Hi everyone - I am brand new to trusted house sitters and this will be our first time using this and are very excited that our animals will be taken well cared of. We put our listing out and got 5 applicants and narrowed it down to the person we wanted. We have invited a person to sit as well as messaged them for a quick chat and haven’t heard back from them and now we are going on day 3. I see that they read the message I sent. How long do I wait before canceling the sit? I unpaused the sit as we are under 2 weeks before leaving.
Just as @pietkuip said, invites are rarely successful, sorry, and many are often ignored or declined by sitters. This is because the likelihood that somebody is available for your sit, interested & keen to sit in that area is very low, and usually only work out for new sitters seeking local sits to help build up their reviews. Most sitters near you are searching for sits abroad or further afield so they can see a new area. Inviting 1 nearby sitter, pausing your listing and expecting a reply isn’t the way THS works.
The best way to attain a sitter is by having a highly attractive profile that gains applicants. These are the people that are available & keen to sit for you. If you haven’t had any applicants, you can read this blog to make sure your listing is attractive as possible.
You can also link your listing to your forum bio to gain helpful feedback from members. Hope that helps!
As pietkuip says, don’t bother inviting people. People search in a particular area for sits that are a good fit for them at a time that is good for them. Almost no one accepts invitations, and some don’t even bother responding.
No- we put it out there and got 5 applications and we decided on this person. we have been in contact they said they would be interested and I sent them an invite - I am waiting for them to accept now and they haven’t and we are going on 3 days now and our vacation is less than weeks away and we have 3 more applicants that are waiting
I see, now that you’ve given us more info it makes a bit more sense. If I were you I’d send a follow up message and if still no response by tomorrow I’d just decline them and wait for more applicants. In future, don’t decline all the others so fast - it’s best to have video calls with multiple people and see who’s the best fit rather than just 1
Sorry I just edited my post - we put listing out there and got 5 applicants pretty quickly and narrowed it down to the person we wanted - we have now “confirmed the sit w them” but they haven’t accepted it and we are going on day 3 now. Our trip is less than 2 weeks away and we re-opened the listing and have 3 people waiting to hear back from me - I am just wondering how long do I wait before I cancel the invite to them and have another person.
I am a sitter not a HO but I think if they have not replied then they may no longer be interested or are holding out for another sit. You could send them another message or phone if you have their number and give them a time limit to reply or you would cancel their invitation. If you have other applications then please keep in touch with them also, they might withdraw their application if they don’t hear from you.
Hope that makes sense.
And in answer to your original question - 3 days is too long to wait. I would think that after 3 hours you should be giving them a nudge. Would recommend that you connect with someone via video call before sending the confirmation next time, think you would get more of a feel how serious they are.
Hi @Argos12 welcome
I would not wait around for them to respond any longer, if they truly wanted the sit, they would have accepted asap.
Look back at the other applicants, get in a convo with them and arrange a face to face chat.
A few sitters will apply for a few sits at the same time. Looks like they are waiting for another sit, which they may think suits them better than yours.
I think 3 days is quite long enough to wait, they would have responded by now, if they had wanted the sit. I would cancel the invitation and move on to your other applicants .
Cut and run. Trust me, while you’re away trying to relax on vacation (or wherever you’re going) you want a sitter who communicates clearly and reliably. Nice that you have three more apps waiting, I’d start talking to them asap.
@Argos12 Be aware that when you choose a particular applicant and officially accept them to Sit for you, all of your other applicants automatically get a message that basically says, “Sorry, you did not get this Sit.”
It is much better to have a chat with your favorite applicant first, make sure that they want to commit to you, and tell them that you are NOW going to officially accept them on the THS platform, and they need to then confirm on their end within the next few hours.
As you approach your other applicants, you need to tell them what is going on, as they might believe they were already declined. Pretty confusing.
This is how I do it as a home owner. When I get applications, I delete the unsuitable once right away (with a message).
For the rest I send a message thanking them for their application and tell that I’ll get back to them in a couple of days.
Then I schedchule a video chat with one of them, usually it happens within a day or two. If we both think it seems like a good match, I confirm them on my end and they do the same. I usually expect them to confirm within 24 hours.
Just a quick explanation, for the sake of clarity: what you did is called “offering the sit”. “Inviting” is more like a cold call to sitters who haven’t expressed interest, or have previously saved your listing but might not be available for the dates you need help with.
