Let down by sitter, only two weeks to find someone

Hi! We put a listing on about 5 weeks ago and only had one applicant apply, a little worried as they were from New Zealand, but assured us they were staying with family in the local area and the break would be nice from their family. They had a couple of reviews so we went ahead and confirmed them as a sitter. After contacting them to discuss a few bits, they have not responded to any messages so I got advised to re-list our post to try and get another sitter, but so far, we’ve had no one apply, am I doing anything wrong? Am I missing anything? Please give me some advice and point me in the right direction. Many thanks Becci

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@bec1 I understand your frustration with not hearing from the potential sitter but it is possible she is not available or near a computer to have even known you are asking for confirmation. It doesn’t hurt to go ahead and look but the sitter may very well still feel they are on for the sit since it is a couple of weeks away. I would give it just a bit longer.

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Thank you for commenting, maybe they will get back to me. It was a 10 days ago I first made contact, then 5 days ago and 3 days ago.

I would also be concerned if I was in your position. Perhaps Membership Services could contact them on your behalf to ensure everything is still on track.

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Have you tried possibly calling or emailing directly? Maybe the THS notification didn’t go through or it is buried under spam and they haven’t seen it yet

I’m confused as to whether they accepted the sit or not. And then whether you canceled them as the sitter in order to relist.
Or did you click on “confirm sitter” and they have not responded, and you did not say in the conversation that you’d like them to sit?

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Hi sorry for the confusion, they offered to sit and we said yes we would like to book you, they agreed they would sit. I didn’t send the confirmation only paused the ad (I didn’t know what I was doing) and then a few weeks later messaged again to apologise for not sending the confirmation. But it’s been ten days now! But my main concern is what is wrong with our advert? What am I missing? So I can change it to hopefully get someone. Luna hates kennels but it may be our only option soon.

So have you sent the confirmation since and have they accepted? If not then I would go ahead and re-list.

If they did confirm but you haven’t heard from them then I would suggest you relist but only confirm someone else if you don’t hear back from the original NZ sitters. Does that make sense?

Did you have a video chat with the NZ sitters? For future reference don’t just rely on messaging through THS website/app but make sure you get their mobile number and email address so you can try to contact them by all those methods.

Oh and if you’d like us to check out your listing and give you feedback to improve it, you need to attach it to your profile. Here’s how to do that:

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Still not clear whether or not you ended up sending the confirmation. In any case, you waited too long to confirm and it sounds as though they did not accept. Based on what you’ve written, the sitter did not let you down.

You should go ahead and un-pause the listing, and link it here if you’d like feedback.

It saddened me to hear of your situation. I am new to house sitting and this platform. I am a school teacher, and about to be out for the summer. Were you able to find anyone?

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I’m sorry to say and I know it was just a mistake on your part but they were probably waiting on your confirmation to be sent. When you didn’t send it, they were probably disappointed. I’ve had a couple interviews as a sitter where during the zoom call they tell me we sound like a fit and will send the confirmation. Then I wait and wait and wait and then get a message that they went with a different sitter. It’s not the best feeling to wait that long.

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Welcome Becky - the THS process for confirming a sit can be confusing when you start out .

Although you say you had confirmed the sit - you didn’t confirm it on THS so this wasn’t a confirmed sit .

Once you confirm the sitter , they also have to accept - then it is a confirmed sit -these links may help understand the THS process.

Your original sitter hasn’t let you down as the sit wasn’t confirmed or accepted. Is their application still there for you to accept or have they withdrawn it ?

Hope this is helpful in your search for a sitter.

I asked them if I could book them and they came back and said yes that’s fab, don’t stress. Then I paused the application. Not knowing what I was doing :disappointed:

@bec1 , I hope you straighten this out but if nothing else, from now on make sure to have alternate ways to communicate (phone/email) as @Smiley suggests. And if you have had a phone/video chat, which is recommended before choosing a sitter, you already have their phone number.

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