Profile Feedback Suggestions

Welcome & Getting Started
1

Hey all! My name is Joe. I am a 1st generation Italian American. I am relatively new (past 6 months). I want to make sure that I am putting my best foot forward in presenting myself.

Frankly, I am frustrated that my acceptance/response rate is lower than expected, especially when I take time to address all of the owners needs. It has made me shorten my customized responses since I have a fairly detailed profile to faciltate matching.

I think part of the reason is because I am currently looking for an international sit, namely Italy/Sicily. I would imagine that not meeting an applicant in person first is a greater risk for an Owner. I have had numerous calls though no video chats.

If anyone is willing to review my profile and give me some pointers, I would definitely appreciate it and would do the same for you if you identify with my experience. I want to make sure there are no redflags. I hope this is possible somehow.

Maybe I have too much or too little in my profile. It would certainly help if the forum could help applicants improve their profile or facilitate owners feedback to make the overall interactions most constructive.

Any feedback would improve courtesy too. “Rejected” is kind of a harsh word that may discourage some applicants. “Not Selected” and some reasons why would help applicants when focused on an particular country/area internationally. As someone else mentioned, there is a bit of advanced planning for applicants to offer their availability.

Here are a few suggestions for Housesitters. Maybe some of you have better ideas.

Why not give House/Pet Owners some standard responses when “rejecting applicants” to choose from in giving feedback to applicants, like …

  1. prefer a couple,

  2. want someone in the country,

  3. lack of flexibility,

  4. chose a past sitter,

  5. too far away,

  6. lack of experience (Rx, pet type, number of past sits, reviews, etc),

  7. compatibility,

  8. will consider for future sits,

  9. selected a Premium Member, etc (to see how much this matters to an Owner)

  10. pulled posting for now (changing date, changed mind, etc.

In this manner, the owner can “pick all that apply” and/or “Other” with a short note. I realize getting custom narrative responses would be a stretch. Even so when I get a rejection, I often send a note expressing my willingness to communicate for other unplanned or scheduled sits to establish relationships.

Or institute a ranking system 3 of 5 applicants and the why someone else was chosen first with similar reasons noted above. Our knowing how many people actually applied would be helpful to appreciate if the Owner is overwhelmed.

Sorry to go on a bit long here. I wanted to see how many of you have similar sentiments. Ultimately, we all want the best experiences and I am glad HouseSitters accepts ideas as well. Thank you! Joe

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2

Ciao Joe! Sorry you’re not having any luck securing a sit in Sicily/Italy. I imagine such sits are a bit limited, so that is likely one reason, and also you’re new, but most profiles can benefit from a tweak here and there. You’ll need to attach your THS profile to your forum profile so everyone can take a look and see if we can help. A forum search should lead you to how to do that. Also if you haven’t read through other similar posts you could start there.

I do like the idea of a list of responses, and I agree, the whole “decline/accept” process and wording could be much improved.

3

Welcome Joe, add your link to your profile on your forum. Some owners will let you know the reason why, but owners need to stay focused on their own trip, and the type of sitter they DO want. not all the people they don’t want… you simply weren’t a good match, but I’m guessing from what you’ve said that perhaps 7 of those boxes needed to be ticked by some of your owners, which could be time consuming for owners to do… multiplied by the amount of applicants, plus they’d have to read your profile thoroughly to give you a solid answer too, instead of the probably answer, which was they just felt a stronger natural connection with someone else.

The reason you probably aren’t getting picked is because you have a lack of THS reviews. THS reviews will prove that you turn up on time, you’re responsible, reliable, dependable, experienced, and more importantly a pet lover.

At present… why would anybody trust you to show up? THS reviews are everything!

You’re making things more difficult for yourself by not getting a few reviews under your belt first, why make life hard for yourself? We found 3 reviews was the magic number, and then that opens doors. So do some local sits or last minute sits where you are more likely to get accepted.

You’ll find you love it, we do!

4

By the way, no this isn’t true. Video chat are so easy to do nowadays, and the proof of what you are like with pets lays in your THS reviews that you will collect over time.

With THS, prior meetings are less likely to happen. We do it sometimes, but it’s rare.

5

As an HO, the main reason we choose a sitter is because it clicks during the video chat. We feel the person (or persons) are a good fit for our cats and our peace of mind. Our first time it happened that we chose someone in-country as it was the first year of the pandemic and we wanted to make sure no flight issues would arise. But they also happened to be the first ones to apply and the only ones we had a video chat with as we agreed they were perfect after the call and so we went ahead and confirmed with them right away. They came back for another 5 sits because when they finished a sit we asked them if they wanted to come back the following year and invited them with private dates. They liked the fact that we have longer sits (8-9 weeks) so they can put down their luggage for a while as they are full time sitters. They couldn’t come again next year so we posted our dates a month ago and again we confirmed with our first applicant after another nice video chat. In both cases they only had a few references and a few reviews. This time it is someone from abroad. So we don’t really have preferences in terms of local/foreign, couples/single, gender or age. Our only restriction is that we don’t want a family with kids as we have a lot of souvenirs that are fragile and we think the risk of an unfortunate accident would be greater with kids. Anyway our cats also appreciate a peaceful home. All that to say that we couldn’t really check boxes of reasons for not choosing someone as it is trusting our instincts. :hugs:

6

Welcome to forum @Jconsoli_56 !

