I absolutely agree.
I am usually a very quick decider and if I leave an application on hold, to me it means it’s ok, but not exactly what I was looking for. I answer any application as quickly as possible, sometimes right away and if it doesn’t ring a bell, I tell the sitter that it’s perfectly alright with me to move on while I wait with my decision. The only thing I ask is to be notified if this is the case.
Not choosing someone quickly doesn’t mean necessarily that the applicant isn’t suitable at all but also not my first choice. I only decline those I definitely don’t want at all.
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Hi @mars I have made that statement a couple of times in posts, but only that I had also read it in someone’s post. Today I had an opportunity to test it out, as I had a return invite from a homeowner, and I had read the invite on the phone app.
Maybe 30 minutes later, after we’d messaged back and forth on the app, I asked the homeowner to go to his website account and check. His message to me showed as ‘unread’. This may address the concerns that members have voiced about messages going unread.
@Angela_L , I’ll tag @Ben-ProductManager and ask that this be reviewed and that he then update forum members.
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I haven’t read the whole long thread but I just want to share my experience and vent my anger:
There are indeed many advertising home owners who never respond to the offers, and I think that the THS organisation should do something about it.
Example: I applied for this sit on a Greek island three weeks ago and sent a reminder one week ago, and did not hear a beep back.
Sitter needed:
| 05 | Dec2022 | - | 05 | Mar2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21-25 applicants |
I guess the other 21+ applicants haven’t either, and I am sure we all find that extremely frustrating, as we all want to plan ahead. I have now accepted another sit for that time, and I am polite enough to let the advertiser know that I am no longer available. Am I throwing pearls before swine - or should I simply ignore such advertisers the same way they ignored me?
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Hi @Romana I have passed to the Membership Services Team to connect with the owner …
Hello Angela, if this is about the 3-month sit in Greece, this advertiser is not the only one. There is a longer sit around that time in Italy, too, which has more than 21 applicants…and these are not isolated cases. I think the best would be to have an automatic daily reminder to advertisers who have more than 5 unanswered applications that they need to reply to their applicants, otherwise their ads will be automatically paused until they have established communication, and the system should not allow more than 10 active applications at a time. The advertiser would have to reject some unsuitable ones, to make the ad appear again.
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@Romana Totally agree! The number of sits that stay open is incredible!
@Angela_L Am I correct in thinking that, if the owner confirms a sitter, the other applicants get an automatic decline & the sit ‘disappears’ from the listings?
If that’s the case, how come so many stay open, surely if somebody has had 12-15 applicants, there’s bound to be a good fit??
#curious
It will be interesting when these HO’s come to check the applications just how many are still available.
With the large choice of sits available at the moment I imagine the best applicants will have been secured elsewhere.
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Maybe this is a reason:
Just this morning I wondered why a listing has to completely go offline as soon as a sitter for the posted dates is confirmed and I asked this starting another thread:
I just recently confirmed my sitters for my advertised dates in July-August. Since then the listing isn’t visible to potential sitters anymore. Although it is clear that the possibility of applying to it has stopped, wouldn’t it be favorable for the HOs to leave it visible either without dates or with a tag, which says “no current dates”? Like this potential sitters could save the listing for future dates.
When my listing was still online, I had at least 1 sitter saving it per day, sometimes even more. This would multiply the chances of finding a sitter for future dates.
Could it be that the HOs and the chosen sitters have reached an agreement not to confirm the sit too early? Is this thinking of mine too far fetched?
Any thoughts on that?
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I think that could certainly be a potential. Either that or the homeowner wants to put out feelers for the dates, but isn’t ready to confirm a sitter.
When I search for potential sits in an area, listings with no current availability do appear.
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That’s right as long as there are no dates posted. However until a sit is ended, the listing doesn’t show at all. When I search my own listing I don’t find it, because our next dates are in July and we have a confirmed sitter.
But I know that it pops up as soon as a sit is over, even without dates.
So, to me it’s actually not good to confirm sitters too early, because there’s no chance of others saving my listing during this time
Ahh now I understand.
@Susan that’s correct for the website, for sits that are completed, but they don’t display on the app.
@anon39388349 an interesting theory of yours, but I’d be concerned that, without a confirmed sit on the THS website, someone - owner or sitter - could far more easily change their minds.
I only have one other observation, which you may realize. Once your listing does display in the ‘sits without current dates’ section on the website (no parallel on the app), if a sitter saves your listing on the website (not an option on the app at that stage) they won’t get a notification when you do post a new listing. I’m guessing you’re saying that as a homeowner at least you would know that they saved it and you could then contact them. I don’t know that part, given I don’t have a homeowner membership. 
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Hi @Romana it was the Greece sit which I advised the team about as we do any other over subscribed listings without owner activity.
You make a good suggestion of limiting applications which the Product Team have been discussing …
@Els I will tag @Therese who can confirm the process when an owner confirms a sitter.
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Yeah, I kind of agree with this. More than 10 anyway. Maybe a limit of 40 or 50? As a sitter, I can always rescind my application if no one responds.
@meow and @Kelownagurl
Do you think it is fair if a HO leaves 40 or 50 or even just 10 applicants waiting for a reply - for an unlimited time? It is obvious that only one will be chosen. Therefore I would welcome a system in place which will ensure that unsuitable applicants will be “freed” from being on that list as quickly as possible, so they can move on.
When I am on such a list and waiting for a reply, I am indeed waiting and do not feel comfortable with writing other applications for the same time-frame, because I hope to be chosen - or rejected - very soon. The HO is blocking me from moving on. That is frustrating. Even just a short reply such as “We will not pick anyone until in a few months” would free me immediately, as I would withdraw my application and look elsewhere. But no reply for weeks is unacceptable HO behaviour.
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I agree that it would be ideal if some HOs responded much quickly, but I also recognize there are some very desirable sits that can get 40 applications within a day or two and I wouldn’t want to miss out on applying for them just because I may have been asleep (in a different time zone) when they posted the sit.
And while I also get irritated when a homeowner doesn’t respond to my application in a timely manner, I don’t allow it to “block me from moving on”. I apply for other sits in the same time frame and if I accept another sit before the others have responded, I just rescind my application.
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@Romana - Maybe a better solution for you would be to only allow a home host a period of time to respond, after that time has lapsed you could just withdraw your application and move onto your next application.
@Romana You are free to move on! It’s not like you have to wait for a reply.
I don’t see how anybody is blocking you. Just withdraw your application and move on. You block yourself with waiting for a response.
As a HO I think it’s completely up to me when, who and if I choose a sitter. There will probably not 40-50 left when it takes months to decide, but with this outcome then the HO has to live.
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@Colin but you can withdraw any application, can’t you? You can set the timeframe for yourself and then move on. I don’t see why TH has to regulate everything.
I understand that it’s frustrating not even to receive a response and I would never leave the sitters in the dark, but it has to be my decision alone when I choose a sitter.
I think maybe these HOs are also posting on different sites and may simply have forgotten to delete the listing on TH.
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