You kick it off with 4 negatives, none of which apply to our sort of character, but all of which put a negative slant on things when I view your profile. We are a very positive minded couple, and I am in a positive frame of mind when I look for sits⌠and that changed to negative as I started reading the responsibilities section.
Pet care is paramount !! - It is for us also, it is of the highest importance.
Non Smoker household ! - We donât smoke.
You must be vaccinated to come on our property. - We are.
Please do not bring YOUR pets to our household. - We are not.
4 negatives that donât apply our characters, along with âmonitor and verifyâ and âper the posted scheduleâ etc. You go from sounding approachable and friendly, to sounding very serious, business-like, and non-approachable.
I understand those things are really important to you, but why not put those things at the end, instead of at the start of that section. Itâs just that could be why youâre receiving lack-lustre applicants. You may be putting off positive minded, house-savvy, pet loving, sensible sitters.
It just made me think that perhaps parts of your profile used to be written in a slightly different way in the past, and you had changed it to get rid of the sitters you didnât want, instead of focusing on the ones you were trying to attract in the first place.
I hope you take this in the way I intended, because your place and pets seem great, and by your reviews, so do you⌠but most sitters donât read the reviews until AFTER they have read your requirements. 
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Look for smaller areas. I had made a table of where sitters are:
Youâre also getting one line applications because of the 5 applicant rule- so sitters will submit something/anything to get in before it closes. You could always try responding with something like âthanks for applying. We understand folks apply quickly due to the applicant limit, so weâd love to hear more from you about your experience and if you have any initial questions for us prior to proceeding further with setting up calls for applicants.â
Then see who responds to that and Iâll bet that will give you a better feel for them.
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Agree here- this feels like rules being yelled at sitters a little.
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Agree. Additionally, there are no photos of the inside of the house (other than in the background of some cat shots). Finally, the reference to the HO coming back and forth during the sit will deter many people.
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As a sitter, the tone of your listing just makes me go Yikes!
The use of capitals and exclamation points makes you sound aggressive. And I am sure youâre lovely! I understand you had a bad experience. But the listing is like shouting during a job interview because your last boss was no good!
So to stand a better chance of getting decent sitters, I would change this text:
âPet care is paramount !!
Non Smoker household !
You must be vaccinated to come on our property.
Please do not bring YOUR pets to our household.â
to:
We would like a responsible, non-smoking pet sitter to take care of our pets.
It is important to us that sitters are vaccinated.
Please do not bring your pets to our household.
Good luck!
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Yes to all of the comments on why you may not be getting the quality of sitters youâd like @shayeandcelia - change the tone of the listing, make it sound as if youâd appreciate rather than require a sitter, add pics of where they will sleep, bathe and live, tell them you wonât be coming back and forward during the sit (thatâs a third party Ts & Cs violation) and note that exclamation marks count as shouting in copy and there are an awful lot of them! All those tweaks will surely help along with your great reviews and youâll be off. #balancedrelationship
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Something to consider: Even if there were plenty of sitters, most good ones still wouldnât need to apply for listings that arenât especially appealing. Thatâs because most sitters arenât desperate and can do without sitting, since itâs only one of various ways of traveling and most sitters have homes of their own that they can stay in.
Your goal as a host is to offer an appealing enough listing that you attract good sitters. Thatâs because THS offers a match-making platform, not a guarantee of good sitters who volunteer.
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Thanks all for your inputs. I guess my write up reflects a long career in engineering where requirements are set at the beginning. I will change my write up to be a bit soft at the beginning but will keep my requirements. My statement about not bringing pets to my house apparently is not read. I have had several applicants who want to bring their dogs. I immediately decline them .
For the one liners I will try writing back to them and see if they can supplement their application.
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When I was new 2 months ago I donât think I understood how the application system worked, in my mind I thought a few sentences would show my interest, that the HO would then look at our detailed profile, and if interested weâd open up a more detailed conversation which might lead to a video chat. I quickly learnt by reading the forum threads that this isnât how it worked at all- so fortunately all of my applications have been reasonable well crafted 3-5 paragraphs and almost all have been successful in leading to a sit. But I wonder if you replied to the one sentence brigade with an invitation to send a full detailed application whether this would lead to more sitters responding how you would like them to. You could write this on your listing tooâŚ
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We were sitters before we were home owners, looking for sitters. As a sitter, I always wrote a good, personalised application of 3-5 paragraphs, and we got most sits we applied for. Imagine my surprise when I received applications from sitters with a one liner saying: âHi, please see my profile!â Uhm, no! Tell me more first before I go digging.
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