Hello! I have a trip coming up in 12 days, and my sitter has stopped responding to messages. They haven’t cancelled the sit, but they are not communicating or confirming that they even want to come and sit anymore. I’m not sure what to do. Do I report them as having cancelled, or is it not considered a cancellation? I obviously can’t leave on my trip without an assurance that they’re going to show up. :-/ I’d appreciate any advice. Thanks so much! Katie
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Welcome @Katie.Harris
Are the messages you are sending being read ? Did you exchange phone numbers, have you tried calling them ?
Did the sitter officially accept the sit ? Is it confirmed on your THS dashboard ?
If they haven’t officially accepted the sit then it’s not a cancellation by you or them . You can withdraw your invitation to them and look for another sitter.
If this is a confirmed sit - you can contact member services who will have an alternative phone number and will try to contact them on your behalf . If they don’t respond in a timely manner then you can look for another sitter.
To contact member services use live chat 
( in the Help Section ) and ask to speak to a human or phone the Urgent Support Phone Line ( the number is on your dashboard)
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How many messages are you sending them? It’s 12 days before your trip so I wouldn’t be expecting to be contacted by the HO at this stage. Maybe just ask them to confirm that they will message you when they set off. And make sure that you have a phone number to contact them.
If the sit is indeed a confirmed sit on the platform as Silversitters say, I would totally expect a partner in an agreement to respond, sitter or host. People have lives, so I wouldn’t expect an immediate answer, but surely within 24 hours (THS terms says a member should answer within 72 hours. That is way too long for matters of a confirmed sit in my opinion). It is important for a sit to have other ways of contacting each other than THS-messages. Those could end up in a spam-filter etc. Do you have contact info. by phone, e-mail, WhatsApp or similar?
I had a problem on another platform where I finally managed to get in contact by finding the person on Facebook for a handover of rental. But I had the name and location so that was something to start with.
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Where ate you Katie
Thanks everyone!
She had already confirmed the sit and I gave her my number on two different occasions. She did not send me her number, which I have never had happen before. I can see that she is viewing my messages, but just not responding? I just went ahead and “unconfirmed” her stay so that it can go live again. I’m annoyed that I’m being ghosted, but I’m honestly more concerned that I won’t have a sitter for my trip! It’s making me so nervous! :-/
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An HS just posted they got cancelled in on the subreddit. I’m now wondering if that’s your HS lol.
But yea, if you shared your number with them and they never provided an alternative contact, that’s on them. The site isn’t perfect so I always make sure I have at least two forms of contact for this is exact reason.
I hope you find another HS in time. 
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Wait, completely unrelated, but we have a subreddit?
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Yep. There’s a subreddit for TrustedHousesitters. I think forum is a bit better for getting slightly more sound advice back from members and as forum has moderators from TH, some issues can actually be heard by/escalated toTH here, but it’s interesting to compare and contrast.
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very logical and reasonable.
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Thank you! I wonder if it was them? If so, that’s very confusing because I sent a few messages that explicitly stated that I would need to unconfirm the sit if I didn’t get a response. I could see that my messages were being read but weren’t being responded to, and I was providing my number but hers wasn’t being given to me in return? I’ve had a number of successful sits on the site, and to me this was shaping up to be a last minute cancellation?
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Sounds like you made the right call. That’s not a good sign at all.
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You are doing everything right. I WOULD expect to be in communication with the Owner 1, 2, and/or 3 weeks before a Sit, confirming that everyone is healthy and able to travel, etc. That is NORMAL.
I realize your first priority now is to find another Sitter, but when you get back from your travels, you really should report that other Sitter who ghosted you. That is the worst! Worse than cancelling at late notice.
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as a sitter I always give them my number to communicate with whatsapp because the message system of Trusedhousesitter doesn’t work well. I reported it long ago but nothing has been done yet. You won’t get a notification on the app or you can’t see the messages when you open them.
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