You could offere to cover part or all of the flight if it would be cheaper than sending our animals to a boarder or paying someone local. Offering a car, local train ticket or passes. There are more people who want a sitter than there are sitters available so some kind of consession might work in your favor. Then you might also be able to find a larger demographics of sitters that meet your needs. I can stay at a hostel in most countries for under $20 a day and they tend to be close to everything and are clean and safe. Saving money on logdging might not be a big enough factor for someone to choose a sit or location. If I stay at a local hostel I have no commitments and I can move on at my leisure. Staying at someones home taking care of animals and a home is work.
@Chamel
I understand your reluctance with the fee when you are on a tight budget- same here! But we’ve found that the first weekend Sit you do pretty much covers the annual fee -in terms of overnights saved. There are so many Sits available on THS especially in the UK its absolutely worth joining. There are 3 levels of membership- just choose the cheapest one- you don’t need the extras. We’ve done 42 sits over the last 3 years and this year since December we’ve found ourselves fulltime sitting! Literally only 5 airbnb overnight costs in the last 9 months!! Massive savings and great adventures! Go for it!!
My trip is in a month and so far I’ve gotten two listing saves but no apps to sit. I really don’t want to cancel this trip, I haven’t seen friends/family in just over 3 years now. I leave on 9/7 and back on 9/17. Starting to stress a bit over this. Boarding the cats is not an option as it would cost me over $1000. I’ve thought about shortening the length of my trip so that is an option. Of the two people that saved my listing, one is for sure not available for this sit and the other hasn’t replied to my email of a couple days ago yet. I’m about 15 min outside the MN Twin Cities area. Any advice or anyone interested would be greatly appreciated. There is construction on my street right now that I’m concerned is putting people off.
Hello Pommiegran,
As a new sitter to THS, my advice is to give new sitters a try. You will get a sitter, they will get experience and a review. It’s a win-win. We all go through the background and ID check and have character references. Give us a try.
Leniece
I can assure you that we have given new sitters a try: twice last year we had new sitters but neither were available for our holiday dates this year, and no other new sitters applied!
After two cancellations (one lady thought her dog wouldn’t like my youngest child after nearly a month of us confirming the sit), we finally have some lined up. I have really liked the people we have house sit for. Personalities have been amazing and considerate.
The pets have been beautiful and a pleasure to look after.
We have one near the beach this month (thank goodness!) and another next month, that is not too far away as we do like localised sits.
As my footy team is definitely in the finals, I am hoping we can go see them so hoping someone has a house sit around the time we go! Family Friendly lol This means going “interstate” hopefully.
Hi @rmichele! What a bunch of cuties you have there and the Minneapolis/MN area is just beautiful that time of the year! I think you will be okay with a month out for a sit, but I do have a couple of suggestions that might help. If you changed out your profile front pic to show one of those adorable candid photos of your kitties, I think you might attract a little more interest. That way, a potential sitter can see exactly what fun they are going to be in with them. Also, I see you don’t have your member profile linked to your forum profile. By doing so, if someone is reading your forum request, they can jump right over to see all your info without too hard of a search. If you follow the link How to add a listing or profile link to your FORUM profile it will be very easy to do so.
Good luck!
I’d like to swap out my cover photo as you suggest. I can’t see how to go about doing that.
Hi we advertised unsuccessfully for a sitter. I understand that not everyone will get a successful arrangement, but would be interested to know the percentages of those offering their homes get an arranged sitter.
I suspect that would be difficult to determine unless homeowners had to fill in some kind of response form explaining why they are rescinding or changing a set of dates every time they do it. Just counting the sits that are rescinded wouldn’t really give an accurate picture since there are other reasons for that to happen.
Hi
I always make sure i can make people aware about transport etc, i would have no worries about leaving a car for our sitters, if it is avaiable .
Hope your having a great time sitting, feel free to take a mooch at my profile for my 2 sphynx babies for sept time
Hi @Jan24 If you want members to look at your listing, you will need to embed it into your forum username/profile
Struggling to find sitters for this year, tried 4 times and nothing, pay alot of money but thinking is it worth it, anyone else struggling to find sitters
@Jan24 You posted this 12 days ago. Forum members probably cannot find your listing based on that amount of information. I then replied, suggesting you embed your listing on your forum username/profile. I will again make that information available. Many forum members are happy to assist you. Owners often have success directly based on input from forum members.
Hi
I didn’t post anything again, I made a topic for struggling to find sitters, for the whole of this year, and what is the point of paying so much if there’s no sitters.
@Jan24 I see the point you were making now. My point would be that owners need to maximize the use of what is available to them, which includes the experience and constructive advice that forum members bring to the forum.
When owners are open to suggestions and implement ideas that they may think won’t make a difference, they often do and they are successful in their searches. Those who are resistant to change are less likely to be successful.
I don’t know what your approach was with the listings where you are mentioning dissatisfaction, but it does appear at least that you did not fully utilize what is available to you on the forum. Of course that’s your choice, but as you’ve seen it can mean less than desirable outcomes.
We have all - sitters and owners - had to adjust to changing conditions. We’ve often had to think outside the box. Yes, some owners are ‘struggling to find sitters’, but there are still many sitters available and looking for sits. Hence the reason to maximize all options available to everyone.
Where can I find your listing and what country are you in?
Yes, I’ve given up! Cancelled the renewal of my membership having been a satisfied member for many years but unable to find any sitters this year!
As a sitter, I’ve noticed it seems to be pretty black and white when it comes to sits: some seem to have no applications whereas others are inundated. I think location and length of sit are a couple of factors that determine this. Areas that are appealing to tourists seem to be popular (Edinburgh, London), as are sits several weeks in length. Obviously, it makes it a bit tricky if your sit doesn’t fit these criteria.
It might be useful to contact sitters via their profiles who are fairly local and introduce yourself/ ask if they might be available. I have an upcoming sit that did just this. You might be able to find someone not too far away who could then do subsequent sits. A lady I sit regularly for advertised on this site last year when I was booked but couldn’t find anyone and so I believe changed her plans. Now we kind of work around each other, which suits us both well. Maybe some home owners like having different people each time, coming from further afield, but I would personally prefer to have the assurance and regularity of a local person who could do repeat sits, if you are able to find them!
I am sorry you did not find a sitter. We are located in Canada and our travel plans were thrown in to disarray more than once with COVID, air travel problems, etc. It made it virtually impossible to get to the UK in a reason manner at one point. It seems to me that things will stabilize at some point. I hope you did manage to find an option to allow you to get away.