A link to the thread where members were asked to vote on what term should be used
@Silversitters Thanks! It was very conclusive!
Thanks for your insight everyone. We have always done video chats with potential sitters, but until recently, lived in a remote “destination” location, so there were often questions on both sides before agreeing to a sit. Now that we have moved back to the suburbs of a major city, I feel like I’m getting different types of applicants than previous, and this one really caught me off guard. Good to know that it was the exception rather than the rule, and there are still sitters who feel comfortable with a video call before being offered a sit.
that’s ridiculous! I literally just had a video chat with a potential sitter yesterday and they’re the one who offered! I think you are completely in the right for wanting to “meet” the strangers who will be living in your home and caring for your babies. I think it’s shady if someone doesn’t want to oblige.
As sitters,we like video calls, and enjoy getting to know each other a bit, and having a more thorough understanding of the sit.
If we are presently on a sit, we find a neutral area, or outside space to talk, so that the current homeowners home is not shared, for privacy reasons.
I don’t think there would ever be a reason we would say no, unless cell signal was terrible, but then we would drive somewhere to have a better connection.
As a sitter, I would actually not be comfortable accepting a sit without a video call. Hosts who are open to this means that they are hosts who are also willing to show you their home and pets prior to your committing to the sit. I say right in my application that I look forward to setting up a video call. That said, I have been turned down for a sit by someone who lived in a very attractive location (she was quite young) and perhaps she was hoping for someone in her age range (I am retired). That one DID feel like she wanted to see what the applicants looked like, as she did not have too many questions for me and did not seem very interested in discussing any details about her pets or place. At the end of the call (less than 5 minutes) she mentioned that she had set up a couple of other video calls and she would get back to me. Felt like I had failed some sort of test I didn’t know I was taking! Oh well.