We sit as a couple, white british and have a fantastic success rate for getting accepted in the both the UK and Spain. Have you considered that maybe your profile just isn’t as strong as other sitters profiles.
Maybe their pets speak French - and you haven’t mentioned anything of that nature in your profile, while others did.
Single women of any race, may simply prefer a single women if given a choice of multiple applicants, because that’s what their pets are used to.
White singles/couples - proportionately there are more whites in Canada, therefore of course you will receive more declined applications from whites.
THS since 2022 - if you haven’t got many reviews, then maybe you need help to get the basics right, the search box on this forum can give you some tips.
Running businesses while you sit / here to commit - so you aren’t commited to Canada as yet, but you aren’t just a tourist either??? That could potentially sound fluffy and suspect in your profile, and you leave the reader with too many unanswered questions, like you did here, so maybe the wording of your profile could be better. Plus if the HO has multiple applicants, they may simply prefer someone who can give their pets more attention as that’s what their pets are used to with them, instead of being preoccupied with work.
Have you tried looking at the other sitters profiles in the area of Canada you would like? Just to see how your profile stacks up against theirs. Take a look at each set of sitters with a fresh set of eyes, who would you pick of you were an HO? You or them? Just to see whether your profile is actually worded good-enough in the first place.
I notice that you say you are looking for longer sits. What sort of length of sit have you been applying for?
Longer sits of a month or more are very sought after as lots of full time sitters like to have time to settle in to a sit. So you may have strong competition for these sits with a long history of reviews.
I would also guess that homeowners looking for someone to look after their home and pets for a month or more might be more inclined to look for a high number of 5 star reviews. They would be more likely to choose someone with experience of caring for a property over an extended period, and maybe having to handle some unexpected challenges.
You could boost your number of reviews by taking some short, maybe last minute sits, perhaps in less popular locations. Maybe just a few weekend sits that you can fit around your business. Once you have a greater number of reviews you may have more success in getting chosen.
I sit with my teenage sons. While we get chosen for a lot of sits because of our reviews, we do still get rejections. I tend to just move on, and assume that if a homeowner has rejected us without comment, it would not be a good match anyway.
I do think we sometimes get chosen because of shared hobbies or similar jobs - something that makes the homeowner think we have things in common. So talking about the things you enjoy doing in your application can be helpful - as well as any transferable skills from your business.
We are in the UK and are only just venturing to our first overseas sit this summer. I’d love to sit in Canada some day as I’ve spent a lot of time there in the past. I get the sense that there are not as many available sits there as in some other countries though.
I don’t quite understand the connection. Do you live in Canada? If you are Canadian, some owners in the US might be aware of the risk with the border that you would not be admitted.
As a HO , ours is the opposite. We prefer couples. Especially for a long sit. That way if someone has an unexpected conflict for a day or 2, their partner is able to take care of our dog. To me it offers more piece of mind.
I also have a preference for couples, since if one is ill the other is there to help. But I don’t mind solo sitters either. For me, it really is who I think my dog would enjoy the most (I want someone interested in playing and interacting with her, not just robotically walking and feeding her).
I don’t know what kind of business you run, if it’s virtual then that is no problem. Honestly I would either leave it out of your profile and address it in a call with the HO, or explain it in your profile so the owner is clear what it is. If it were something that involved customers showing up at my home that would be a hard no. So explaining would help.
Hi Bobby & Busta - love your combined profile name @Bobsta!
I just wanted to say I can understand you posing this question and am really sorry that your experience has led you to wondering if “unconscious bias” is at play. I can see it’s something you’ve been grappling with and you’re trying to find what the disconnect might be to you getting more house sits.
As others have suggested, the best place to start is with your profile as house sitters. You’ve had some great feedback here already but I’d reiterate what others have already suggested - please link your HS profile to your Forum profile for some thoughtful, constructive feedback from this very supportive community.
I’ve been on the forum for a few months now and the members here are super knowledgable, helpful and generous in helping newbies like me out!
We’re an Australian couple but my heritage is Burmese - though my hubby often gets surprised when someone points this out because he just don’t “see” it I get surprised too because I just consider myself Australian . While “race” isn’t a factor for me, that’s not to say I haven’t experienced racism, but rarely as an adult and never once crossed my mind as a house sitter.
We housesit as a couple (in our experience, most HOs prefer this) and my hubby works from home - again, just about every listing mentions this as a positive. For example, if you shift “run a business” to “work from home” you might find it makes a difference. It’s all in the nuance!
Hang in there and if you can, please link to your profile and the hive mind can do its thing for your benefit!
We went through a phase we were getting rejected by single women. I didn’t change anything on my profile or application and it stopped. Then it was city dwellers, which I totally understood as our profile says we are avid hikers! But that also changed.
It seems to go in waves. It just takes one of the group to accept you then give a fantastic five star review then others do to. Obviously pet owners also read the profile/reviews of the people who give you a review. Or that’s my take of it.
As for reviews. Everyone had to start somewhere. Personally, I think sitters put too much emphasis on reviews. The application is what matters. How you put yourself forward and write about yourself, your experience and life. But that’s my theory so it might be all cod wallop.
Keep going. Apply to sits you really want and you’ll break through all these barriers. Good luck.
The same for us (mixed race couple) with regard to single female HOs. In our experiences, most of them seemed to dislike us right away when we showed up at their door. One time we got a sit with a single female HO(She probably agreed to the sit because no one else applied to sit for her ) and she was obviously hostile to us, eventually she left a 3 star review for us even though we took great care of pets and house, in her review she didn’t mention anything negative about us (because there’s none) but nonetheless, 3 star.
So frustrating.
We love couples sitting for us. The number of reviews is not that important to us. The quality of the review is though. That along with your intro and why you are pet and house sitting. The race issue is a total non-issue to us.
I get surprised too because I just consider myself Australian 
