In the interest of future planning, is there a way for a sitter to post dates and locations of interest.
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Nope. Not available, but i wish it was!
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Would be a great option. We recently had to find sitters after the ones that should do the sit suddenly cancelled. We now randomly invited sitters that according to their profile lived in the neigborhood. In fact non of them really lived here. A search option for sitters based on available dates and preferred countries would have allowed more specific inviting.
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How can you find a list of sitters in your area? I’ve not found that.
Hi @ronzie , to find sitters in a specific area, go to the website and search, Find a sitter." Then enter the geographical area in the search box. This will take you to sitters that are based in that area, not necessarily where they are currently sitting or where they are looking to sit.
For that very reason, like many other sitters here, I changing my location to where I am currently or plan to be (and hope for a sit). It is a hassle when we travel and move around a lot. But there is not point in putting in my city of origin, where I only stay a few months a year. I hope THS will add this feature; location and dates, so HO looking for a sitter -specially last minute sits- will be to contact the proper members.
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We wished all sitters did that. A while ago I invited 20+ sitters and only 1 was where they said they were (and that one was not available 
)
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Can sitters express an interest on this forum if they are interested in sitting in a particular location?
I find it very helpful when HS add us to their favourites…when we’re looking for a sitter or a last minute replacement, I will check that group first and send out my dates to them since I already know they like our listing.
So TLDR, favourite the listings that you like the look of.
Others have mentioned this as well but keep your location up to date based on where you are, or where you are going to be next so you come up in the respective searches.
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@Globetrotter Yes, or not quite exactly location. In the sitter’s profile, under the calendar, there is “Preferred countries”.
One cannot choose specific US states. Not even Hawaii (but there is for example Puerto Rico and the “United States Minor Outlying Islands”).
However, one can choose Svalbard (take a gun with you on the Arctic dog walk!) and the Ă…land islands.
Another surprise: one can specify Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey, but not England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
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Go to “your sitter profile” scroll down to Preferences, tick “I’d like to go to specific countries” and select countries.
Go to dashboard, scroll down to “My Sitter Profile”, click on “Manage My Availability”.
@SLK yes you can as @STH has said above .
The problem is that Homeowners can’t search for you using your preferences. So you have to hope that a HO in the location you want to
Visit stumbles across your profile by chance - read it’s and notice your preferences. Which is a long shot , so not very effective at all.
Favourting sits in places you want to visit is another way to bring yourself to the attention of HOs.
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Thanks but I’m referring to posting on the “forum” an expression of interest rather than “searching” for specific countries on the site.
That might be an interesting idea: to have a section on the forum where sitters actively looking for a sit in the next e.g. 1 month can express their interest incl. locations, such that HOs can reach out if desired
Thanks Carla - I see the following in the “Community Guidelines” which answers my question.
"Our forum is designed to be a place where members can chat, share advice and their experiences, rather than being another platform to find a sit or a sitter."
So you’re saying that based on that, THS SHOULD provide the opportunity for sitters to contact HOs? Since currently there’s no way sitters can reach out to HOs other than by applying for the sit.
Interesting fact by the way: someone I sat for in March, just moved to a different country and I happened to see them posting dates for December. About 6-7 minutes later I refreshed the listings page again, but weird enough…I couldn’t find their listing anymore. So most likely that means that due to the 5 appl rule that listing appeared and disappeared within less than 10 minutes.
And as I mentioned somewhere else, this time of year, pre-5 appl rule, I would only spot 2-3 suitable sits/week to apply for outside of Christmas. And these were usually popular sits ( = read: there’s a major scarcity of them). Guess how many/week I spot now? Honestly I’m not really sure anymore why I’m a member since, apart from the occasional lucky strike, I feel my only actual involvement in THS these days is reading the Community Forum since getting a sit is not very likely anymore.
So even though that may sound off topic, it’s not: if there was actually an option to enquire with HOs, like on AirBnB, I think I’d have more sits than now because even favouriting a sit doesn’t help when sits that are very scarce close so rapidly
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Additionally, you can save searches with specific filters so that when a listing opens up for your date range and location, you will get notified so that you can apply.
Hope that helps!
I see listings even when they’ve gone into review, so it seems odd that you couldn’t find that listing. Seems like it would disappear if the host deleted it or they picked someone immediately after you originally saw it.
If you’re not getting sits given that you’re interested only in rare ones, maybe join other sites with more of those sits. Given THS’s declared approach, it seems unlikely that they’ll switch course.