I recently subscribed to THS. I cannot find any way to reach out and communicate with a sitter who has saved my listing. I do not necessarily want to invite the sitter before I get to talk with them, ask questions, see what their plans are, and see if we are compatible. But I can not find any way to make contact with a sitter. Please help!
One suggestion, you have to have a sit posted in order to reach out to a sitter. If you have dates posted, you can reach out to any sitter who has an active account.
I once had someone post a one day sit, contact me, tell me to ignore the dates but it was the only way they could contact me.
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Oh that’s an interesting point. TBH, I’m not sure if the dates they sent me were public or private. But that makes more sense. Thanks.
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I’m confused. I asked the question on this forum as to how to contact sitters. And a number of comments make it sound like it’s obvious, but I cannot find any place on a sitters profile to send a message or otherwise contact them.
Peter Mac, You say that I can even create a false listing which I don’t need to do. I have a live listing. But you have not told me how to contact the sitter. There is no way that I can find to contact the sitter. There’s only an invite button and I don’t want to invite somebody if I haven’t gotten more information about them or connected with them directly. Why doesn’t anyone answer my original question?
Hello @karenamelia and sorry you are finding the process of reaching out to sitters frustrating, so I’m going to try and help and if my answer isn’t sufficient then I will tag MS. Firstly I’m going to split this topic into a new one specifically for your query, as it’s a little different to the original title, which may be confusing those that answer. So I’ll be back with more info in a moment 
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Hi @karenamelia you can only communicate with the sitter by clicking on Invite Sitter on the sitter’s profile. In your message, you can explain you are not inviting them yet but rather you like their profile but would like to communicate a bit more with them if they were interested.
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@temba thank you … in the space of me moving the question you’ve answered it 
@karenamelia when you look at the sitters who have favourited your listing you can click on the sitter and read their profile, then use the INVITE button as temba says. The acceptance of a sit is a 3 part process … you invite, sitter accepts, you accept - so if someone does inadvertently select your sit after you’ve reached out you can still decide not to proceed.
I’m going to also tag @Therese to make sure that we’ve all got this correct and that there aren’t any other options. She’s back online in the forum tomorrow morning. Part of the problem being that you have more answers here from us sitters, who don’t have access to the owner part of the system… so we’ll just make sure we’ve got it all correct. Thanks for your patience. All the best, Vanessa and the forum team.
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We were all doing our best to answer your question but we didn’t have the full information so it wasn’t easy. That’s why I asked the question about having a live listing or not. Hopefully now that the moderators have explained the full process, you will be able to contact the sitters you are interested in and have a conversation.
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Following up on Vanessa’s answer: maybe I’m misunderstanding the “invite” function. I assumed that would be the step I would take after getting a feeling for a sitter’s compatibility through further dialogue. But by inviting them, Is it that I’m inviting them to initiate a conversation?
I’m only a sitter but I do know that when I “apply” for a sit, it’s just an expression off interest and then if the home owner is interested in me, we have a conversation and we each ask questions before we decide if we’re a good fit.
I assume you are trying to contact a sitter who has “favourited” your sit with a heart, but has not actually applied for it?
If so, you can “invite” them to the sit and start a similar conversation. Tell them up front you are wondering if they are available for your dates, and that if so, you have some questions for them to see if they are a good match. There is no obligation to accept a sitter who isn’t a good match, nor is there an obligation for them to accept a sit if their questions aren’t answered to their satisfaction.
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Hi @karenamelia when you are inviting a sitter, you are “inviting them to apply” not to be your guaranteed sitter. I know the language can be hard to understand. Some homeowners will invite 20, 30, 40, or even more sitters to apply to their listing as there is no guarantee that the sitter is available and interested in sitting for you.
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Some very good points there, Peter. I agree.
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@karenamelia To confirm, as a Homeowner, once you have looked at a sitter’s profile and you would like to chat further, you would Invite the sitter (this is the only way to get in touch) This is not a confirmation by any means, just an open discussion to chat and see if you are both the right fit. Once you decide to confirm, you would confirm the sit on your side, and only once the sitter Accepts the sit on their side, will it be a confirmed sit that appears on your dashboard. You can then share your Welcome Guide with them.
I hope that helps and please let me know if you have any questions, as always happy to help.
Kind regards
Therese
Kelownagirl, that is such helpful advice. Thank you.
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Very interesting @BunnyCat
Was the direct message received here on the forum, or on the THS website/app directly to your inbox?
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Hi @BunnyCat Therese is offline now but I’m tagging @Therese for when she comes online a little later, so she can look into this for you and see if she can see how you got this outcome.
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This makes the original question very clear. I just recrived an invite to sit and was worried about accepting it thinking I am immediately committed to the sit. But by your explanation its an opportunity to start dialogue about the sit.
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Got you… I understood you wanted to know how you sent a message without an invite and hopefully MS team can check that in your account for you. If we know how you did it we can share with others Many thanks
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I just sent this text to two sitters I applied for a couple weeks ago, thanks to the input on this forum.
"Good morning.
I hope you had time to check out our application for the house/pet sit you posted on Trusted Housesitters.
We know deciding on the best fit is tricky, and some owners like to wait until they receive several applicants before deciding.
In our case we receive invites from homeowners and in this case received an invite from a homeowner that overlaps the dates you posted.
Would you be so kind to let us know the status of your house/petsitter posting?
Thank you for your time,
Russell Mann
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