@SusanL In fairness to homeowners, I’m sure the idea of providing adequate and relative information works both ways. I’ve read of homeowners receiving applications with insufficient information for them to even decide whether there is a potential fit, even if they also review the sitter’s profile. The outcome may be that the sitter is quickly declined for that reason.
For those sitters who feel they keep getting unfairly declined, take a look at this blog on how to write the perfect application message. Following these tips may just improve your success rate.
Thank you!
I am very aware it goes both ways and have read the “how to write the perfect application.” I have a very good success rate in my application of getting sits. I was purely answering the topic of “where have all the sitters gone.” I was only speaking about my personal experiences and why I was leaving and what a few friends have told me. I was not speaking for all sitter or all HO. Just giving my experience in hopes to improve things and bring awareness to some issues so it can be a better experience for all.
Health & Joy,
Susan
My husband and I have been house/pet sitting for several years now. Recently while I was browsing for our future house sits I noticed that there are some listings that do not include any details in the post at all. There were several pictures but no details, description of any sort, not even the pet’s breed, age, name or their behaviours, routines or needs. I think it is the homeowner’s responsibility to add some details that would give the prospect sitter a heads up and it will give us some ideas of what needs to be done for the pet, house, etc.
It is usually not a good listing if the homeowner didn’t do any homework in that regard. I’m wondering what others think about this issue. Please share your point of view. Thank you.
Hello @PenPen You’re right and it’s a hot topic here on the forum. There are rules about the substance of listings but only an owner’s very first listing is scrutinised by THS and then they can get amended ad infinitum. Also, the rules were updated, so long time owner members created their default listings ages ago & don’t know the new rules. Many other reasons exist too but you will see when browsing topics that this one is a bit of a bugbear generally.
I’m sure the admins will appear to guide you on reporting such inadequate listings.
Only photos, absolutely no descriptions. I found this happens when a HO is updating their listing at the same time you came across it. Usually when you hit refresh, it corrects itself. Same with the Welcome Guide.
Very little information in the description and elsewhere in the listing. Maybe just a one liner, like in the Introduction: “Please come and mind our pets when we go on holidays”. Or in Responsibilities: “Look after the dogs” - uhm, okay? Yes, that is definitely too little information and is very annoying.
Listings on THS are, in the main, excellent compared with those on Kiwihousesitters or Aussiehousesitters’. Only sitters pay membership for those so you’d think the owners would make more of an effort, it’s very frustrating. The websites are pretty poor too
@Smiley for 2 years, while touring Australia, those were our main websites for finding sits in Australia, together with mindmyhome. We loved them, and I found THS quite frustrating and hard to use compared with these two. I guess it’s just what we are used to.
I have a feeling that just recently this was one of the glitches in the system because I noticed them too but when I went back to have another look, the information and photos were there @PenPen.
I agree that a few weeks ago, when looking at available house sits my browser simply displayed the heading and photo library and no detail at all. My wife accessing the same sit from another device had no such problems. I found that if I simply hit the refresh button in the browser the detail was displayed. I had this problem for a week or so. The problem has since disappeared however that coincides with us moving to a new house sit.
Just seen a strange listing come up on a saved search.
The HO’s don’t actually give their names anywhere in the listing, just ‘we’ in the details.
Looks like they have a beautiful dog that they want sitting but then mention that a dogwalker comes several times a day including 9pm in the evening.
I would never consider applying for this sit as thought the whole point is that I’m there to care for the pets firstly, home after that really.
I would find it very strange having someone turn up during the day to walk the dog. It’s not really clear whether this is the routine they want a sitter to continue or whether the dog walker will be turning up.
If this one has been read by the admin team I’m surprised they didn’t query this. Should I flag it up or not?
Found one name, as pet parent at bottom of listing.
Hi @Suemog
Please direct message me the URL so that we can look into it further.
If any member feels uncomfortable about anything in a particular listing, always bring it to the attention of the membership services team, so they can look into it.
