I put up a listing recently to cover a one week holiday we’re taking in September. Our listing was very thorough with lots of information and photographs of our dogs, our home and things to do.
We’ve used THS around 6 times and have always had plenty of applicants and found perfect sitters. This time, we received NO applicants. What we did get was messages from THS telling me that a sitter had saved my listing. We received around 12 of these and so I contacted each one of them, but none of them could do the sit.
I spent a lot of time doing that and am left wondering what the point of it was. Has anyone else experienced this I wondet.
Hey, JoannaG, and welcome. Unfortunately invitations aren’t really often useful. People save your listing (rather than applying) because this particular sit won’t work for them, but they’d like to be notified of future sits.
A lot of HOs are reporting fewer applicants these days. I’m not sure anyone really knows why.
Hello @JoannaG welcome to the forum.
From a sitters prospective, when I put a listing on as a favourite, it is because I like the look of the listing, but the dates do not work for me, but hopefully another date might. A sitter will then get an email notification if you list again.
I hope that helps. Good luck with getting a nice sitter.
What @Val and @Louise7 say is true for me as a sitter most of the time but sometimes I also save several listings because I have not made up my mind and I’m considering several options. If I were you I would keep contacting those sitters just in case. It’s not likely that they are available but it’s not impossible either.
I save listings that I’m interested in but cannot do the dates they have advertised. We get notified when the listing puts on more dates.
We are almost all booked up till next April/May. I like to be organised and usually book sits six months in the future. Full time sitters.
I typically ignore sitters who set my listing as a favorite. They did it who knows when or why and it doesn’t mean they are still interested or available.
Anyway, it is not nearly as irritating as sitters who do apply just to let us know that they like our place and would love to come some other time (and could we please take the initiative ourselves to contact them then), but not now; or those who apply but can cover only 1/10 of the time required; or those who want to travel with a family of 5 when we clearly stated our house is not suitable for kids…
Hi @EMF
I have done what you do not like and applied just to get in contact with the pet owner three times.
I didn’t think it would be an annoying thing to do to be perfectly honest.
It has actually resulted in two of them offering me future sits which I could do
The other one thought that I was spamming them and offering my service for money !
Unfortunately there is no other way for a sitter to contact an owner other than click apply to sit - THS suggest that sitters who want to send a message to an owner do it this way .
This probably is more annoying to people who have high-demand sits. I don’t mind. I don’t bother reaching out for specific sits, though, I just tell them to favorite the sit and they’ll automatically get notifications when I post a new one.
Just as irritating as receiving many unsolicited invitations from homeowners who have not read our profile.
I regularly get invites for dates I am unavailable in countries I am not interested in, caring for 3+ dogs when I specify maximum of 2, sleeping with the pets which I also do not do, etc etc.
All that information is in our profile and I always respond politely to their invitations.
Unfortunately we cannot contact a homeowner to ask any questions without ‘applying’.
Absolutely! As a HO, I have multiple times seen posts where sitters are like, “Ugh! There are crumbs in the silverware drawer!” And I think…huh, how long has it been since I really took a look at how my silverware drawer would appear to someone else? Or my kitchen garbage can…does it need to be cleaned? Or my guest towels…are they looking a bit raggedy?
I have had numerous replies from sitters, which have helped me to understand why potential sitters save my listing. Thank you. I have learnt so much from you.
As a sitter we cannot apply for a sit if the dates overlap (even just a couple of days) so I favourite the sit and hope that the home owner gets in contact with me you never know if the dates of the home owners holiday might be flexible. Win for me and the home owner especially if it’s not a popular area.
Usually when i save a sit it is because im lookkng for a sit in a particular area but i havent consulted with my husband yet or im trying to line up back to back sits and need to find a sit that matches up before we apply.
My reasons for saving a sit ate probably different from most sitters but i have had HO reach out to us twice when i have saved their sit and i have accepted.
So i dont think it is a total waste of time to send invites. I’d look at the sitter’s profile and if their location is in your area, they might be saving sits like i do.
First and foremost I save sits that initially look appealing to me based on a few criteria - dates being one of them.
Then when I have an opportunity to I’ll research the potential sit a little more and maybe I’ll see something in the listing that makes me doubt whether I’d be a good fit for the sit.
Most of the time the overriding factor would be logistics… particularly the general location of the sit and if I can get there easily without too much time and expense incurred. And I also consider the logistics of simple things like grocery runs during a sit.
And then of course something might occur in the meantime that adjusts my schedule meaning I now have doubts regarding my availability for the dates listed.
I don’t religiously go and ‘unlike’ posts
The other reason I like certain listings is that I already know the dates don’t work for me but I’d like to watch out for future sits the HO might have in case those dates might work.
I’ve contemplated doing this on several times listings but didn’t know if it was frowned upon.
HO can clearly contact sitters by using invitations so it’s a shame sitters can’t contact HOs to introduce themselves let them know they’d be interested in future sits etc
I guess it’s good to know HOs do see when a sitter has liked their listing.
But of course it doesn’t mean much if HOs apparently find this annoying.
