How Long Do You Let Applications Sit?

Owner Questions, Advice & Chat
1

I’m pretty new to THS. I just did my first sit, and have my first sitter coming tomorrow, with three other listings over the next year. I generally don’t expect a lot of applications because of my rural location, so we were relatively quick to talk with our first sitter when he applied and secured the sit. I also just got another application for a sit a year from now, and I have good first impressions, but I guess I’m just wondering what the typical etiquette is-- especially when you have the time to wait for other applications.

I’m finding myself comparing to other listings out there where you see “3 applicants/8 applicants”… do other H.O.'s just let listings pile applications up? It seems a little odd to me, but I don’t know if I’m running the process wrong? :sweat_smile:

2

@Rachael-Aaron great question.

From a sitter’s perspective they can apply for multiple sits for the same dates and could get snapped up by another host if you delay . They may be looking ahead to commit to sits in 2027 in order to book plane tickets at a cheaper price or to arrange their itinerary around this sit . So they may not hang around indefinitely for you to respond .

If they are an experienced sitter with multiple 5 star reviews even more reason to respond promptly to this application.

My suggestion is at least reply promptly, arrange a video call with this sitter and see how you feel after that .

I also would suggest that you don’t list dates until you are ready to commit to a sitter . Many sitters withdraw their applications if they don’t get a response from a host promptly. ( within 48 hours )

3

When hosts post their dates, sitters assume/expect/hope that hosts are ready to act on securing a sitter. THS expects communication to happen within 72 hours. Many experienced sitters withdraw their applications after about 48 hours if they see it’s not been read, or read but not acknowledged.

I would think carefully about advertising too far in advance, depending on the length of the sit. You have one applicant for the dates 12 months away. Anything can happen in that time to you, the sitter or your pets which could result in a cancellation. You are likely to receive more applications advertising not so far in advance. Just concentrate on your first set of dates unless you have Christmas dates too. Be prompt in responding to your applicants.

Hosts can only receive 5 applications at a time before THS automatically pauses it (unless others have started their application before it pauses).

4

Yeah, we make sure our longer sits are already booked/secured bigger investment trips. Any of our shorter listings we put out there are more of a “take it or leave it, we’re driving so if we don’t have applicants we won’t go”. For sure, there’s others we’ve been tempted to add, but we’re avoiding until we have more details. We’re big cruisers so those dates are pretty locked in. :laughing:

Thank you all for the info, that really helps put perspective of what to expect and do. :slight_smile:

5

Don’t compare your sit to other places/sits. Everyone’s different. If whoever applied for your sit sounded perfect, then follow your gut instinct. If they didn’t sound perfect, then you have plenty of time.

We have a very high acceptance rate, because we sit in areas we know really well within two different countries, and we love returning to the same pets, so HO’s usually respond fast to us. Most respond within an hour or so, not within an hour to necessarily accept/confirm us, just to continue the convo further.

On the rare occasion an HO takes more than 24 hours to respond, I lose a little spark, enthusiasm, and eagerness. I like sitting for like-minded people, who go with the the flow when it feels right, and most HO’s respond really fast saying something about their own lives that is relevant to our profile, so I know (and they know) we’re matched perfectly.

There’s been countless times when I’ve withdrawn our application 24 hours later, only for the HO to respond immediately to say they wanted us and they just haven’t had time to respond… but that’s their time, and this is my/our life, and my/our happy time with pets, so waiting for those that drag their heels when it affects our life, means we aren’t match well at all. We wouldn’t do that to someone else.

Especially when we’ve got a regular set of HO’s who ask us in advance about our availability… before they’ve even decided on their proper dates.

So, if they sound perfect, nab them, if they don’t then you have plenty of time. If you want to keep them in reserve, just tell them with your dates being so far ahead of time, you’re going to look at the applications in 2 weeks time. If they withdraw, they were never the right fit anyway, but as it’s so far in the future, they probably won’t.

6

@Rachael-Aaron, you’ve already received excellent advice.

Thought give +1 to counsel from @temba - we would not confirm a distant sit unless the pet parent demonstrated strong intent to action the future trip. That does happen but but sometimes we encounter pet parents that are thinking about a possible trip … we will politely withdraw our application.

