What’s the best etiquette when applying for sits? I’d like to fill my calendar as much as possible, which means applying to multiple gigs. If host “A” hasn’t gotten back to me yet, is it appropriate for me to apply to host “B” if the dates are the same?
In this situation, if both accepted me I’d have to decline one of them, but I don’t want to create a false impression that I’m applying for sits that I am unavailable for. I just don’t know how long I should wait to hear whether I have been accepted, before applying at overlapping sits. Thanks for your help on this!
Apply for as many as you want. Overlaps are fine. You’re not obligated to any host till you’ve mutually agreed that there’s a fit. And even then, you want to make sure they extend the sit and you accept it on THS. If it’s officially offered to you, you’ll get a notification of that and you have to click that you accept before it’s official. Then it will show up on your THS dashboard as an upcoming sit for you. Without that, there’s no commitment.
Don’t wait! Just apply to anything and everything that suits you for your available dates! You will soon see that some hosts will respond immediately inviting further contact some will respond but keep you hanging on, others will decline you- with or without- comment and some will not bother to respond at all or even read your application!
You have no idea- when applying- what- if any -response you will get! So- ALWAYS- think of yourself and your needs first and everything will fall into place!
It’s not considered impolite, but it may be a pain in the neck for perfectly nice homeowners. I recently had an experience where I was NOT chosen by two sitters that I had videochatted with and offered the sit to. In both cases, they told me that they were also looking at other sits that had better dates for them in a similar location. One of them told me she wouldn’t hear about the other sit for several days and understood if I needed to keep looking until she could let me know. Experienced pet parents on this site know that it’s best to lock in a good sitter quickly, and try to have one or two possible back ups in case the sitter winds up refusing.
THS seems to have had more sits than sitters since I joined in February. I think some hosts are drawing on past experience (when there were fewer listings) and don’t realize that they should move quickly.
One for example messaged me that she’d be reviewIng applications over “the next few days.” I was the only applicant for sitting her reactive dog and she said she worked full time so hadn’t yet had time to look at what I’d written. I told her thanks and withdrew. Why: It’s pretty easy to get sits quickly from other hosts, who know to not let things linger.
I typically withdraw within 24-36 hours of applying if the host hasn’t replied with interest. Most sits aren’t unique — there are usually others that sound just as good. And I’m not a full-time nomad trying to string a bunch of sits together. Most sitters are like me — sitting is optional and I could go to many places at a given time, or I could just relax at home.