Hello fellow sitters. I was wondering what others success ratio on sit applications is? Ours is about 80%
I travel with my dog.
If I’m even close to 10% I would be surprised.
On my most recent four applications (after a 3-star review) it is 75 %.
Probably would depend over what time we are talking. I’ve found there are little phases of one or the other ie sometimes there are odd downtimes where it feels like every application gets declined without even a message and then other times it’s nearly 100%.
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Agree with @B1anca - over what time? But also, which areas are you applying to? The last 2 months were very hard for us with declined sits or no responses at all. But our requirements are more restrictive than usual due to no car and timeframe.
Same for a few months last year where we were following a specific route. Few listings and many declines.
If your requirements are not too restrictive and if you don’t necessarily go for desirable areas, and if your reviews are good, then I would say your % would be higher.
(See how many “if’s” I was using there?
)
We have 100% (5/5) so far for local sits (and I’m very grateful for the trust placed in us as “new” sitters!), but we’ve had trouble finding faraway sits that work for us, and the one application we’ve sent hasn’t even been read. 
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Similar for me. It’s much easier to get a YES for Ireland or the UK, but people from other countries often decline me without communication. So far I have applied for 2 French sits and got 2 wordless declines. I have more success in Scandinavia for some reason, perhaps because I mention that I speak Swedish, who knows?
We’ve been sitters for 8 years and I’d say our success rate is about 80-90%. We were lucky to get the very first sit we applied on when we joined and we’ve been quite successful at getting sits since. Most of our sits have been local or a few hours drive from us and about five have been international.
I don’t apply for many but have started to now. On the last six that I did aply for, I secured three, one I’m on right now and two later on this year. Two house owners communicated with me, and one offered me another date but it wasn’t convenient, the third person did not communicate with me.
In our early days we were about 60/40, we are about 95/100 these days, mind I am very selective about putting in applications, quite often they are under review by the time I decide I will apply and that’s okay. We get more invitations to sit than I put in applications.
Applying overseas, we have not accepted any sits overseas as yet, we have had many invitations however timings, expired passports etc were our reasons for declining, I am thinking again when we decide on a Country I will research, research and research, plan, plan, plan like I do so I can get a rough idea of locations, travelling etc then I look at the Pets and Locations and go from there as I do in the UK, plus we are a family of 4 so for some HO this is not for them.
Some HO do blanket invites we have only accepted 1 sit via this and it was a nightmare sit and a long sit too, you live and learn, not that I would not accept if it worked for us. We mostly get a “Hello Amanda” invites, if it is a sit we would sit however dates don’t work for us, I send back, just that however please keep us in mind in the future. I always reply. HO who just hit decline after you have written an individual application to them, they can clearly see I have read their listing and previous sitters, I think this is a reflection on them as tbh you can keep a standard reply “Thanks for your application, we have secured other sitters, wishing you all the best” is not that hard even if you did make theirs personal. I have a basic outlined “thanks for the invite, sorry we can’t sit for you this time” and I then put in their name and the names of their pets and if it somewhere we would sit in the future, ask them to keep us in mind in the future. We are now WhatsApp friends with all our previous sits, unless they are no longer on THS, and they usually reach out to me prior to listing dates to see if we are available to sit for them. School Holidays and Bank Holidays are very popular and we get booked up a year in advance, quite often they will jiggle their dates if we have an overlapping sit and we leave one and go straight to another. When we were full time sitting prior to lockdown this was standard for us. I have had a few unexpected Health problems in the last 2 years so we have not been sitting much as much as we would like.
Happy sitting.
I really wonder what I am doing wrong then… I have applied to about 20 sits in the past weeks and have only been declined… either because I have no references yet, or because I don’t live in the same country (but would obviously travel there and even always check out flight/ train times etc beforehand!)…
Does anybody have any tipps and tricks I could try? I think once I got a couple of sits it might be easier because I will have reviews on my profile… but until then, what can I do? It’s been so frustrating…
Most sitters get some local references before they venture overseas. Depending on the location some of those overseas sits are very desirable and it can be competitive so if you have no feedbacks (and maybe little experience) HOs may find it too high risk for their own peace of mind. I think getting some local experience is also important for the sitter so they can learn what is a good fit for them and what to avoid - you do not want to have that epithany when you are overseas somewhere looking after an animal you can’t manage and dealing with an HO’s expectations you aren’t prepared for.
