@Val
A simple “thanks for letting me know so promptly “
Doesn’t take long to write yet means so much!
After all, they contacted me and asked for my help
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@ELNF, my point was that do you then need to respond to them saying “You’re welcome!”, and then do they need to respond back again, and if so, how many times? Like I said, the reason I don’t respond to a simple decline is that the conversation is at a normal stopping point, and to me it doesn’t feel rude not to respond. Clearly you feel differently. That’s fine. I was just trying to tell you that from someone else’s point of view it might not have felt like a discourtesy not the respond to a decline.
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When I’ve received invitations with no message, I usually reply saying I don’t seem to have received their personal message accompanying their invitation. I’ve declined them all, usually because I am unavailable. A couple have replied apologising for no message so hopefully they have now learnt to include one.
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No matter where you go on social media these days, people are complaining about the lack of courtesy of others. Of course human beings are complicated but when it comes to common courtesy they either have it or they don’t. No amount of technology changes are going to change them. No button fixes will change them. No new procedures or rules will change them. Just look at the state of plastics around the water systems of the world. Look at the amount of dog poo left on the side walk. Nope, those people who do not have the courtesy to reply will never reply no matter what TH does. Just take note and refuse to sit for those without common courtesy. Simple.
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Hello All,
I recently joined TrustedHousesitters and have had a great response quite quickly, as well as some great pet-sits so far which is really encouraging. However, I just wanted to mention my absolute dissatisfaction with the rudeness of a small percentage of home/pet owners. My experience is that on a number of occasions I compose lovely emails in regard to the possible care of their beloved pets…and they can’t even be bothered to reply…some don’t even read the message! I don’t have any problem with not being chosen for a sit (there are plenty to go for), but good grief…good manners don’t cost anything!
As pet-sitters we go through a rigorous verification process, and I’m sure the majority of us put/or want to put the care of these people’s pets first and foremost. It seems to me that house/pet owners should be given some etiquette advice in this area. It’s the only negative aspect I’ve encountered so far.
This is an old topic, but I wonder if we can learn something from companies like Evite. Evite invitations and custom responses
THS has settled on a simple paradigm of “accept” and “decline.” What if they added phrases to increase perceived courtesy, such as “I wish I could, but I have other plans” or “Thank you so much for your interest in being our sitter. We went with an equally awesome person.”
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Thank you for your suggestions and feedback @ThreeLittleBirds something for the Product Team to consider … people rarely remember exactly what you say but will always remember how you made them feel.
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I’m just wondering if home owners definitely get an email when someone applies for a sit or if they can turn it off?
There are a couple of sits we applied for that had been posted for awhile, still 0-3 applicants, and yet the home owners have yet to read our application. One we un-applied after a week because we found another sit - and a week later, they still haven’t read the initial application. The other one is only 2 days ago so I will give it some more time.
It got me to thinking - do they get an email or do they have to log in to see applications?
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Hi @Kelownagurl tagging @Therese who will pick up when she is back online
Just to be clear, it’s not everyone. We’ve had two respond right away so we’ve got two sits booked! 
Hi @Kelownagurl I wanted to confirm, that homeowners do get sent an email to say there is a message in their inbox. In the same way sitters get their message email. Even if you turn off your email notifications in your settings, these emails are still sent.
Just to mention that we constantly remind homeowners to read and reply to messages.
Kind regards Therese
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To be honest, when we get invites to sit and I decline with a message I consider that to be the end of the conversation . Some home hosts do respond to me saying thanks for the response, others don’t - but I am not offended because when they do respond I am always tempted to respond back thanking them for responding to my response…( It may be a British thing …it could go on for ever 
)
That’s great to know then, thanks! I know some people don’t check their email very often but at least I know it’s gone to her.
I might give her a little nudge in the next few days then. I really want this sit - very cute dog and great location - and it fits perfectly between our other two sits.
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Also for consideration, sometimes, at least I do get a phone notification that I can open and see the message without going to the site and that keeps it as “unread” even if it has been seen. I make effort to respond as that acknowledges it as “read”.
But don’t lose sleep over it. Keep moving.
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Yes! I was wondering if that is possible too!
I want to say that I have had messages that show as READ and an Inbox that says I have messages but I cannot find them. I had some messages I could not even open. I missed an application by 8 days because of this and only found it by accident. There is something a little buggy about the way Messages work in THS. I felt so bad when I realized this lovely young lady had applied and for 8 days it didn’t show that I had a new application. Its easy to assume that the technology works as advertised. But it often doesn’t.
Yes, we get an email but I have mine set to auto populate a folder so for some people who are not so tech savvy it could be a challenge to stay on top of it.
That would be frustrating. I’m lucky that I’ve never missed an inbox message. I see the notifications on my phone (via the app) and also get emailed when there’s a reply, plus when I’m waiting for a response, I check it obsessively anyway.
@Kerri I’m going to tag @Therese who will connect with you for more information when she’s next online.
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The messaging function is glitchy. Sometimes I can see messages on the PC version that don’t show on the mobile app. I have sent messages to people - who confirm receipt - but the messages don’t show on a desktop or mobile app.
There is a bug in the software and I am not sure if this is the same bug that is causing your problem but I have an Inbox that shows unread messages but I cannot find them. I have also had people submit messages but they showed as read and so I missed them. Some of them I cannot even open. All of a sudden the messages items are very buggy. It could be that the backend of the system is messing up and not showing people the right information.