I have been a HO and have had many fantastic experiences with sitters. We just messaged a potential HO as sitters and I see they have read our message but days have passed and no response. As. HO this is not how we handle applications so is this normal for sitters to just have HO read but not reply or even say hello to your message?
I am pretty taken aback at the lack of response knowing the message has been read.
How long has it been since they read it? I personally wait about two days. Sometimes they may have accidentally clicked it without reading it or could be a glitch and most likely haven’t seen it yet.
If they don’t respond within 48hrs I skip
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It was about four days, yes that makes sense about opening it and not actually reading it. I see their listing says low applicants yet they haven’t responded even a hello to our application. Seems like they would at least acknowledge the application. Having not sit before and now experiencing what sitters deal with is less than promising. I am thinking HO need to be vetted or have an incentive to respond kindly to those who apply.
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It happens sometimes and has been discussed a lot here on the forum.
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This is more normal than it should be, and you will find that this topic has been discussed several times on forum. The terms of THS states that a member should answer within 72 hours. My personal experience is that when an application ends in a sit for me, usually the host will be in touch quite quickly and schedule a videocall. For me I would say a host gets back to me within 24 hours, 48 at the most when the result is a confirmed sit.
For this reason I do not hang on longer than 48 hours, and even withdraw my application if I hear nothing more than 48 hours. I do regard it as a bad sign for the communication regarding a sit.
Others might hang on longer and get nice sits as a result, this is just my experience.
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Thank you, this all makes sense and as a HO we reply right away and are respectful of the HS time and planning.
I agree it is a sign of how the HO communicates and I prefer a better communication for a sit. I don’t need to sit I am choosing to help someone out if my travel dates are the same or similar to the request. I love animals and would prefer to stay in a home than a hotel or air bnb but if the communication is lacking then I’ll move on.
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Thank you, I apologize if it is redundant I looked up the topics and tags but the search didn’t show anything similar.
Never redundant to ask for advice @RavenR that’s what the forum is for!
Type in “sitters who don’t respond” and there are 50 posts or so. 72 hours is the THS guideline. You can prompt them or you can set your own times & withdraw and move on. #youmaketherules
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Sounds normal. If you really like the opp, send a bump message, if still not response after that, I’d decline or at least mentally write it off.
But personally, I feel like if we’re trying to make the platform better, decline and give feedback (e.g. cancelled due to lack of communication). Hopefully it will help improve their behaviour for the next person.
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Okay, thank you