Perhaps I am just venting, but I recently applied for a sit after carefully crafting a message as to why we would be perfect for the sit and our application was declined, without a message. We have 10 five-star reviews which all have comments about our cleanliness, love for pets and friendly nature. We are a female couple, but that has never been an issue before.
I was really surprised as I’ve never had an owner decline without any reason at all. The owner hadn’t even gone to the “reviewing applications” stage.
I’ve sent them a message to say that I can see they’ve declined our application and that I wish them all the best and hope they find another sitter. They didn’t reply to that either.
Is this rude or am I being precious?
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[quote=“masco4, post:1, topic:51812”]
Is this rude or am I being precious?
[/quote] A bit of both. I feel the same but have learnt just to move on.
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They just didn’t feel you were the right fit for them or maybe they didn’t feel connected to your profile for whatever reason. But also just because it hasn’t gone to the ‘reviewing applications’ stage, doesn’t mean they aren’t chatting to previous sitters at the same time, I think that is probably what is happening here. We often have private messages going on with HO’s that no other applicants would be aware of, as we may not have officially applied at that moment, and you can’t really compete with someone who already knows their pets. The HO’s were probably unaware they didn’t have to make their listing public.
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It does happen occasionally and I think it’s rude. Don’t dwell on it though
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What’s meant for us, won’t pass us by. Don’t take it personally, apply for other sits and move on. We have over twenty 5 star glowing reviews. I applied for a lovely looking French Alps sit this weekend, wrote a perfectly crafted message and had the same thing happen. Is it rude for them not to message you? Absolutely but you don’t know what’s going on behind the screen if they didn’t message you so don’t ruminate on it for your own sake.
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Thanks everyone. I do have a tendency to overthink these things. I’ll just move on and focus on the positives 
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This happens to sitters with many more reviews too…
I never quite understand these complaints. And what did you want with this second message? If I was the HO, I would probably feel that that was passive aggressive.
I guess I was expecting a response from the HO - perhaps they didn’t know that declining an application was automatically sent to the applicant.
Having listened to the other responses on this thread, there could be a whole host of valid reasons why the HO did not reply, other than being discourteous. So, all is forgotten on my end.
Whilst I accept it’s time to move on and I intend to do so without dwelling any further on this, I’m not sure why you say you never understand these complaints. I think it’s valid, where you spend time applying for a housesit, to expect or hope that a HO will explain why they rejected your application or at least acknowledge it.
Even if they give a reason, you cannot normally know if it was the real reason. There is no reliable information there.
You got all the information you need: declined. It is better than the applications that linger in limbo until they expire.
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It’s a little rude. I ignore the first one but If I apply again to another time they list and they do it again then they get blacklisted.
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While I do think it’s quite rude - it wouldn’t take much for them to say 'thanks for applying but …" - I’m inclined to agree with @pietkuip that it’s preferable to receive a timely decline than to have an application completely ignored, which happens quite often.
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I used to get offended if that happened to me, but I’ve realised its just the way some folk are. A brief thank you for your application would be nice of course.
I got turned down recently for a fairly local one and was a little bit surprised, then I read through the reviews and it was clear to me that the person preferred someone who was going to work remotely from his home.
It is rude but unfortunately quite common, we’ve been with trusted for 8yrs now and have done around 35 5 star sits, yet we would still apply for sits and not get a ‘thankyou for your appliction’ and also get refusals without a reason, don’t take it personally.
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It’s rude and it happens all the time. There are lots of rude people in the world, we just need to shrug it off and move on but make sure we are not one of those rude people.
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It’s not just HOs who do this.
We’ve sent personalized decline notes to sitters (after THS sends its auto-decline to them) and many of these messages are not responded to.
So, sitters as well as HOs need to at least acknowledge a message. That would be nice.
@KenandMary1998 surely the conversation ends there though? They applied - you declined - what do you expect them to say back?
There’s nothing more to discuss
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@Enjaybee Well, how about, for example, “OK, Thanks!” 
@KenandMary1998 no 
that’s completely unnecessary - where does it end for you?
They’ve sent two messages now and you sent one so you owe them another message back to acknowledge the acknowledgement so it’s even.
What do they owe you thanks for exactly? They applied you responded 
end of interaction.
‘Ok thanks’ serves nothing - you didn’t choose them to sit for you so why do they need to waste another minute of their time for you?
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Actually I think I agree-I don’t mind a decline early on as it’s clear and to the point. I don’t do lingering though as after 24-48 hours I withdraw my application.
