I know people have their own preferences on whether they will even consider rural sits (especially in the U.S.). This is more for those who do them: what do you typically look for?
What’s your “sweet spot” for length of sits? Do you prefer only specific seasons to travel? Are you the type who knows where you’re going and when and looks for sits based on that, or do you build around what’s available? How far do you look out for dates? Are there other things you look for?
I sit in the UK and I like rural sits. I want to be able to take the dog on walks straight from the house, I like the peace and quiet of the countryside and if there’s a local pub for an occasional drink or meal, even better. I look for biggish houses with large gardens, or a smaller house/cottage with character. My own house is quite big and with a large garden so I don’t want to swap that for anything that hasn’t got real appeal. This is a hobby, not a way of life, for me so I can afford to be selective. I aim to visit parts of the country that I don’t know well, or haven’t been to for many years. Sit length is typically a week. I’ve only been doing it for 18 months and was keen to get on the review ladder so I initially applied for quite a lot of sits, some several months in advance. I did the same earlier this year before my renewal was due because of the booking fee. I have no sits scheduled after next month and am not currently thinking of applying for any - but always scrolling!!
We do rural sits with cats and chickens (no dogs though), currently in a specific region. I took a look at your listing and it looks lovely.
You might add what the protocol for the chickens in the morning and evening. Do they need to be put to bed at night? Do they have an automatic gate? Or are there not really any predators so no need to put them to bed? When I look at chicken sits, I’m looking for everything to be automated except food/water and egg collecting.
Your sit is more than the average number of pets and requires a car, so that restricts your sitter pool. When you get a few reviews, it will likely get a bit easier.
I would add info about the driving distance to the airport, a grocery store, and to a restaurant. Sitters are calculating how long to get there and how long daily routines will take. Where we are currently is 30 minutes each way to the grocery store, which we should have factored in. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
For us, a rural sit that requires a big commute would need to be at least a few weeks long to make it worth the time and gasoline costs. However, someone in your area might love a weekend in the country.
We are doing full-time sitting with some Airbnbs, and book longer sits a few months out, and then fill gaps with shorter sits a few weeks out. For example, we are looking now for a sit the same dates as your October sit, but it has to be somewhere on the drive between the sit before and the sit after, so the location is very specific.
Hope this helps!
My husband and I love doing rural sits and when in the US we have our own car so no problems transportation-wise as far as getting there or getting around.
We enjoy doing longer sits but we do plenty of shorter ones as well depending on our schedule and where we will be traveling at that time. There are sitters of all kinds who have all different sorts of preferences for sit length,etc…
While many might want a longer sit in a rural area if coming from a distance, there are probably plenty of people closer by who would be happy to do a shorter sit and might even prefer it–somewhere like the Adirondacks would probably have that kind of appeal to the latter group. It is not like it is truly in the middle of nowhere, and for many people, it would not be some super long drive. I am from NJ and have done sits in the Adirondacks before and it is lovely.
Our last really rural sit was in central California for the whole month of July and we loved it–though the weather was very hot and normally we would not have taken a sit during that time of year here but we could tell it was going to be a very special opportunity.
I looked at your listing and I think you included a lot of helpful detail for people to know upfront such as having good internet, the possibility of using the car, things that are nearby,etc…
Your sit seems pretty straightforward–rural properties can vary in how much responsibility there may be so that would be a plus as well for many people. I personally don’t mind having some more involved tasks, but some people prefer not to have to do lots of stuff around the property.
Like someone else said, some more info about the chicken’s routine can be helpful. For example, if the sitters needs to lock them in some sort of enclosed space every day by sunset, some sitters might not want to be tied to the home every evening, while some might not mind. I am in the latter camp as we typically don’t do much at night, especially in a rural area. We had one sit where we were required to do this and it didn’t bother us.
Your sit looks really nice and just as an FYI, many sitters have no issue sitting for first-time hosts so don’t worry too much about that. I have been sitting for 12 years and I have zero reservations about this and do so regularly.
I’d love any rural sit that has lots of hiking and great for observing wildlife. I can only handle urban sits for 7-10 days.
We enjoy rural sits, especially those with great views or a pretty garden. We also like to be able to walk dogs directly from the house, although we also like to take them on outings.
Sit length tens to be based around our availability (I work in a school and my sons are at school / college). Our preference would probably be a minimum of a week, ideally 2 weeks or more. However we have also enjoyed short localish sits for a change of scenery.
We live in the UK and have done rural sits in the UK and France, driving our own car.
I prefer rural sits and the longer the better. It is always useful if there is a village shop close by though.
Rural has a subjective definition. Some of our housesits have required a walk to transit. Some listings are off-grid in the mountains!
That said, we have completed a bunch of sits with 4-6 week duration. Unless it was a perfect filler sit then we would not consider a short duration rural sit - simply too much effort.
For rural sits, from experience, unless there was compelling reason then we would require that pet parent provide vehicle as part of trade. We would also likely focus on how long pet(s) can be left unattended - as inherently longer time to visit supermarket, etc.
@GotYourBack that’s a really good point about the definition of rural being subjective.
For mine, I have it under pet care responsibilities. Does it not show up?