I think that’s less true of people who aren’t nomads. We generally only apply for one sit at a time and we spend a lot of time searching for sits that match what we are looking for. I do understand that people who sit full time (or do a lot off sitting in general), can’t afford to be as picky and will sift through and apply for more than one at a time, but it definitely doesn’t work like that for everyone.
An example, we are currently looking for a village sit in southern France for a specific time period. We see maybe one new sit a week posted if we are lucky. We applied for one sit about month ago and it had popped up overnight so by the time we applied, we were about 4th I think and that was first thing in the morning. The cut off of 5 does feel low to me, especially for more highly desirable places.
I still would prefer that they had the cut off at 5 AND and minimum 24 hours, with an option for a homeowner to pause it sooner if they want to.
As a sitter, I have a question. I recently applied for a sit and saw that the HO quickly got to five applicants and it now says “Currently not in need of sitter.” I’m assuming it was paused. If I don’t get the sit, will I be notified?
From everything I’ve read, if the home owner chooses one of the first five, everyone else will instantly be notified that the sit has been filled. Home owners are encouraged to send a personal note though as well.
If the home owner unpauses the sit to get more applicants, and you haven’t been declined, I assume you will be able to see it again without the disclaimer.
@Kelownagurl We completely agree it doesn’t work like that for everyone. However, I am a little confused, if you have a cut off at 5 and a minimum of 24 hours how would the 24 hours benefit the very popular sits which reach the 5 limit within minutes as per @anon36831737 example re the highly desirable Bali sit? Would it therefore allow you to still apply within a 24 hour window even if it has reached the maximum of 5 applicants? If not I am not sure how being able to view a sit for a period of 24 hours will help.
The suggestion from many of us is that a minimum of 24 hours is allowed to apply. That will allow any number of applicants before the 24 hour cut off. In effect dozens of applicants can apply within 24 hours.
@Itchyfeet that would be a better proposal and if it were the case then it would be pointless having a limit of 5 because as we know the popular sits would get more than that within a 24 hour period.
A very valid point. The 24 hours combined with paused after 5 sits would make it fairer. But at the moment it all depends where you are in relation to where you want to sit. How many times are you told “ all my applicants were great so I picked the first sitter to be fair”. With your logic, in the first 24 hours the pet owner shouldn’t receive any applicants and receive the initial ones only after 24 hours and they should all be sent at once. As I have already pointed out, who knows what is being listed and accepted while we all do other things.
I also think I should maybe clear up another of your points. Being a full time sitter does not make us less choosy. For us, it actually makes us more. We know what we want and will not compromise.
Hope you find your sit soon.
Elsie
@ElsieDownie So from what I am understanding you are saying for applicants to be able to view the sit for 24 hours and then allow applications to be submitted. With regards @anon36831737 latest post where he says that he was in the process of writing his application for a sit in Bali moments after it had come online only to find that the sit disappeared before his very eyes because the 5 applications had already been submitted. This would therefore seem to indicate that people would end up dropping a quick note just to say hello I am interested rather than submit what most people would regard as a proper application. It may well be that putting a potential sit on view for 24 hours before allowing applications would encourage this behaviour.
I was trying to point out that no one can be on the site for 24/7 so even without the pause function we all miss potential fantastic fit sits already.
This new innovation just makes both sitters and pet owners more vigilant and proactive so (hopefully) there is no longer the loooonnnngggg wait to find out what is happening.
Look at it as an investment. If you hesitate or don’t see the post you don’t get to invest your money because all the bonds are bought already.
@ElsieDownie I agree that no one can be on the site 24/7 and yes we will always miss some potential fantastic sits but I just feel now that that the “test” favours you seeing a house sit in your own time zone and as witnessed by @anon36831737 post you can still miss a potential sit even in the same time zone with the limit of 5. I think with the potential new system the percentage of sits that you miss, that you might have liked to apply for has risen exponentially.
Personally i think it’s a good thing TH have taken on board an issue that comes up time after time and are working with it.
Yes there may be points to discuss that could work better but it is a.trial.
If you dont get a sit because you were the 6th person, maybe that sit was just never meant for you and you may not have got it anyway. There are still other sits to apply for rather than 10 or 20 going for the one option.
To me this should benefit both sitters and HOs.
Just personal again, maybe 6- 8 applications would give a little more leeway and i like the 24 hour option others have mentioned too.
Hi @SoloTraveler I think there may be a couple of reasons…
the listing was paused as it reached 5 applicants. The HO has not yet decided on the 5 and as yet not declined any. The listing has now reverted back to the sitter not currently needed category until the decision is made.
Or the HO has decided not to proceed and deleted the listing. Not sure if this happens if all appliacants are advised…
Hi @Londongal, my rough understanding is that THS has either a hypothesis or actual data that suggests that by limiting sitter application access to some (popular) sits that sitters will instead apply to other (less popular) sits, thereby improving “the success” for both owners and sitters, where success is, I think, defined as maximizing the number of confirmed (or actual) sits.
IMHO, this hypothesis may be true on the margins and may increase average owner satisfaction (i.e. primarily those in less popular locations), but it also comes at a cost of reduction of liberty for sitters and owners, i.e. it’s a shift from an “open market” toward a “centrally planned” economy … which in general doesn’t have a great history of success and often results in sub-optimizations … but, hey, it’s THS’s platform and decision, all we users can do is provide input or shop elsewhere.
Just read some of the forum. Pet owners not responding to applications and the review system must be the most complained area on THS. They have chosen to fix the application problem first with this pause criteria.
It may need a few tweaks but on the whole it focuses attention and that’s what was needed.
In my scenario, it wouldn’t cut off at 5 if it was less than 24 hours, it would continue to allow applicants for the full 24 hours unless the home owner cut them off sooner.
But that would just be rare situations. There are lots of sits with 15-20+ applicants and they’ve been posted for a week or more. Now they’d be cut off after the first 24 hours as long as they had 5 or more. Home owners could always pause it sooner.
To be honest, we’ve never been told that they went with the first applicant. We’ve been told they went with someone else but not that specifically.
And our most recent sit, we were the 5-6th to apply and we got the sit. If the 5+ cut off had started already, we probably wouldn’t have had a chance at that one because it already had 4-7 when we got up in the morning.
As for France, we can still look until Aug 1, but have a lovely airbnb apartment in a perfect village booked so I doubt we will find a similar housesit in the next 5-6 days.