I often find myself searching for a sit around a particular set of dates and in a particular area or town, but find the search feature inadequate. Sometimes I think HOs would also find it useful to be able to see Sitters seeking a sit so they could know in advance when there are Sitters looking for somewhere and be able to plan their trips accordingly.
I have recently had half a dozen HOs message me and I’ve had to decline.
What do you think?
I think that could be helpful in certain circumstances, but ultimately the most efficient way of connecting sitters and hosts is for the latter to post their listing and have interested people apply. And because that is probably the most efficient way–even if the search feature could use some tweaking– adding more features to connect both parties beyond the listing itself is probably not a priority.
Another issue is that while not always the case, most sitters would probably use this sort of feature to advertise themselves for more popular destinations, and while hosts in such areas may like the idea of still being able to search sitters, they really don’t need to as their listing will garner plenty of interest.
I agree. The site has a very poor Geography feature. You can enter even a capital city, and it will list towns and villages 100 mile away. Fine if the sitters know the lay of the land, absolutely useless if they don’t.
Yeh, I really struggle to find sits in places I’d like to go… and it’s impossible to search for places in Scotland!
Instead of hosts just posting provisional dates on the off-chance someone might be interested, sitters should be able to post approximate/definite date ranges and areas so hosts can see our availability. I think this would improve HO success.
I think you may be missing my point. Hosts may be more successful in finding a match if Sitters were able to post availability. At the moment this “mutually beneficial” arrangement has an inadequate and skewed search feature.
There is a Sitter calendar, but unfortunately it’s not fit for this purpose. It’s skewed toward noting when sitters are “busy/booked” vs listing when we’re available to sit, so POs think if you’re not blocked off, you’re looking for a sit.
I get tons of invites & have to explain that just because a date isn’t blocked doesn’t mean I’m able or willing to sit those dates; I have a home of my own I like to be at, as well. 
Exactly… the search function is flawed and skewed in a way that serves neither Sitters nor hosts.
What I think is that this has been discussed a lot before on the forum and is unlikely to happen.
If that is the case then THS is not listening to what Sitters want and need. People will start drifting away. Not a great business decision.
THS listen? That would make a change 
