Rejection rate?
Hi everyone! I wanted to ask about your rejection rate when you apply. Lately, almost all the sits i apply for are being rejected, and we have nearly 30 excellent reviews…
I don’t know if they don’t like the message I send or if it’s just bad luck…
Whats your experiencie? Any advice will be welcome!
Yep I’ve played around with my initial message and seem to have more success when it’s no more than a paragraph and highlights that I’d be happy to explore their listing further and talk to see if we’re a match, so very open ended…a casual level of interest almost. I suggest they read our profile to see if we’re what they’re looking for. But then again we’re retired so we’re happy to offer but equally happy to not do the sit. I do emphasise that we’re fastidious about clean/tidy homes and sometimes I’ll send a photo of our home/lifestyle to emphasise this aspect. On one occasion I sent photos of my Allotment as the HO had a spectacular garden with complex instructions.
Just checked our stats for the past 2 month.
14 rejected sits for 3 confirmed sits.
We have 25ish reviews, all 5 stars.
Half of of the rejected applications were all to secure one single Portugal sit.
I think it depends a lot on where you apply, but usually 1-2 rejections for one confirmed sit seem to be the norm for us.
Beside personalizing I do only slight changes to our message…
I know it’s a hit an miss. For some hosts it’s probably a bit long, then others are thrilled about receiving such a thoughtful message.
Even some rejections come with an apologetic note about how they loved our application but they are going with a repeat sitter or the first applicant as they were also great.
I don’t mind if our message doesn’t resonate with everyone.
What rubs me the wrong way is how more and more hosts just push the reject button without even a copy-paste note.
I wonder whether the number of applications makes a difference. Some hosts keep things simple by considering applicants in the order in which they apply.
There are many excellent pet sitters on TH, including many with a large number of five-star reviews, so the number of reviews alone may not make that much difference. Relevant experience may be more important - for example, whether you have cared for a disabled pet or a particular type of dog.
When I see that four people have already applied, I sometimes apply anyway. I let the hosts know that, even if they have already found someone, they are welcome to keep me as a backup and contact me if their sitter has to cancel at the last minute due to personal circumstances.
I recently heard about a host whose preferred local sitter had to cancel after accepting a job in another part of the country. Being available as a backup can therefore be a great way to find excellent sits, although the chances are naturally quite small, as you may have already secured another sit by the time the host contacts you.
Over the last 3 months:
-6 declined me, 12 I withdrew (mostly due to hosts not responding in a reasonable amount of time, me discovering red flags during communications, or finding it just wasn’t a good fit), 2 canceled (pet died 
), 4 invited me to apply again when I got an overlapping sit, 5 confirmed sits.
That ratio doesn’t look that great. 5/29. But I’m really happy with my 5 upcoming sits. I believe it’s worth it to find the right fitting sits.
Our rejection rate is pretty low but it varies by geography and situation.
In geographies or situations (e.g. pet types) where we have significant housesitting experience then a proportion of the time we get asked to a video call.
In very competitive geographies, specialist pets or otherwise popular listings then our rejection rate is higher.
Like other experienced housesitters, we enter video calls with an open-mind. Following perhaps 15-20% of calls then we withdraw related application (typically as new information is provided). Walking away is good - the overall objective is to find a great fit between pet parent, housesitter and pet(s). Sometimes that’s not us.
That said, we offer a few factors that we perceive lower rejection rates:
We did 14 sits between June 2025 and June 2026. I think we got rejected for three that we applied to. We withdrawed from a couple also.
But for the most part, I don’t think we had much competition. So if you are the only one who applies and you have excellent reviews, your a shoe in.
When we were in South America I think we applied to maybe 5 sits and got 2. I think the fact that we were already traveling on the continent and were planning on being in those cities anyway was a big help. We applied to a sit in the Galapogoesand we’re rejected. I think this was timing. If we had had our video chat before the other person, I’m sure they would have offered the sit to us.
Lots of different factors go into being chosen. Your application note, your profile and experience, your reviews (Having 5 stars reviews is great, but having reviews that rave about you is better), your travel plans, your plans for the sit, your current location, how popular the sit is, how well you click with the host, timing of getting your application in, etc.
I think sitters are becoming a lot more selective. So, when a HO in a desirable location needs a sitter, they get many applicants with lots of 5* reviews. Makes for pretty high level competition.
Meanwhile, so many HOs have expressed concern that they aren’t getting any applicants.
So, it would appear that both HOs and sitters are having a hard time, but for different reasons.
