@Twitcher@Lokstar it is frustrating not to get a response from sent communications whether you are a sitter communicating with a pet parent/owner or vice versa and it’s nothing new unfortunately, I have experienced it many times over the years.
We do remind members to communicate in a timely way and for more reasons than it’s polite and appreciated, it is a subject constantly in discussion.
The advice for personalising applications, I assume you are referring to post shared from the website blog, is to help those sitter members who might find it difficult when applying for sits as not everyone is a natural writer or communicator and this includes some of our more experienced members as well as new ones.
Can we also remind everyone to stay on topic when contributing to any conversation.
Hi Angela
With respect, I was going to respond on your thread about personalising applications but I also felt that the application limit is having an impact on how HO and sitters communicate (or not) with each other.
Regards
Hi Angela
You have included me in your message above but I see nothing in what I have written that requires moderation! I’ve learnt from experience to be very careful what I write so as not to be too specific ir personal…
Hi @Lokstar this was not a “Moderation” point in any respect … you had agreed with Twitcher when he referenced the Personalising Applications, I was simply explaining the purpose of the informative blog post.
We have become desensitized. Sorry I have to self correct. The majority of mainstream world have become so automated, standardized, accustomed to following and clicking as you say we have forgotten how to be human.
A whole other topic so worthy of discussion that would address most problems in practically every setting but again, most would not want to invest the time and energy to delving deep in getting to the core of and find real meaningful solutions to these problems.
It’s really good that you do this.
It would help the applicants that you have.
While most of us apply for a house sit and move on if we don’t get it, the communication is so appreciated!
I often wonder why some of the homeowners put “Family Friendly” ?
This means that families are welcome to apply for the sit, the house and pets are “children, family friendly” there may be restrictions of course, numbers in the family, ages of children but that will all be open for discussion and clarification before the arrangements are mutually agreed.
I think I am grateful for the home owners that put on their advertisements that their place is not ’ (young) child friendly’ or the animals don’t react well to small children.
Some homeowners need to specify that further so that it doesn’t waste the time of the sitter and owner.
This makes a lot of sense, and perhaps could explain some of the discrepancy that I’ve observed in my two locations. It certainly would make sense in markets where there is more demand from house-sitters (i.e. more house-sitters interested in London sits vs. say rural Vermont sits).
That being said, I do the legwork of looking at reasonable train routes to places I would want to sit and thinking about whether or not the sit, as described, would be a good fit for me and my abilities. This type of behavior on the part of Home Owners incentivizes HouseSitters to apply in a shotgun fashion - as many as possible, with little effort put into matching their abilities to what they are applying for. That will have a cyclical effect of bombarding Home Owners with even more applicants. Its an interesting conundrum. And one that would appear to be discouraging to House-sitters and Home Owners alike.
I certainly have lost interest in spending time looking for what seems like a good fit in the UK. I may try a couple more and then call it a day and look for another way to travel – at least when it comes to markets that are oversaturated with house-sitters. I do enjoy sitting close to home though, and may continue to use the site for that purpose.
As a relatively new house-sitter, I appreciate this! I’ve had some home owners leave me a one-line “We went with someone else, good luck” type of message, and that’s just been much nicer of an experience than those who decline with no message – especially if they are still looking for applicants.
We just accidentally learned that cancelling an application DOES leave the communication channel open. We’d had an app open for 5 weeks and thought we’d been ghosted so applied for another sit. Murphy’s Law that somehow triggered the first HO and we talked and confirmed. I cancelled the second app and just checked after seeing your post.
That’s a brilliant idea, BTW. There’s a very popular sit that pops up every few weeks with new dates, only about a month in advance. I’ve been considering applying with an “consider me in the future please but cancel me now” note, but wasn’t sure if that would be a pro or con with the HO.
Hi Stefania
That’s good to know the communication remains open even when cancelling- thanks for the heads up!
The host I mentioned above finally read our (very friendly) intro message -for future consideration- and declined us without comment!
But without an actual reply its hard to know if they might be interested in us for future or not! They may have just confirmed a sitter for those dates & we got an auto decline from THS OR they may have been irritated that we weren’t applying properly and declined us to free up a space! I guess we’ll never know.
Moving on…
The majority of HO declining without a message. But we don’t care at all. It is ok, because it saves time. They maybe found a sitter which better fits ;)…
I am a sitter and when I need to decline an invitation I always respond quickly with a message. Once the message has been sent I then press the decline button.
In the past I found that if you did those two things at the same time the message didn’t go through.
If that still happens it could lead members to think they have been declined without a message when in fact one was sent but not received.
I always try and reply to a potential sitter with a message if they have not been selected, it is only polite and I appreciate that as a sitter myself you spend a lot of time constructing an application for a pet sit. Sometimes I have offered suggestions of things they could do to get a first sit, it is rare for me to give a reason to experienced sitters, as some have said you don’t always want to open up a dialogue. But I always think as a sitter too, there has been some reason why I have not been selected and they do not feel I am a good fit, which is fair enough, it has to be a good fit on both sides for it to work.
Once the connection is made, it sticks until one becomes inactive. I have been successful in messaging with an « i am not available now but… » mssg and then immediately withdrawing my application. I am very selective in my words and with who I do this.
For example I apologize for my boldness but explain why, saying that I am interested and feel I would be able to meet their needs on a future date.
Have never had a negative response and have gotten future sits. I also look to see the frequency of their needs by reviewing past feedback/reviews and if there is a pattern.
Most people take holiday at the same time every year, quarterly, monthly…
All the best.
Great point. As a host, I always send some kind of kind “rejection” note, although that sounds like a harsh word! As a host, you can also send a blanket “rejection” note to all applicants that are not selected at the time you select one. I chose to send individual ones and if I can make the time, let them know something. Like, I’ll consider you for future sits, especially when you have more cat sit reviews.
Agreed! …feedback assists my knowing:
is my service/assistance dog welcome another time?
are they happy with a sitter they found?
do I ask again another time or abandon all hope?
(I’m eating, so can’t do caps.)
Aloha, Love, Claire
