Hello - I am looking for a pet sitter local to my area in Portland, Oregon. Only had one reply and the sitter had no car, even though I was specific that I live in the country and there is no transportation. So I’ve been contacting pet sitters in my city and have found more than half show their calendar wide open for the month of May and yet they reply that they are booked, or are out of the country, or on vacation, or taking a break. It’s so frustrating to wait for replies (two sitters never even acknowledged my inquiry!!) The only calendars I see are white, with either dates crossed off or the calendar seems wide open! It would be nice if sitters would keep their calendars current. IS THERE A WAY TO RE-ISSUE MY POST TO GET MORE ATTENTION OR AM I NOW RELEGATED TO NO ONE BEING INTERESTED?
No need for yelling.
Very few sitters are updating their calendars. Crossed-out dates are generated by the system, on dates when one has a confirmed sit.
On open dates I may be available for a sit in Paris, but not locally. I am fine in my own place, why would I want to sit in the next suburb?
Anyway, what are open dates? THS does not give a key or legend. When sitters look at their own profile, it is often a version without the calendar. If you want to yell, yell at the crummy programming of this 100-million company.
Yes, I think you can take down your dates and relist and it will show as new.
Hi @NorthwestCatMom welcome to the forum! If you could please link your listing to you profile here, then forum members can take a look and help you make your listing really good to attract better attention.
Also, you mentioned that your listing states it’s in the countryside with no public transport. If you want to avoid more sitters asking about borrowing your car, you should also mention in your listing that this is not possible.
(How to add a listing or profile link to your FORUM profile)
I did mention in my posting that there was no public transport and that NO, my car was not available. She said she figured she would use UBER. Oh well. Thank you tho, for your reply.
Sorry, not yelling. Just frustrated. I did contact the company via chat to ask them to ask sitters to keep calendars up to date, and then was referred to the green and blue calendars (which I can’t see) - also, there are many sitters in my area that sit locally, trading an apartment for a big, beautiful home in the country. And I don’t expect anyone to take care of my pets for free.
I’m surprised by your last comment because THS is based on the exchange model: while HO’s welcome the HS’s in their home for free and the sitters dedicate part of their day taking care of the pets and house, no cash is actually exchanged.
Few sitters bother updating their calendars. That’s because most sit only sporadically, so when they want to sit, they search the listings.
Plus, many people don’t want to sit locally. For that, they could do paid sitting, which THS terms don’t allow. For most THS sitters, travel is part of the appeal, why we barter on THS.
As frustrated as you might be, you’ll get better help here if you don’t yell. All caps = yelling online. If you’re super urgent and want sitters on demand, paid sites are a better bet.
I can understand your frustration @NorthwestCatMom. The default for a sitter’s calendar is white which technically means unavailable but as other members have mentioned, not all sitters keep it updated.
If you want to continue to try inviting local sitters, look for any with the green/blue like this. Good luck!
I do not update my calendar.
Bingo.
Full time or frequent sitters may use the calendar, as it may serve them with a useful purpose.
You may put time into looking at profiles and sending messages but sitters are not obligated to reply to unsolicited invites.
It may be better to send invites with the understanding that the process has very little return. That way you may be less frustrated.
Most sitters don’t do local sits as the whole point of THS, from a sitters point of view, is to travel to different places. The calendar is very awkward to work out, so not many bother with it. If you make a few small alterations to your listing, it should give it a boost.
Sorry about the caps! Not yelling. Thank you for your thoughts.
Wow that’s interesting. I’ve not seen a single sitter in my city who has a calendar like that. All are white, some with no dates marked out, others have dates crossed out which I thought meant they were booked or not available.
Gosh, I have this all wrong. At the top of my Dashboard, there are two options: Find a Sitter and Find a House Sit! I have gone through dozens of listings in my city, and marked “favorites” who specifically had experience with cats and had very good reviews - and most of the reviews were local, so I know they sit within my area. I thought either a sitter happened to see your post or you, the homeowner, could invite a sitter (that’s what it says when I click to contact a sitter.) That seems to indicate you’re inviting/showing interest and in return, the person contacted would acknowledge the invitation and say yes or no or maybe…let’s talk.
There’s no way we are completing the calendar in it’s current form, it’s completely flawed and incredibly misleading, and different appearance on the app to a laptop. That’s why sitters choose not to use it.
If I were you I’d create a fresh post asking for feedback on your listing on here. That way we can see if there may be something we can see that may be putting sitters off.
We have never needed a car for any of our sits so far. So there be another reason why sitters aren’t applying.
It is maybe what THS tries to suggest, that homeowners can tap into an enormous supply of local sitters when they become members.
But it does not work that way. I am not looking to spend a week in a nicer home. Most of the places I have staid in were quite similar in standard to my own place here. Some were “worse”: drafty old (possibly medieval) dwellings in wine regions of France. Or I was in for example a recent apartment in Bologna or Basel or close to the beach on the Costa del Sol instead of in my town here in Sweden.
I did a similar thing as you with my first listing over a year ago and an experienced thsitter I invited educated me on how the process really works, much like this thread…
It is like @pietkuip says,
Invites can work though but I think it is more “rare” when they do.
I just accepted a local sit from a host invite🙃
But I was looking already in the New England area and although it is not my initial interest of Cape Cod, the host and pets have lots of great reviews and after a video chat with the host, I accepted since it seemed a really neat connection.
How soon do you need a sitter? It may not be time to worry yet.
If you search the forum you will find tons of information and advice on attracting a sitter with your listing. A few things off the top of my head:
- Try inviting new sitters who might be willing to take a local assignment in order to build up reviews. Most experienced sitters are looking to travel.
- If you live in a good location and your dates are desirable (1-2 days overnight is a loss for most sitters) you will have better luck. Since you require your sitter to incur the cost of a car, that is already a strike.
- The calendar is hard to use and not worth the effort IMO. In my case, my availability isn’t just whether I have another sit scheduled. Am I visiting family? Am I already on an extended sit in Europe? Am I working and need to be in a particular place for that? Have I just gotten back from 5 months of pet sitting and want to stay home and enjoy my own space? Sitters are not employees. We are people with lives, just like homeowners. We have paid a membership fee to travel and be with lovely pets, but that doesn’t mean we are just waiting around to serve.
- If you are new to THS and unhappy with the service they promised vs. delivered, be sure to cancel soon to get your money back.
Good luck.
I stopped updating my calendar because it’s useless. It would only be useful if I could put the dates I’m available and where I’m available. How is my availability useful to anyone if they don’t even know what continent I will be on for those dates? If THS ever makes this an option then I will use the calendar.
Another reason for not using the calendar is that HOs don’t look at it before sending invites. 95% of the invites I receive are for dates that I already have confirmed THS sits, the dates are clearly crossed off.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record - there isn’t even a key/legend to inform what the colours mean. I won’t bother trying to use the calendar until THS can be bothered to do something about it.