Appropriate wait time to hear back from and owner for a sit

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
26

Hi @catdad1. Some thoughts in no particular order:

  1. You said you asked an admin. Do you mean a moderator on the forums? Angela suggested you contact Membership Services: support@trustedhousesitters.com. Definitely do that if you haven’t.

  2. It’s surprising to me how often I’ve read about communication changes on these forums, but it definitely happens.

    1. For example, here’s a topic from Thanksgiving:
      Need advice re: unresponsive confirmed sitter

      The HO hadn’t heard anything for a month, even though they’d tried multiple channels. However, Membership Services was able to contact the potential sitter, and the sitter than contacted the HOs again.

      Note that I asked for clarity on what actually happened, but the HO never replied.

    2. Then there’s this one:
      Sitters not responding

      Here, the HO also lost contact with a potential sitter. Turns out the HO had somehow blocked the sitter’s number?!

    3. And of course, there’s all the busyness of the holidays. Or life in general.

  3. The number of 5-star reviews you would think is a good measure. But while searching I ran into this topic:
    My Sitter Was Going to Be A No Show - #30 by AllTheFerretsDied

    Here, a sitter with 12+ reviews, all 5 stars, is described as canceling a sit and then blocking the HO to avoid arguing. Of course, if that ever happens to you, please report the sitter to Membership Services, then go from there.

  4. If you link your listing to your forum profile, it’ll help everyone understand more in the long run. And once you do it, you’ll never have to update it. Instructions are here:
    How to add a listing or profile link to your FORUM profile

  5. Is the sitter using the app or the website? On my last sit, the HO commented about some app issues, so we just used texts to communicate the whole time. I feel like the app can be a bit glitchy, especially on Android. But many sitters use the app to get notifications.

  6. You could try to hedge your bets: If your listing is blocked from more applicants (can’t tell as I can’t see it yet…), then you could send a polite message to the sitter and unconfirm them, then unpause your listing. I’d like to think the sitter would understand what you’re doing and if it’s simply a miscommunication, they’ll let you know and you can re-confirm them, if you want. In the meantime, you can accept other applications. And also ask for listing help on the forums (feedback on improvement, etc.)

Best of luck! Keep us in the loop!