Hi!
I’m new to TH, but not new to House/Pet Sitting, as I’ve been doing it privately for years. Right now, I often book almost a season in advance! My clients reach out to me minimally 1-2 months in advance, oftentimes more. And we confirm early too. I have most of my sits confirmed through to November and I prefer it this way.
I’m noticing a lot of sits on here are posted literally within days or the same month that the HOs need a sitter? Is this the norm?
I understand some HOs maybe have lost their usual sitter last minute and post on here as an 11th hour hail mary. I understand that situation.
But, what is the typical time frame HOs post (not in an urgent/last minute situation)? Within a month of the same trip? I’m trying to gauge if I should lock in a just “acceptable” sit or get in the habit of waiting for more advantageous opportunities closer to the time?
Maybe it’s also personal preference. I do not have my own home base, and so want to land my accommodations early.
I also personally don’t do anything 11th hour and would be more inclined and probably just better matched with HOs who post early, with the intent of locking in a sitter early, not 2 weeks prior to the trip.
What’s everyone’s experience with timelines of posting opportuntiies, choosing to wait for more closer to the time, etc? Worth the anxiety of the wait?! Maybe that’s the culture on here - a little last minute?
Thanks All!
~KellySue
Welcome @KellySue .
From my experience,I don’t think there is a “normal “ timeframe or a “THS culture “around timing . Each sit is as unique as the Home owner and their pets .
We’ve already had HOs invite us for sits in 2024 as well as some requesting us for a couple of weeks time .
Go with whatever suits you
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@KellySue_Nate welcome to the THS family! We are happy you have chosen us as a new avenue for petsitting. You have asked a great question and I will let you know that there are sits anywhere from tomorrow all the way into next year. Where are you wanting to sit? You can put in that info or just leave it for “anywhere” then put in desired dates in the filter section. This will bring up sits that fall into that category. Keep in mind, some HO’s don’t update the titles of their sits and they may have old info in the title (dates, number of pets, etc.) but this is the easiest way to find those advance sits.
Here you can find a great deal of info on the subject:
Search results for ‘how far out are sits posted’ - TrustedHousesitters Community Forum
I wish you luck, and remember you can always come back here with any questions and find answers as well.
I’m sure great sits come up late sometimes but the stress of waiting and watching might not be worth it for a planner like yourself. I’ve always posted about 3 months ahead for our 2-6 week sits but lately I’m not getting the same high quality applicants I used to so I’m going to aim for 4-5 months. We don’t always have exact dates until it gets closer and don’t want to mess up a sitter’s schedule, but we’ll make it work.
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Next week we’ll be heading to a 3 week sit in Spain that we were invited to back in early February. This is the furthest ahead we’ve ever booked a sit (nearly 5 months ahead)but it was a very desirable opportunity that we didn’t want to miss! We decided to build our summer around that sit and booked a series of sits in France from April till a few days ago and in Spain from the one next next week till the end of September! We consciously looked for sits that were more or less back to back and also in a logical order to create an epic road trip! One of the French sits was booked just 3 days ahead as it popped up last minute and perfectly filled a gap. Right now we have another short gap between France & Spain which we are using to spend time with our kids & grandkids here in France & Germany.
I don’t think there is any particular standard type of sitter or host. There is much variation! We, personally, book sits in all different ways- far ahead, last minute, long, short etc I’d say overall we are just pretty spontaneous and go with the flow. Sometimes one opportunity (like our Spanish one above) can determine our direction and completely change what we may have otherwise planned! 
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