Right, I could do that but shouldn’t the availability clear automatically?
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HOs can contact any sitter to invite them to apply for a specific sit date. HOs cannot just chat up sitters. The workaround is that sometimes in order to get in touch with a sitter – to ask a question about availability or experience for instance, a homeowner might “invite” a sitter to APPLY for some private date with the intention of cancelling the dates. The date is ineffect “fake” and only exists as a workaround. Even if the sitter declines the invitation OR the HO deletes the sit, contact has been established.
In terms of actually filling a sit by sending private dates to random sitters that you haven’t been in touch with previously, I don’t imagine it’s great. Too many factors would need to align.
I think we have to be clear that this is not some unfair advantage being given to HOs, but a way to make sure they can fill sits by sending private invitations. It has become a workaround used occassionally to get in touch about potential dates, etc, but it is rarely used that way. There is a similar workaround for sitters, Sitters can also start a conversation with HOs by applying to sits even if they can’t actually do the dates, and then withdrawing the application. The pros and cons of this have been discussed on other threads.
In both cases, the system hasn’t been designed for this kind of communication, people have figured out how to get around the restrictions that exist.
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Hello @BunnyCat Therese is currently offline, so I am happy to help you 
When an owner cancels a sit as long as they unconfirm it on their end, your calendar will clear. If you still see it marked on your calendar then reaching out to the Membership Services team is the best thing to do as they can check if the owner had correctly unconfirmed it on their end or if there are any technical issues on your account. I hope you get it sorted soon.
@Carla yes, that makes sense. The HO unconfirmed us, declined our application and confirmed another sitter within a day, so the calendar should have cleared but it didn’t. If sitters have to contact membership services to clear their calendar, that will add unnecessary burden to both - sitters and customer support. Unless this is a new feature, where we must contact customer support to clear our availability. Just wondering for the future, we are not planning any sits anytime soon.
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@BunnyCat Thank you for the additional information, in that case, your calendar should have automatically cleared when the owner officially unconfirmed you, so this sounds like a one-off glitch, the Membership Services team will need to look at your account and see what is happening. I’m sure they can get it cleared for you.
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Thank you, it’s good to know this is a glitch and not a feature by design.
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@pietkuip my mistake. I misunderstood and thought these were the rules to use THS
Not all sits have pets - I have seen long sits listed 4+ months without pets where the owners said sitter could be absent for a few days during the stay (with their agreement ) and did not expect them to be there for months without a break away.
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I understand that double booking sits and then the sitter can only meet the needs of one pet parent is really. However, this is clearly a rare event and 99.9% of sitters such as myself can manage their schedule. I have years of 5 star reviews managing my sits. I often sit in a specific geographical region where my sits overlap by a day or two, and the pet parent and I manage this. I often see a sit and then apply saying I cannot start until a day two after or need to leave a day too early. Then I offer the pet parent an option if they have a neighbour/family/friend that can cover. They sometimes can and really appreciate my creativity and it is a win win for all. This is an area of sitting (flexibility/shifting dates/dealing with the reality of life and change) that I don’t thing the person responsible for this change understands.
Using this blunt system change to deal with the odd rogue/irresponsible sitter has now severely adversely impacted my sitting.
I please ask you to remove this system change and find another solution to deal with the doubled booked sits.
Thanks and kind regards to all
John
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Good point on single sitters. How can HO contact sitters differently than a sitter can contact HO? I always get their cell # so that hasn’t been an issue for me but I am curious as to what the difference is?
Maybe they should monitor the # of times either a sitter cancels an agreed upon sit or the homeowner does. I’ve never cancelled on a sit I’ve agreed to. I agree with you having to wait for a homeowner to update the dates is not reasonable since homeowner would have no vested interest in doing so especially if they’re busy travelling/vacationing. I hope THS listens to our concerns and modifies their policy.
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That makes sense, thank you for fielding all the drama!
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Sitters can only contact a homeowner by applying for a sit (and doing so quickly before five others do and the listing is automatically paused ) There is no other way to start a conversation with a homeowner.
Homeowners can list dates and then contact any sitter. These can be firm dates or flexible dates- there is no limit on how many sitters they can contact.
@meggoose You are most welcome 
Thanks I see now and agree. I was thinking of after the sit started.
Not a bad compromise, but don’t hold your breath!
Well put, John. THS seems to think that every sit is as simple as ‘post the dates’, 5 applications will come in that perfectly match the dates, and the sit is confirmed.
In reality, many HO’s (particularly in rural areas) struggle to get any applications. The difference between having a sitter and no sitter for a month could be an easily managed 1-day overlap.
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It’s going to be like Whack-a-mole for THS to get on top of all these workarounds…
- sitters forced to arbitrarily make couple/secondary accounts
- HO’s adding email addresses to listings to communicate outside THS
- asking owners to shorten dates of existing sits
And now, the most ridiculous of all… asking to use someone else’s account to apply for a sit! HO’s must be wondering what on earth has happened to the simplicity of posting a sit, and talking to sitters without all the interventions by THS.
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We have never overlapped sits but have seen a sit which is exactly the scenario you describe.
Rural location looking for a sitter for 2 months . We can cover the majority of the sit , just not a bit at the start because we are “busy with another sit “
I can’t see how many applications they’ve had because we are “busy with another sit “ but the listing has been up for a few weeks now and is not reviewing applications yet . So not many or none .
We can’t contact the homeowners to express interest . We did ask member services to pass on a message -but their reply was it wasn’t their responsibly to contact other members on our behalf.
So the homeowner will likely end up putting pets in kennels/ cattery ; paying for a sitter or cancelling their holiday .When we are available and could cover the majority of the sit.
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We would absolutely support this idea