@Reliablesitter
Which country? Just curious 
@BeckyOnTheHill they cant choose a higher limit. They can only reject sitters and unpause to let up to 5 more applicants. Reject 1, open up one more space. They can do that as many times as they like. BUT popular sits will fill up immediately again (and again and again) with those with the fastest fingers and sitters not so quick on the draw (especially those in different timezones) still wont have an opportunity to apply unless they stay up all night.
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Having repent my entire working life in the world of software development, I know how costly changes to platforms can be, and what seems like a simple solution can sometimes be the most complicated to provide for. Even if THS were a charity and not a business, someone has to cover the costs of such changes.
THS changed it from a workable system for both HOs and Sitters giving the HOs the ability to pause. Therefore that script cannot be that difficult to resurrect ⌠if THS want to. Certainly both HOs and Sitters appear to be in unison that that is what WE want. But do THS listen?
Maybe Reliablesitter is correct and THS want to use this script to make even more money.
(edited by Forum team to meet Community Guidelines)
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Spain and Portugal
I do have a similar experience: Late last fall we were looking for a house/pet sitter for 4 weeks in late spring this year. Iâve got quite some replies but only from unsuitable sitter. Maybe we were to early with looking but thought 4 weeks is a long time and sitters need to prepare themselves. At the end we had to move our vacation to the fall and shorten it to 3 weeks to get our house stitter. We are not in a glamorous city but countryside maybe thatâs the case. I too, had the feeling most of the sitters just replied âout of the spur of the momentââŚ
Pre COVID we had a sitter who asked us (HO) to sign a contract. We did consider signing it (she obviously did a lot of long distance travelling and had perhaps some HO who hadnât honoured her sits), although I probably wouldnât now, but it was ONLY at that stage that she mentioned that she had severe allergies to potential mould and flaking walls, and although our house doesnât have that we felt SHE should have mentioned that earlier and not waited until the âcontract stageâ.
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Thatâs the kind of info that should be at the very top so they donât waste our time.
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Unfortunately because of THSâs current 5-&-Done system, too many Sitters feel they must apply as soon as they see a sit somewhere theyâre interested in. The system results in Sitters fearful they wonât get a chance to be seen - so they arenât taking time to carefully read details about Home Owner expectations, details of the sit, pets, etc before clicking âApply.â
Result?
Many HOs are getting ghost applications (no note!) or formula applications (generic about the sitter, zero about the sit/pets).
In response to the ghost & bot applications, we are now experiencing HOs resorting to declining ALL sitters immediately, sending out a formula explanation note letting applicants know they have not read the application, but are declining to broaden their field of applicants & will read & respond to our application later.
Sadly - understandable.
In two such situations, the HOs never got back to us, so we did follow-ups. The answers were almost identical: So sorry! Ended up with 12-15 applications & got confused about who we had actually read - we missed you! Youâd have been perfect - what about our next sit?
There clearly has to be a solution to this situation.
Have suggested to THS that they add both Captcha (requires a human response to block bots) and minimum characters requirements before a Sitter can complete an application (to prevent ghost/blank applications).
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I feel your frustration!
(And applaud your sit title!)
I am posting this here as not to start a new similar thread and because well, it just feels good to say something out loud sometimes to someone who gets it.
I am trying to fill a sit for this Fall.
Thsitters with 50+ reviews applied and I was thrilled!
The phone call went something like this:
ME: BLAH BLAH BLAH⌠why donât you start with your must have/ have nots and deal breakers; a good use of both our time.
SITTERS: oh sure. We have 4 pages of questions but can drop the dog questions.
(Chuckles all around.
I have one cat in my listing.
4 pages⌠cool⌠must be forum membersâŚI thought to myself)
(At some point in the call)
ME: do you guys read the forum?
SITTERS: oh the forum. YesâŚa whiny moany place. BLAH blah.
ME: it can be sometimes but I also learn from the forum and try to support others tooâŚblah blah.
(About an hour and twenty minutes into the callâŚgoing well and pleasantâŚit seemed.)
SITTERS: we will have access to two beds and two bedrooms and two baths?
(WHAT!?! listing says dedicated guest bedroomâŚqueen AIR mattress and guest bath)
ME: No. Is that a deal breaker for you?
SITTERS: yes.
ME: Well, lead with that.
