Happy New Year! I’m an experienced sitter with lots of repeats and recommendations. I’m grateful to count many past pet parents as friends. Increasingly I receive invitations to sit for cats - even though it’s clearly mentioned in my profile that I’m allergic. I recently added the fact in two different sections.
Personally I would never invite someone into my home without reading every single word of their profile. A sitter is taking care of their two most precious things in life: their furbabies and their house. And they didn’t read past my title?
Many of my invitations come from across the country, too (I’m US-based).
There’s no accounting for different people’s reading skills or desires but I’m just shocked. Thanks for letting me vent.
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It happens to us all - desperate HO’s that send mass invites and just hit send send send without even reading. The only way to avoid it is to change your location to somewhere highly unlikely to receive invites where THS has few or no members, and putting in the first line of your profile that you do not wish to receive invites (doesn’t always work though). Besides that, just decline and ignore 
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Maybe try Antartica @DianaO 
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Your response is funny because this is exactly what I’m talking about: people who don’t read the whole thing! I want to receive invitations, I continue to receive great invitations from far and wide. But I cannot accept invitations for cats because I am allergic to cats. I have stated that clearly in my profile.
Also, I’m not sure that changing the location matters. I live on the West Coast, but I’ve had invitations from and accepted all over the country. I do not accept invitations in my hometown because I want to travel.
Thanks for your response.
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Please see my response to @Gabba
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Haven’t seen your profile but I would suggest mentioning this as the first thing in the first section with an “ATTENTION: I’m allergic to cats and will sadly automatically decline all requests with cats.”
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I have literally just received an invite (not personalised with our names).
They say they have read our profile and think we would be an ideal match. Our profile states very clearly that we only consider sits for a maximum of two dogs, yet they have five.
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I may resort to that, just don’t like starting it off with a negative. Or as on social media, I need to remember to “scroll by” and be grateful for all the good invitations I receive.
The invitations I’ve got have most often been from hosts desperate to get a sitter - often low applications due to what I would guess is very rural and/ or great workload. Don’t think they read profiles, just try to send out a web large enough so that someone might apply.
@DianaO I too get invitations from people who’ve not read my profile, maybe they’ve just looked at the title & pet experience but not the “about me” bit where I ask for no invitations in my part of the country - I even have invitations from a couple of streets away. I leave this request out of the title & pet experience sections because there are times when I do want to sit more locally, but I will choose those sits.
My response is simply “I’m sorry I’m not available” which is true - I used to include why, but no longer.
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You can definitely word it softer than I did. But scrolling by clear mismatches is also an option. Personally, I think auto declining someone who clearly didn’t read is on them. In other situations I’d consider it rude but I hate it when ppl waste my time.
Ultimately do what makes you comfortable.
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Exactly. I no longer am interested in doing local sits. There may be some a couple of hours away, but generally speaking I’m at the point where I want to travel.
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Reply if you feel like or don’t.
Some hosts just mass send, probably thinking they’ll screen sitters if any of them reply. They’re probably either desperate, because they’ve not gotten many (or any) applications, or they don’t know how THS works (because they also didn’t read the terms 
).
Personally, I just say I’m not available — I created a short, standard reply with a keyboard shortcut on my mobile devices, so I need only hit a three-character combo and it spits out my standard reply. If an invite seems abrupt and lacking in manners, I just ignore them. No biggie.
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Maybe at the top of your profile/about paragraph, you could have a one-liner, such as: ALLERGIC to CATS
Yes, thank you. I’ve decided I should just get over it! Other things are more important, right?
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L:rofl:L — as I near 60, I am developing that attitude, too!
It can & does help to change your location; I used to have mine set to London, and would receive many invites from London & the UK, which I didn’t want. I then changed my location to Eastern Europe and have since received very few invites. Though seeing as you do actually want to receive invites, it wouldn’t be helpful for you.
I did in fact read your entire post; you never stated anywhere that you wanted to receive invites (but nor did you state that you didn’t, so my bad too). Possibly I thought you didn’t because you seemed frustrated and it’s a very common complaint on the forum; I see posts all the time by sitters who are frustrated by unsolicited invites and want to stop recieving them. Apologies for my misunderstanding. The only way to possibly reduce cat invites as others have suggested is say ‘allergic to cats’ or ‘no cat invites please’ in your first sentence, thought there’s no guarantee this would work as people hit send without reading anything anyway.
This is a good idea actually @DianaO, possibly set your location to where you Do Want to sit and maybe you’ll get invites that you appreciate 
It’s not the location - I’m happy to review and accept sits anywhere. I appreciate them all! It’s the fact that I can’t watch cats and HOs don’t read my profile that clearly states I’m allergic!
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@DianaO Why not have as your Heading Title “Love Dogs; Sadly, Allergic to Cats”.
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