I posted my listing about a month ago and itās now only 4 weeks until I need a sitter. Iāve had lots of people save my listing (12?) but only one application - Iāve declined that as from environmental perspective i didnāt want someone to travel from abroad to sit.
I would really welcome any advice on how I might make my listing more appealing please
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Your listing looks lovely as is. Just one point, If you arenāt interested in international sitters I would add that to your listing so sitters donāt waste their time.
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Hello @JulieA63 and welcome 
Your sit and pup look lovely. There are a few useful things you can add for a sitter including how long Tenzin can be left for & if a sitter came under their own steam, could you pick them up from a station and they could order in groceries and chill at yours without needing a car? That would work for a WFHer or a country escape. The sound of accompanying dog aunties would put us off taking care of him as it sounds like supervision whilst sitting. Agree with @Oztravels about adding that you donāt want international sitters in your listing. Thereās also no mention of hi speed WiFi which is almost an essential on your amenities list. Add those bits & maybe change your title to āOne chilled pup in a Kent country oasisā and then pause and relist and should help. #sendingsittervibes
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Thanks for your reply - good point, Iāll make that changeā¦
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Thanks for your reply, thatās really helpful. Interesting point re. dog Aunties, Iād meant it to be helpful but Yes I can see now could look like bossy Aunties might try and supervise!
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@JulieA63 , I admire your decision not to use planes yourself, but if you want to extend that to your sitters, you have to understand that you will reduce the pool of sitters available considerably, added to this the fact that your place is only accessible to car drivers - Then your pool of sitters is reduced even further.
This means you need to āsellā your listing at its best.
1 - Do you have a car you can make available?
2- Make it very clear in your listing that you are only accepting sitters from within the UK.
3 - No sitter will want to be accompanied by your dog walkers, but many will be happy if you keep your contract with your walkers during the stay, and say in your listing which times and days your dog walkers will be taking your dog out.
4 - Your photos are doing you no favours. There is no order to them and they make your lovely home look very dark and gloomy. I would take them all again. First, one of the outside of your home (itās lovely!), next, two each of each room the sitter will have access to. Finally three of Tenzin. ( all in that order) For the inside photos, turn on all the lights before taking them and/or try to use a light filter to brighten them up.
Good Luck!
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For goodness sake, why didnāt you include this in your listing?
I would suggest you pull your listing, do the recommended tweaks and then re-list.
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The responsibility section says that Tenzin is fed kibble three times a day so that might lead sitters to believe that they will have no free time to visit the area - Also that he will āgenerally sleep through the night ā - what does that mean ? Will I be woken up in the night , early hours of the morning?
If you can state the times that he is fed and how long that he can be left alone for that would clarify things .
Also the sit is for less than a week ( 6 nights only ) so sitters searching for a week long sit wonāt even see the listing - can your holiday be extended by a day to give sitters a full weekās stay ?
These are tweaks that might make the listing attractive to a wider pool of sitter .
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Just a small note, I would highly recommend describing your house in the home and location tab. Not just the surrounding areas. When we see this, it is a red flag because we think HO want to showcase the neighborhood and downplay their home.
Also, we agree with @Colin rearrange your pics. Home, backyard, pup, MAYBE surrounding areas but not too many.
Lastly, walking with the dogs āauntiesā would be a deal breaker for us too. 
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I agree with @Colin (as usual!) Please do keep in mind that if someone is coming to Kent for a sit, they are quite possibly coming anyway, and the sit is just a bonus. So declining a sitter due to the perceived environmental footprint might be shortsighted.
A more valid concern would be the visa status of a potential sitter. Since Brexit, sitting in the UK is legal primarily for UK citizens (there are some minor exceptions but I donāt have the energy to go into those - there are threads upon threads on this forum about the topic) Since an EU or US citizen without a UK work visa couldnāt legally sit for you anyway, it is a bit moot to decline anyone based on environmental factors.
Thus your job is to make the sit as appealing as possible to UK citizens who can get to your sit by rail. Which raises the question of how they will get to your home and get around without having a car.
I tried to imagine myself as a carless resident of London who would adore an escape to the Kent countryside. It was simply too much work to even try to figure out how to get to your house, where I would buy groceries, etc. Your listing mentions multiple things within driving distance - but if you want an environmental warrior, theyāre probably not going to have a car. Sitters have seconds to evaluate a listing - if itās too much work to figure out how this sit will even function, we scroll on. So help them work out how this will work for them, and not just for Tenzin. Will you pick them up at the station and order groceries in for them? Is there a shop within within walking distance? If Tenzin has a medical emergency, how will the sitter get them to the vet - are there taxis or other transportation?
A few other key points: If a sitter saves a listing that typically means theyāre not available for it now, but would like to be notified if suitable dates pop up in the future. And as Colin mentioned, many sitters have a search function set up to notify for sits of certain duration. I only get notified for sits of one week or longer, so I would never have seen your listing. A best practice is to have a seven day sit if possible - it is a lot of work for a sitter to familiarize themselves with a new environment and new pet, and clean up/clear out afterward.
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Thanks Colin, lots of helpful feedback 
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Rude! As I said in my request for help Iām completely new to this and had (naively) assumed most sitters would be uk based
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Fair enough about the naivety but keep in mind that THS is geared towards both HOs and sitters being able to enjoy travel. The marketing on that is evident
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Thank you 
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Thank you for the advice
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I skim read your listing (itās what sitters do initially)- and not much appealed to me. Why was this I thought as itās a nice dog/house? I think itās because I couldnāt see a reason to do this sit- you need to āsellā the sit to sitters- give them great reasons to do this for you. Tell us how lovely your doggy is, whatās great about your home (dark skies, birds, silenceā¦) also about the accessibility ie public transport and whatās worth visiting or experiencing locally. Iām not sure why you mentioning youāre a very experienced psychotherapist is necessary- itās not a job application and jarred for me. Iād try to demonstrate in that section that youāre good at communicating and making sitters feel comfortable in your home in the way that you write about yourself. I just think youāve written the listing from a place of thinking about this thatās not quite right. Have a rethink about THS as a matching service- and what youāre offering a sitter.
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I was curious to see if the OP has had any success in attracting applicants since hearing from the forum members on her listing. I cannot see that any changes have been made at all but there is now 1 applicant (hopefully UK-based) for the first set of dates.
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Thanks for your input BonnyinBrighton, will reflect on all thatā¦
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Thanks for your feedback
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There have been changes and itās a more neutral listing nowā¦ I think the HO seems to be reluctant to see this listing as something that really needs to be sold to sitters and Iām curious as to the reason.