Hello everyone. My boyfriend and I are home owners new to the site. Although we have had around 24 sitters save our post, we have not had many actual applicants for our Christmas and New Year’s dates in Orlando, Florida.
Of the six applications received, we had questions about what to do with four of them. There are three sitters who have not responded to our message sent to them 3-4 days ago. These messages included our expressed interest in their profile/ application and requesting to discuss further. Since we have not heard from them, should we decline their applications in the system? I am a bit concerned with their lack of response and that is why I was not considering contacting them again.
The other application was someone we were mutually interested in that had some reservations and decided she was no longer interested. Should we decline her application in the system?
If those applications are declined, will that alter the applicant count displayed to sitters on our listing?
Thanks in advance!
Hi @cee.bee and welcome to TrustedHousesitters and the forum. We hope you enjoy getting to know the community and contributing to the conversations. Christmas is a very busy time for sits, but you’ve left yourself plenty of time which is a good start!
It’s a personal decision about how long to wait for replies, as there can be many reasons why applicants don’t apply immediately. As house sitters, we tend to move on if we haven’t heard something from a home owner within 5 days. My personal thinking is that if on either side someone is interested in pursuing a sit further then they get back in a timely manner with a response.
Certainly if you are sure someone is a “no” you can decline that application, and in terms of your question…
The answer is yes, the count will go down.
Hope that helps, and good luck finding your Christmas sitters. Where are you hoping to go for your Christmas break?
There is someone out there desperate to sit for you so why waste time on sitters who are obviously not really interested. Do what feels right for you and your pets.
Thanks Provence!
Thanks Vanessa!
Thank you ElsieDownie. You’re right!
If you were asking for a sitter July 20th to August 6th 2022, I’d be biting your hand off. I’ll be near Sarasota on a 4 week sit with two weeks ‘free’ in the middle. Pls keep me in mind!
We’re going on a cruise in the Caribbean. We’ll be there from December 23- January 3!
Have a wonderful time! And please send some pix to warm us up as we sit huddled round the winter fire 
I applied for a sit was first in line they opened my application right away.then it was sitter not needed.why don’t the ho not reply to my application.
you might not have been first. but you will save yourself a lot of stress if you just assume that once you send your application you will never hear about it again. submit it and then move on to the next one. don’t check to see if it was read, don’t see how many applicants they have, etc. just move on. if they contact you, go from there, if they don’t, you’ve already moved on to other things.
@Genevere I understand that a homeowner has the option to pause their listing to allow them to stop receiving new applications while they review the ones they already have. When they do this, the listing shows as “Not currently in need of a sitter” or something similar. Some homeowners build up a lot of applications, other like to decide quite quickly. It is possible that they may yet be in touch.
You will never know whether you were the first, second or third applicant, as the minimum number of applicants displayed is 0-3. So there could already be 2 applicants when you applied, but it would still show 0-3 and only increase to 4-7 once the 4th application is received.
Yes well I think some sort of reply would be nice even if it’s thanks for your application we will get back to you with our decision.only good manners. Ho hum onwards and upwards .
Actually I think that many HO don’t know that the other applicants get any kind of automated email notification when they confirm someone else and when they pause the listing, because they have received enough applications already. I definitely would not have known this, had I not simultaneously to joining THS, created an account on the forum. I would certainly have written back and explained that I have found someone and in some cases I even might have explained why they weren’t chosen, but I would not necessarily have done this before confirming the sit with someone else.
Even though I know now, it happened that I first confirmed our next sitter and afterwards wrote a personal note to the others. After hitting the confirm button I realized that I should have done it the other way round.
But I guess that many HO don’t even think that far.
Ok just find it confusing sometimes maybe just me not understanding how the whole thing works.
@cee.bee, as @anon39388349 says, as HOs we don’t often know some of the etiquette we should follow as good/best practices. In our household, we have always tried to communicate with all applicants in a timely manner, including why we selected someone else (or didn’t select them). That can be quite time consuming–we have had 15 applicants for one sit, and given we prefer to conduct video interviews, that can be quite a time commitment.
I am reading that some people suggest that your send out a broad net and don’t take a lack of response personally–great advice, and hard to not take a perceived rejection personally.
I know your post was in October. Hopefully you have had success in finding a great sitter!
HI @ThreeLittleBirds A very warm welcome to our Community Forum thank you for joining in the conversation and for managing your applications in a very thoughtful and timely manner.
We encourage members across the community to respond to all communications as promptly as time allows, we know sometimes that isn’t always as quickly as some would prefer but members replies are always very much appreciated.
Enjoy the forum, the many conversations and connecting with members around the world.
Thank you.
Angela and the Team