I’ve gotten the impression that some owners are posting sits where they haven’t truly decided to go away or not - typically only a week or so away - the applications can fill quite and then onto reviewing - but as the days tick closer nothing happens - no message - no rejection - they don’t choose a sitter
Makes me think they are just lining things up in case they truly decide to go away.
I think there should be a rule that some sort of reply within 72 hours is mandatory - I think it’s a little unfair to keep sitters hanging like this…
I haven’t encountered that, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Not much anyone can do to stop them, since it would be impossible for THS to separate them out from hosts who have real cancellations.
I do have previous hosts who run dates by me when they’re considering trips, because they’d like repeat sits, but they don’t post those publicly, from what I seen.
I suspect its more likely that they are placing their listing on multiple sites (there are others where the HO doesn’t need to pay to join) and/or checking out friends/relatives and when they sort a sitter by other means they simply forget or don’t bother to remove their THS listing.
If they are serious, I would expect an answer within hours in such cases. It has happened: chat and confirmation within hours on the same evening. Or the quick realization after some cordial messages that I could not make their departure time.
Rules from THS would not make any difference. I would appy for other sits too, and then the faster HO is likely to get me.
I’ve come across a couple, but I’ve always got a message from them saying what they were doing. Your own life is the only thing you can control, so if you don’t get a response within the timescale you choose, just move on, there’s plenty of other sits.
Yes, I have had evidence of this happening recently. It is frustrating because either their dates are not certain/ subject to change, or they have decided to make other plans and haven’t yet taken down the ad. I’ve just been withdrawing after 48 hours. If they truly wanted to pursue a sitter, they would.
I’m with Shannon on this one. In addition, they might also be new and reluctant to take the plunge.
Some would do that to open up for communication from sitters, that could be because they are in fact very flexible and willing to work around availability. That is more often if they for instance have trouble getting a (or the right) sitter and want to be flexible for the right one. But then they tend to say exactly that in their listing.
I have 4 outstanding applications, all for the same country - till recently there were 5 - where I have heard absolutely nothing from the HOs since I applied. Which is at least 3-4 weeks ago. One of the sits got removed by the HO last week (1 month sit). Several of them are multi-week Christmas sits. All of them have/had between 0 and 1 reviews.
The only reason I don’t withdraw my application is because it opens up a spot for another unsuspecting sitter to apply - who will then likely be ghosted or left hanging as well. As well as whether one should even sit for such an HO.
It’s annoying to have this happen with so many applications. Of course I’ve followed up with the HOs, but they don’t communicate (apparently)
It has never happened with a sit I have applied for but I have noticed that in areas where I had active alerts and wondered whether it would be what @Shannon suggests or that they had changed plans. Sometimes the posts continued active even on the same day the sit was supposed to start, I guess the following day they would automatically disappear.
Were these “phantom “ sits in luxury homes in popular places?
Call me skeptical but I sometimes wonder if THS post such listings themselves to lure sitters to join. There have been a few occasions that someone on Facebook has joined for a specific listing and when they went to look for it there was no trace of it.
Would THS go that far to get more members, more revenue? I don’t know.
I doubt it. If you do that in the U.S. and get caught, you could be punished for misleading customers and get fined. And users could sue you. Could end up super messy and damage your brand.
BTW, if a company is doing this, they could get outed by employees who end up disgruntled. All it would take is for them to document and whistleblow on the company. And if they didn’t want to bother filing a complaint, they could just blast you on social media, tag your brand and easily end up reaching all of your company’s followers.
That was my views. It’s such a well known brand and got thousands of followers I don’t think they would resort to that. But you know what Facebook is like ……
I often just leave sits on my dashboard when I don’t hear back from HOs rather than withdrawing, just out of curiosity to see happens. There are many than never confirm a sitter. They sit on my dashboard until the start date passes and then disappear. This is one of the reasons sitters have to apply for multiple sits. Some HOs never respond, they either decide not to go on their trip, get a sitter elsewhere, or make other arrangements for their pets. Unfortunately, they choose not to remove their listing or reply to applicants.
I really wish THS would implement a response time measure as some other platforms use. So if an HO has a history of slow/no responses we can just scroll on and not waste our time applying.
I’ve heard of that phenomenom from dating sites, so not entirely out of the question. There has been questions about fake profiles also on forum, where THS has said it was legit. But of course…
