Sitter decline timing/wording

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@sitkashel & @MarieHuggins Here are a couple of other forum topics that might help answer this for you, feel free to comment on them also:

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@sitkashel & @MarieHuggins I highly recommend you send a follow up message if you are seriously interested in your respective sits. At the very least it shows your enthusiasm and your ongoing availability. And secondly you may just prompt the HO to make a decision!! Don’t wait forever. Keep your options open with other applications. You have no idea whats going on for the HO. They may have even changed plans and dropped the trip completely- but not bothered to remove the listing or inform anyone! It happens! It happened to us!
A few months ago we applied for a sit in a desirable location that fitted our plans perfectly. The HO read the message within a day but did not respond. A few days later we wrote again reiterating our interest and informing her we were busy planning and would appreciate a response one way or the other! That message went unread. Another week later we wrote again withdrawing our application due to her lack of acknowledgement of us or response. That also went unread. We then forgot all about it and moved on…
Three MONTHS later she wrote to us- completely out of the blue- as if it were just the other day we’d applied- expressing how absolutely shocked and insulted she felt by our ‘harsh’ response and ‘lack of understanding and compassion’ That we should have realised something must have happened to explain why she did not reply for 3 months!!! We were really taken aback! We replied we’d already closed the door after 2 weeks- already 3 months earlier, & did she realise how much time had already passed?? She wrote again in the same vein so we dropped the contact. All very wierd! But people ARE wierd at times!! Best not to take it personally! :rofl:

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@Lokstar the one im waiting to hear back from is now reviewing. He waited until he received 5 applications. I was the first 2 weeks ago. Made me feel a little ignored :slightly_frowning_face:

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From experience: if they haven’t replied after 2 weeks, that sit is unlikely to happen for you.
There are of course always exceptions

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Personally, I’d ask the decent one if they could give you a few days, but definitely indicate to them that you like the look of their profile. With the one’s that aren’t suitable for a specific reason, then I’d let them know so they can find something else, and your mind can switch off to them, and stay focused on the suitable ones.

We’re pretty new to this, but we’ve already got a pretty full petsit calendar up to late September (and loving it!). There has only been a couple that have taken their time to get back to us, and when they did, one had cancelled their holiday, and one turned us down (the ONLY one to turn us down). So from now on, if someone doesn’t get back to me within a few days I’ll presume they don’t think we’re suitable, because all of the others have accepted really quickly, or asked to video chat (ie the same day or day after).

Also, if you need to buy some time with the one you feel is suitable, you could say you’d like to video chat but need to speak to your husband to arrange a suitable time. That way you aren’t giving them any false hope if there’s a tiny bit of you that is unsure, because it is your pet, you’re in full control.

But if you think someone is good where you don’t think you’ll find any better, nab them before someone else does! If they aren’t, then it’s up to you when you let them know, but if there’s a reasonable reason, like kids, then they will understand, because they don’t want their kids to be around pets that aren’t used to kids either.

Hope that helps, and hope you get sorted soon,
Deb

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Thank you for this story! I think I will send a quick message in regards to my interest ! I didn’t and don’t want to be considered pushy or bothersome.
The dog is old, and looks extremely overweight, so I was thinking maybe something has happened? He’s a doxie and I love that breed so much.
I’ll let you know what happens!

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@sitkashel good luck! I don’t think its pushy or bothersome to send a follow up a week or more later when you have heard nothing. Your time is valuable and you need to be able to plan. Don’t forget that you are equals! Responding in a timely manner is simply respectful. I hope you get the sit!

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@MarieHuggins if he’s waited to receive 5 applicants and has not yet responded to you I’d say the likelihood of you being to be chosen for this sit is low. If he thought you were a great match he would have (or should have!) snapped you up immediately! Send a quick follow up if you feel to- especially as its now 2 weeks- and then let it go if you here no response- don’t waste your time on an unresponsive host!

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Thanks! I do too!
I did mention that we don’t know what others are going thru and that life happens.
And then I mentioned the desire (not need) to plan !! And how fast time goes.
Thanks again!

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We’d send them a little nudge message @sitkashel along the lines of “Hope you’ve received our application. Would you like to know anything else at this time? We’re here if you’d like to video chat.” If that doesn’t work then the HO isn’t a fit for us as they’re not a communicator - hope that helps. Best of luck :raised_hands:t3: (the sit isn’t in Tuscany by any chance??)

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As a HO (I also sit), I would always wait for five applicants to apply to see who is the best fit, but I do have the luxury of living in a place which is popular, so those applications now come iin very fast.

