Having set up a few sits in the last year or so, I have a couple of things that I’d like to suggest as improvements to the platform.
The first is it would be helpful to have in people’s profile info is whether they’re smokers or not. It seems many people already call it out in their profiles but not all.
I realise this question is almost redundant since so few people do now, but it’s a factor when selecting sitters (well us at least) and I’ve found myself needing to ask people before finalising a choice on a sitter(s).
The other suggestion I have is a calendar view for my sits - perhaps colour coded for sits I’m doing, and sits I’ve listed. Since there can be a longish time between organising a sit and the event actually happening, what I’ve found myself needing to do is ask myself “who did I confirm for that sit again?” and needing to trawl emails in the inbox to work it out when I need to communicate with a host/sitter.
Just a couple of thoughts for what is a great platform already
Our profile states we are non-smokers, and vegan too! But, as you said, not everyone states that. Maybe, when you list a sit, you could say something like “non-smokers only, or preferred”. I think that’s fair to ask without seeming discriminatory,
I would love to see whether owners are smokers or not. I usually ask, but recently I had verbally accepted a sit before the pet owner let slip that she allowed her brother to smoke in the kitchen. I then declined the sit.
As sitters, we state in our profile that we’re happy to sit in “your non-smoking home.” To confirm that, we always ask (during the video chat) whether it’s a non-smoking home and whether any visitors smoke inside.
On our homeowner listing, we clearly state that we only consider non-smokers/non-vapers. During the video chat, we reinforce this again.
We also state that we are non smoking sitters in our profile and one of the first questions I ask in the video chat is ‘is it a non smoking house’?. I couldn’t stay in a smokers house😞