Suggest no upside in comparing statistics to other listings. Housesitting is not a competitive activity. Focus should be on engaging with housesitters that seem a strong fit for mutual needs. Once you find someone that works both ways then suggest offer/confirm sit. As @Silversitters rightly noted, good housesitters explore concurrent listings and may become unavailable.

7

To add to etiquette, I would suggest when you decline an applicant to send a little note with it and especially if you want them to sit for you in the future. Sometimes you will be lucky enough to have two or three applicants that look good. Or your first choice that you confirmed cancels. .A note something like this, thank you for taking the time to apply. We really like your profile. We interviewed the first person that applied and we confirmed them. We would really like if you apply in the future. We think you would be wonderful with little FeeFee. Thanks again and safe travels. Also, if you do confirm someone, don’t leave the others hanging till they get the canned message from THS. You will never find a perfect person just like sitters will never find a perfect host. We are all human . You want to confirm the first person you are extremely comfortable with that you think will take good care of your pet and home and most important, someone you don’t think will cancel last minute.
.

8

I would never post a sit a year away - too many things can change in that time for either myself or a sitter. But there are plenty of HOs and sitters who do this successfully. It does seem like being a newer HO might make sitters hesitate before committing to something so far off.

The etiquette is to not leave applicants hanging just because no one else has applied yet. Reply immediately, and if you do a video call and they seem great, book them. You only need one great sitter, not a bunch of competition! OTOH, if there is a voice saying ‘this person is okay but I’m not totally feeling it because xyz’ - listen to that. You have so much time to find a good fit for that one, and hopefully some of the closer trips will fill up and you’ll get good reviews, which then makes any listing more attractive.

If you’re not satisfied with the current applicant, let them know what’s going on. If you don’t want to reject the application, at least tell them your plan. They may remove themselves from the running, and that’s okay too.

9

I post my sits at least 3 months out. Sometimes longer. Our sits are generally 2-3 weeks. Also, it depends on the time of year. If I’m vacationing in the low season, I might post my sits a little longer. Some sitters like to plan far out in advance and some like to plan only a few weeks out. It depends on where you are located and how many pets and responsibilities are involved.

We’ve been on THS for almost 3 years now and have completed our 13th sit and we’ve had nothing but top notch sitters. We are really happy we found THS. We actually travel more now. :smiley:

10

It’s no different to booking holidays a year in advance, which for us retirees is pretty common I’m finding. Things get booked up pretty quickly.

11

Hi @Rachael-Aaron :slightly_smiling_face:

From a sitter’s perspective, I’d say the most important thing is simply to acknowledge the application reasonably quickly, even if you’re not ready to make a decision.

If you like the look of someone but want to see who else applies, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to say that. Something as simple as, “Thanks for applying. We really like your profile and will be reviewing applications over the next week or two” gives the sitter some idea of where they stand.

What I wouldn’t do is leave someone hanging while waiting to see whether a “better” applicant comes along. Sitters may be applying for other sits covering the same dates, and a good applicant can disappear while you’re waiting.

And I wouldn’t worry too much about the number of applications other hosts are getting. You only need one sitter who feels like the right fit.

If your first applicant looks great and the sit is a long way off, I’d have the conversation and see how you feel. There’s no prize for collecting applications!

:paw_prints::heart:

12

A bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush. If the sitter seems like a good match, there is no need to delay and wait in case someone better comes along. If you have genuine misgivings, or sometimes just a bad feeling, then it’s fine to pass on that applicant but let them know right away.

Try to imagine yourself on the other end. You sent in an application, wouldn’t you want to hear something, even if it’s bad news, rather than just silence?

Being decisive lets everyone move on quickly. I started to pause my listing when I got an applicant that looked good on paper at least. After the video chat I would usually confirm. No need to wait for 5 applicants.

13

Good on you getting your first sit arranged.

