Hello,
Does anyone here reach out to home owners letting them know they’re available in their area prior to their visit?
Ie we will be visiting BC in Canada and would love to find a house sit during our days there but we don’t see any dates up for the days we are there but plenty before and after.
Ty for any insight 
It’s not possible for an HS to contact an HO. Only the other way around. So the only way to contact them is if they’ve listed an alternative contact method in their profile, you do an internet stalk, or you message them when they have live dates then say you’re interested in being considered for future ones as well.
Yep, just as @bakindoki said, it is only possible to message a HO if you are applying for their sit. You can, however, save searches and be notified if anything matching your dates and location comes up. You could also try Facebook groups or other pet-sitting sites too, or other programs like workaway or couch surfing if you’re into that - hopefully something works out for you!
You can also “favorite” listings and owners with certain levels of membership will be notified that you did so.
You could make the first line of your profile read, “Actively seeking an opportunity in X for the month of Y” or something similar.
Another idea is to “move”, to set your location to the area that you want to find sits. Then owners may send you invitations. Do this together with writing your plans in your profile.
Great idea on the live date messaging. I did this and 
I hope it works! Ty
Tysm for this suggestion, do you mean to out my current city as theirs?
O cool! I didn’t think of FB groups or other sites. Ty
Edited to meet posting terms
I meant that if you want to be invited to sits in British Columbia that you could edit your profile so that you are listed as living in for example Vancouver.
That gets you then in this list:
And HOs in the area might send you an invitation.
Ahhhh got it! Tysm 
!