I asked in closing if the bed thing was being used some how to âget out ofâ the sit (though no obligation at this ponit) because of something that was said or came upâŚ? Ya never know. And I like open communication. Like it was late in the game here people.
They said no but however the AIR mattress concerned them too. They tried it before and it was cold. Didnât like it.
50 + reviews. Seasoned house sitters with 4 pages of questions.
Why then would they even apply with an air matress?
I did not care to take the time to explain the layer of memory foam and quilted mattress cover on the air bed. Not cold.
We were obviously done.
No hard feelings but man. WTHECK.
I popped into THS email to decline the application with a note that I felt would be respectful of our hour + phone call. The app was already withdrawn. Nothing. OkâŚ
I sent an email thanking them and wishing them well in their THS adventuresâŚ
SMDH
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@HelloOutThere - I get not reading the entire listing before applying but not reading it before the call??? Thatâs not what I would expect from a 50+reviews sitter.
Sorry you had your time wasted.
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I honestly donât know why people are wasting their own time and that of others. Iâm SMH at what happened to you but unfortunately, I am not really all that surprised with what Iâve seen this year with TH (and itâs sooo different from just a couple of years ago!). I have a sit listing for this summer that Iâm going to re-open sometime soon and I hope I donât pull my hair out when I do so. I removed my posting that I had open because we were away for a few weeks, but when I had it open I did get as far as an hour or so into a video interview with a couple I thought might be possible sitters. I knew it was going to be âinterestingâ when the husband asked a few minutes into the conversation, âSo, what kind of pet do you have anyhow?â They wanted me to loan them our car while they were here (and sorry, we donât do that), wanted to know if we had electric bikes they could use (nope, donât have electric bikes), and then when the call was almost over, the wife asked, âIs this is a long-haired cat? Iâm kind of allergic to cats.â WHAT??? It was in the listing that sheâs a Balinese, and there are multiple pics of her in the listing, and NOW youâre telling me that YOUâRE ALLERGIC TO CATS??? Maybe that was the out because of no car and no electric bikes. I dunno. But SMHâŚ
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This is really disgusting what I have just read and I also agree with you @SiobhanFL, it wasnât like this a few years ago. I stand by my thoughts that the five applications rule has the biggest bearing on this kind of behaviour. But! Personally, before I even apply and definitely before a video chat, I have studied the listing to the empth degree and make sure I know everything, right down to the pets name for use in the chat. These applicants have been just pure lazy Iâm sorry. @HelloOutThere it was beyond kind of you to even send them a follow up email after such a disgraceful event.
Iâm sorry you have both had this terrible experience, donât know if there is any solution. Just trial and error I guess 
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I make notes for these video chats, with questions that I may ask, with the names of owners and of the pets. But once in a video chat, I was uncertain about the petâs gender and then I chose the wrong pronoun. Awkward confusion ensued, and I got declined for that one.
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@pietkuip yes I have done that many times 
If I forget, I quickly add âyour adorable puddy catâ or âyour adorable doggyâ. Sometimes the HO will then follow up the chat with the pets name and Iâm like, PHEW! Usually gets me through haha! I also make notes but in the moment when we are trying to make an impression, itâs very easy to slip up hey!
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This goes both ways too 
. Iâve been contacted by countless owners about sits where they obviously havenât read my profile.
Itâs usually a copy and paste job they send out en masse .
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Thanks @Myhnabird I think this is why I posted too cuz it was like finding out about santa clauseâŚ
50 + reviews can still break a heart⌠so how home hosts and thsitters can confirm after just an email or two or not talk to all cuz of the # of reviews is beyond me.
Well at @SiobhanFL ⌠I did have one take awayâŚwhen the sitter is done with their opening comments, I am going to ask againâŚâbefore I share my must have nots/ deal breakers⌠are you sure you have no others? And did you get a chance to read the full listing? I know sometimes this is a rushed process.â
Wow on your experienceâŚ
It really is an exciting process for me to âmeetâ people thru THS but this one did put a tear in my sails!
Thanks @ziggyâŚI agree with your many pointsâŚ
Yes @Hallt64 it does go both ways at times but for my post nowâŚIâm not about the both sideismđ
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I always look at things from both sides
Just had an AMAZING chat with a THSITTER and secured part of our Fall listing.
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