I think it is most helpful to know whether a person is interested and experienced, wanting to care of our pets or whether they want to just “housesit“.
We had one couple where the fellow absolutely loved to take care of the animals and the wife did not. It was interesting and different for us, but worked out fine. We appreciated their willingness to make a challenging situation work, and had them sit for us both in Colorado and here in Maine.
I like to see that applicants actually read the listing. I say I’m looking for a cat person twice, but most people ignore that aspect and just send me a very general “hello, I’d love to watch your house and animal”. Those are a turn off because they don’t seem conscientious enough for me. The worst is when they only state why the sit would be beneficial to them (want to explore living there) and not to me.
Sitters who demonstrate they have read and comprehend the listing, who address both the stated and implied concerns of the owner are the best. They should share details about themselves, why they are a good fit for your specific listing, and why they want to be in your area. I also very much appreciate sitters who convey understanding of the trust and responsibility we give them by leaving our home and pets with them.
I understand that a lot of sitters now feel a little more rushed to send in an application and so they don’t always have a detailed response.
However, what I look for is that they’ve at least read most of our profile and what our pets needs are and at a minimum know his name and mention it.
We’ve been getting a lot of first time sitters applying for our listing and I think what helps these applicants that are new to the site stand out for us is when they give a little more detailed information on why they want to pet sit and often times their previous experience owning pets. All of this information helps give us a sense of what the sitter is like and if they have a love of animals/pet care that we’re looking for. You’d be surprised that some new members don’t mention these things on their profile.
It really stands out when a sitter applicant specifically mentions the style of training we use for our dog, that they would be happy to stick to his long walks/routine as they themselves like the exercise and some have even given their sympathies to our dog because he was attacked and that they will do everything to assure his safety.