With email things are sometimes interrupted differently by individuals. Happens to all of us.
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I absolutely wonât accept anyone with dogs. One time a visitor brought a dog, it bit Megan.
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Some advice to save yourself and others some time: make sure itâs clear in your listing you canât accept sitters bringing their own pets. If one still applies, just decline them right away and refer them back to your listing.
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Decline the ones with dogs immediately this releases two spaces for other applicants.
Correction: see Marionâs note below for an additional stage after this.
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@Kateon52 Some sitters donât take kindly to being one of multiple sitters having a video call. Itâs time-consuming for them (and you) and can leave the impression that thereâs not a clear first choice. Sitters can be understandably upset if they spend time chatting away, finding a good fit, only to hear at the end that you have others youâll be speaking with before making an offer to your first choice. Keep in mind also that your first choice may decide against the sit, for any number of reasons.
Many experienced owners will video chat with what appears to be their first choice. They also send a quick email to the others, just giving a timeframe of when theyâll get back to them. That gives you a short buffer to speak with your first choice and is less time-consuming for you.
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When you get 5 applications your listing will automatically be paused and no one else will be able to apply .
So as @BonnyinBrighton and @Felinelover have already suggested , decline the unsuitable applications straight away ( before you receive 5 ) to free up space for others to apply.
If you do get 5 and some are unsuitable, you must decline some and unpause the listing to get more applications.
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Unfortunately, declining applications doesnât automatically open up the spaces. Once the listing gets five applications, the host needs to decline applications AND managethe listing by clicking âunpauseâ to open up more spaces. Otherwise listings can remain âin reviewâ even if they donât have any active applications!
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I disagree with @ChiaGrowth as all the power is NOT in your hands @Kateon52 as there are more owners requiring sitters than there are sitters, so itâs a âsitterâs marketâ. In other words, sitters have a lot of choice and can be very selective in deciding on their sits. Particularly in the USA as fewer international sitters are visiting there due to the current political regime. You need to make your sit listing as attractive as possible. Think âwhy would someone want to come to my place?â and draft your listing with that in mind. You can link your listing to your forum profile & ask the forum for feedback. You will get some useful tips.
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The market varies. In some locations itâs a sitterâs market, in others itâs a hostâs market. It also has to do a lot with the desirability of the sit. You canât tell me itâs a sitterâs market when my inbox gets flooded with applicants within a few minutes of posting dates.
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As youâve been told many many times on here, Greece is an exception as are sits in SEA or South America. If the OP is in the USA or the UK (which is highly likely) then @Crookie is right. Theyâve also already admitted to only one application when live for 12 hours so itâs not one that is high demand. #crookieknowsheronions
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Different markets. Like I said.
@Kateon52, weâd agree with advice from @Felinelover.
You only need one housesitter. Does the first applicant seem attractive? Provided that their profile meets your must-have preferences then schedule a video call. Perhaps you may receive more applications, perhaps you will not. But suspect that youâd feel pretty foolish if proactive paused and only applicant withdrew their application. Ignore the âsavedâ housesitters - we do that when we spot an interesting listing but dates donât work for us. Good luck.
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Very personal choice.
Many people click âsaveâ because the dates may not work THIS time around, but hope to do a sit for you another time and want to get flagged.
The MAIN thing is this - if you hope for sitters to show you courtesy, then extend courtesy as a HO/PO. THS is a great peer-to-peer exchange when both sides show consideration & respect.
Keep in mind, until both sides have committed to the sit officially, both sides can keep searching. Your one applicant may find something else and agree to it before you connect.
That said, consider writing a boiler-plate response that you can send out to any/all applicants which lets them know youâre aware they applied and when to expect a more personal response.
Itâs enough to write something along these lines, âThank you for applying, weâll be reviewing applicants over the weekend and getting in touch by Sunday afternoon. Please give us your WhatsApp contact info so we can arrange a conversation.â
Itâs also a great time to add anything you are particularly concerned about. Examples: âPlease note: my cat needs eye drops every morningâŚâ or âWe have an orchid hothouse and hope to find someone comfortable with thatâŚâ or âWe live about a 15 minute walk from the closest bus stop but it is a direct line into the heart of townâŚâ or âWe will be leaving early Saturday morning, would you be available to arrive after dinner on Friday?â
EVEN if you have noted things in your write-up, if itâs really an important thing for the sit, bears repeating so neither side wastes time.
Otherwise, the bottom line is to be considerate! Best of luck
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Mmm no. Iâve been on both sides of the table and it is ALL about desireablility of the sit. When a sit opens in Paris? Itâs filled with applicants in minutes. Rural location in the Balkans - very niche market. Also, experienced Sitters see Red Flags in the tone and expectations listed. I read one Sit Post that could easily have been written in search of an upstairs maid in Edwardian England. We applied to one because of the prickly tone: the HOâs write-up about a previous sitter was genuinely funny - turned out the HO was lovely.
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Thatâs not a great example. If I was asked to arrive the night before I would expect to be invited for dinner as well. I would not find it friendly or courteous to be asked to arrive after dinner.
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I have to say Maggie8K, I usually agree with you, but not here. I think there IS practical value to an acknowledgement. I am noticing an increase in the number of HO/PO who post a sit and then seem to have forgotten it!
I had one where I applied: nothing. Few days later wrote a polite note saying weâd like to know if we were being considered because it was very interesting to us - but we needed to start making plans. Nothing. Two weeks after applying, with the window for travel arrangements narrowing, we wrote a nice note saying we assumed theyâd found someone so we would retract our application. Waited 24 hours, then retracted. FOUR DAYS after that (if youâre keeping score, 21 days after it was posted) the HO wrote us a note to say we were perfect! Sheâd just been too busy to answer (for three weeks?) but really wanted to chat with us. By then, weâd made other arrangements. BTW, that was in an alpine town so not super easy to reach⌠What was she thinking?
Have had several in the last couple of years where there is zero communication until either we bow out or see it is filled. That used to be very rare. Now we assume if they havenât answered us within 5 days of posting? They arenât considerate people Most recently were rather put out when we wrote a review within 48 hours, were asked if we could do a 2nd sit, but never got a note from the HO nor a review. Zip. WTH?
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True, but I wrote it that way to remind a HO to consider the Sitters arrangements.
We are almost always invited to a meal on arrival. Some have been lovely. BUT in one instance the HO knew we had taken a flight, then an airport transport, then an Uber to reach them - had NOTHING available (literally, frig was cleaned out completely) and the closest cafe or convience store was 15-20 minutes walk down dark streets. I was shocked. Luckily on landing weâd bought a packaged lunch to share as a snac, en route.
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I have to say it takes all kinds. BUT I agree - a HO should priortize their applicants and plan on making the first video chat with their #1 choice, What a HO has to understand is that if they appear to a Sitter to be too high-handed, they have raised a red flag to many of the best sitters, who know their value and appreciate mutual respect.
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I think there are Sitters who simply apply to anything theyâd like to do, disregarding what the Host has indicated. By the same token, there are Hosts to âforgetâ to mention critical things that will have a significant impact on the Sitters experiece. IMHO itâs why the Video Chat is critical. You can learn a lot from body language AND (in one case shockingly) the ACTUAL condition of the home/pet!
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Agree, but I think âafter dinnerâ was here ment as a time, not as a function. Leads to sitter having to secure their own food anyway, so not the best look.
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