Hi Everyone, fairly new to TrustedHousesitters. Can I ask if someone can Invited you, tell you to accept, then pick someone else? I thought I had agreed a sit, but I got a text yesterday saying “Sorry! I have now found the perfect sitter for me!” I’m a bit perplexed. Any guidance would be helpful, as this kind of stuff messes up plans, especially as I’m going nomad in a few days.
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Hi @catsitter and firstly welcome to the forum and to TrustedHousesitters … great to see you underway with your house sit adventures!
I’ve just had a quick look at your account and it looks like you are on a sit now with 2 more booked through to 21st August. Is it one of these next 2 sits you are talking about? Let me know and it might be we need to refer you to membership services for a deeper look into what’s happened.
Hi Vanessa! Those housesits are hopefully set in stone (fingers crossed). I had a 22nd Aug - 14th Sept, which is what i’m mentioning in my post. But its been given to another sitter now
It sounds as if you were too slow to actually confirm the sit? If so, unfortunately that is the way it goes. Always remember that there are often multiple sitters chasing the same sit, so, a quick response time is vital to seal the deal
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If they have confirmed you then this is not OK at all. We have received lots of invitations in the past and some HOs are just inviting loads of sitters at the same time (just like some sitters are applying to multiple sits), so just the invitation would not guarantee anything for us.
Id definately flag the HO because its not very good manners at all.
To me once a sit is agreed its agreed. If it needs to be changed due to circumstance then its for one to explain to the other, its just plain manners and common decency to me.
Sadley not everyone realises this, though i believe most do.
Let membership look into it. On the plus side there are many more sitter opportunities, so you should be able to pick another sit.
Though ive just read again and maybe you didnt confirm the sit?
If its accidental id just move on.
It’s difficult to know the scenario of how it occurred without a timeline. I know it can be very confusing when you are new to the process, on either the sitter side or HO side. Did they verbally agree to have you sit, then there was a delay in receiving the notice of acceptance. Or was there a delay by you on accepting by hitting the appropriate confirmation button on the email? Hope it all gets sorted out.
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Thanks for clarifying and you’ve had some good insight from members which might have provided your answers. If you do want this followed up by membership services let me know and we’ll pass this over to them for you. There are lots of sits on line so hopefully you’ll find something to replace this one quickly 
Looking back at the events, I think I didn’t realise that HOs can invite multiple sitters at once, I thought HO sent an invite once you’d both agreed. I think that I was slow to login and accept as I thought it was a done deal. This is a learning experience for me. However, I am feeling a bit concerned I can’t see anything suitable from 21 August onwards at this point.
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@catsitter
If it was a sit that you applied for and received an acceptance then I think it’s wrong that it was then given to someone else. I was not aware that an owner could do this.
If, however, it was an invite to apply and was initiated by the home owner that’s different, they may have sent invites to many sitters.
At least this is my understanding.
I applied to the sit, I had a conversation to clarify details. I was sent through an invite to confirm - (I have it in my emails still) and I received a text from the sitter saying she had found “the perfect person to sit her cat”
@catsitter As you’ve said earlier though, you were slow to accept. Putting myself in the shoes of the owner, that likely made them anxious. Most owners want to secure their sitter as soon as possible. It’s unfortunate that you had to learn the importance of quick responses the hard way.
As for looking for August sits, perhaps embed your sitter profile in your forum username/profile. Owners will be able to review it, and all forum members can give you constructive feedback on your profile. 
Also consider setting up saved searches for areas of interest to you, if you haven’t already done that.
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Did you accept the invitation or accept the sit?
Two totally different things. Accepting the invitation is you putting in an application. Accepting the sit means you probably have had a conversation with the pet owner, and they have asked you to accept the sit.
I was just sharing this information with someone else and think it also may be useful in this post. It clearly sets out the process for both homeowner and sitter.
@catsitter well, I didn’t know that a second offer could be made once a sitter had been invited. You learn something new every day. 
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me neither!! lesson learned!
@Jilly @catsitter - I need to get @Therese to confirm when she’s back online tomorrow but I don’t believe this is possible, once a sitter has accepted a sit through the proper channels as per Snowbird’s link above, but summarised here:
- A sitter must apply to a set of dates on an owner’s listing.
- The owner must then confirm them as their sitter via the message thread in their inbox.
- Lastly, the sitter must then go into their own Inbox and in the message thread click ‘agree to sit’.
Then you would also see a confirmed sit on your dashboard.
If all parts of that were completed, MS need to check this for you to see why the process has failed, as it shouldn’t be possible. Therese will I’m sure be able to clarify this for you Catsitter. Would be good to understand what’s happened so there’s no chance of it happening for you again. Have a lovely evening, Vanessa
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It almost sounds like it stalled at the invite stage.
It is quite confusing but I think if they invite you for a sit you can accept but then they need to confirm and then you need to confirm.
A lot of steps in other words if it starts with an initial invite which can be sent out to many potential sitters.
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This happened to me for the first time a few months back. I received an invitation and accepted the sit and about an hour later the homeowner said she had chosen someone else much to my shock! I learned something new that day - I wasn’t the only one she had invited. Up until then I presumed when you received an invitation you were the only one - not the case. I expressed my surprise to the homeowner at how she had gone about this but had no reply.