When I advertise for a sit, I have 50% of applicants who are either single or have absolutely no experience with horses. My listing explicitly says that I want A COUPLE and must have HORSE experience. I have so many unqualified applicants that I spend a good part of my time declining (nicely) than accepting.
Is there a way to get around this? Maybe THS should make some kind of filter that doesn’t allow an applicant to apply if they do not meet the perimeters The Pet Parent is looking for so as not to have the Pet Parent waste time declining?
Sitter here. There will be no way to get around this as there will always be applicants who don’t read the listing properly or choose to apply anyway. You’re lucky if you get so many applicants to wade through, so many owners are currently complaining that they no longer get the number they used to.
Sitter here. I can only imagine how aggravating it must be to have to repeatedly decline sitters who clearly don’t meet your criteria. I think THS really messed things up when they started the 5-application limit for newly posted sits. I bet some sitters see your general location and so on and frantically apply to get in before the 5-application limit. I have seen many homeowners state in bold at the top of the description: PLEASE READ LISTING IN ITS ENTIRETY BEFORE APPLYING. My guess is you are far from the only one frustrated by this waste of your time. I hope you start seeing more applicants who meet your specific needs. I would also be tempted to chastise the applicants, pointing out they clearly did not read your listing or they wouldn’t have applied.
As far as THS disallowing (is that a word?) sitters from applying if they don’t meet your criteria, I don’t think on the whole that would be terribly helpful. To the contrary, there are already changes in the system that won’t allow couples to apply to overlapping sits, which is such a shame because part of what makes THS the wonderful community it is is there’s wiggle room to negotiate. It’s possible some of these unqualified sitters who have applied are hoping you might be open to bending your particular requirements - which is all the more reason to highlight that this is not the case. Hope you get better results in the future!
Why decline nicely if you specifically wrote couples only and horse experienced required. Just hit the decline button, takes two seconds. I don’t see how THS could ever do what you request. So many times on profiles I see couples requested and then see some single people have sat for them. Maybe the individual person thinks they can handle it and takes a chance and applies. No one needs to apply without horse experience and put the horse in possible danger.
Very unlikely THS is going to do that unfortunately.
I have a similar problem with my listing (which is in a popular tropical island location). I get 5 applicants within minutes, most of whom clearly haven’t read the criteria clearly outlined in the listing.
I used to send ‘nice’ replies, now I don’t bother. I just hit reject otherwise it just takes up too much time and stops other more suitable people applying due to the ‘5 applicant rule’.
I think sometimes you get a misleading impression based on those complaining on these pages and others, because those are the people you hear from.
There are many many listings (inc mine) where you literally get 5 applications within 10 minutes of posting. I don’t feel ‘lucky’ that most of them aren’t suitable and don’t meet the criteria I clearly outline. You virtually have to sit at the computer rejecting applications every hour to allow suitable people to apply, due to the 5 applicant cut off. It’s frustrating.
Well I’d say it’s worth the effort to save your pet(s) having to go into a kennel/cattery and have them stay at home and be kept to their normal routine. I do understand the frustration though
@BJane before the 5 application limit how many unsuitable applications would you get before you found the right one? Truly curious, either way I imagine a pain in the proverbial.
I’d never put my pets in a kennel/cattery. That’s why I use THS and also paid sitters, as necessary.
I’m merely indicating that your point about being ‘lucky’ to get any applicants is definitely not the case for many HOs in popular locations who struggle to manage applications, many of them unsuitable.
Overnight I’d probably get around 20+ applications out of which 5+ would be potentially suitable. Personally I think it worked better for everyone as I could look at them once a day, then I’d always get back to people within 48 hours, often saying that I’m drafting a shortlist (of about 3) which I’d do a video call with to make sure we were a good fit for both parties.
Now I just default to rejecting immediately so I can get more applications in - case in point I initially rejected my most recent - truly wonderful - sitter because she hadn’t put in her application that she was already booked to come to my area, which is expensive to travel to.
Fortunately she came back to me with more info but ‘in the old days’ there would have been more time for back and forth before I hit reject to open the listing to more applicants. It’s unfair for both parties, imho.
I recognize that. We also ask for a couple and explain why in the introduction of our listing. Nevertheless most applications are from single sitters. I notice it are always people who are really enthusiast about our location, so that’s a sort of flattering . Though it’s annoying to get these applications while no couple had applied yet, I do send every applicant a kind reply. It’s just a matter of copy and paste. (And our last sitter was single, but living single in a tiny house in the middle of a Chilean desert, so we dared to leave it up to him.)
So annoying. I have seen some listings where the heading is COUPLES WITH HORSE EXPERIENCE ONLY kind of thing. Or at least making that the top line in your post in bold. Sitters are foolish because it does not bode well on them to make it SO obvious they don’t care enough to read the entire post.
If I am really interested I’ll open the application to save myself a spot, then start a new page with the listing to read the entire listing.
I’m sorry that’s so annoying, and I don’t think there’s any way around it. THS has already implemented too many things to “fix” one particular thing that makes things harder in others.
The only thing I’d change is declining “nicely”. Sitters who don’t read your profile or apply without meeting the base criteria do not deserve a proper reply. At best, I’d send a “did not read profile” message with the decline. It’s a small thing, but should clear up some of your mental space about it.
Also please put in bold what type of experience with equines as many sitters seem to believe that having ridden a riding school pony that this gives them suitable experience. We had 5 horses, none were ‘riding school types’, and all required experienced horse people to manage, even then there were various issues over the years.
I find it extremely frustrating that with THS new system of five applications at a time, most of the applicants are not suitable. I specifically say COUPLES ONLY and NO KIDS, and almost every applicant is single and many have kids. They are all excited at the chance to do a sit in Hawaii! This means that I have to go through the first five, decline them, then unpause applications so that I can get five more, and then repeat several more times. Out of 20 applicants, probably 15 of them are not appropriate. Back when we could get unlimited applications, I didn’t have this problem. Another reason to cancel my THS membership.
I, too, suspect that THS won’t add aonther category/filter (esp because they’ve been tweaking things ad nauseum since jacking prices…and not necessarily for the better).
Idea : Since reading comprehension seems to be a challenge for many, could you add IN CAPS your HARD LINE parameters at the end of the intro and/or the pet needs sections ?
Not a guarantee, of course, but possibly THE thing that deters unqualified sitters.
Many sitters have a stock application at the ready for sits they are interested in if they open up. With the 5 application limit, they literally do not have the time to customize their applications. I learned this the hard way! I have favorited a couple of sits in Rome. Late last night I happened to be awake at 4:00am after using the restroom and saw my phone light up. It was notification for one of the sits in Rome I was interested in. I clicked on the link, read through the listing, confirmed that the dates would fit my schedule and that I was a good fit for them, then looked for the link to apply. It literally took less than 2 minutes. In that time frame, the listing was closed and it said that no applicants were needed. Two minutes. You must have a very attractive sit. People have a cut-and-paste application at the ready because there is literally no time to do any research once an attractive listing becomes available.
. Though it’s annoying to get these applications while no couple had applied yet, I do send every applicant a kind reply. It’s just a matter of copy and paste. (And our last sitter was single, but living single in a tiny house in the middle of a Chilean desert, so we dared to leave it up to him.)