I believe the number of Italian sits are few, and probably popular by many.

As any sit can have 5 applicants at a time, the statistical possibility of getting a sit is 20 %. So it is about beating the numbers.

If you can speak Italian, that would probably work in your favor. The gold currency, though, would often be to have 5* THS-reviews. As @HappyDeb says, when you get past 3 sits/ reviews or so, you will probably find that a gamechanger for you. It has been for many of us.

A host that gets 5 applicants is just looking for one good match to look after their home and pet. It could well be 5 applicants that all «can do» for that purpose. Of course they will prefer a sitter that has good reviews over one without reviews, unless an applicant otherwise has something really special to offer. At the end of the day, a host will often choose someone that gives them a good gut feeling. So I’m not sure if multiple choices on answers really would matter much to host or applicants. Members that have criterias are better off writing them in their listing, saving us all time and getting them the applicants they look for.

A general advice is to look for short and local sits to get the first reviews.

Short - because there’s less competition, short sits are not popular. For a new sitter they are easier to get, you get necessary reviews quicker and you get to learn something on what you yourself should look for and do to get and to have good matches/ sits for you.

Local - because they are easy to do and you get the advantage of being able to offer to meet up before the sit. Valuable when you have no reviews, even if host doesn’t take you up on your offer.

I’ve found it easier to get sits with hosts with same situation as myself. It seems solo females often prefer solo females, couples prefer couples etc. In some sits this could be good also vs. the pet and what the pet needs or is used to.

I believe reviews is what is needed, but surely the community will help with input on listing, sometimes small tweaks can give a great impact. Here’s how to add your listing:

How to add a listing or profile link to your Forum profile!

In general - some sitters talk more about their love for travel than their ability to take care of pets (as some hosts talk more about their love for travel than what their sit and location can offer for a sitter).

7

I agree. I don’t like the word “rejected.”

8

Welcome, Joe.

First, your suggestion re: feedback for declined applications is great.

That said, THS is not great about changing their site processes, rules, etc. based upon what I’ve seen as a relatively new (< 2y) sitter on the site.

Your profile is not accesible so I can’t comment on it . Please link it so that we can help.

The most likely reasons your applications have been declined : 1)Lack of reviews /experience and 2) Overseas sits are generally more competitive.

9

Great suggestions. I wish I could meet more homeowners by video chat. I guess it is the owner who initiates the video chat. If anything else, I could be a choice for another planned visit/housesit.

10

Thanks for the feedback. I guess the focus should be on serving respective needs.

11

There is no reason. Why a sitter cannot request a video chat.

12

We suggest a video call in our application, and provide our mobile number and the times that we would be available for a call .

@Jconsoli_56

I agree with others who have said that to improve your chances of being selected get some reviews first . In addition to all the great suggestions that you have already received , I suggest applying for a local last minute short sit and get some reviews .

This really works .

We recommended THS to friends . They started with two local one night sits . They were luxury homes with guest suites , cinema rooms and hot tubs in the garden . They had a lovely luxury weekend stay looking after some lovable dogs and racked up 2 x five star reviews in the process. With these reviews under their belt they now have no problem with being accepted for sits further afield.

13

Part of this is simple numbers. When I just did a search for Italy, there were NO current sits being advertised. When I search for Scotland (where we are this summer), there are 160 homeowners looking for sitters.

Another difficulty is time zone. Advertised sits in Italy very quickly reach the 5-applicant limit - sometimes within minutes. That puts you at a disadvantage, as a sit posted here during the day pops up for you in the middle of the night.

14

Time zone would appear ro be huge. Does that mean if I was awake in the wee hours of the night EST that I would get the posting real-time or is the receipt of the posting actually delayed?

15

Does Housesitters place a limit on the number of applicants (5) or does the owner?

16

I will suggest a video chat and even offera time since Italy is a +6 hr difference. Right now, it is already the end of the day there (4 pm).

17

So nice of you to share your reasoning. As a Homeowner, do you get alerts to these Forum postings all the time or do you have to find them?

18

Tx for sharing how to post the profile. It.might be best to whittle my profile down a bit, act on the local last minute short sits to get more traction, and then post my profile on the forum for a 2nd round. Do you guys at Housesitters see it or do I have to post for you to review it?

19

Your THS profile is totally separate from your forum profile for the rest of us. So we can’t se it unless you add it. And if/ when you want to you can also delete it again.

20

THS pause the listing when 5 applications are received. It goes into “reviewing applications “ The host then has to either choose one of the five OR decline applicants to get additional ones .