Hi Everyone !
I am a new sitter and have my first sit coming up in January and I’m very excited! This was always something I wanted to do but was never able due to work commitments. Now I am travelling I am looking for sits all over SEA, I have saved loads of sits to be notified when they become available but my question is:
There seem to be a lot of sits that are already in review before I’ve even seen them come up? Is there a very short window to apply? Even the ones I have saved to be notified are already in review? I check every day to see if there are new sits so I feel like I would be online but just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience?
Its an unfortunate result of the 5 application pausing function. Search for pausing applications and there are over 1000 comments. There is a whole thread on its unpopularity. If you are in a different time zone to the sit its almost impossible to apply for popular destinations unless you stay up all night. We have given up on our plans to sit in New York next spring as we are currently travelling in India and many of our alerts have already reached the limit by the time we can access them.
Hi @Jayne - if you save sits on the App you will be notified much quicker than if you are saving them on the website - giving you a better chance to apply before they go to ‘reviewing’
If you see one you like apply immediately, even if it is just to say that you can’t apply now but will very soon - it’s the fastest finger first - you have to be very quick since the new 5 application rule was implemented.
Hi Tim,
Thank you ! I didn’t realise there was a 5 limit application rule so this makes a lot of sense. I will take a look at the thread you mentioned. Such a pity you have given up on New York - another dream destination of mine. I will keep trying !
Hi @Colin - this is a great tip thank you - I had been saving all on the website. Like I said to @Timshazz I had no idea about the 5 application rule - I will need to be faster!
Thank you!
Welcome, @Jayne! FYI here is also the note on pausing from the TH site:
It’s true that a new sitter wouldn’t know about this until they ran into it indirectly. I guess TH could communicate that better.
Also, does SEA = Seattle? Southeast Asia? Southeast Africa?
On a side note to @Timshazz: I’m sorry NY prospects haven’t been good/timely. I know you’re super experienced, but have you tried rotating your listed location, and heading your profile with a plea to be invited privately?
I see that you’re looking for sits in 2023 in at least 4 regions, so maybe you could just keep rotating your listed location each day/night, plus the header/intro paragraph? My understanding is that when we edit our profiles, it bumps it on the listed sitter search. And you have so many reviews. If any NY HO/PP is looking for a sitter, then there’d be a good chance they’d see you and might invite you to sit.
Or you could also simply ask them to contact you somehow, so you’d be connected. You get the gist. The point is to make it easy for them to find and contact you, since you can’t do the opposite. (I’m a huge fan of quality sleep!)
This has happened to us many times. It’s a result of the very unpopular 5 applications only decision. Not quite sure who it’s meant to benefit. All of our saved favourites are “reviewing applications” by the time we get to see them. Very discouraging to say the least.
We purposely changed our local to India because we were getting too many invites in Europe for christmas and would love to be invited for the very rare ones that come up here or in the region (up until April when we hoped to go back to the UK via NY.) Yes we are experienced and highly rated. Hence the double frustration for this new ruling. We shouldn’t have to play the system. We all should have an opportunity to apply for sits wherever they are until the Home owner feels they have enough applicants.
Hi @geoff.hom !
Thank you - I meant South East Asia but seeing now that is a little unclear. Jumping on your advice for @Timshazz and going to try a few of those tips !
Welcome to the forum I see our members have been very helpful in sharing tips on how to help get your application seen/sent in the region you are interested. You may also find it helpful to add your listing to your forum profile.