A question - brand new to THS and have a long stay sit listing posted, with 2 very promising applicants. However, a friend of mine has offered to do the stay, though I haven’t fully discussed with him yet and am still leaning towards one of the applicants.
What would be the protocol should I choose to use my local friend for the sit instead of the applicants and THS?
Just curious - thank you to all who answer.
Hi @SyleaAplonis and welcome.
That is a decision only you can make but please let the potential THS sitters know as soon as possible so that they can move on to other opportunities.
There is no ‘protocol’ as such - you just need to go with your gut feeling. Good Luck
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If you have not yet confirmed the sit -You can decline the applicants and cancel the listing .As long as the sit has not been confirmed that is your prerogative.
However, if you think that one or both of the applicants maybe a good fit for you in the future you may wish to consider that once you have declined them they may not apply for future sits .
Whilst you wait for your friend to confirm , the other applicants might get snapped up for other sits , leaving you back at square one with no sitter .
Only you can decide @SyleaAplonis , as other members have said, if it’s not confirmed then you can cancel the listing and go with the friend. One word of caution would be that friends often say they’re going to help out but don’t commit in the same way as they see it as doing you a favour. Sometimes a sitter takes the role more seriously as they’re travelling to get to you, taking time off work to do the sit, love being with pets, want to explore your location and so on and are actually a safer bet. Friends think it’s a good idea and then go off the boil or get bored or offered a trip or new job and change their minds a few days or weeks into committing. Just a thought.
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I recently applied for a sit where the HO was interested in our family but then received a message stating that their local sitter became available so they were going to go with them. That was that. The faster the better so the sitters can move on to apply for other sits
Exactly my thoughts at present, thanks @Cuttlefish .
Also the risk to damaging a friendship should something go wrong, makes it more awkward in a way.
Feels like people who have paid to join THS and are actively searching for sits (particularly in this day and age of ‘digital nomads’ and folks working remotely) will be much more committed.
We’ll see what happens! 2 phone interviews with applicants and lunch with friend and then we will maybe decide. Our sit is a long way out yet so that’s also challenging.
Thanks for the feedback.
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Personally I’d ask the THS sitter vs your friend. It’ll give you a review, which will be helpful for your profile and in my experience the THS sitters have been better than a friend that sits for our cat locally.
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I would add that if you choose your friend, a nice email to the sitter explaining that yput friend knows your pets, so you can keep them in mind for future sits. I’ve actually added a few sitters to my Facebook who I liked but weren’t able to make it this time.