So I reached out to a local, potential sitter. I stated that it was not an invite to sit (even though I had to plug in dates in order to contact sitters). After I initiated contact, I paused my listing because I didn’t want other sitters to contact me, at least not right now. The sitters have read my ‘invitation’ but not responded. Since I paused my listing, would I still see their response? It could also be that they just haven’t responded. I was just curious how this works. Thanks.
@RMRL, hi.
The topic of unsolicited invitations has been raised many times on THS Forum.
General consensus seems to be that it very rarely leads to a successful confirmation of housesitter. As experienced full-time sitters, we receive a steady trickle of unsolicited invitations - many of which are international. We’re typically booked in advance and/or may have other preferences.
Your use case of local sitter seems higher probability, provided that the housesitter is actually based locally (rather than simply entered that location in THS). We very rarely seek housesits in our ‘home’ geography as we housesit in order to travel.
I believe that you would see any response from the prospective housesitter. Pet Parents, unlike housesitters, can initiate a Message thread. Such a thread is unrelated to the listing status. For example, we have had Pet Parents from earlier housesits reach out on THS Message to ask if we’d be interested in a housesit opportunity that is not yet listed.
More broadly, I’d encourage you to not overly rely on unsolicited invitations/approaches or on this specific housesitter. Is there a reason why you can not concurrently list the housesit opportunity?
Yes, I believe you’d still receive their message, and if they were interested they’d respond quite quickly. As @GotYourBack said, random invitations are rarely successful. If I understood right, you are new to THS? Your best course is to list your dates and wait for applications. Sitter calendars on THS are not very helpful and locations don’t tell you much either. I think finding a match with a single invitation is like finding the needle in the haystack. I’d suggest you unpause and keep moving forward. Hopefully your listing will attract a few great sitters to chat with. Keep in mind the sitters are also choosing you, so make sure your listing is appealing with nice photos and clear descriptions of your location, pet responsibilities, etc.
If they have not responded, then they are not interested, a lot of sitters join to travel, not sit locally.
@RMRL when you know the dates that you will be away - create a listing and sitters who want to sit for you will apply to you .
It’s most likely these won’t be local sitters as most sitters join THS to offer free house sitting in exchange for a travel experience .
There is nothing for a sitter to respond to if you messaged them that you were not inviting them to sit and the dates aren’t actually sit dates .
As soon as an owner messages us, we can then message them back. I know some don’t like unsolicited invitations, but for us it’s worked out great, from both our own point of view and the owners. We have owners that message us asking when we are free, before arranging their own holidays, and it works out great for both parties. We get to fill dates in our diary near our hometown so we can visit family, and the owners we sit for get sitters who they know will be regularly returning to their area, because of the family link.
I’ve been using THS for about 3 years.
Thanks everyone for the feedback.
Sorry, I misunderstood your comment.
I find that a bit confusing.
You put in fake date sits so you could contact someone, then paused your fake listing.
The sitter got a message from you, but can now see the ‘no sitter required’ message on your listing instead of any dates.
If I were that sitter I’d either assume you’d now found a sitter. Or just be a little unsettled by that contact - why are you trying to contact them when you don’t have a sit available?
Actually they are real dates. We take short trips often (weekend to up to two weeks). I’m looking for someone local for shorter stays for now, testing the waters, as I have a seven week trip planned in the fall. Because I have a senior dog, I ask that sitters not be gone for more than four to five hours a day as she often takes bathroom breaks. If it was someone local, I guess I feel they wouldn’t feel the need to go out and sightsee, leaving my pets for longer than five hours.
@RMRL
A local sitter probably won’t work for the 7 weeks sit - unless they work from home or are retired but then again why would someone local give up living at their own home to live in yours ?
The longer sit may suit someone not local but who wants to move to the area and so will be looking at property and making connections while they sit for you . Or someone who is not living locally but does have family locally (grown up children & grand children perhaps ) that they want to be close to during their stay.
There has to be a compelling reason for a sitter to want to house and pet sit for free in your specific location . Trying to find that sitter by sending out random invitations to individual sitters will be hit and miss .
However , by making your listing public and open for sitters apply it gives you the best chance of finding a suitable sitter .
It’s unlikely that the same sitter for short sits will also want to do a long sit . Sitters tend to be either those that sit whilst travelling (so won’t want lots of repeat sits in the same area in the same year) or full time sitters who prefer long sits .
You have a couple of challenges with this method of trying to find sitters @RMRL - firstly lots of sitters don’t sit locally at all, they use THS to travel, secondly invites rarely work as the calendar doesn’t reflect the truth as it can’t see anything but THS commitments. Digital nomads and WFHers spend plenty of time at home with your pets so they’re a good option for your pooch as they’re probably not sightseeing much. A listing is still much more successful than invites on the whole so a better strategy overall. Or try both simultaneously… #doubleprongedapproach
What you describe is not likely to work, but maybe you can land a local student or someone with roommates or mediocre housing who’d find yours to be an upgrade.
Personally, I’ve done a couple of local sits while my home was being remodeled, but that meant I looked for dates that matched my needs.
I might also do other local sits, say if someone has a home in the city center, within blocks of many amenities, in contrast to my home, where I drive to everything. I mention that in case you have a home that’s a nice contrast to what a sitter might already have local-ish, home wise. Or maybe you have a pool and they don’t. Or so on.