Few things are as unattractive as pure arrogance and boastfulness. Imagine the “you’d be so lucky to get to sit for us” demeanor you’d get applying for them!
Hard PASS.
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I meant that in the other examples I provided you might not hear back for much longer than a week (which I feel is reasonable for a host to reply to applications).
To assume a host is a bad communicator and will be a difficult sit based solely on no reply within a week of submitting an application, without ever having a single conversation with them is rather short sighted.
It happened to one - and only one- sitter out of 20 applicants to our highly popular sit. She bailed after 2 days while we were working our way down the list.
She lost a great opportunity for no good reason other than her misconception that we must be bad hosts because of our ‘lack of immediate response’.
The chosen sitter for our luxurious property on a mountainside overlooking the Saronic Gulf and distant Athens is lucky - extremely lucky - as per the high volume of applicants and sitters who have favorited our listing (close to 300 now) and the often full nearby Airbnbs that rent for 400 euros per nite (and we are “lucky” to save thousands of euros on pet care each time we travel).
That much said we treat our sitters like gold, because we respect and appreciate what they do for us and our pets. They are given full use of our home, our car, all food and alcohol. We invite them to stay over prior to the sit, show them the area, suggest places to go. We allow our pets can be left alone most of the day so the sitter can explore.
We don’t require daily updates, nor pictures (or videos) and we are always available should the sitter need to reach us during the sit.
We give them a gift at the end. If more convenient they can stay over the nite we return. If they want, they will be picked up and dropped off at the train station 30 minutes away.
We became good friends with our first sitter who described the sit as “life changing”.
One sitter (out of about 20 applicants over 3 sits) who was next on our list to contact assumed the worst because her application wasn’t addressed within 48 hours, she “took a hard pass” and lost the opportunity.
We too, consider ourselves lucky to have the resources to live in such a beautiful area. A person can be proud of their home and consider others to be fortunate to share the experience without being arrogant.
Sitters who “take a hard pass” because they incorrectly assume the hosts to be difficult and poor communicators naturally deselect themselves from consideration, making it easier for hosts with highly desirable sits and numerous applications to go through a shorter list of applicants who are more patient and less presumptive.
Your place and accommodations sound truly amazing and I’m sure it is.
My comment is only on that phrase used in the listing the OP mentioned - advertising what the house would rent for. I’m just not a fan of boasting about something like that on the profile or in public. You can see from many of the comments on this thread that I’m not the only one to get the “icks” from that line.
I am not saying it isn’t true, just that it’s a little weird and not something I would ever do. We have sat several times for a home worth 10 million in an extremely affluent neighborhood full of celebrities and these folks talked far too often about money and how much everything cost. It was uncomfortable and awkward and we no longer sit for them (not just for that reason, however).
The photos and description of the home should be sufficient. If such sits get dozens or hundreds of saves and applications, seems unnecessary to mention money.
I’m someone who values humility. It’s an opinion.
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I dont assume that it would be a difficult sit if I didnt hear from HOs in a week. However, a week delay would tell me that the HO and I had different communication styles and views on manners. That makes it a bad match for me. I can’t think of anywhere desirable enough for me to tolerate an inconsiderate HO.
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Or she found a better opportunity
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Impossible! 
That’s where I think you’re wrong. That sitter is the one person to decide what’s a great opportunity for her, no one else. She gets to decide what reasons are good for her too.
Believe it or not, not every one is willing to step in your shoes or stay in your house. No matter how lucky you may be or how nice and expensive your house is.
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That’s true. Not everyone. But most would.
IMO that’s a red flag.
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This is precisely the attitude which would immediately make us withdraw any application to sit.
You’re totally missing the point here; despite that very many experienced sitters have advised the home and location means nothing without a good vibe and rapport with HOs (and pets we want to care for), you seem still to hold the opinion that the property is everything.
On what do you base your view that ‘most’ sitters would want to sit for you? Haven’t you welcomed just 2 THS sitters to date (both of whom you were dissatisfied with)? There seems to be some disparity between your opinion and your actual experience?
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No. I have not welcomed 2 sitters to date and I was not dissatisfied with both of them.
Perhaps you’re confusing me with someone else.
My posts in this regard to how great my house is are mostly satirical and largely tongue in cheek, but I don’t expect everyone to get it, in fact most don’t.
I’m referring to your comments in this thread: This website does not protect sitters - #79 by Twitcher
When you wrote: ‘I got a horrible sitter despite getting countless seemingly qualified 5 star applicants’.
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Yes we got one bad sitter who had a solid 5 star review history from multiple sits. The experience left me skeptical of the THS review system and distrustful of the host membership base in general.
400 X 30 = 12,000 euro. 12,000 euro ~ $14,000 USD. So that math tracks.
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Yes the $ to euro conversion threw several members.
I am sorry I didn’t see $ sign when I wrote my post. Still, price of Airbnb accommodation tends to be lower for longer rentals.When I have booked Airbnb accommodation I haven’t seen anyone making that maths.
Anyway, this is just all speculation. HOs here want to find sitters; if they want to let their property for rent, there are other platforms for that purpose.
Again it’s not about the money, it’s about it being a very desirable property that “if” it was rented it would be in high demand and people would pay big bucks to stay there.
I probably wouldn’t put it in the listing either, although I could see saying something to the effect of “the property is an area with several AirBnbs that regularly book up with nightly rates of 400 euros”, but I get why a host might, without realizing it comes across as being arrogant. While some sitters here say they would never sit for a host with such a high level of arrogance, I bet that wouldn’t make a dent in the high number that will.
I think that any mention of the value of your property/location is irrelevant. As a homeowner, I want sitters who want to stay in my house, regardless of its value. I would never list the value of my home or cost of local rentals in my HO listing. It would be comparable to stating how much I would charge for paid overnight pet sitting in my sitter listing to show how valuable I am as a sitter.
Mentioning a home’s value (financially) would be a red flag to me as a sitter. It would indicate a HO who felt they were in a superior position to me and that i should be grateful to get the sit.
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I get your point. In fact I got it right from your first post but it seems I haven’t been so effective getting my message across.
What I mean is that information and speculation about daily rates being higher than weekly rates, monthly rates, yearly… belongs to other platforms.
The point of this thread is not that and it’s clear the vast majority of sitters who have expressed their opinions, including the original poster, @PVGemini, find the quotation in the title off putting. But true, sitters on the forum do not necessarily represent all the sitters in THT and it what you say might be possible
But IMHO that would put off more sitters that an honest, factual review.
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