that is a juicy detail- great insight, Andrew; thank you!
Welcome, @anon84784007. Yes, everyone appreciates quality feedback!
You said youāre a brand new sitter: Iām excited for you and this new adventure!
As a caveat, I think the first couple sits are the hardest to get, and many now-experienced sitters had dozens of rejections at first. Iām sure many of those rejections didnāt have much or any feedback. It reminds me of actors auditioning in Hollywood. One needs to develop a thick skin and healthy coping mechanisms.
For me, it helps to put myself in the PPās shoes: If they decline me, it could be for many good reasons, including them just not feeling itās a good fit.
And if they donāt give any feedback (or give seemingly rude feedback), it could also be for many good reasons: being busy or preoccupied, not being familiar with the UI, not wanting to say anything bad, or just trying to be efficient.
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If a sit is finalised everyone one gets an automatic declined sent. Check the listing to see if it say āno longer in need of a sitterā to confirm this has happened.
Also in the new normal where owners get only 5 applications I would expect it to be more common for sitters to now be declined to allow the owner to free up a slot to get another application if they think you are not suitable. If the listing is open or ārevieing applicationsā then this is likely what has happened.
I always like to get a reason for the decline but at most you may get a personal message saying thanks but no thanks. In my experience people donāt want to give a reason as the applicant may disagree with their assessment.
The best advice I could give you though is try and do some local sits even for weekends just to get some references if you are new to this site. My first application was declined any years ago and they said it was because they wouldnāt accept anyone with less than 5 reviews as they had a bad experience. W e then did several local sits where we could mee the owner beforehand and still say this is an option if we apply to a local sit. I think these initial reviews really helped us when getting sits further afield.
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You are exactly right. We currently have had a sit listed for 2 days and weāve had over 20 applicants. Iāve earmarked a couple of potential sitters but the rest Iāve declined with the following messageā¦
Hi (Name) Thank you for expressing an interest in our sit. Weāll be reviewing applications in a few days. As we have reached the five applicant limit, we are declining you to keep our listing open. This does not necessarily mean you are unsuccessful. We will be in touch with all applicants in due course.
Cheers,
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Thank you, Geoff, Yes, I am finding things are smoothing out now. I am receiving clear feedback and enjoying the process a bit more, now that I am growing in understanding and got our first fun Sit, in an ancestral homeland! yay.
Gratefully, a Host has offered to allow me the use of a car, so our dogs can play, and I can start my first Sit sooner than later. I was going to wait to buy a car, which could be a very long while.
I was honest with myself, then, employed my faith, took action, and miracles unfurled their petals.
So happy here, Claire
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Thank you, Keldin ~ That could be what happened. It may have very well been an AUTO-DECLINE message. That makes sense. Excellent. So good to know.
I have moved on from that, and now, am experiencing the exquisite comfort of being welcomed, valued and sharing really nice exchanges with an upcoming host. I like the way it feels to know we are a fit, my dog is going to enhance the sit, and give their dog a great companion, they can enjoy their time away, and I can do what I feel called to do; be of service, while also enjoying exploring my new home of The UK, getting to discern where is best for my dog and I to live. Win/win/win/win.
Big dreams come true, Claire
(photo: caring for my friends animals on Rousay, in Orkney, Scotland, UK)
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@anon84784007 a lovely photo, thank you for sharing and the Orkney Islands are such a peaceful, beautiful and magical place 
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A new member who is just facing the 5 and pause rule. I apologize if my question has been answered multiple times but I need timely advice.
Letās say I have 5 applications. I like 2 in particular but Iām not ready to make a final decision. If I decline a sitter at this point, is it appropriate to send a personal note indicating that the application has been ārejectedā or is it best to wait until an application has been accepted and a sit confirmed?
A second question has to do with a reason for rejecting an applicant. At this point, I canāt articulate why one applicant was rejected. The ones I like just resonated with me. I donāt mean to be impolite but sometimes there isnāt a reason.
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@ELight , how nice that your listing got quick results.
If you decline one or more applicants, it frees up the space to receive more until you once again reach five and your listing is again automatically paused. I am not sure, but you may need to manually unpause your listing before you can receive more applications. Can someone tell me if this is right? This would be a reason to decline applicants before finalizing a sitter.
If you think there is a chance you would be interested in one of these other applicants as an alternate if your first choice doesnāt work out, then donāt decline them yet.
