Hi, I live in a tourist hot spot, so it probably no surprise that my place has been saved by several potential sitters. What criteria do you suggest I use to invite one at random? How do HOs use the favourites section? Thanks in advance.
Why would you?
When you post dates, they will get an alert of that in their mobile phone.
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If you live in a popular place, there’s no reason for you to reach out to anyone.
You will fill up those first five slots immediately… then you should (politely!) reject them (as in “thanks, but I don’t think it’s a good fit, best of luck.”) one by one until you get the five slots filled with people you would actually want to talk to.
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Why invite at random @Dawn109? You could check their profiles & find some good matches.
I’m not sure that invitations have a very high success rate though (willing to be contradicted on that). As @pietkuip says, they will all be alerted to your listing anyway, which will save you some work.
No. Many of us do not get the alerts on our phones. Many of us get the alerts but get a blank screen when we try to see anything. However I believe you know this already.
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@Shella_in_the_Forum When I get a blank screen to look at the dates, I interpret that as that already five have applied. But maybe that is not right?
And yes, the system seems very buggy, and it is even getting worse (now with the alerts for new listings in Saved searches that still show the old undesired ones on “low applications”). But I suspect that that was by design, THS forcefeeding us such listings.
Anyway, such blank screens are of course horrible communication on the part of THS. Why cannot they just say: “Sorry, too late! Be faster next time!! The early bird catches the worm!” etc.
I’m a sitter, but if I were you I’d reject any applications that didn’t write a full message with their application.
But if they’ve saved your sit and didn’t apply, it probably means that your dates do not suit them, or maybe it’s a destination they would like to visit at some point in the future but have no firm plans to visit as yet. So why reach out to them in the first place? I’d focus on sitters that apply, or ones that have sat for you in the past.
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Yes that is how I interpret the blank screen. Back when I received alerts on my phone (Android), I would click on them the instant they were received but, poof, the listing was not there. I didn’t even know which of my favorites I missed, presumably due to a time delay and the application limit.
Now I don’t get any alerts from THS. I have checked all my sittings. When I go to my list of apps to ensure the THS is allowed to send me notices, it isn’t even in my list of apps. This latest glitch happened not too long ago to me but I believe it has existed for longer.
I feel like I am paying full membership to be both a sitter and owner on THS, but have about 75% functionality and 25% access to popular sits. 
@Dawn109 - I’m a HO & sitter. As a HO, I do go through sitters that have saved our listing and click the heart to favorite the ones I like. If I really like them from their profile, I’ll message them via a private date & see if we can chat, so I can get to know them. Then when I have a date of a trip, I will reach out to those I have hearted & private invite them before I list a date.
What really annoys me is that, as a sitter, I have no means of knowing if anyone has Favourited me
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True & if you did know, no way for a sitter to reach out to a HO.
The reason to invite someone who has favourited the sit is that they have expressed an interest by doing so. If you see a profile out of those that you think is what you would like by all means send an invite. I have never accepted any sit where I have been invited but that has been because they were all just random Owners in my local area inviting the closest person and I do this so I can travel. If it was someone I had marked as a favourite unless there was a date issue I would likely do it.
If you are in a popular area and just open it up to anyone you will get the fastest 5 applications which may be nothing like what you are looking for.
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