am advertising for our second long term (3 month) sit, and for the first time ever have run into several potential sitters acting in flaky ways. One outright lied to me - putting me off on accepting a sit on the grounds that “she had scheduled an interview with someone else the next day and she felt bad about cancelling” (when it turned out that she preferred the other sitter all along), and when I pointed this out to her, she cut me off with “this isn’t a paid gig, and I owe you nothing”. The second I’ve invited, after several rounds of indicating his continued interest, has also not responded to my formal offer. So — my question is this: is there a norm on how long one waits before withdrawing a formal offer?
As a host, who loves my pets and cares about my home, if an unconfirmed sitter does or says anything that causes me to think we don’t have the same understanding or they are starting out with a bone to pick, I am going to move on. It’s not just that I completely believe I’ll find a more suitable sitter. But I completely believe I’ll find a more suitable sitter even if I have to go outside of THS and pay for one.
I’ve developed some rules: (1) I ask at the end of a positive chat how long a sitter would need to decide if I offered them the sit. I straight out ask about timeline issues like other out applications and checking on travel plans. If someone sounds great but vague, I take it as a not interested. If someone is honest: There is a sit that’s like yours but longer and more convenient and I’m talking to them in the morning. Then I tell them to get back to me after that talk but as it coud take a while, I’ll be talking to other people who may be ready to commit.
(2) I didn’t hear your half of the “owes me nothing” conversation, but if a sitter said that to me, I’d politely end the conversation and decline them.
(3) I don’t know if you video chatted with the “final offer” person, if you mean you offered them the sit and they haven’t confirmed, but I wouldn’t give that more than a day either. If you have another way to contact them, I’d used that and see if they return the message. Otherwise, I’d withdraw the invite and move on.
You might need to delete your dates and start fresh. You might need to revise something in your listing if you aren’t getting quality candidates. But no one should have to “settle” for a sit they don’t want and not one should have to settle for a sitter they don’t think is perfect for their pets and home.
Some sitters take advantage of owners who don’t understand all of the steps which need to happen to actually have an officially confirmed sit.
It sounds like you understand completely. The sitter needs to accept your invitation. This should happen within 24 hours, in my opinion, if the sitter is serious about committing.
This has been discussed at length on the forum. If you search you’ll see that sometimes sitters have to wait ages, sometimes weeks, sometimes never, to get a response from owners too. All you can do is make your listing as attractive as possible, so have a look at it again, tweak a few things, remove it and re list and it will jump to the top thereby hopefully attracting potential sitters who hadn’t seen it before
I’ve received a few “your family sounds perfect! I’ll send over a confirmation” Then I get a rejection email with a message “sorry, I found a sitter that was a better fit” This happens to sitters too.
My opinion:
From both sides, HO and PS, I would say a maximum of a day after the videocall to confirm.
My own experience (25+ sits) is actually that it is confirmed through THS right after the videocall.
You are both making time free at the moment of the videocall. So actually, you both can decide very fast.
Right after the videocall you feel you are a perfect match, or you aren’t.
If one side has to think about it/ explore other options, they think they can get better, so no perfect match, so better move on.
the first sitter sounds like she’s fishing for something “better” and shouldn’t be relied upon. I would definitely withdraw that invite.
as for the second sitter: have you followed up? I would give him at least one followup opportunity before withdrawing your invite.
personally, I’ve had HOs reach out after I’ve indicated earlier interest - but the new dates they offered weren’t really ideal for me, which made me feel a little like I was losing “my chance” to go on that sit. since he’s indicated past interest, it could be that he’s conflicted about how to respond (if he’s unavailable)… which wouldn’t excuse his lack of response but may explain it.
as a general rule, I agree with what others have said:
ask/communicate with the sitter about how long you’ll each need to make a decision
generally, it shouldn’t take very long
sometimes, life just gets busy. and not everyone is as active in the platform as perhaps you are, so they might take a little longer to log in or might not realize they need to formally click “accept” on an offer. so it’s often ok to assume the best and simply reach out with a followup. but if they’re still unresponsive after another day or so, I would withdraw and look for someone more reliable.
Hi jcstrauss,
I am a sitter and for me it has been in 99% of cases immediate. I only apply for sits where I wish to sit. Sometimes I have been offere4d the sit without any phone communicvation and others either a phone call, WhatsApp phone call and very occasionally a WhatsApp video. We chat I am offered the sit and state happy for them to confirm it within that conversation. I then immediately receive the formal offer and I send an immediate confirmation and then request the Welcome Guide.
The quickest confirmation of a sit was within an hour of my application, which included a phone call. If they are not confirming very quickly, I would consider them not interested and move on to somebody who is more enthusiastic at accepting. I thinck the problem is that too many sitters now, apply for several sits for the same dates, which leads to many owners left hanging whilst waiting for sitters to make up their minds. If they are not accepting immediately the likelihood is that they are more interested in another sit and wqaiting to hear if they get that one first. I prefer to just apply for one at a time. I only look for other sits for same dates, if I m not receiving anything back from an onwer for several days. It is equally frustrating when owners do not respond.