We periodically receive unsolicited “invitations” to apply for house-sits. They were very sporadic, maybe one every two or three months. We always asked how the home owners found our profile, but no-one ever responded to this question.
Then this happened. . . we’ve been deluged with invitations. Specifically, in the past two weeks we have received about 28 “invitations”.
Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas of any changes that may have caused this?
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HI @Ruckusfan proactive invitations to sit by PP/Owners can happen when owner members do sitter searches by location for example, once they find a profile which attracts, often local to them, they send an invite.
All sitter member profiles are on the “Find a Sitter” page, there are various filters and ways of searching profiles, just as sitters search “Find A House Sit” page.
There are various reasons this may have increased and I can pass your question to the team to get more information however will need your THS account details which you can forward by Direct Message.
Yes. You are probably highlighted in the sitters area. Ie. Appearing early on in the selections. We had that type of influx of invites in 2021/22. Also with summer coming up, people are keen to grab a sitter they like without going through the whole application process. We’ve also been getting at least 1 or 2 invites a day atm.
@Ruckusfan This has happened to me over the years and while I don’t like having to say no to invites because I’m already committed, I have had some great sit opportunities through PP/Owner invites, sits which I may otherwise never have experienced.
There are so many amazing sits on the site and this is another way of surfacing the unexpected …
I’ve had a few and always feel flattered.
So far I haven’t been able to accept any invitations because the dates didn’t suit, however, I’ve made some nice new contacts that way.
Hi everyone… I too sometimes get sitting invites unsolicited. They are always from people who live somewhat close to my area. I find it flattering and often the animals and homes look wonderful but I always turn them down because I have my own two fur babies. Both my cat and dog travel well and adapt to new places easily but I don’t think the owners realize that unless I am travelling abroad then I want to be with my own pets. And while the owners pet(s) would quickly adapt to me they may well resent my entourage!
@Ruckusfan - Have you recently made any adjustments to your profile? I notice that when I do this often our name goes much higher in the list of sitters in our area - sometimes putting us at number one!
I do sit locally where I live which is not a tourist location, so I think owners see the local reviews and reach out when they are not getting applicants. When it gets busy like this and I already have travel booked, I adjust my sitter profile to put something like this at the top:
Not available Apr 6- 10 Easter
seeking May 1 - May 15 London
June 1 - June 10 and June 20 - June 30 New York City or near zip code 12345
Oct 1 - 30 any location in the Chicago area
That way owners can quickly move on if they are looking for a local person and I’m not around or someone can see if the dates/location fit.
I received an invite last month from a HO who lives several hours’ drive from me. But it was just the sort of sit I had been hoping for, so of course I said “yes”. She told me this was their first time using THS and wanted to get a sitter lined up right away. I haven’t asked what criteria she used to select little old me, but I am curious. It is very flattering (so far). The sit isn’t until May.
Interesting that you would suddenly get so many. I’ve been traveling the world since September sitting-on number 10 right now. I’ve not had 2 invites. One for a time I was already booked and one for a time where I’ll be transiting back through the US taking care of a few things but it wasn’t listed as available time.
I’m happy to have people invite me but so far none have worked. That’s likely because we are booked out through the end of the year and not a lot of people are looking that far out.
Dan and Nan
@Ruckusfan
We have been sitters for many years, and have been invited without applying, hundreds of times.
We have had our own farms, so have extensive experience in that field, and so often get sought after for that. We are thankful to be in demand!
We just politely reply we are already booked, or travelling, but happy to be contacted in the future, if it is a sit we would like to do.
We have already had 3 this week, so it can be time consuming, but a quick reply is all that is needed.
For a home-owner, the ‘find a pet sitter’ page on the THS website changed recently so it now looks like this [where the area relates to the home-owners’ location]:
So I suspect the home-owners have used this as they think you are looking for a sit in their area. I’m not sure what the algorithms are that select the sitters.
I type it as the first line of my profile under the ‘About you’ section under ‘Introduction’. Then after Easter or Christmas or another busy time I delete it when not needed.
I find home owners often don’t look at that calendar. Like others I always try to type a nice response when someone reaches out to me but this saves home owners from wasting their time when I’m definitely not available as I’ve already booked flights away and am only available in certain locations as I’ve already booked the flights.
We’re now up to 39 “invitations” in the last 3 weeks (i.e. since the wave started).
Its flattering to receive them, but. . . we respond courteously to home owners who personalize a message. Invitations with no message just get an equally curt rejection.
