I contacted my first choice sitter yesterday to ask a couple of questions after I posted my sit.
She still hasn’t read my post. I feel really bad keeping my second choice hanging on.
How long do I wait ? It’s over 24 hours now.
Hi @Spitimou The TrustedHouse Sitters terms and condition state that members should respond to communications from other Members in a timely manner, but in any event, within 72 hours. However if your second choice sitter is more responsive, perhaps you should interview them first.
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Where are they at at the moment? Do you know that they in the same time zone as you or could their time zone be different at the moment? It’s summer holiday season, they could be sitting anywhere.
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If I were in your situation as the HO, I would reach out to the 2nd choice after 3 days of an unread status. If the 1st choice replies before the 2nd choice interview happens, then I would tell 1st choice the truth in that you went to the 2nd choice because you hadn’t heard from them and that they are now the 2nd choice.
I would hope that the 1st choice would find it reasonable that you moved on after 3 days of the “unread” status, even if the reason for their lack of response was out of their control. After 3 days of “unread”, my assumption would be that 1) they’ve found another sit or have become uninterested, or 2) something major has happened that has prevented them from reading the message, which would mean they are preoccupied handling that situation and cannot currently engage with you. You can’t wait forever.
However, I did have a situation where a message went “unread” for 3 days and the HO finally replied and apologized because a storm had knocked out their internet and cell service. I ended up getting accepted for that sitting.
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Thanks for the replies. It was one of those cases where sitter 1 looked on paper to be the better fit but really liked the look of sitter number 2 even though the logistics might have been a bit more difficult.
I’ve gone with my gut and gone with sitter 2.
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