I asked this a while back and got mixed answers, so I’m wondering if it’s changed. If you, as a sitter, saved someone’s listing, do you automatically get an alert when they post for a sit?
And a note to sitters. Please read the listing before you favorite it. I have had many folks save my listing, and when I check them out, they want to bring their child(ren) or dog(s). My listing clearly states that those things are not OK. I (luckily) get a fair number of saves, and I hate wasting my time reading the profile of someone who should have seen that they don’t fit.
I have not got specific “your saved listing posted a sit” notices. Rather, with a couple of favourites in provinces where I have a saved search for that province, they just come up among those.
Anyone can fave a listing; it is allowed; it doesn’t mean they’re going to apply. A fave is just a bookmark. Maybe they’re interested in the general area; maybe they saved it in case they decide to apply without their kids and pets; maybe they’re curious and want to come back and look at it later; maybe they mis-clicked on a tiny phone screen… heck, I dunno, maybe they really like your house and saved the listing for design/real estate ideas
It’s late and I’m tired so maybe I misread, but, I’m wondering why you are wasting time reading profiles of people who save your listing. What is the point if they haven’t actually applied? It seems to be generally agreed here that inviting sitters has a low success rate and that one should rather post their listing and hope for applicants. If you are looking to invite sitters I guess you could read through all the saves, but, it does seem a waste of time.
Yes we do. We get an alert for the individual sit and then an alert for that country or city too anywhere between 10 minutes and half an hour later. You can’t tell sitters not to favourite your listing, it’s up to them. They might never apply. They might want a dog like yours or simply like your chosen wallpaper. As @ABGM says, trawling through saves is highly unlikely to find you a sitter so other than pure interest it’s not worth doing. We do it for future inspiration or for a destination that looks interesting some time in the sitting plan. #pinterestboard
When I save listings it’s usually because the location/home/pets suit us but their dates don’t, but for me, the only time I will really look at that listing again is when I am looking to fill certain dates in that area, not when THS notifies me, and then I can look at the ones I’ve favourited. The reason being is that I recieve so many emails from THS that I class as marketing, like “you had a great sit, recommend a friend” etc, so I ignore most of them apart from the ones that say it’s a message.
I wish I could opt out of the marketing ones, but I can’t. I’d be then opting out of any personal messages etc too.
Also just so you know, the ones that have saved your listing that aren’t suitable for you, may have just saved it to return to view it properly later in the day/week if they are out dog walking for example, I know I did that sometimes in the early days. So while I know it feels like they are wasting your time, all they are doing is potentially focusing on their other commitments and saving it for when they have free time to read it properly.
I have to say, you seem to different to most that we favourite, because more often than not, the ones we save don’t reach out to us, and I really wish they would. I find it a little weird because we get accepted for almost every sit we apply for but not many of our favourited ones have reached out, maybe they’re too focussed on their advertised date applicants or maybe they still don’t realise that sitters can’t reach out unless they are applying for a sit.
Almost 500 sitters have favorited our listing. Even if we reached out to a few proactively, we’d only contact a small percentage of that number and in fact we probably wouldn’t go that route as we don’t have any shortage of applicants when we post dates.
When I favorite a listing it’s for my purposes, not for the HOs. I wish there was a way for sitters to bookmark listings without it being visible to the HOs, but there isn’t. I often favorite without reading the listing. I don’t see a reason to spend time reading the listing thoroughly when the chances of me ever applying are extremely slim. If I see something that is in an area I might be interested in and has the pets I’m interested in, I favorite it. When/if I get a notification of new dates for that sit that happen to align with when I’m available to be in that area (very rare), I would read the listing in detail before applying. If at that time, it doesn’t appear to be a fit, I wouldn’t apply. I personally don’t want invites and am not favoriting listings for that reason.
@Lisfnord, short answer is yes - housesitter that have saved a listing receive a notification (assuming enabled) for any new listing by that pet parent. To our knowledge, a Pet Parent cannot somehow prevent/block a housesitter from actioning a favourite listing or application submission (just as housesitters cannot block pet parent listings).
@ABGM, we’ve met some Pet Parents that do indeed reach out to housesitter favourites to ask about future availability (we receive steady trickle of such messages). Seems time consuming method but guess some pet parents seek to try to control process and/or select housesitters (aargh to THS marketing).
Think you can consider yourself entirely safe; no one is “bringing” anything without actually reaching out to you. It’s a simple standard function, much like online shopping, designed to keep track while browsing through the many options available.
A “looked cute, might delete later” situation, nothing more.
I think the notifications are a “hit and miss” as far as receiving. I have quite a few “saved” listings and some I’ve received notifications for and others not.
You don’t know what’s in the mind of a sitter who favorites a listing, you can’t know. Some might do it for the reasons you suggest, others might do it because, well, they’re actually interested in doing a sit at that property and they wish to be notified when it becomes available.
At the very least it’s an indication of how desirable a sit may be. I’d rather be sitting with almost 500 sitters favoriting my listing (we’re close to that number) than none at all, regardless of the reason. When we post dates we have no shortage of applicants. So there’s that.
I get notifications whenever a sit I’ve favourited comes up with new dates. The thing about sitters reading before applying - I do that, favourite it, then when a new sit comes up I look again because I’ve found with all these new features that things change, particularly how long a pet can be left, so an old ‘favourite’ now comes in as “pet can only be left for two hours”, which wasn’t there previously, so I immediately unfavourite it.
Well, I’m very different when it comes to “Favouriting” a listing. I only do it when I really, really like the look of a sit, but can’t manage the dates posted. I would never click the little heart if I hadn’t read the listing carefully (but hey, I’m a quick reader!) and decided it really could be one for me. To me, it means something.
I’m always very pleased and flattered if an HO invites me to a sit as a result - even if I can’t do it. Some of my best sits have started that way. I’d like to be one of those “Who do you think you are, contacting ME??” -type sitters, but I continue to be grateful for any and every oppportunity.
@DieFledermaus to me, it means I want to be notified of future dates for that sit. The listing could change before that next sit, so that is the time I would read it in great detail and read all the reviews from sitters and those left by the hosts for prior sitters. I just don’t see a need to do all that before clicking it as a favorite. The reason I prefer not to get invites is because of all the many invites I’ve received, I’ve never accepted one. Not because the sits don’t look great, because I’m not available for the dates.
Hmmm I think this is a terrible idea as I think it will dissuade sitters from even applying, making the assumption they will never have a chance at being the chosen one with so much interest in the sit.
Simple solution – don’t read the profiles of people who have favorited your sit. Personally, I DO read the profiles on occasion so i can then Favorite sitters who I think will be possible good options in the event that I don’t get applications that I am happy with. Then I go check my Favorited Sitters list and will reach out to invite (with a very personalized note) those who can drive to my sit in about 6 hours. (My sit is 3 blocks to a beach a 6 hour drive from a landlocked big city). For the naysayers, this worked for me on my first try! Great sitters booked and completed sit, I would use them again.
I suppose I’m just curious and I happen to enjoy the actual act of reading. So it’s never a hardship to go through a listing from top to bottom, straight away. But sheesh! I’m a dinosaur..!