If you are desperate to try for overseas sits maybe look at the low listing ones at peak times like easter or school holidays and maybe someone will give you a chance if you can show not only that you have some experience with (and love!) animals but that you are also reliable and considerate. If you don’t demonstrate those qualities you may come across as someone just looking for a free holiday - which housesitting is not.
Thank you for your advice! However, looking for something local is unfortunately not possible, as there is literally nothing near where I live! So a 2 hours flight aways actually IS the closest I can find!
And I do have a lot of experience with pets and also petsitting, just not on this app, but obviously potential hosts cannot see this and would have to trust what I say… I do try my hardest to get that across in my messages, but unfortunately this seems to be more difficult than I would have though
Can you ask some of those people you’ve pet sat for to write you references on your THS profile @katyo - that will help. You can collect as many as you like 
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Do you have any short local sits that you could do ? Having reviews is so important I feel as house owners like them. If you just get a couple of good reviews that will help you be accepted for sits further away. I’ve been declined for a few sits as they wanted the sitters to be more local to them, I think some householders fear that peoole from far away might not turn up …not sure really. All the best.
You’re welcome to add a link to your profile here and you should get some feedback on it.
We just started HS this year after a couple years as only HO but for our first sit, we applied and secured it. It wasn’t a super high volume location though and that would be my first suggestion…apply for low application sits. Our second sit was also a low application sit due to location that was in an area I wanted so there was very little competition.
Additionally,
- do local sits. A lot of HO like to go local because it means fewer issues with HS getting there and you can apply for more of those very easily and just build up a review history.
- read the profile thoroughly and try to answer or affirm any concerns in your response that an HO might ask if you haven’t done so already in your profile…we are looking For a sitter rn and a few have 1-2 5 star reviews but their initial messages were very impressive…like they clearly read every word of our profile and doubled down to share how their experience would be directly relevant to our needs. I appreciate it when HS express enthusiasm to learn more about certain aspects of the sit they may have questions or want more context on as well.
- if you don’t have reviews, get as many outside (and relevant references as you can) strong external references that directly demonstrate your sitting experience can be very helpful.
- and then a profile that demonstrates experience with the types of animals in the sit you’re applying for, good images, thoughtful and thorough copy in your profile, etc. All help, as well as any hands on experience, certifications, etc called out explicitly. Don’t forget to also demonstrate either through your references or in your copy that you’re organised, a strong communicator, and able to keep a place clean and tidy, follow direction and adjust around the pet if necessary.
People with high review histories honestly don’t need to lay things out as explicitly because their reviews will speak for themselves. For newer folks, I personally find the above has really helped us as HO in determining which HS stand out and to help us stand out when we do apply for sits as HS.
If you’ve already done all the above, feel free to disregard.
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I am a new user, currently on my second sit and I’ve already found my next one. I have applied to 48 houses and received 3 successful offers, which means my success ratio is around 6%-7%.
I guess there are a few reasons for this. First, as a new user, I haven’t received many reviews yet. Also, I am Asian, not a local, and I suspect that some hosts may prefer local sitters. Additionally, I have applied for houses that are quite far from where I live. I reside in QLD and have applied for houses in NSW, VIC, South Australia, and Western Australia. I guess most hosts prefer a sitter who lives closer to them, rather than one from another state
I am currently happy with the success ratio as a beginner. I had my first sit in December 2023, this one in January, and the next one is in February. Having one sit per month is actually good enough for me.
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Hi, I am wondering if the invitation you received is from a previous host or a new one. I didn’t know that hosts could invite sitters through the app. I thought only those who applied for the house could communicate with the host. However, I’m a new user, so I might not be fully aware of how it works.
No you can get invited through THS by previous and new HOs. Unfortunately, far too often owners don’t check the potential sitter is actually showing as free during those dates!