I am reaching out to pet owners looking for sitters. I am fairly new to this service so am looking for advice from pet owners. I have only done a few sits but my reviews are excellent. I follow the home rules to a tee and care for the pets like my own. I understand that some sits get multiple requests, but I have been declined on a couple sits I applied for. I was not contacted for a conversation/phone call/video chat. Sitters can see how many applications are on a sit request. Do owners typically try to talk to all applicants or just do a first come/first serve type thing? One two sits I applied for, I was later contacted when the person who rejected me reached out because the one they approved backed out. What are you looking for in an applicant? What do you want or not want to see in a profile? Is it typical not to talk to each applicant? Just looking for advice to improve. I keep the home immaculately clean, take pets on walks, spoil them like they are my own, pick up all the poo or scoop the boxes. Snuggle and sleep with them just like I do my pet at home. It is just discouraging to be rejected when the owner never reached out to talk to me. â
No reason to assume or expect that hosts will necessarily chat with everyone who applies. They typically winnow their applicants and chat with promising ones.
If youâre not even being invited to chat, as part of a pattern, then maybe your profile needs strengthening and/or youâre applying for overly popular sits, given your newness as a sitter. You could share your profile and target locations in the forum and get input.
I think some HOs like to interview all applicants, whereas others are happy to proceed quickly and avoid âswiping throughâ. Mostly Iâve been accepted without having to wait for other applicants to be interviewed. Iâve been declined a few times before a video call, had a couple of apologies and explanations and some with nothing. Donât worry about it, it happens so move on.
If you donât want to link your THS profile with the one you use in the forum for members to comment on thatâs perfectly understandable. Perhaps, you could run it through an AI bot, Google Gemini, ChatGPT, whatever you have access to and ask for comments on the tone, spelling and grammar. You can also ask for improvements, maybe to make it more friendly, more formal, as you would like it.
Anyway, donât be discouraged and good luck with finding great sits.
P.S. If you donât get offered a sit avoid thinking of it as a rejection and stick to declined.
@EvSharp welcome to the forum - itâs a great topic .
Hosts can only pick one of the applicants . So if 5 sitters with great reviews apply they can still only confirm one of them . As a sitter I prefer it when hosts just talk to 1 sitter at a time . I personally find it a waste of my time to have a video call and then be told they will be talking to other applicants and will get back to me in a week or so. If our application, profile, photos & reviews didnât convince them we are the ones - then itâs probably not going to be a good match .
We always add in our application that we are happy for a video call at their earliest convenience and include our mobile phone number . For the majority of our 40+ confirmed sits the application, video call and confirmation happened within 24 hours ( some within 2-3 hours ) .
THS suggests that to increase your chances of confirming a sits you apply for multiple sits for the dates that you are available. Of course that is dependant on the location that you are looking for sits and how many are listed .
For the sits where you werenât accepted you could follow up with a friendly message that youâd be interested in looking after ( pet name ) for any future dates that they list . Include your phone number . If they liked your application and profile they may decide to send you a private THS invitation the next time that they list a date .
Another tip when starting out is to apply to hosts who are also new - with no previous reviews. Thatâs how we have got some fantastic sits.
Try to include a connection in your applications-like if you had a childhood cat that looked the same as theirs ( add the photo ) or you have cared for the same breed of dog ( add photo ) ..
Iâm going to turn this around-why do you âexpectâ to get chosen from your application? THS offers a matching service. The HO reads your profile and thinks âno this isnât a matchâ. Itâs worth considering why your previous sits WERE a match. Also the reviews youâve written will be read maybe thereâs an answer there⌠who knows? HOs could equally ask why are you skipping past their sits, itâs because youâre not a match. I apply for very few sits but I am a match in maybe 1/2 of them after initial communications, either myself or they say no. This is normal, think of it like dating, youâre testing the watersâŚ.
I agree with BonnyinBrighton. They can only choose one. Sometimes they have more than one promising applicant. Some hosts will interview the first applicant that looks good and book. Why take the chance of losing that good applicant when speaking to others that can take another 5 days to complete. I donât want anyone to waste my time speaking to me when in the back of their minds they really already chose that first one they spoke with. I would never sit for them if they contacted me later after speaking to me and then declining me. I had one person text me and say, âthank you for your application. We really like it and your reviews. We spoke to the first person who contacted us and we confirmed them after the conversation. We would like to contact you for future sits.â That felt honest and felt like the kind of person I would like to sit for in the future. If you really want to dive deep you can look at the other sitterâs profile they already had and see if they sound similar to you. Every person is different. What I would look for as a PP would be different than someone else. It is not personal. If you get more yeses than nos, donât worry about it. If you get more noâs I would suggest posting your profile for forum advice.
I have over 40 sits, 5 star reviews. Recently, I was contacted, thanking me for my application, they were reviewing. Then got declined without an interview. Donât know why, have learned not to dwell, but move on. There is always another sit.
