I recently scheduled two trips, and posted them almost at the same time, with good interest.
I try not to keep sitters waiting, so, if I wake up to three good applications (or even one!) I’ll reach out right away to schedule a video call with my favorite, and will message the others that I’ve got a call scheduled with a potential sitter, and if that sit goes through, I encourage them to apply in the future, and, if it doesn’t, I may reach out to see if they’re still available & interested. Some of those sitters responded with a gracious “Thanks for letting me know, good luck and I hope to apply again in the future!” Others responded with “OK” or “I understand” and quite a few didn’t respond at all.
As it turns out, I had Zoom calls scheduled with two sitters - one for each sit - and both withdrew their application prior to the call, so I looked through the other applications.
The quality of the responses (if any) to my earlier message is really having an impact on who I want to reach out to, and it doesn’t seem like their application - how many good reviews they have, how good their opening application message was, etc. - has any bearing on how - or if - they responded to that last message.
As a sitter with THS, sorry to hear this. I always respond with a gracious message and thank the homeowner(s) for getting back to me. On the flip side, I’ve applied on sits with a very warm, detailed application addressing the homeowner(s) and their pet(s) by name and haven’t even received a “thank you for applying” and I have almost 40 glowing reviews. I think it basically comes down to a lack of common courtesy which has been discussed on this forum a few times. Some people have it and others don’t!
So the sitter wrote an application. You declined, with a short message. That is nice, many HOs don’t, but after that… is there really any reason for the sitter to continue the correspondence?
I feel the same way! I’ve received a couple of dry tone responses from some when I let them know that I have calls lined up with other sitters. In that case, I only follow up with the gracious responses. I figure that those will be a better fit for me (communication wise). I’m not by all means saying that I expect bubbly personalities, but just someone with common courtesy as @Globetrotter mentioned.
This is the case with the last two applications I made. I have a detailed, complete profile, over 30 sits, all five-stars, and I customize my letter of introduction.
Not responding with something as simple as saying thanks but we’ve chosen someone else is RUDE. It feels like the equivalent of “pound dirt, loser.”
I send thanks, simply because it’s mannerly. One exception: I received a msg where I thought the tone was off, and I didn’t want the HO to keep me in mind for future sits, despite their saying so, LOL.
I don’t tell sitters, “no, thanks” lol but if they don’t respond to me at all, I’m going to assume they can’t handle rejection. Or if they just respond with “Okay.”
I’m more likely to follow up with those that responded with “thank you, and enjoy your trip” or “okay, thanks for letting me know!”
I’m always happy to get a prompt response telling me I’ve I’ve not been shortlisted. Have no problems if the HO comes back later and says the initial choices didn’t work out am I still available and interested. Prefer that to radio silence. It’s someone’s home and pets so they will have personal preferences that may be the tiny deciding factor. No space for egos.
Honestly, I usually wouldn’t respond to a “sorry, you’re not successful this time but please apply in future” message - because what’s the point?
If your sit comes up in future, and if it’s on my planned route, and if it fits with my dates, and if your reviews are good, then I would apply again regardless if I was successful last time.
