We have a sit coming up and have had an application which we would be happy to accept. However the sitters can’t let us know if they can go ahead because they have a spare week before our sit and want to fill this before they can commit. Our sit is for 2 weeks.
I’m concerned that their application just sitting there makes it look like it’s us prevaricating and putting other people off applying. Advice please.
If there are others who you like and who want your sit, I’d avoid waiting for this sitter. I’m a sitter and if I have a gap when I’m between sits and I’m far from home, I use Airbnb or a hotel if I really want the sit. If I don’t, then I’ll wait.
If you have five applicants and your sit is paused, eliminate the ones that don’t meet your criteria and repost. If the sitter you like finds a sit for the week in between and you still haven’t found someone, great. But if not, you are taking a risk on someone who is not ready to commit to you.
These don’t sound like reliable sitters. What they are effectively telling you is they’ll take your sit but only if something better doesn’t come along. These are the people that caused THS to prevent double-booking or overlapping sits. This is their workaround. I suspect under the old system they would have taken your sit, looked for something else and if they got it cancelled yours or required you to amend dates to suit them.
I understand waiting for them if you have no other options (and you seem to only have the one application) but personally I think they may be less than reliable. But then I can be a little cynical sometimes.
Have a careful look through their previous reviews for what is being said and also not being said in them.
You have good reviews and are still a couple of months away from your dates. If I saw this as a prospective sit I would think the 1 applicant just wasn’t quite suitable rather than that you couldn’t make up your mind.
That sounds like a reasonable idea from a full-time sitter and I don’t think they will be expecting you to hang around waiting for them.
I would thank them for their application and honesty. Explain your concern about having an application showing for so long on your profile and that you will therefore decline their application for the moment but you are more than happy for them to apply again if/when they can be more certain about the dates of your listing fitting into their schedule
It sound like this might be because of the recent measures against overlapping sits. These sitters want to be able to see any listings for the week that they are free. And maybe apply when there is an overlap of just a day.
I think this reponse from @Colin is a good idea. Or maybe ask them to reach out to you nearer the time. I don’t like this vibe though, as sitters we shouldn’t be stringing people along like that. I agonise over whether to take a sit (for fear of something better coming up!) but I wouldn’t leave someone hanging.
I guess owners do it too. I have two applications who started conversations with me and then stopped replying. One did that a while ago and I found something better in the meantime. I did feel a bit guilty when they finally messaged to ask if I was still up for it.
I would be delighted to tell that to the HO !
(I have an application hanging, for a sit starting two weeks from now. I see that their number of applicants is bouncing up and down. Last thing I heard from them was eleven days ago.)
Lol @pietkuip it was pretty minimal guilt. I more felt awkward to be having the conversation. I also wondered if they’d got ill or had a family emergency but it didn’t sound like it.
Thank you everyone for your good advice. I think the suggestion to reapply later is a very good one so I’m going with that.
If they haven’t accepted, they haven’t accepted. Keep looking for a sitter, and if they come back and are ready to commit then great, but it’s pointless because it sounds like if they had a longer sit offered to them, you’d be dropped straight away.
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