When you decline a sitter, it is very considerate to at least send some kind of a message. You can say something like, thank you for your application. Best wishes , or you could include a reason if you like, Thank you but we have decided to go with another applicant, or Thank you for your application but we are putting our trip on hold for the time being, or Thank you for your application but we have found a friend of family member to care for ____. Writing something is much nicer than sending only a computer-generated decline after the applicant has put time and effort into writing an application. I think you have to send the message before you click decline or the message never gets sent to the recipient.
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@mars & @ELight Once a listing has reached 5 applications and is in āreviewingā then the owner will need to decline some applications and unpause the listing.
Here is what the owners see:
Hope that helps
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Thank you. We donāt want hurt anyoneās feelings. I do believe we will have to unpause the listing manually.
Best,
Elliott
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I really donāt care if I get a decline with no message if the HO and I only once or twice through the chat. They donāt really owe me any explanation or extra time at that point in my opinion.
I will say that in the past month Iāve had three no message declines after meeting virtually. If we end up video chatting for 30 mins and you say āyouāll let knowā then I absolutely expect a brief but personalized message and not just an automatic decline with no follow up. The first time this happened I reached out to the HO and politely messaged them that I really value feedback and wanted to know if there was something I did to cause them to essentially go no contact. In this case she was new to THS and was unaware that by confirming another sitter the other applicants were automatically declined. So Iām also learning to give more grace to how first time users interact in here. I was pretty upset by the other two that had previous sitters and knew how all this worked and still declined without comment a few days after meeting. I mean listen my generation LOVES ghosting but I recognize thatās pretty rude and inconsiderate behavior.
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If we simply get rejected without a note, we will not apply on that sit in the future (un heart it). If we do get a quick note āthanks, not this time, but I am interested in your profile, letās keep in touchā I will leave it as hearted as it simply means that it wasnāt meant to be this time around, but the HO saw something interesting in our profile. If we donāt get any communication, Iāll simply understand that our profile wasnāt a match this time or any time in the future so I wonāt spend more time on it. I certainly wonāt feel bad about it, or take it personal and know that a more suited HO will select us!
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I am the same. I donāt take it personal. I just donāt apply again.
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Love this!! Just saved the text for future use.
@Silverfox
I think that is a nice way to reply to applications when you are trying to unpause and look at more applicants. It also sounds like you do this in a timely manner. If I were a homeowner Iād send a message worded this way.
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I would like some feedback. I have two sits posted and quickly got 5 applicants. Three of them gave absolutely no indication theyād read my listing. I will decline them, and I always send some note. What do you think of this response? āIām passing on your application as Iāve had a number of responses. Those that I will be following up with have given some indication that theyāve read my listing and know what my needs are.ā
Too harsh? Not enough info?
I see this a lot, generic responses with no reference to my pets, my home or anything personal to me. For me, i think this is the most important thing when applying for a sit.
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The sitters who wrote the generic applications may have been trying to get an application in quickly, before the sit was paused. However, when I do that, I explain that fact and follow up with a more personalized message.
If the applicants have had time to write a personalized message and havenāt done so, I would write something like you suggest. Iād say āI received your application for my housesit in LOCATION. I am following up with the people who wrote a personalized message, showing that they had read my listing.ā If the applicants are new to THS, Iād probably add āMost homeowners respond better to detailed applications than generic onesā
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Whilst weāre total advocates of a human response, if they havenāt given any indication of reading your listing or noting the pets then totally fair to just click decline. If you did respond with a note then perhaps āThanks for your application however you donāt appear to have read my listing so will decline on this occasion.ā
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I think you decide on the tone you wish to give to you replies and interactions. I believe some sitters might be new to the process and simply believe they need to copy paste a text to apply, and some others (maybe people that were members longer) know how important it is to customise their reply, as it shows they not just read your listing but also made sure it would be a fit date, location and travel wise among other details.
Your honesty might help them realise that reading a listing before applying is crucial!
I love @Lassieā suggestion to help newer members understand what homeowners prefer to receive in terms of application. Also, @Cuttlefishās suggestion to simply decline when there is no indication of reading your listing is absolutely fair: I give the same amount of energy to each homeownersā listing I apply on. If I get rejected without a quick note after Iāve spent time customising my application (and time reading the full listing 
) Iāll simply navigate away without much more energy given to them. If I receive a message back such as āthank you for applying, but we have selected somebody else for xzy reasonā I will reply by a quick āthanks for getting back to us; we are happy to know you have found the perfect sitter for Rex-Pepe-etc. Enjoy your vacation-time away-tripā
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