Funny, I’ve been rejected 3/3 times This month… twice I withdrew after No response in 2-3 days and last One was automatic rejection button, which really offends me! Sensitive… but why not just say sorry, Not gonna work? I mean, Really! And I used all the same parameters you use, got Cher back… always worked fine for me In the past. Hummm. I even sent a Photo of my dog which also showed my spectacular house ( lucky, I know) to show I was also house proud with a great dog… whatever. I dunno. Feels like there isn’t a lot of chances all of a sudden. And I don’t want repeat sits, tho I’ve had a few inquiries from Past HOs also this month. We’ll see.
We’ve had 100% acceptance rate during the past 2 years at least, unless a previous sitter has applied, then we lose out 100% of the time. Or if I was very slow in applying and they were already finalising things with another.
We sit full time, but we aren’t typical sitters doing the tourist-thing, that’s why we’ll get accepted, usually within an hour of applying, and it’s very rare we video chat, we simply get accepted.
But there are enormous differences between us and other sitters. We only sit in 2 countries, and we typically only sit within a 1.5 hour travelling distance within those 2 countries to be closer to our family. So owners know we’re going to turn up when we say we will and we’ll return to sit for them, it’s about family, so we can dip in and out of catching up with them. We’ve never ventured further afield as yet, although that may change next year.
Plus we love pets, we’re responsible, we’re mature, we know about properties… but so are a million others on THS, so that’s not unique enough.
In our application I explain why I want to sit in their location, but also, here’s a tip may help you that we put in our application…
In our application I mention the nearest places we’ve sat to them, even if they are an hour away, because we become far more familiar to them then those sitters that are travelling from further away. Familiarity means that owners will feel like they know you more. And then the bonus is if those places you mention happen to be the same type of pet, then mention that too in your application.
What do you mean specialist pets?
People are particular about sitters with past experience of taking care of bunnies, horses, geckos and some birds. #specialistsits
What part of the world? Do you feel like these are getting more?
We had 2-3 of these too lately, I didn’t mention. Simple withdrawals where they have left us on read, sometimes in the review process, sometimes before and I withdrew after confirming with a different host.
I am currently looking for sits in England (including countryside) and I was surprised about people not coming back to us. You would think with many host not getting a single applicant, they would at least aknowledge you once you apply, but no. I mention we will be in the country already, but maybe they prefer “local”.
I still didn’t get myself to cancell these “slow hosts” proactively after a couple of days.
We actually had some nice sits from hosts that replied quite late, one sit they invited us even after an initial cancellation on our side as we considered a change of destination. After the initial delay before the first contact, the communication was always great, we wouldn’t agree else. So I just always leave my applications open these days and as soon as I confirm a sit I withdraw from the rest with a short note.
You posted recently about your discomfort with video calls, do you mention that you prefer to avoid them in your application? Are the sits that you apply for in other countries, maybe even on different continents?
By ‘specialist pets’, we were trying to refer to pets that have some form of atypical feature - whether pet type, breed, age, medical condition.
For example, we’ve looked after multiple cats that required regular injections for diabetic condition. For example, we’ve looked after quite a few senior dogs that involved non-standard pet care. For other people then this may include rabbits, tortoise, birds or pets other than dogs and cats.
@sandydandy, interesting. We offer no insight on trends - perhaps there’s some recent development that’s impacting the process. Should you discover underlying reason then please share. We do periodically encounter pet parents that create listings to somehow test appetite for a potential trip, before they’ve booked the trip - so they’re slow - we usually withdraw. 3 rejections is not a large number so perhaps you were simply unlucky. Happens. Happy hunting
Oddly, we’ve not applied for THS sits in a while. Seem to have a several months aheads of housesit bookings that are mostly personal connections rather than THS platform.
I have had probably 3 rejections since I started. What’s your profile and reach out message look like now?
Maybe we can get to the bottom of why it’s not working all of a sudden
Regards
Konrad
Hi Konrad,
Thanks for your message!
I tried to explain our experiencie with cats or dogs and i resume how will take care of their pets and home etc.
Our profile has almost 30 reviews 5 stars and explain our experiencie, that we work from home etc.
I think maybe i apply to very competitive places… And thats a problem.
I always tell people that the main thing is the application message and in that message you should be explaining how you will benefit the house owners.
For me it works really well.
When talking to some house owners they explain to me that most applicants, house sitters, they don’t even mention the pets and focus on what their dream holiday is.
You sound like you have a decent application, but I can’t give you proper feedback from just what you wrote.
Maybe it’s just unlucky at the moment.