Hello! We want to spend summer 2025 in Colorado within ~an hour of Denver. Ideally we would like a 1-3 month long sit, though I’d be fine with cobbling shorter ones together around the edges. I have a saved search and I have been favoriting month+ sits that don’t match our dates (e.g. over winter holidays) in case those owners are likely to post additional long sits as next summer approaches. So far I have found nothing.
To be clear, I’m not being declined. I can’t find anything to apply for in the first place. And this is a popular area with lots of homeowners offering shorter sits.
This is still over 6 months away, so I can be patient if people simply aren’t thinking that far ahead yet. But in the meantime, I am missing out on 1-3 week sits as I hold out for month+ ones. Long-term sitters, how long do you hold out for a long sit and when do you accept that you’ll be hopping around between homes every other week?
We’re sitters, I glanced your profile, you are in the very lucky position of having an empty calendar, so in s slightly-sneaky-but-productive way you can ‘apply’ for all the sits that come up that take your fancy in Colorado and straight off the bat say you can’t do their dates, and then continue to say you are reaching out to them to see if they have any future plans to go away, and continue from there. Go in-depth, don’t make it short, because they need to be interested in you to see you as a potential, given you are reaching out to them unannounced, and say you’ll remove your application once they’ve read your message.
I’m sure there’ll be plenty of 2 week sits come up down the line worst case scenario, so I personally wouldn’t be rushing.
We are full-timer sitters originally from the US and spend at least a few months at a time there. We typically like to do longer sits–though we often will do a number of shorter ones in close proximity depending on our exact itinerary–and find they do pop up regularly enough that we are okay waiting and not rushing to book something simply for fear of not being able to find somewhere suitable.
But the more criteria a sit must meet, the more it will limit our options. So if someone is looking for sits in one particular region of one state for a specific time period, they will probably not have as many sits to pick from compared to someone who is open to multiple states or the whole country.
But with that being said, Colorado is one of the states with the most opportunities–with many of them being in Denver or relatively close to there-- so there is a good chance you will be able to find something for the length you want when you want.
Whatever ratio of longer to shorter sits you may be seeing now is not necessarily indicative of what would be available for the summer, when travel increases significantly–while people vary in how far ahead they post their listing, the vast majority would not be posting 6 or more months ahead of time.
So if you really have your heart set on these longer sits, I think you can hold off for awhile before resorting to stringing together shorter ones.
We sat in Colorado right around this time last year and absolutely loved it!
It depends on the sitters why they are applying, we’ve always had a fantastic response when we’ve reached out, I only mentioned it in this scenario because their profile say they return to Colorado regularly. That’s the difference with us too, we return to the same areas to sit, we aren’t ‘normal’ tourists.
Yeah, I’ve been seeing a LOT of HOs complain about this and how it wastes their time and hogs a spot for someone who is actually qualified. Several mention that they put those sitters on the no list for all future sits.
I use this technique too. It’s not that we aren’t ‘qualified’ to do the sit, on the contrary, we only take this approach if we feel we would be a great match for the sit.
It’s unfortunate that this tactic is the ONLY way a sitter can reach out to a host, that’s why we do it. In a way it’s an act of desperation borne out of the system we’ve been lumped with - we never used to have to do this before the ‘5 limit’ was introduced.
I too have had mostly positive responses and have picked up some nice sits with really nice people this way. It may ‘waste’ their time initially, but it can also save them a lot of time and effort down the track. A few hosts have ignored me, but that’s ok, it probably means we wouldn’t have been a good match anyway…
Yes, but this is the only way sitters can contact hosts, if THS allowed sitters to contact directly then there wouldn’t be a need for a work around.
Clear concise communication is key, try and explain your situation to as many people as possible @Emily17 because someone out there will be in need of someone exactly like you. Its a matching service after all. Good luck.
I don’t know if people posting for a longer sits are more likely to post at a certain point before the trip as opposed to someone going away for a shorter period of time, but generally speaking, I think the farthest out the majority of people will put up their listing falls within the 2 to 3 month range at the most, but some may post sooner. But I have also seen many longer-term sits posted just a few weeks before so it really varies.
But people posting their listing 6,7 months ahead of time or more–which would be what summer dates are at this point–is definitely a minority of hosts for sure.
Ultimately how long you wait will depend on a lot of individual factors. But considering the time you are looking to go is so far off, booking sits at this point that really aren’t optimal for you length-wise probably isn’t necessary to ensure you are able to visit the area when you want for as long as you want.
Colorado has tons of sits, so being able to spend the whole summer in the Denver area–where much of them seem to be-- via sitting would probably be very easy. And at the very least, I am sure you would be able to find a number of sits that are at least a couple of weeks long. And since you are looking to stay in one general area, getting from one sit to another would not involve extensive travel, which would make having to move around more frequently less of a hassle.
I believe hosts can see who has favorited their sit, which is one of the reasons I’ve been favoriting long sits that don’t match our dates. It’s much less direct than applying for dates that don’t work for me, but at least it gets my name in front of them. Several times I’ve had these people reach back out to me invite me to upcoming sits.
As I understand it from this forum, the hosts have no idea of what date sitters favourited their sit, because it’s been raised on here on many occasions that they wish they could see that, so they know who’s favourited them recently, or whether they favourited them years ago. I’ve no idea if that’s true or not, but owners on here have said that’s the case. So some just ignore whoever favourites them, because they simply have no idea when they did it, unless they are brand new and don’t have any as yet.
Emily, we’ve completed multiple housesits in excess of one month duration. None in Colorado but a few in California/Oregon (and outside US). In our experience, related Pet Parents typically intend to leave home on a big trip (e.g. distant cruise), that typically is booked months in advance. Most of our month+ housesits have been listed/confirmed at least six months in advance of dates. The search function can be really helpful (choose colorado, one month+ … save) and you’ll hopefully see listings appear. Good luck!
This is exactly why I’m a little anxious about it, although your response contradicts what I’m hearing others say in this thread. At the moment, there are 6 month+ sits available in Colorado, and 5/6 of them are for December-January ish.
Emily, it’s quite possible that a factor other than duration-before-housesit is afoot … snowbirds in wintertime. As I reflect, most of our month+ housesits have been in wintertime by pet parents flying to warmer places. Wonderful to hear that you are seeing multiple month+ housesits in your chosen location.
I once saw a listing in CO by a woman who mentioned she travels a lot for business. You could systematically go through listings both with and without dates and look for mentions of future travel. Favorite the no-dates and contact the ones with dates outside the summer. Tell those HOs that you saw that mention in their listing and that you will be in CO all next summer if they need a sitter then. Then withdraw application.
As HOs we mentioned possible travel at other periods when we listed a sit 6 months out. We were contacted by a sitter who was going to be driving through our area in 3 months. So we decided to book a holiday for that time and it worked out great.