To answer your question, letting applications pile up is considered bad form and is definitely counterproductive. You want to find good, experienced sitters ideally with very positive reputations in theTHS community (numerous great reviews as a benchmark). Good and experienced sitters on THS know better than to wait around for a slow-to-respond host and move on to better matches. Hosts with locations in extreme demand can get away with being less considerate than the rest of us but it’s still boorish behavior to string sites along. Plus THS Terms and Conditions include responding within 72 hours by both parties.

Do be aware that experienced sitters are likely applying for multiple sits over any specific period. First good host match wins.

Looking at your dates, your sits are on the shorter side for being published a year in advance. We’ve had great luck finding sitters for 4+ week sits when publishing our dates 6 months before a trip. For shorter trips, we publish 3 or 4 months ahead because

14

@Rachael-Aaron

Some sitters are wary of applying for new listings with no reviews .

So you might want to delete the future dates and wait until you have received a review of your first sit . Assuming that you get a five star review , that may influence more sitters to apply for your future dates .

But whatever you decide please do respond to the application that you already have .

15

A sitter perspective..

A couple of days ago we applied for a 3 day cat sit- a gap filler. We were the first applicants. The HO read it but took more than 24 hours to acknowledge/reply (already a bad sign) as @HappyDeb said interest/enthusiasm was already declining with this delay. We like to be snapped up quickly by hosts who are enthusiastic to have us!

This morning they replied saying;

“Hi **** - thank you for you application - you both sound great, please give us a few more days to see if we have another application. As it stands at present you sound ideal. We will be in touch soon. :folded_hands::+1:” !!!

These hosts have had 8 sitters before- they know the score. You snooze you lose! Despite telling us we ‘Sound great’ and ‘Sound ideal’ they clearly don’t have a 100% Yes for us and are waiting for someone more perfect than us to apply! They have not even asked for a call. It would be slightly different (but not much!) if they said they were reviewing applications and would get back to us very soon but to openly say they are waiting for more applications is a complete turn off!!! No sitter wants to be the ‘second best’ or kept on the back burner as the ‘last resort’ We know our worth! And we are talking here about a THREE DAY cat sit with ONE cat!! Not a 2 month multi animal complicated sit etc!! Suffice to say we will NOT be sitting for these people even if they end up wanting us (the damage is done!) We have now applied for something else with same dates.

16

Some things you just don’t say out loud. If they were smart they would have set up a video call with you for the next day. That gives them 24 hours to see if other applicants apply. I would have withdrawn my application as well if they emailed that to me.

17

When you get the other sit @Lokstar, you’ll be able to withdraw that application with a message saying you have accepted another sit for a more ideal host :laughing:

18

I had something similar happened. The homeowners incorrectly believed they need to receive 5 applications before making a decision. I love withdrawing my application from such sits.

19

How would they “know the score”? There is nothing from THS informing hosts about the etiquette of the matching process. We had a couple of sitters before I learned about “the score” on this forum which I joined specifically to learn “the score” along with a bunch of other scores I knew nothing about.

I did learn a different lesson from a great match who declined our invitation to our first sit. We were stunned because it seemed everything went perfectly. So we asked the sitter what happened and they kindly explained what we did wrong. An important lesson was learned. My point here is that you would do your host and the community a service by including an explanation as to why you withdrew.

20

@OnTheRoadAgain We have not withdrawn our application. Its still there. I only said that we will not be sitting for them if, or when, they decide to connect further with us. I have not actually replied to their response (that we sound ideal but they will get back to us in a few days.) I’ve just left it there in the inbox for now. Meanwhile we have applied to two other sits for similar dates - both longer, and actually more suitable, so if either one of them turn out to be a match we will simply withdraw the first application and tell them we have confirmed another sit elsewhere. It is not my job to speed these hosts up in their decision making process, nor do I have to like or agree with it.

By ‘knowing the score’ I meant that an experienced host would certainly know that they don’t need 5 applicants- they just need ONE suitable applicant. There is no perfect sitter but there are many great sitters. So if the first applicant fits the bill then snap them up before someone else does. A better one may not appear. These hosts have not jumped at the chance of connecting further with us hence our loss of interest in sitting for them- for reasons I already explained. But whilst our dates remain unfilled we’ll just keep all options open and watch with curiosity what unfolds!