I am probably your age range and never remember dating through personal ads in newspapers. What I remember is that people set you up with friends or acquaintances. Which doesn’t seem to happen at all anymore.
I like video calls. I have been doing this for 18 months and have had mostly video chats, some phone chats. Some just accept me without chatting. But I like video chat as it tells you alot about the person. And it sometimes gives you red flags. I declined a sit after a video chat due to details I didn’t accept.
When you are sitting in a multimillion dollar home, taking care of their precious pets, I would think they would want to have a video “interview” before having that person stay in their home.
In certain parts of the world, having a million-dollar or multimillion-dollar home is not a big deal, because of the cost of living. In the San Francisco Bay Area, for instance, even a $2 million home can be meh.
I agree. It’s the next best thing to meeting the other party. As a sitter, I have posted on here before that I must have the video call before I confirm any sit. Only one HO wanted a voice call. But they were close enough for me to visit them beforehand. So I still got to meet them before making my decision. I am lucky most of my sitting experiences have been great. But I do ask plenty of questions on the video call. I am on the subreddit too and it seems to me the people who complain the most are the ones who didn’t have a video call and didn’t establish firm boundaries to begin with.
That’s exactly what I do - I detest the video chat as I feel like I’m being interviewed for a paid position. I much prefer an old fashioned phone chat. I have sat for numerous home owners who I’ve just had email contact with and that has worked out great as well. So far, so good!
Hi CathyCat, I am like you and a sitter. I believe I have doine over 60 sits now and the very fist was conformed by pet owner on reply to my application. so not even messages. Video calls were completely unheard of and never ever suggested at all. Everything was just by messages only and reading profile and reviews. It has only been in recent years. likely since the start oif the forums here that I have had the odd phone call and a couple of WhasApps videos. I still confirm the majority of sits by message only. And | only apply for sits if I want them. So far, all sits I have applied for and been offered I have accepted immediately. A video call would noit make a difference.
Hi Itchyfeet, Sounds great just three lines in a newspaper. Nowadays everything can become so much more stressful. I applied for one sit that sounded great and I wishe I hadn’t. I tended up so strssful as the owner wanted a zoom call and nothing else. ASnet me the link to download it and was given an apointment time for a half slot in a couple of days time. I should have just declined then as I really could not download from the link. Maybe my laptop too old? But I managed to get so far and then waiting for this blue line to go across. It seemed to have become stuck, as an hour later it still had not moved any further and had onlky moved about one tenth oif the way. I had already said I had WhatsApp and could do a WhatsApp video or I even had Skype although had not been used for ages. Neither acceptable. When I mwentioned unable to download Zoom I received a very nasty, hurtful reply saying as I was incapable of doing something as simple as Zoom I clearly would not be up to caring for his pets. I have all glowing five star reviews. Anyway I decided I had dodged a bullet. Immediately saw another sit for similar dates and was having a lovely old fashioned phone call with a really nice friendly lady within an hour. His loss. And I late heard from somenbody that there is actually no need to download Zoom in order to use it. I now know that I will decline any sit from anbody, who demands Zoom only. It really was sounding like a job interview.
I don’t know where it is but it shows on their profile as " would like a video call" in the section where it also says things like “accessible by public transport”
@anon55123711 I have a combined membership so I have just checked my owner profile/listing. I do not see anywhere for me to tick “Would like a video call”. However, in my Preferences in my sitter profile, I can tick that, which is what @Maggie8K has included.
Randomly, I just saw an old thread, on which people mentioned that some sitters lie about their ages. Seems like video chatting could help suss that out.
There was one case where a host didn’t realize and, had they known, they could’ve realized that their sitters were senior, so they could’ve asked about their mobility, which turned out to be a problem.
As a sitter I like a video call. It gives me a chance to sell myself. I can also get a feel for the HO and pets. Usually it’s a great confirmation of what an already felt. Sometimes it makes me realize that I had dodged a bullet.
Anybody of any age could have a mobiility issue. The way the site has sitters give their age, says nothing about their mobility or general health. It’s just a number. And if you are 65+ the number could be 65 or it could be 90, as they stop counting at that point. To say it could encourage discrimination woud be a fair inference.
Honestly, as a person in my 60s, I hadn’t considered age discrimination aside from a slight impression that it may be a sign of maturity and dependability. I am pretty athletic, as is my social circle. I have friends in their 70s who are avid climbers, skiers, cyclists, trail runners, and triathletes, so I see this age group as one that has the time and resources to recreate and exercise without the distractions of kids and careers.
