I noticed a few times over the last few weeks sits popping up & disappearing let’s say 1h later…
Surely this can’t be because the owners found someone in the mean time? Is it just because they changed their mind in using THS (cause they don’t reappear afterwards with changed dates) or is there another reason I’m missing?
Anyone else noticed this?
I’ve seen that happen once or twice in my time (although not lately because I’ m not really looking). I just assumed they’d either found a sitter already, or maybe a previous sitter saw it and contacted them immediately.
Oh yes they can be filled within a hour. Between seeing a sit and finishing my application the sit can be gone. Frustrating but we have had several recently that were decided in 10 minutes of us applying. I like decisive people and these home owners knew what they wanted, no messing about. Also, the pet owners can pause applicants when they think they have enough and have a look through. It stops them being over whelmed. You have to be quick on the draw sometimes especially if you want a honey pot sit.
I can give another example of why this can sometimes happen as it occurred on a sit we were booked for earlier this year.
The owner messaged us about a repeat sit which we agreed to do. She said she’d put the sit up so we could apply, which we did and she accepted. With the messaging back and forth it took about an hour.
Funnily enough someone here on the forum messaged me as they’d seen we’d got the sit and wanted to know how it had happened so quickly 
That won’t be all the cases … Just one example I can think of why it might.
Happy weekend Els.
Makes total sense, thanks Vanessa! Enjoy the weekend!
Many owners do not know how to send private invites to repeat sitters or think that every sit must be posted. If I have verbally agreed to do a repeat sit, I always send the owners the instructions on how to send us a private invite and ask them not to post the sit since it is not really available. I have also wasted my time applying for sits that were never really available and closed within a very short period of time.
We’ve also applied for a sit just as it was posted only to have the homeowner reply back to us that they were updating the listing, had made it public by accident and weren’t yet ready to officially look for a sitter. They pulled the listing right away and we saw it posted again a week or so later.
So between finding a sitter right away, not knowing how to do a private sit invite, and mistakes, it’s not that uncommon.
Yes, I have the same experience of vanishing sets, after replying. Last months.