I’m both a homeowner and a sitter, and when I post a sit I often get applications from brand new sitters with no reviews. I’m willing to help these folks out, but for me a new sitter’s profile is absolutely where I’m looking to decide whether to give them a chance.
One bad selfie. In my inbox now is an application from a first-time sitter whose profile includes a single photo, so dark and blurry that I am not sure I’d recognize her from it when she knocked on my door. A sitter’s main profile photo should be clear and recognizable, and even then you need more than one photo. Show me at least one closeup of you, show me some photos of you lovingly interacting with other peoples’ animals.
Multiple photos of you on your travels. This tells me nothing about you other than you like to travel. See #4. The only real exception is something like photos of you living/working in a remote/off grid/etcetera location, which might reassure a homeowner you were capable of caring for their off-grid or remote or otherwise tricky-to-find-the-right-sitter-for home. A photo of you dressed appropriately for being out in public in Riyadh might be helpful for reassuring a HO that you aren’t going to get arrested your first day in town. But I really get nothing out of the photos of you paragliding in Cozumel.
Low on information. Same applicant as in #1. The entire profile is exactly six sentences long, all of which basically repeats ‘I am in real estate and now work remotely so I can work anywhere.’ I need to know a little bit more about someone who is going to be living in my home while I’m gone that reassures me about whether I’m going to come home to well-cared-for pets, a well-cared-for house, and neighbors who aren’t annoyed with me.
“We love to travel.” I’m sure you do, but that’s not really a reason I should let you stay in my home while I’m gone. Why should I choose you? Because you think you can wear out my high-energy cat so she won’t bully her sister? Because you are tidy and responsible? Because you’ve got family in my area and always like getting back here for a few days, so you might work out as a repeat sitter?
Your ‘profile details’ section mentions you’ll be traveling with a partner, but you tell me nothing about them. I just got an application from a brand new sitter who doesn’t mention a partner in the application. Her “Profile details” section says she’ll be traveling with a partner, a 23-year-old whose occupation is ‘Go go dancer’. Um…I’m open-minded, and I like giving new sitters a chance, but I’m going to need to know a little more. If your profile mentions a partner, either tell me about the partner or tell me your partner won’t be part of this sit.
No references. This one isn’t a deal breaker for me, and I never put much weight on them, but it at least shows me you are aware of the risk the homeowner is taking with a brand-new sitter who has no reviews. It shows me you’re trying to understand the exchange from the homeowner’s point of view.
Yes, I had a clear copy-paste applicant the other day…she said she would “love to come to your beautiful home and stay for a while in amazing Outer Banks with your fur babies.” We’re in Cincinnati. The Outer Banks is 750 miles away.
I may be wrong but I think this type of photos and content is encouraged by THS. I remember giving it a thought when I filled in my profile and deciding against it.
It’s been a while for me, too, but honestly…I’ve seen skiing photos, zip lining photos, scuba diving photos, parachuting photos, bicycling photos…does this matter to any homeowner? I’d rather see a photo of them walking a dog or getting down on the floor to wave a fishing pole around for a cat.
If I was on the other side, a pet owner, I would only need to see one face photo.
I actually post photos of my garden and house (not many) to let pet owners know what sort of place I live in. Then its photos of the animals that I’ve cared for.
I actually do appreciate these types of photos. If a sitter applicant has a HO profile, I always go check it out to see if their own home is tidy and clean-looking.
Those are excellent points and i hope other’s will see this. Those new and unfamiliar will definitely benefit from some constructive suggestions. When i began as a sitter i made sure to elaborate on my extensive background along with photo’s of myself and furry friends. Your thread will benefit many.
We are house sitters…sitting full-time for 2 years now. Curious about what HO’s think. Would you rather see all pictures of a couple interacting with animals? Or half/half sitters in various places around the world and the other half interacting with animals?
I checked what the FAQs say, it’s at Top tips for creating your sitter profile and it just says lots of photos with animals. Doesn’t seem to say anything about your own travel photos.
OP here, I am a homeowner with thirteen sitter reviews. I’m just also a sitter, so I see it from both sides. I get why sitters want to share their own travel photos. I just also get why HOs don’t really care much. Obviously if you’ve been sitting full time for two years, you should keep doing what works for you; if you’ve got dozens of sits, it’s likely no one is looking at your photos anyway, just your reviews and ratings. The post was for people trying to get their first sit who don’t have any reviews.
I’m a homeowner and sitter. As a homeowner, I don’t care about your photos in front of the Eiffel Tower, bungee jumping in New Zealand, etc. Maybe a photo of you hiking Machu Picchu would impress me if I had a dog that loved hiking, but otherwise the travel photos are irrelevant.
Similarly, I don’t need glamour shots of sitters in bikinis on a beach. Save those for the dating profile.
I want to see photos of you with animals. I don’t care if you look like Shrek, I just want to see that you are happy and comfortable with pets
Thanks for your opinion. Yes, we have 25 5 star reviews…and have been doing this full-time and get about 95% of the sits that we apply for. Just curious if we should change a few pictures around to incorporate more animals.
Meh…as a homeowner, if someone with 25 5-star reviews applies, I’m probably asking when they can schedule a call before I’ve even read their profile. Time enough to go page through their photos later, I don’t want that sitter to get away.
I apologize in advance because this feels like it might seem mean, but since you asked, why would I want to see even half? It’s like acquaintances wanting to show me their vacation pictures – I only look at them to be polite. Oh, very interesting, there you are at the leaning tower of Pisa. I’ve been a homeowner member for a long time (just decided today to think about maybe setting up a sitter profile because I just retired, which is how I got here) and I’ve always wondered in the past when looking at some sitters’ listings why they’re even on there. Why do so many sitters think homeowners want to see those? I can’t figure it out.
As I said, I could be wrong. But what I have this vague memory of some sort of prompt in the process of creating the profile, something like “tell the HOs about yourself, your hobbies and interests, if you like hiking or traveling, include pictures” It’s just a vague memory and, again, I could be wrong. Apologies if that is the case.
I was trying to figure out why people included those pictures. I don’t. But I do mention in my profile my extensive travelling experience as well as my experience in living in different countries. I thought that it would help for my international sittings, that it would be easier for HOs to see that I would feel confident managing daily life in a foreign country. Now that I have quite a few international reviews it’s not so important.
