I want to message a pet parent who says their travel dates are flexible, but I cannot because I have a short sit that overlaps a portion of their dates. I don’t think it is necessary for the plaform to completely prevent us from being able to message homeowners.
I know it can be frustrating, but if they let sitters message hosts anyway, even with the overlapping dates, then it would be possible for sitters to arrange overlapping sits when they aren’t supposed to be doing so, whether it was more than 48 hours for duo memberships or single sitters for any period.
All hosts would have to do is change the dates in such a way that they no longer conflict with the sitter’s current bookings. Whether or not this would become some big problem I don’t know, but I doubt they would make any changes to the system that could allow for it. While the impetus for this change was apparently based on some instances of sitters leaving pets unattended, I suspect it has probably cut down on cancellations to some degree as well, and that in particular is probably important to THS.
I have been in that situation where I was available for a six week sit all bar two days that overlapped . The listing said the dates were flexible and they didn’t have any other applicants but there was no way to contact them .. Frustrating all round.
There might be a sitter on the forum who would be willing to contact them for you ( if they don’t have sits booked - they can “apply “ and contact the host on your behalf … it might work ? )
What are the dates of the sit ?
Try sending an email to support@trustedhousesitters.com. They reply within 24 hours usually. The goal is for THS to put HOs and Sitters together so be sure to emphasize that point in your message on why you would like their help. @Silversitters provided a nice workaround also. Maybe a double pronged approach is in order. Super frustrating!
(a bit topic-adjacent BUT was there a time where we could simply message any THS Member as long as you had an active membership? This would seem helpful for HOs with flexible dates…..But i surely see the problematic side for HOs with desirable sits…)
I don’t think so but, until recently, you could message HOs with active dates even if their dates overlapped with a booked sit. A little bit before that, there was no limit on the number of applicants, so it was even easier to contact HOs.
Regarding support, I very much doubt they can be of any help. These changes that limit the ability of sitters to contact HOs were introduced on purpose.
Hi erinbeckr. Yes I have found this ffrustrasting also. Some homeowners are also open to having a friend or neighbour do a cou[ple of days of a sit if you are ab;le to do the rerst. I have been contacted by a homeowner a couplke of times now wher I have been unable to do a day or two of a sit but they have been more than happy to have me, as ab;le to get a friend to do one or two days. One sit the owner had been let down at the last minute so bfroke this sit into two sepoarate weeks. I applied for the second stating I could also do five days of the first. Had an immediate phone call and given the sit. Had this have been listed as a two week sit I would not have been able to apply.
There are definite disadvantages of not being able to apply to any overlapping sits.
IMHO, more than benefits. The reason THS gave was that it was to prevent pets not being looked after properly by this could have been easily solved by warning the HO (instead of just the sitter) Something like “ this sitter is booked from X to Y dates. Then HOs could decide if they can work around the overlap or slightly move their dates.
This has never affected me but I tend to support the idea of free communication in all contexts. IMHO, communication helps prevent and solve most problems.
It’s even more frustrating when the sit wouldn’t even overlap with any of your booked sits, but you are not able to apply because of how the HO creates the listing.
I had several listings where I wanted to apply but I couldn’t, several of these with one specific host. They would say “2 weeks in march, flexible dates”, but then the listing is set for the whole of march plus a couple of days. There were several options for me I could have offered without even one day overlap, but I couldn’t even contact the owner.
I am sure the HO isn’t aware that many people can’t apply due to the set dates.
I also tried to contact costumer service, just to be lied to. I asked to speak to a human, but I was definately still speaking to a bot (response time was far too fast). But I got a generic, no there is no option to contact them. So I just gave up.
Maybe get a second membership, so you can use it just for outreach. Theoretically, multiple people could chip in and share such an account — just don’t use it to book any sits, so it stays free.
I’m inclined to mark this response as a “solution”, although in reality I even wonder if a forum post specifically created to circumvent THS’s system would be approved. In this specific case, I have already found another sit for that timeframe, so I don’t have need to try it out.
I did talk to support and they say there is no way to get around the way their system is set up.
I agree 100% with this. It would be so simple for the HO to be informed that you have an overlapping sit and make their own decisions. I was able to communicate with an HO whose sit overlapped with one I was doing (I think it was because I had applied before I confirmed the other sit - so the communication line was already open) and she was perfectly fine with the one day of overlap since I am in the same city and her dog would be ok spending one night alone as long as I got over there to feed him and taken him for a walk. You don’t always need a whole other person to do this (e.g. the duo sitter thing).
This is an interesting point. First about not being able to contact HO’s then about talking to a bot. I bet I was also talking to a bot - first it was the more unhelpful/useless bot Frankie, then it put me through to an “agent” but they did still just give the generic response. We probably all know now from talking to any AI that the responses can seen natural but still there’s no actual care and help for your needs on the other side.
Yes, unfortunately with bots it’s also obvious when the change between bot and “bot lying to be human” is to fast and they send you several paragraph long texts within a split second from your questions. They wouldn’t be able to even read your question properly or search out “generic copy paste respose” in less than a second if it would have been a human agent.
There are many companies that don’t have human costumer service anymore, at least first level. But for me to be liead to about it takes it to a different level.
And with the flexible/open dates. I have also seen a HO that created a listing over several months, but the flexible sit would be only a couple of weeks. Or they would write “3 weeks this summer” and set it to the whole summer or something similar. So for any of us that have any sits booked upfront we would automatically run into “overlaps” even if the actual agreed on sit wouldn’t be overlapping. It’s very frustrating.
I remember someone previously suggested to hosts to create a “one day sit” for flexible dates and to mention dates are to be agreed on. But I doubt many HOs are aware of the problem with flexible dates.
This happened to me a while back when I wanted to apply for a site that overlapped (though in fact they didn’t because of dates and timing) and it was weird. It’s a new “feature” which they didn’t used to have. They should stop trying to do everything automatically.
SOLUTION: Support suggested I contact the sit which overlapped and was “blocking it” and ask them to change the date so it looked like I was clear. Kind of messy to ask one owner to help like that but it worked.