Hi
I am from Melbourne, Australia. I often see sits with no set dates. I spotted one I am interested in but because there is no date I am unable to contact the hosts. How do I make contact with the hosts? Thanks
Shellie
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Hi @smelrose (Shellie). Welcome to the forum from a fellow Victorian. Unfortunately that is something that isnât possible to do on the site. It has been raised in another thread as other sitters have enquired about doing this too. Much as we would like to be able to contact owners, from an ownerâs point of view, they might not appreciate this contact and could get inundated with offers from sitters which could be very off- putting. Hopefully you will see suitable sits with dates to apply for. Enjoy pet sitting!
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But why have they advertised they are looking for a house sit but when you go to respond there is no function/ response setting. It seems like a pointless ad then. Why advertise if nobody can respond to you?
Thanks.
@smelrose They havenât advertised. I think itâs just what THS does. Perhaps @Angela_L may be able to answer this for you.
If they were advertising a house sit, there would be dates available to apply to. If there are no sits available that is just their general profile showing that they are a member. Just like sitters have a profile but that doesnât mean theyâre available to sit right this moment.
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Hi @smelrose welcome to our community forum and I see you have already had responses from other members to your question, thank you also to @temba for offering extra support I will tag @Therese from our great Membership Services Team who will connect with you directly.
Iâve also moved your question to this discussion thread on the same subject.
I hope youâll explore the many other helpful forum conversations and connect with many other members.
Angela and the Team
Hi, I hope Iâm putting this question under the right categoryâŚ
Iâve been receiving a good number of invitations to sit, which Iâve had to decline for various reasons. Today I received one I was interested in but had several questions about. I didnât see a way to open a dialog without choosing âaccept,â which I did.
Did I miss something? It seems like being able to message for clarifications should precede choosing âaccept.â Is this the only way to communicate? (Something in me hates the thought of accepting and then saying, âyeah, never mind.â)
Thank you @Snowbird â Iâm surprised I missed this thread. Appreciate your pointing me toward it.
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You are completely right to want and have an opportunity to get clarification.
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Hi @smelrose and thank you to eveyone for their good advice. I wanted to confirm. When you do a search ⌠all the current listings with dates are at the top. (depending on the location, there can be many pages). Underneath these listings are completed listings. These have no dates so one cannot contact the owners. The reason for showing these is to give both new and existing sitters a feel for the other homes and pets they may have missed in the past. As @anon36831737 mentions, this is often a good time to save any you like as a favourite. When that homeowner publishes their new dates, you will be one of the first to be notified. Hope this helps Kind regards Therese
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What kind of notification do you mean? Iâm on a laptop, not a phone.
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Hi helpful forum members 
is there a way sitters can ask a HO questions about their sit without actually applying? Iâm often interested in sits but due to the HO lack of details Iâm left wondering about some logistical things like public transport availability, walking distance to shops etc. Some HO are great at marketing their sit while others provide minmal information (tip to all the HO reading this, the more information the better it is to attract sitters). Is it better to apply & then ask the HO questions if the are interested in the sitter? Regards, Jenny
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Hi @Crookie ⌠thank you for posting your question which weâve moved here to a recent topic with the same theme to continue the conversation. All the best, Vanessa
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Unfortunately no @Crookie you can only ask questions when you apply. There is no means to be able to communicate with an owner as you would like to (and so would a lot of us)!
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Hi @Crookie : it just happened to us this week.
As a sitter I wanted to get in touch with a OH whose dates didnât fit in our schedule but in a place where we like to go. So I âappliedâ and started my message staying â Sorry I CAN NOT apply this time but I wanted to send you a message to let you know etc.".
The OH was very pleased and we could start a conversation thinking of a date later on which could fits both of us.
The OH cancelled my application, so her counter is up to date, but we were still able to send messages through THS.
I was afraid OH would be desappointed believing I was applying for their site as they donât get much applicants, but they told me they were very pleased that I contacted them to get in touch for future sits.
I wouldnât do that for a listing with 30+ 50 + applicants but I think it can help listings with few applicants.
Maybe THS could add a button asking OH :
âWould you agree receiving messages from sitters not ready yet to apply ?â
If they tick yes (what OH expecting 30+ applicants wouldnât do - sits in fabulous towns, with villas on the sea with pool and gardener !) then sitters could select âApplyâ or âAsk for further informationâ.
What do you think @Vanessa_A ?
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Good morning @Françoise-et-Youn - Iâm going to answer this with my sitter hat on 
Yes, I do think an improved messaging system could have many benefits, but Iâm also conscious of the fact that some owners may get put off (Iâve seen a conversation on that elsewhere but canât find it now) by potentially having lots of messages sent when they donât have live dates, especially if you are a once-a-year user. One thing Iâve discovered from joining the team here is that itâs a fine and sometimes difficult balance to keep everyoneâs needs met, across both sitters and owners
But for your example, in the past we have used this method to get in touch with owners. On a couple of occasions it did result in a later sit confirmation (when we were traveling in Central America where less sitters were available in situ). Similarly if invited to a sit we always message back ahead of hitting decline to start a communication flow for a future opportunity.
It sounds like the owners in your case were very appreciative and with few applicants this may have reassured them that people are interested in their sit despite not being available. Having an option to receive messages would be a great solution. Thanks for sharing your idea and have a lovely day!
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Thank you for your answer @Vanessa_A.
It worked for us as we could organise 2 sits with the OH in the forthcoming months ! 
Of course it would be much more useful for listings that are not super popular (but arenât they the vast majority of the listings ?), this is why it would be linked to an option. I think it could be a great help for those listings not super attractive⌠I often see in the Last minute very nice listings and I always feel sad for these OH not able to find a sitter for their pet/house. Maybe if they can be contacted more easily they could arrange with some sitters interested but not available on these specific datesâŚ
But as you say we can still get in touch by applying⌠At the beginning I didnât dare doing it (thinking I may annoy OH, telling them I apply but I not really apply !) but being invited very often these last months, I could realize how difficult it is for some listings to get applicants⌠So I though I could give it a try and it worked quite well (sometimes it takes long to organise but we keep in touch and see how it works !).
So in any case, thanks to THS to allow us to meet OH and pets and organize trips here and there⌠
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I know I have seen some sits where the owners specifically said please donât message us if you are not available for these dates. They stated it gets too confusing and is hard for them to keep track of the messages, it was for more popular sits though 
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Oh Iâve never noticed that⌠but of course it makes sens when receiving 30+ 50+ applicants !
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