Hi @Karn and welcome to the forum and to TrustedHousesitters. I have taken a look at your listing, and suggest you take a look at this post: How to create the perfect listing
Having just viewed it quickly, I’d suggest:
Change your headline to mention whatever is the key feature of your sit. What you have currently we already know from what is shown when a sitter searches.
Change your first photo. Sitters are often drawn in by cute pet photos, so I would put the photo of both pets together as your first photo. By the way, your dog breed is unlikely to be the cause of no applicants.
As you’ve shown ‘family friendly’, you should indicate how many beds and the size of the beds, so that families can make sure they are a fit.
You need more details of the needs and routines of your pets. For example, is your cat indoors only? How much of a walk (time/distance/frequency) is usual for your dog? How long (hours) can they be left alone, and do they need to then be separated? Sitters need to assess whether they are a fit for your pets’ needs.
Thanks so much. This was extremely helpful, as were various general suggestions I read in the forums. We got several new applications within a day of making some of the changes and are all set for our sits!
Hi,
I have used THS a number of times over the years, and had 8 succesful sitters. However, my dates that I have posted for July this year have so far generalted no applicants at all! I have contacted a number of more local sitters directly, with no luck too. Any suggestions welcome. My dates are in July and my listing is in my forum profile.
Many thanks for your help, and suggestions
Thanks for the feedback @WanderlustInCA and very pleased to hear that the suggestions from our members and team have helped. It really is a time where having the best possible listing does help - where it used to be sitters who needed to work hard on their profiles it’s now owners who are having to make the absolute best of their listings. Hopefully we will be back to a happy balance soon In the meantime its just great news that in a couple of days you’ve seen a turnaround! Happy travels!!
Use the photo of the two dogs together as the primary photo. That will get attention and show sitters immediately that the dogs are small (and therefore easy to care for).
Remove the “sitters need a car” tag if a car is just preferable, rather than essential. If sitters can walk to shops, restaurants, bars, etc - or take public transport - then a car is not essential.
Related to above, list public transport options. that are available.
Minor point - divide your text into paragraphs to make it easier to read.
Change your headline. Only the first few words show on a thumbnail, so the most important words should be first. I would start with “Family-friendly near Cambridge” maybe, or “tiny dogs…” if the dogs aren’t in your primary photo.
@ClareA As always, @Lassie gives great advice. I’ll just mention that if you use the photo of the two dogs, the photo will need to be cropped. The site is set to accommodate landscape layout and that one is portrait format. In searches, the top of portrait photos is often not viewable in the actual search. If you don’t have a similar photo to use in landscape layout, I’d crop the bottom from that photo and try it. It’s always best to then view your listing to make sure the photos display as you’d intended. Unfortunately I often see photos where this wasn’t checked.
Clare: You have gotten some great advice already. I would also suggest that you be more specific about how many hours the pups can be left at home. Many sitters want time to explore the area. Also, with a 4 bedroom home, could you offer a guest bedroom as private space for the sitter/sitters? I do understand that the pups like to sleep in the master/main, but many sitters do not like sleeping in the master and prefer to keep that space private for the owners, even if the pups will insist on sleeping in the guest space too. Also, I noticed that your last sitter did not leave you a review, even though you left them a very good review. You may want to contact them and ask them to please complete their review of the sit. Missing reviews are sometimes seen as a red flag that there were problems. Hope this helps. Good luck!
For myself, its the annual fee that is holding me back from being able to join as a house sitter. I belong to several groups, backbackers, couchsurfers, this one is pricey.
Hi Chamel, we also belong to several house sitting groups and THS is by far our favourite. Yes, it’s a bit pricier than the others, but we have found it to be the best bang for our buck. There are far more opportunities to house sit - presently over 7000 and the support is top notch! We have completed 13 sits so far and most of them were from this site. The layout of the website is so user friendly and this forum is a great resource. In my opinion, it’s the best of all of them. Oh, and make sure you get a discount code, so you can safe some money too!
I’m having the same problem. I want to go away for 2 weeks. After posting for 2.5 weeks and getting no applications, I broke it into two 1 week stays in case people cant get away that long. I boosted my listing as well as reached out to about a dozen sitters to invite them to sit. I’m on the coast of Monterey Bay, so it’s a great location. I have good photos. I don’t understand…
Hi @BethNel and welcome to the forum. Hopefully our forum members will collectively be able to help you find a suitable sitter. My first suggestion is to embed your listing in your forum username/profile. We have some great success stories of homeowners tweaking their listings, based on member feedback, with great success. Hopefully the same will happen for you.
One of the frequent sticking points these days is when an owner tags their listing as ‘sitters need a car’. If that’s the case for your listing, I suggest you reconsider whether it’s essential, or preferred. You limit your sitter pool when you add that restriction, as rental cars are cost-prohibitive for many these days.
I’ll also add a link to a post relating to splitting listings that may be of interest to you.
The sitters are coming back!! It has been slow to start but now it is really picking up. We have some supper sitters booked in for our 2 earliest dates and several for ones I have just put up. Much happier with how things are going. I think that covid has slowed up everywhere and travelling to and from abroad has been fraught with difficulties.
In the meantime its just great news that in a couple of days you’ve seen a turnaround! Happy travels!!
