Search filters. Do people see listings with no pets?

I recently listed my home but I have no pets. It has occurred to me that very few people will use the ‘no pet’ filter.

EDIT: After reading through comments and giving this more thought I added birds to my listing. This has resulted in me managing to attract some applications. So now my garden birds will be getting fed while I am away. :grinning:

If sitters only filter by dates, duration, or location then it’s going to show in their search results. BUT, if people use the filter option and say, for instance want to eliminate horses, or maybe reptiles, then unless they select no pets as an option, my listing will not show.
As a sitter, how do you usually filter your searches, and do you ever select ‘no pets’?
Are there any other owners on here who have a ‘no pets’ listing? If so, have you had difficulty attracting applications?
I’m thinking maybe I need to be very proactive and invite sitters. Any thoughts?

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@BunnyCat thanks. It’s helpful to know how people carry out their searches.

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Hi Jill
Your home looks lovely, we do not filter so your listing does show for us. However, I remember pointing out the filter anomaly a long time ago to THS. You can not include ‘NO PETS’ in a multiple filter choice - only as a single filter.

So, you can use the filter to search ‘NO PETS’ only or , as we do use no filters to search everything. You can also be selective and filter, for example ‘CATS’ and ‘DOGS’ but you can not include ‘NO PETS’ if you are being selective so filtering ‘CATS’ ‘DOGS’ and ‘NO PETS’ is not possible

Here is my post from June 2021

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@Colin, thanks. Thanks, that is a problem isn’t it. I’m now wondering if I wasted my money upgrading to a combined membership. I don’t even really need a sitter, I just thought it would be nice to let someone enjoy my home while I am away doing sits.
All I can do now is see what happens and I’ll know better what to do when my renewal is due.

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I do search for No Pets. Agree with @Colin. I would like to filter for Cats and No Pets.

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Hi Jill
Thus far I’ve done 42 housesits and only 2 of those were without pets.
I’ve done a search for United Kingdom and your first set of dates and 242 sits came up, so I’m not trawling through all those to see if yours pops up I’m afraid.
When I search I search for the area and the dates only.
Hope that helps and good luck with finding sitters.

@Smiley thank you. Hopefully there are lots of other sitters who search in a similar way.

We don’t filter by type of pet, so I would expect your sit would appear for us. Our filters are mainly date based as we can only travel in school holidays, or location based so we can check for local sits.

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Thanks @Debbie

If you are happy to have strangers in your house, you may find that home exchanging would suit you. There are several sites, and a few variations on options, some include “you don’t have to go to their house at the same time as they come to yours.”

@CatStaff thanks for the suggestion.

I don’t filter. I look at everything every day. For me it’s location, location, location.

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We sometimes filter by choosing everything except horses. I guess that might mean we miss any “no pets” sits?

@Kelownagurl, yes, that’s the problem. No Pets is automatically excluded from all searches as soon as you select any pet. It can only be searched for as a stand alone search.

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I shouldn’t worry too much as it looks as if most people don’t use the search filters….somebody might be glad of a break from pets if they’re full time sitters particularly.

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I have saved searches and am interested in anywhere in the world. As this could throw up thousands, I do use filters for certain pets in order to shorten the number to view. I would be happy to look after a house with no pets but it looks like I would miss your listing

It’s a problem for sure.

Yes I was thinking about this previously and feel that ‘any pets’ should be replaced by ‘All’ to catch all housesits. I have noticed that some pet sits accidentally end up under ‘no pets’.

I’m actually thinking I might add in birds, then it would come up in more search results. I feed wild birds and would like this to continue if possible when I am away.

I have birds in my filter :parrot: