As a full-time house sitter, I tend to book out my assignments if possible. That means I am sometimes applying for sits that aren’t going to start for a month or more and I am applying for multiple sits at a time that would be potentially good fits for me.
I applied for a sit a little while back that doesn’t start until the end of September. The process is in the review phase but it is high on my list of assignment wants. Application has been read but I have not received any communication and application is still active. Meanwhile one of my other owners came back and immediately offered me their sit assignment (I won’t accept it until we have a conversation which is my policy so there is that). But I want to wait for an update from the other sit.
So, what is everyone’s opinion on following up on sit applications that are just in stasis? Do you do it? Is it something you would never do? Have you been been in this situation and how did you handle it?
We definitely ask for an update when necessary.
We say something like, “I hate to bother you, but your sit is our first choice but our second choice has made an offer. Can you please update me on where you are at in the process?”
A few times we have had no response from that, so we go with choice 2. But never have we heard too late that our first choice was gonna happen. It seems some of them don’t want to give up on options in case their sitter cancels, or they use someone off THS and forget THS exists…
I would just send them a message - we see that you are reviewing and we have now had another offer for a sit. We would like to sit for you if we are a good match, so please let us know if you would like to discuss a sit. Otherwise we will go on with the other offer.
I don’t ever follow up on applications. Generally, if I haven’t heard from the host within a few days, especially if the application was read relatively quickly, I typically just withdraw.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with following up, and from what I have seen on the forum, this has led to sitters being offered the opportunity. So if it is one you really want to do, can’t hurt.
For me, it is more of an energetic type thing. When I withdraw the application and let the opportunity go, I feel like it opens me up for the perfect matches. Not getting too attached to any one opportunity will serve you well in your housesitting journey.
While many people believe slow communication suggests a lot of negative things about the host such as being a poor communicator, not respectful of people’s time,etc…, I don’t necessarily think that unquestionably indicates such traits, and I don’t automatically make such assumptions. I just think in many cases, the hosts don’t realize how things work on the sitter’s end as far as planning their sits, setting their schedule,etc…
But with that being said, it doesn’t create a great first impression, and with so many sits available, I see no need to risk taking one that could potentially be problematic. There are no guarantees ever, so it all comes down to what we can do to minimize the risk of bad experiences.
In my decade of sitting, it has been my experience that most hosts respond within reasonable time frames, and if I was the type of person to follow up, I would not have had to do it all that much.
I’m not a full time sitter but applied on a local sit two weeks ago that I was very interested in. My application was read immediately but the sit is still sitting in the “reviewing applications” stage. Three days ago, I sent the homeowners a message asking if they were close to making a decision as I was still interested. My message was read immediately but no response so this morning I withdrew. Personally, I love homeowners who just hit the “confirm” button without having any conversation and then we follow up. As a sitter with over 40- 5 star glowing reviews, I do wonder why homeowners take so long to make a decision and I basically just move on. I also have done house sits where I was chosen after I did send a follow up message so it certainly doesn’t hurt to follow up!
No follow-ups for me. I withdraw within 48 hours if a host doesn’t reply to schedule a video chat. A number of sitters do similarly.
Often when I withdraw, I immediately hear from the slow hosts. (Other sitters say likewise.) So they can communicate quickly — just not how it counts to us, LOL.
Doesn’t matter why some hosts are slow. It’s enough for me to know that there are plenty of others who aren’t.
A matching platform by default includes lots of folks who don’t match. No big deal. Find your people.
Note: There are more sits than sitters, especially experienced ones with strong reviews.
Some sitters complain that there aren’t many sits in some countries or cities. To me, shrug, they choose to limit themselves. There are other platforms or groups beyond THS. Plus, if there are few sits in an area or country, then expand your horizons. Or figure out how to afford to go there in other ways or be prepared to be indefinitely patient.
Personally, I get way more offers for sits than I can do — unsolicited ones and repeats. Also, some hosts refer friends to me for sits. And I’ve been sitting only since March 2023 — 17 sits domestically and abroad, and I have others booked via THS or Nomador. More experienced sitters must have even more opportunities.
BTW, holiday season is coming up. That means slow hosts will likely miss out more than usual. If you’re a sitter who’s available for holiday season, you’ll probably have a great selection.
Great. This is exactly what I was thinking of doing and why. I have found a couple home owners who don’t realize how fast things move on the sitter side so I get that our pacing might just be different and I want to give it a chance to work out.
Yeah, I have never felt the need to follow up before and take a similar approach as you usually. This is the first time I felt like I wanted to follow up to be sure.
It hasn’t been THAT long. A little over a week ago. And it closed for review a couple of days ago. I was the first to apply. I normally would wait a little longer before pulling my application but with receiving another offer, I don’t think it is fair to leave the other home owner waiting. I want to use my best judgement to either decline the presented offer or proceed. And it would help if I knew what the timeline was for owner number 1.
Great points. I haven’t had too much difficulty in my area since flipping to FT this July (not quite ready to go out of my area just yet). I am booked out until next year with just two smaller time frames I would like to fill. So I see what you are saying about more sits than sitters and having that standard. Maybe I will start implementing the 48 hr rule too.
What she said @KC1102
If it’s read I give it a week.
Then it’s adios y buen viaje.
If a HO gets an applicant with a stellar profile what are they waiting for? A stellarar one??
Yeah let’s make the decision process more intense.
At least acknowledge and open conversation. I think that helps decision making more than anything.
But that’s only my opinion.
I am sure that you do not want to mislead the Owner who has offered you a Sit, and drag that out, and there might be other applicants who are waiting, the same way that you are waiting. Maybe the Sit Owner you really, really want is interviewing other applicants right now!
It’s not fair to the other homeowner. It means that other sitters might also withdraw from that sit so it could make things difficult. Either take the sit that was offered or decline it.
There is also the (IMHO bad) decision by THS to close the applicant list once the five people with the fastest triggerfingers have copypasted their stuff and clicked “apply”. I would really like to have my own control over that, like before.
I’m not the person to just click “deny” when I see an application first thing, I need time to read and balance it out, and unless people are rude or start ghosting, I’ll never deny without messaging (that’s why the auto-deny-message feature creeps me out; let me at least craft a text for that!).
And so people aren’t seeing the sit for a while, then it pops up until the queue is full again…
Ok, so I took a combination of many people’s advice and kindly reached out to the owners to let them know I had another sit confirmation but wanted to hear where they were in their process. I got crickets. But I did see they had read the message almost immediately. I made the decision to give them until the next day. When I didn’t hear from them I went ahead and accepted the other sit. I just received a message from them yesterday saying they missed my message but hope that we can sync up in the future.
So basically some of you had valid opinions on what it says about lack of communication. I think it is absolutely ok to follow up on a sit you really want if you are on time crunch. But if they don’t respond in a timely manner move on. I won’t be leaving most of my applications open long term anymore based on others advice. Thank you everyone!
I think thats very true, and particularly with pet parents who are new to the site. That said, we feel it bodes well for future communications when a pet parent is quick to respond.
Our experience, exactly! It illustrates that they’re perfectly capable of making prompt response but have chosen not to. This suggests they’re perhaps waiting for other applications, in which case ours hasn’t hit the mark so we’d rather withdraw.
@BfromtheSea I think youve done exactly the right thing and we’d have done the same. We usually withdraw our application from the slow-responder (in this case the non-responder!) commencing with:
‘We’re sorry not to have heard from you…’
This usually generates a very swift response, often saying they’ve been away / didnt realise we had a time constraint / have only just seen our message (don’t people realise we can see when messages have been read?).
Maybe next time, they won’t wait so long. Or, maybe they’re the kind of people who don’t consider that others have plans to make, too (in which case, we’ve dodged a bullet).