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Hello ! I recently had that happen when i applied to a housesit in France, while in France at another housesit. We needed to make plans so after about a week i sent a nice follow up just asking if they had any questions or needed more information. They promptly replied back apologizing for the delay & appreciated me checking in. We scheduled a call the next day & we got if…headed there this Sunday.

I guess my lesson is you never know what people might be dealing with & sometimes a prompt might let them know youre keen. At the very least, it cant hurt, if you do it right.

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Thanks for the tips! I did send a quick check in yesterday saying again how much I’d love to care for their adorable doxie, my favorite breed. Said I’m available to chat or answer questions but that I also know that we aren’t always privy to what may be going on in others lives, so I’ll leave it right here! And hoped they were well and that I’d hear from them soon. :smiley:
It’s still showing unread.

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@theonlyjaneo it was interesting to read what you said about toggling the button for children.

As a sitter, I have only ever seen “Family Friendly” as an attribute on a sit. Presumably this is applied if you toggle the children button to “suitable for families / children”. I’m not a pet parent so don’t know exactly how it appears for you.

I have never seen an opposite attribute i.e. “Not family friendly”/“Not suitable for children”. So I assume that what happens when you toggle the button the other way is … nothing! Maybe one of the Admins can confirm?

So we sitters see either sits with a “Family Friendly” attribute or no family related attribute. I had always assumed that if a sit didn’t have the “Family Friendly” attribute it was simply that the pet parent didn’t want to label their sit as family friendly as some aspects of their sit might not be suitable for all / young children, for example they have a pond. It hadn’t occurred that a pet parent might believe they had labelled their sit as unsuitable for children.

As a sitter with older children, I do sometimes apply for sits not marked as “Family Friendly”, and we have been chosen for some of these sits. However it seems there may be other cases where we have applied and the pet parent may be thinking “Why have they applied? I toggled the children box!” It may have appeared to these pet parents as if I hadn’t read the listing, when I had, but there was nothing visible to me to indicate that the pet parent would prefer no children.

I would add the fact that your sit is not suitable for children to the wording in your listing, then there will be no ambiguity. This also gives the possibility to specify if you feel comfortable with children over a certain age.

Maybe there is scope for a future enhancement here with a range of options to choose from? For example
Not suitable for children
Suitable for children 12+
Suitable for children 8+
Suitable for children 4+
Suitable for children

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Yes Debbie, now I look at my sit as advertised I can see it doesn’t show up at all, how odd. I definitely had a slider at some point in the process.

I have a sitter confined now but definitely a couple of lessons learned I will add to my next listing. :blush:

Completely agree with your suggestion though, there are a few things that could be made more explicit in the app that would save a lot of misunderstandings I think.

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Hi @Debbie thank you for your feedback and suggestions on expanding the “Family Friendly” filtering option, I’ve passed this over to the product team.

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@theonlyjaneo
Great to read that you have a sitter!
No matter how well you phrase everything, there will always be people who don’t read your profile. I used to host travellers free of charge on a different platform, and got so many requests from people totally ignoring what my profile said.
In that case, I just declined them with no further explanation.

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Good questions and many good responses.
I would immediately respond with "I’m sorry my pet sit is not appropriate for children. Best of luck to you. "and then decline that person… or something along that line.
I don’t totally agree with a couple of people who have said to reply that you have chosen another person. When the listing is still posted, they will be aware you have not told them the truth. I think it’s better to simply say “thank you for applying, however I will be declining your application at this time as I don’t feel it is a good match”. (You don’t need to explain unless you chose to.)
When I only have one application, or only 1 that I’m considering, I will often send a quick reply stating “Thank you for applying, I’ll get back to you within a couple of days with more information”. Often I may be busy right at that time or want longer to respond, or simply delaying a couple of days to see if I get other responses.
As someone who frequently needs a house and pet sitter, and someone who has done pet sitting, I think it’s important to respond fairly quickly.

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Hi TheonlyJaneo,

Yes! Please let the potential sitter know as soon as possible. And yes, please include the reason. I’ve sat for a few years now and am often looking to fill certain dates. If it isn’t a good fit it gives me a chance to keep looking.
Great question!

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Hi, im a first timer home and pet sitter, i received a request to sit for 10 days, the home owners were really nice in their return comments, so now i have my first sit, if i was you then i would apply for a few sits at a time and if you hear from just one of them and they finalise it then you can reply to the other sits that finally get back to you that your sorry but have since taken on another home and pet sit, this is what i would do now, maybe mention in your first message for a sit that you are also in the process of applying for similar dates for other house/pet sits and if they could possibly let you know so you can carry on with your other chosen HO.
Thats what i will be doing but obviously do what you want to do, maybe it’s the right way to go or maybe its wrong but at least you have other options… Hope this long message helps a little x

Edited to remove specific detail.

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