I like this answer-I donât understand the approach by a few HOs of attempting to select âthe absolute bestâ of several good applicants, surely as soon as you encounter one good sitter and they indicate that theyâre equally willing then itâs good practice to confirm straight away. (We were HOs with horses etc not on THS, then we joined as sitters so Iâm looking from both sides). Surely itâs a case of âgood enoughâ the 80/20 Rule, in that a sitter needs to be âgood enoughâ to keep the pets safe and happy and healthy, the home to be kept in the manner it was left etc; do pets really know if a sitter is 85% great compared to 90% great? Itâs fine margins comparing sitters who are all good. Possibly what might distinguish them is hard to put your finger on, just a feeling, so if as a HO you come across one early on in the process thatâs âgood enoughâ surely thatâs a match? Itâs certainly a lot less work to my mind.
As homeowners, we never select on a âfirst come, first served" basis.
We immediately decline sitters who clearly donât have the attributes weâre looking for. For example, x number of reviews, direct experience with our type of pets, etc. Or, our listing states no families but an applcant mentions bringing children. Thatâs auto decline right there.
Then it takes 24-36 hours to have a video chat with a sitter who looks like a match. Once we confirm them, then, yes, any remaining sitters do get an auto decline but we always send a personalized message, as well.
Hi @EvSharp If you turn the situation on its head and imagine that you got invited to 20 sits and you accepted just one of them, you might not have the time/energy/inspiration to reach out to the other 19 with personalised feedback explaining why you rejected them. Itâs always polite for both sitters and home owners to send a quick one-liner rather than just hit the âdeclineâ button, but I wouldnât really expect more than that.
It sounds as though your sits go well when you get to do them, so try not to see the non-successful applications as ârejectionâ. To some degree itâs a numbers game - so do keep applying. Every home owner will be looking for something slightly different, itâs just a case of finding the right match.
As others have suggested, you could link your profile here, or alternatively ask a couple of trusted friends or family to take a look and give you some honest feedback.
Thank you everyone! I was taking it too personal when I would be declined so it is reassuring to see your side. I will definitely be working on my profile with some of the advice given here.
Itâs not that I expected to get âchosenâ, I just wasnât sure if most HO talked to all applicants or not. I was just curious as to how most HO handled choosing a sitter.
I donât talk to all 5. In fact I usually pause after 2-3 applicants if a couple of them look good.
In addition to profile and reviews, I also look at the types of recent sits youâve taken on. For example, if youâve sat only for cats or small dogs in the recent past - I may decline you right away as I have a dog. Or if most of your sits are urban/downtown locations I may reply to your application and ask if you realize we are in the suburbs (or I may decline because another applicant is a better fit).
So, it helps in your application to cover these points (for example âeven though I havenât done THS sits for x type of pet, I grew up with them or sat for them on different platforms).
Yup. I had a scheduled video call this morning and the HO notified me an hour before that sheâd had an earlier call and decided to go with those people. I appreciate that she didnât waste my time âinterviewingâ me when sheâd already had a good match.
Iâm a HO and usually my sits reach the 5 application limit in a few hours or the first day. I review all apps and read reviews both by sitter and HO. I look to see how many sits the sitter has done.
I pick the one that I think is a match and will schedule a video call with them. I only video call one sitter at a time. I will video call a second sitter if the first sitter is not confirmed. I donât want to waste anyoneâs time by doing multiple âinterviewsâ. A that point it seems like work to me.
One thing to keep in mind, just because a sitter has 20 - 50+ reviews, does not make them the sitter for you. Itâs all about the match on both sides. This is why the video call is so important. I never send a confirmation without a video call Kind of like job hunting A listing may look fabulous, but when you have the interview, youâre like I would never take this job or work here. Thatâs happened a few times in my career.
Everyone starts out new with zero reviews. It just takes time to build up reviews. You sound like a great sitter and youâll several sits in no time. Good luck!
I admire and respect your process for selecting a sitter, reviewing all applicants and then picking the one you think the most suitable and having a video call with them. I wonder if youâre unusual doing that as a HO with a very popular listing that gets 5 applications in a matter of hours. There are listings that can take days, or weeks to receive even two or three applications and these hosts are much more likely to choose the first good fit, they canât afford to wait until the perfect sitter comes along. I also agree with your reasons for a video call.
You need to have a good review history! Itâs soooo important!
I went from 0 reviews to 7 good reviews and it got easier and easier to get sits.
Now after a couple of 1 star reviews itâs rejections galore. Hosts are so quick to take another hosts side of the story no matter how crazy it sounds!
Well, itâs not as much a matter of whose story to believe. You left not one but two recent sits early, that is a fact and that is why you are having difficulty. If it was once, you may have recovered. Not twice.
