HO, if you always wait 48 hours to be sure that you get the best fit, then your best fit might be gone when you turn around and try to confirm them.
It’s courtesy to tell them that you will wait two days to decide.
Personally, the system feels off balance by this point, and it’s no longer respectful of your applicant sitters.
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If you read what I wrote, I’m not waiting for the best fit. I’m waiting to complete my commitments to applicants. The timeline is set by the applicants themselves based on their availability. I’m aware of the risk I’m taking but, in truth, we’ve always had multiple applicants for each sit that were good fits. Our approach has worked well for our first 15 sits so …
@Silversitters confirming the other sitter was not the main point. What I disliked mainly was the way he (in retrospect) strung us along all day- from instant enthusiastic first response to arranging a call at a particular time (which he did not honour), then not checking his messages or responding promptly, missing the call time etc yet still expecting us to want to sit for him another time. It all felt a bit entitled.
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I can’t stand this. I am in this position right now - waiting for confirmation after a very good interview, and texting that it was a go. Now, I have made flight, car, and other plans but am getting excuses on the delay of the confirmation. I feel like I need to say something like - “hey, our convo was great, and I’m really looking forward to the plan. However, without confirmation, I don’t know how serious you are and I’ve gone ahead and made arrangements” The excuses don’t track because being away from computer…nonsense if they have a phone to text me, they can hit the confirm button on the app. How to say this nicely?
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yeah, lots of red flags here. I’d have passed.
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There’s no requirement to say it nicely simply be assertive and clear. Let them know this:
‘Hi there I’m afraid due to your delay in confirming I’m unable to keep these dates free for you so I plan tomorrow to apply for other sits which I’m sure you’ll understand.’
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thank you for being considerate.
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@tortimom they sound dodgy, like they are still not 100% sure of you and still keeping their options for others. You say you’ve already made travel plans but hopefully you have not actually paid for flights. Untill you hit ‘confirm’ the sit is not yours. You need to be assertive here (if you still want to sit for procrastinators) and tell them that until they invite you formally you’ll continue actively looking for other sits
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@tortimom
Are these hosts new to THS ?
If so they maybe don’t know that they need to confirm and then you need to accept for it to be a done deal . The four stage process to confirm a sit is not intuitive for everyone . In the past we have had to guide some new hosts through the process of confirming a sit .
If these are experienced hosts then there’s no excuse for stringing you along - maybe they are uncertain about their travel plans given world events- but if that’s the case they should be keeping you informed.
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@Silversitters I only just said today to another member, how hard it must be for a new homeowner to figure everything out. It’s like, join up and figure things out as you go. I think there should be much more in depth “training” for new members to understand the processes.
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Some simple videos would go along way to help with that .
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Some people are actually busy for real. Not everyone on this platform is retired.
@Silversitters that is my thoughts exactly 
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Being retired and not being busy do not go hand in hand
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Most retired people I know wonder how they ever had time to work 
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Some retired people in Spain use a humorous made up word: “jubiliado”, which is the addition of jubilado + liado, that is retired + busy, implying that retired people tend to get involved in lots of activities.
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If the homeowner didn’t find five minutes to confirm me within 48 hours then I’d realize that I’m not a priority at all. However, my gut would tell me their excuse was unreasonable and unlikely to be true. Time to move on to more respective hosts. Their loss. 
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When I have played the waiting game for a sit I wanted, I have a “form” response that reads “Although I was hoping to be chosen for your sit, I understand one size does not fit all, and you might have chosen someone else. If you have made another choice, I understand. Just let me know so I can free up those dates.”
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Actually yes, retired people are often the busiest of all, which means they might not have a chance to reply speedily!
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But then they may miss out on their preferred sitter . Even with paid sitters you need to book them promptly or someone else will book them for the dates you need .
My advice to busy hosts is to wait until you have enough time to properly review and respond promptly to sitter applications before posting dates.
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