Good luck! I’m fortunate as NYC is not on my list of preferred sits. The popular U.S. cities are competitive. I’m sure with persistence you’ll land something. As a U.S. citizen that’s the last place I’d choose, but I can see it’s popularity.
I am pretty savvy with my applications and have a compelling profile. But you need to see the opportunity in order to apply for it. There are either very few NYC sits or they go in minutes.
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Set your search alerts for just “New York, NY,” and then turn off your phone at night because about every hour a new sit, or a sit that has just deleted sitter applications will appear with a buzz on your phone. You have to send a one liner message and apply and then write a proper letter to follow- or else you’ll miss the 5 applications limit and be frozen out. This often happens in under 5 minutes in NYC.
Though I love NYC, don’t feel too bad for missing out. I have found more “red flag sits”there than anywhere else, and I have loads of experience with animals and NYC. it’s often the “no review” sits or new to the platform ones, which are the majority, but on occasion, I have walked into a glowingly reviewed sit to find a filthy mess or a really unsafe building in a gentrified area ( afternoon knifing at the subway the first day of my sit, and another at the other subway station a week later.)
If you apply for some, and have gotten strange ghosting or just a weird run around from someone who interviewed you but didn’t select you, check back on their profile in a few weeks- you will see that some that were playing games are “no longer active.” They may have been reported and removed.
I’ve found interviewing for NYC sits more like job interviews with a hostile workplace with lots and lots of personal questions about where exactly you work, how long you’ve been there and why you seem discontent with your current position. What does that have to do with your list of exceptional reviews for pet care? Nothing. Some people just really love to bully sitters, unfortunately.
Really look at the sits that remain available as they often have dogs that need to be walked every two to three hours, or you’ll later learn that they can’t be left alone ever. Impossible for you to do much personal exploration when you can’t even take the subway and see something and be back before the pet needs another walk.
There are also sits that seem awesome but if you take note, they are ones that have reappeared because they keep interviewing people, make you feel like they are “the one” and they are just interviewing one more person because they are already scheduled for an interview but they really want you (yada yada yada!) all so you wait and don’t apply for other sits, and then they delete a couple applications and get a couple new applications…over and over for weeks trying to keep you on “the hook” forever.
Type lots of questions on the THS platform so that you have a record of some of their responses to things like location, pet medications and safety. It’s good to have a record of their words in case they need to be reported later. See if you can get at least the name of the nearest couple of nearby subway stations and see what the commute time into the city is. I write a question about location (if it is vague in the ad) to the host immediately before you get too invested.
Keep in mind that there can also be a 20 minute walk to the station. New Yorkers are notorious with pretending that their place is only 2o minutes away from midtown when they are trying to rent out an apartment or to get a sitter for free.
It is possible to get good NYC sits, but if you sense that something is off, go with your gut. You deserve to feel valued and appreciated.
Update, it’s in reviewing now. Titled
Modern Manhattan riverfront
NYC sit up now… Cats , summer, . Im not applying for this one because of other plans. Act fast!
Must be gone now.
Very confused. There is a Queens sit up right now. No not Manhattan but the same city. Easy subway access. Plus Brooklyn and others. I don’t know what happens when other people do this, but I get area sits and have to cull for the ones that are actually New York City – or darn close – Hoboken, Jersey City, Fort Lee in New Jersey, plus all the boroughts of the city including Brooklyn, versus distant suburbs and towns. But overall there are a few. (I live in NYC and am not sitting there. Just trying to see what’s happening.)
As others have noted, NY sits are popular - like other big cities. I’ve had 1 completed sit with a pair of cats near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, 1 offer in the Bronx that I had to turn down because I had another offer that I’d already taken, and 1 sit near Gramercy Park that was cancelled 2 months out when the dog died. I’ve also had 4 sits in and around London, a bunch in Portland and in Seattle. You just have to keep trying.
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@Petstuff @systaran @anon42826925
I can currently see at least 2 NYC sits that are actually NYC
(10 mins from Times Square )
Search for NYC and sort by distance .
I’ve done four sits in NYC without being a full time NYC-based sitter, so it is possible! I was based upstate at the time which I think was attractive because people knew we didn’t have far to come. Although one of them we went to straight after flying halfway round the world so it doesn’t seem like a deal breaker. I will say - barring one of the sits which was a dream - the others all had pretty significant issues and I probably wouldn’t repeat them.
10 minutes from Times Square could literally be in NJ. Most iconic neighborhoods in NY are more than 10 minutes from Times Square (unless maybe you run red lights and it’s 5 AM.)
The mapping issue with THS is problematic. It won’t give you any sense of how close a neighborhood – if named, is to the center of things. A petparent saying 20 minutes to Times Square for instance, might mean from New Jersey once you actually get on the bus to the Port Authority (Times Square) and once you are there another 10 minutes to navigate until you are either on the street or subway. A Brooklyn neighborhood “adjacent” to Park Slope might or might not be a 20 minute walk to the subway and 50 minutes to Times Square – still very much “real” NYC.
I do get wanting to be in NYC when you are in NYC, but between the time you apply for a sit, and the time you’re accepted for the sit, you can get more precise location info from the pet parent, scope out the neighborhood on a map and figure out if it will work for you. NYC is big enough and each area distinctive enough that just staying in one neighborhood isn’t going to give you a real feel for things or allow you to see the sites.
Thanks @Marion these both were located in H*ll’s Kitchen Manhattan according to the listing.
Couldn’t post the word “H*ll “
….
I did see one that wants the sitter to arrive at 3am !
H*ll’s Kitchen is the only residential neighborhood that is honestly 10 minutes away from Times Square. And really great if going to see Broadway shows is a big priority.
I read that one! I was actually looking at NYC sits for this thread. I was tempted to apply just to tell the pet parent – hey there is a better way to say this. What the petparent wanted was someone who could pick up the keys (and I’m guessing meet the dog) the night before but stay elsewhere and get there early enough for a morning walk – which is understandable. But I don’t know why they didn’t just say that! This could be someone local, someone on an NYC sit, or someone willing to stay at a friend’s or hotel the night before.
My last sit in my home, the sitter stayed at a friend’s and picked up the keys the night before. I would’ve been fine with leaving the keys with a neighbor, but this was better. Next sit, they’re flying in as planned the night before and staying at a hotel, but probably easier to leave keys with a neighbor. These things can usually be worked out if not set up as some weird impossible seeming condition.
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I lived on the Upper West Side in the late 80s-early 90s. The name fit back then.
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A lot has changed. For a while maybe even when you were here, real estate developers redubbed the neighborhood “Clinton” but it didn’t stick and maybe due the to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Hel’s Kitchen is now back. It’s fine. But so many places are fine and the city is not falling apart. It’s also really recovered from the pandemic. One issue for sure with sitters is that very few people have the space to put you up the evening before so I would recommend that anyone thinking of sitting should be prepared stay elsewhere for a day or before. With the new Airbnb restrictions, that would probably be a homestay as the paid guest of the people who live there, a hotel, or a friend’s couch.
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I stay at Casablanca if their rates are reasonable.
And , unfortunately, almost all the NYC hotels charge a resort fee of $25 - $45 a night . If you are lucky enough to get a NYC sit, one night at a hotel is often necessary . Nap NYC is a budget option but I haven’t tried it. Basically it’s a sleep pod.