… and in many listings, photos seem to be duplicated. When youve seen the same photo of Max the Boxer three times but none of your bedroom or a bathroom, it’s time to scroll on by.
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Hello @BillyBonnieBenji and other sitters in this thread. We hear you! We are HOs and sitters, too, so on our home listing, we have included lots of pics of where the sitter will spend time. We also show the shower-bathtub where you can take a long soak. 
Our Forum profile includes links to our home listing as well as our sitter listing. 
Take a look at it and let us know what you think.
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Yes @KenandMary1998 you can certainly tell from your listing that you are sitters, and have listened to others on the forum. Congratulations on a lovely listing. I found it interesting to see how easy it would be for me to hop the border and take the Amtrak from Buffalo NY to you. That might be something that would interest me, but in the warmer months. I am quite fascinated by the Amish lifestyle and would no doubt enjoy your area. I’d be happy to get to know your feline family members too. Enjoy your travels. 
@Snowbird Thank you for taking a look at our listing. We’d enjoy hosting you in the spring. If you would want to discuss possibilities, DM us anytime. You’re right, the Amish culture presents a stark contrast between our techno lives versus their calm, farming lives. Lancaster County does have it all: city life, country activities, history, food, outdoor activities, festivals, amusement parks, music and the arts, and so on. It’s quite the place for exploration.
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I did a sit recently where the bedroom had an en suite but no photos. I wish I’d asked for photos as the en suite was so small i had to back in sideways, squeezing pastbthe small basin to sit on the loo. It was laughable. And the room was an odd shape and with a sloping attic roof so the bed was placed so your feet went against the wall and head in the middle of the room near the door … really bad feng shui.
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One of the home owners we have sat for a couple of times just had their account paused and THS said they had to add to more pics including the bedroom. It seemed to come about after a sitter cancelled for a sit later in the year and I think they asked for assistance in how to cancel.
The funny part was they added more pictures including the ‘bedroom’ except it is not the bedroom the sitters sleep in, it is their master bedroom. The sitters sleep in another room, combination office/guest room on a comfortable sofa bed.
Not sure why they did this but shows there is only so much THS can do.
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A different perspective - I am a HO with a lot of animals, relatively speaking. I just redid my listing today and I now have to put 2 photos of each animal! i love my animals very much, think they are cute, and very much a selling point of the sit, but it does mean that there are more of them that our little house!
Deborah / Boodie:
I’m sorry, I was being nosy, and I saw your listing. I can’t see anywhere to send you a PM, but I’d like to ask you about this: 'I am a leadership and work life balance coach … ’
Did you train for a coaching qualification and if so, which qualification is it? I am registered with the Coaching Academy in the UK. Thank you in advance.
L.
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We too learned the hard way. The pictures of the bedroom we stayed in must have been from the day these people moved into their house some 20 years ago. I wasn’t expecting to find the mattress cover to be that dirty. Glad we carry our own sheets with us.
Admin Notice: Post Moderated
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Your listing is great! Being on both sides means you understand what things are important to sitters.
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You’ve got some great photos and most of the house is covered. No pic of the kitchen though. I’m not sure how many photos HOs can display. I do know it’s a lot more than sitters. We only get 12 + our profile pic. So if you have used the max number I would swap one of them for a photo of the kitchen.
The photos are posted separately, under categories, as requested by TH. That is how they are uploaded. If I was posting one of my kitchen I would post one as well as the animals - there would still be more animal ones, such is my menagerie 
If someone read my listing then they would see i have explained why I have not posted photos of the kitchen at this point - current renovations, so pointless. I have also extensively described the set up (which I know is not the same). I would be happy to share info with a sitter who had a serious enquiry about it, and maybe share photos of it in its current state with the proviso that they fully understood what was going on. If the lack of photos was enough to put someone off after reading the reason then so be it.
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Thank you for your comment! Yes, it just makes it comfortable for the person who is being an extension of you while you are away
I think having too many animal photos and too few house photos is possibly a relic of the fact that up until a few years ago THS only allowed six photos for each. So you’d have unnecessary numbers of ‚my cat from the left‘ and my cat in the garden‘ photos, but really struggle to get all the main features of the house included in just six photos, especially if there’s a garden too. I‘m not sure when the number of house photos increased, but I only noticed relatively recently.
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Yes I asked Support about it and they said they only changed the rules regarding photos, and increased the number of photos recently. I just saw a profile that had 4 photos; 3 of outside and one closeup of the pets on a sofa. They had plenty of reviews though, so there must be some people who don’t think photos are important!
Hi @BillyBonnieBenji when the new photo functionality was introduced this applied only to new listings, listings prior to this update were not included that is why you will see listings with fewer photographs.
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Thank you Angela
I’ve been reading this subject with great interest as I currently have a listing but have received very few applications (those that have applied obviously haven’t read my listing but that’s another subject!) I have photos of the outside of my house and the main living rooms but I feel the bedrooms and bathrooms are somewhat private and personal. But if an applicant were to ask me for either photos or a video of the house then I would be pleased to do that but I just don’t feel happy about putting it on a public domain. We go to a lot of trouble to make sure our sitters are comfortable and often have long conversations before they arrive. Our reviews have always been good and we have several repeat sitters which I feel speaks for itself. For me, conversation is better than photographs, And let’s face it, a camera often lies. I am now in a quandary, do I put on a photo of the guest bathroom (which is very large btw) and would it really bring forward suitable applicants? Time to go away and think.
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@shirl, why not address this specifically in your profile? Eg, “We have not included photos of the bedrooms and bathrooms as we dont like to share those on a public website. Of course we are happy to share those (and have video calls) with any applicants before confirming a sit.” And describe what’s available, eg, some prefer baths whilst others prefer showers so please say which you have.
You say you have a guest bathroom which presumably is less personal than your own so maybe just include that one?
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Maybe you could described in detail (bed-size is important) the guest room, guest bathroom and offer a video tour if they apply for the sit and do a video chat.
Homes go up for sale all the time and the real estate agent will post very publicly all the rooms etc so I am not sure about why the privacy concern.
Many sitters will not even apply if they don’t see where they will be sleeping, so your sitting pool will be limited. From what I understand there are more HO looking for sitters than available sitters post Covid travel, so it is risky for you not to offer more details.
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