I am new to the website as a homeowner and have posted my first housesit opportunity. I’m looking for feedback on it - is there too much information, too many pictures, anything missing, etc. I’m hoping it’s is attached to my profile here.
I also have a couple questions.
I have a pet bird, a conure which is a small parrot, and I’m not finding many sitters with experience with parrots. When I try a search for birds, I get a lot of people with experience with chickens which is pretty much totally different! But I also get people with nothing about birds in their profile, except maybe if they are listed under “small pets” or something. Can anyone give me any insight on more specific search results?
Relating to that, when I do any search, I get all relatively local sitters listed for pages and pages. My two bad housesitter experiences were with relatively local people. Is there any way to search for people who want to come to my area rather than people who are already here?
And third question is relating to creating the listing itself. There were places to put captions on the photos of my pets, which I did, but they do not show up anywhere in the listing. Any ideas why not?
Hello @Livyordrem aka Sally and welcome - your listing looks great. Informative, honest and full! Lovely location for an adventurous type. Would probably lose a few photos of the skies etc and move a pic of Percy to number 2 or 3 as he is key to this house sit. Took me too long to find him We’ve looked after conures but unfortunately don’t sit in the USA or would love to help! A few other thoughts. Do sitters need a car or will you lend them yours as that could help? And there are tags to add for this too. There is a “birds” tag for sit searches that covers all types, don’t think you can make it more specific than that. Might trim the responsibilities section as it’s a lot to read and you can put in your welcome guide instead. Captions normally show on the website not the app which. I’m using. The flexi dates are tricky as sitters have travel plans so not everyone likes this method, you may have to try it and see if you get applications. That’s few ideas for now, hope it helps and best of luck
Thanks for the insight! I made a couple changes but there are a few that I can’t find a way to change. I took out some of the scenery pictures, which moved Percy up a few places but there isn’t a way to reorganize the order. It puts the house pics first, then the pets. I cut out some of the responsibility details and left the general info. The only place I found about the car was under the amenities and it does say that my vehicle may be used. I read something here that made me wonder if I had misunderstood when filling it out. They asked if a car was required and I said yes but also said mine may be used. I took it more like a follow up question, rather than a stand alone, if that makes sense. But I can’t find where that can be clarified.
I think you can add the tag of “sitters need a car” and “car included” on there. Second one would be a good selling point. I’ll tag @Carla one of the moderators as she’ll be able to help @Livyordrem
Hi @Livyordrem. If you put a photo of Percy in the Home photos you can then have him as one of your first photos.
Also I see captions using the app but not the website. I see you already have 2 applicants so hopefully either will be suitable. Read about the importance of having a video chat or phone call with any suitable applicants before confirming so you can ask each other questions and see if you “click”. All the best.
Sadly there is no way for sitters from afar let pet parents k ow we would like to visit your area. It is on the lus of things we have asked for and isn’t expected anytime soon.
No, but you should not really need to. When you post new dates on your listing, sitters with different varieties of Saved searches should get a notifications of that.
(But there is a whole bunch of technical problems with notifications, so I think it is “a part of the sitters that had your area as a Saved search” that is sent notifications by the system. I could not guess how large or small that part is currently. I doubt that even THS knows that statistic, which should worry them.)
Beautiful first photo! And I appreciate the honesty about the pet.
Hi Marion,
It’s odd that you can’t see dates, and @cuttlefish also mentioned it. I do have specific dates on my end of the listing. And by flexible dates, I would only mean varying a day or two on easier end for travel. I’ll have to look into why they don’t show
Thanks,
Sally
It’s not that I can’t see dates @Livyordrem (I didn’t look for them TBH) It’s because you said you would post anpprox dates and then change/confirm them. Sitters aren’t keen on that method when searching. as they need/want certainty from the HO. That was my meaning (& probably @Marion’s too)
Ah, okay! I changed the wording a little to try and make it clear that I would have the exact dates at the time of confirming a sitter. The dates would only change if flights home or back (usually back) would take more than a day. Did that help?
Hey, I want to come! Sadly, I don’t have partot experience. My sister has an Amazon so if I could come with her….honestly your post achieves everything you expressed. It’s direct interesting beautiful and you get across that Percy needs extra special care. Good luck!
I love your listing! If I was available to go to the USA, I’d heart it, but have 0 experience with parrots. I really appreciate when HO give lots of details in their listing, as opposed to keeping everything for the welcome guide, which I won’t see until I’m confirmed. In my opinion, the more photos, the best, especially of the house, bathroom and kitchen especially as these two rooms might be the most likely used for us, with the work space, of there is one.
The more the better in a listing in my opinion, especially for sits longer than a feW days.
I love seeing details of what is in the kitchen (even if it is listed) as I love espresso machines (but love to see what coffee machine is there) and cooking in general.
It’s good that you are very honest about your background checks and mentioning jobs that required them but to me, it wouldn’t make me apply more: I’d be wondering if it means you’ll want to see my background checks papers, passport, references, or ID, etc. (This has been discussed in the forum, where sitters expressed they felt uncomfortable being asked for additional paper checks on top of their THS background checks). I’m in no way implying that you would that! I’m implying that some might read it this way, as HO are rarely mentioning these security checks for themselves in general (listing or conversations later on).
You have a beautiful property in a beautiful area! I know you’ll find the perfect sitter
Thanks for the input! You’d be very disappointed with my coffee situation! I do not like coffee at all so all I have is a little 5 cup Mr Coffee or a small French press.
- your listing looks great. Informative, honest and full! Lovely location for an adventurous type. Would probably lose a few photos of the skies etc and move a pic of Percy to number 2 or 3 as he is key to this house sit. Took me too long to find him 
We’ve looked after conures but unfortunately don’t sit in the USA or would love to help! A few other thoughts. Do sitters need a car or will you lend them yours as that could help? And there are tags to add for this too. There is a “birds” tag for sit searches that covers all types, don’t think you can make it more specific than that. Might trim the responsibilities section as it’s a lot to read and you can put in your welcome guide instead. Captions normally show on the website not the app which. I’m using. The flexi dates are tricky as sitters have travel plans so not everyone likes this method, you may have to try it and see if you get applications. That’s few ideas for now, hope it helps and best of luck 
I do not like coffee at all so all I have is a little 5 cup Mr Coffee or a small French press. 