A recent experience has left me pondering… what do HOs mean or what are they thinking when they say they were too busy for 48 hours after a video call (that went very well) to confirm me as their sitter which resulted in me assuming they had other options… and so I confirmed another arrangement with overlapping dates. I cancelled my application and let them know I had other plans now and wished them well. This prompted an immediate response indicating they’d definitely wanted me as their sitter but had been ‘too busy’ to confirm. When they didn’t confirm immediately I’d assumed they were speaking with others and that’s ok I thought I’ll hear one way or the other the next day, but nothing…48 hours passed and that’s a lot of life if you’re retired! I’m constantly juggling dates/arrangements and trips. Sitters are busy too! Anyway just pondering out loud….
Strange - surely by that stage they only need to press a button.
I would have assumed the same as you — either they don’t feel we’re the right fit or they’re considering other options.
We had a similar experience once when a host asked to meet in person. We met the pets, had a full tour, and spent time chatting over tea about their lives, family, and travels. As we left, they said they’d get back to us in a week to let us know if they had chosen us!!
They did choose us in the end, but it was the only one of our 40+ sits that resulted in a four-star review.
All our other sits have been confirmed straight after the video call. So now, if a host doesn’t confirm promptly after a call, it’s a bit of a red flag 
for us and we’d probably move on
Had this happen a few times with one particular host getting their knickers in a twist over it. My thoughts is that you (the host) are never too old to learn life lessons. You snooze….you lose.
They snooze, they lose.
Yes and possibly they had doubts which is ok… but in 48 hours I also started to have doubts…. making me feel a bit less committed to the sit and making another nice arrangement take priority. It’s an interesting psychological shift for me, if the HO doesn’t confirm within a few hours…
We an experience once, early on, where we had a video call and the husband asked too many rather invasive questions e.g Since you are not working how will you be spending your spare time? etc- things not related to pet/house care. It felt like a job interview. Whilst we did not feel 100% comfortable the sit was a good fit- dates & location wise- for us so we all tentatively agreed. They said they’d confirm after the call. They did not. Nor did they confirm the next day so by the afternoon we decided to withdraw as it all felt a bit off anyway. Red flags! We explained our reasons for withdrawing. The day after that they finally sent the Invitation to Sit! We declined without further comment.
I think some HOs don’t quite understand the ethos of THS. Maybe they think that there is some pool of potential sitters just waiting around for a call to action.
I’ve had this experience a couple of times, and it was with new HOs. Hopefully they have come to understand the exchange better by now.
I had a first just last week. I applied for a sit. They had a few pages of good reviews. They were younger and my personal observation here is that PP usually choose people from their own generation if they can. I was application number 4. The next day it went into review. I get an email from the husband that said we really like your application and reviews and everything looks good. Can we schedule a phone call in a day or two. He then said he is out of town working but his wife will call me who has a home office to schedule. Two days later my email says can we schedule a phone call the next day and we arranged a time for the call. The call never came on the scheduled time. 20 minutes after the call was to take place I emailed and said I thought we had a scheduled call at 1. I left for the movies to meet a friend . Checked emails that night and they said, sorry, neighbor had a flat tire and was helping him. My thoughts, it takes two minutes to text and reschedule. I did not have their number at this point. Then she said I will probably be available tomorrow. I then knew I was withdrawing my application. I don’t like game players. Then the husband emails me and says to please call him and gives me his number. Says he is available. I decided to call as by now I am just curious how they will handle the phone call. It went into voice mail and I did leave a message. Two hours later with no return phone call I withdrew. When I withdrew they took it out of reviewing and opened it up again. Two days later it said no sitter needed.
‘Too busy’ to click a button? Please. I believe that this signifies an imbalance - that the HO thought you needed them more than they needed you. By proceeding with another sit, you proved them wrong. But I doubt they will be insightful about that.
In this case they’d had many sitters and were indeed sitters themselves which is why it was so puzzling…but actually in the past I’ve had friends like this who valued their own time over mine and could never commit to making firm arrangements or would agree to date/time then turn up late or cancel last minute. The opposite of this is a HO I’m due to sit for in June- organised, good at scheduling, respectful of my diary etc as I am of theirs…we planned a meetup to go over the house/garden stuff in advance of the sit as they’ve got a very early start on the day. It took 3 mins of texts to agree a date/time- job done and move on. So I think it’s maybe a character trait…
I proceeded with agreeing to a nice trip to Bath to meet up with old Uni mates as one of them who lives in Bath is finally retiring. It’s tricky finding mutual dates between retired folks as everyone is mega busy having a great life plus finding an Airbnb etc - and the only dates we could all do overlapped with this sit- so I thought what the heck the HOs are not bothered to confirm and cancelled. I think it’s actually about respect, respecting that my time is just as valuable as theirs despite me no longer having a career… 40 years was enough 
Yes!! My motto (well, one of them) is ‘My time has value’
You could send them a message and ask very politely to confirm.
I did consider this but the WhatsApp chat about the Bath trip was already ‘in play’ so there was parallel stuff going on. I was avoiding those dates until it became obvious my Bath trip could only happen on the overlapping dates. If the HOs had already confirmed I would’ve honoured the sit dates and Bath would’ve been pushed forward a month or two maybe? Look this is simple diary etiquette, so I do think it’s more a character thing and an early red flag.
Applied for a long sit, great location, pool and car included, 5 days later, still hadn’t been read, the hubby said cancel it, as it was so desirable, I said just one more day. The next morning got a message, can we have a phone call today? Had the phone call and sit confirmed within the hour. I would only wait that long for a very desirable sit though.
They’re probably busy ending the wars or world hunger
One thing I’ve learned as a host, at the end of the video call I ask the sitter if we were to offer the sit to you, how much time do you need to decide? If they say immediately, I tell them I will send the confirmation after our video call. If they say anything other than immediately, an hour to a day, I know they decided they don’t want the sit for whatever reason.
It’s taken us a couple of days to extend an invitation to a sitter we’d settled on. It happens when we receive multiple good applications and were working through our choices. We have never received an application from any sitter that locked them in as our slam dunk choice; it’s always taken a video chat to get us there. With multiple chats arranged with multiple applicants, when a chat reveals who we’ll go with, we’re faced with either extending an invitation before all chats have been completed or wait. It seems to us a common courtesy to follow through with commitments we’ve made so we’ve always waited. So we’ve definitely been too busy for 48+ hours during the course of things.
If they’re too busy to confirm, it means it wasn’t a clear fit, so I’d move on.