What Made You Withdraw Your Application?

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
1

Just withdrew an application after an awkward video chat with a pet parent. Everything on the listing looked lovely but that chat was the most uncomfortable one I’ve ever had in all my years of housesitting.

I’m now curious about what red flags other sitters have seen that made them change their minds before they booked?

For my conversation:

  1. Pet parent is brand-new to TH, no reviews, didn’t seem at all familiar with how the site worked. Everyone has to start somewhere, but he seemed clueless.

  2. He didn’t seem interested in discussing the cats that I was supposed to have been taking care of. When I asked about them, he gave incomplete answers. Instead, he went to the back porch and showed me the family of raccoons that hang out back there! He feeds them and has named one of them. So instead of taking care of 4 cats (which in itself is a lot for me), it would have been 4 cats, 3 raccoons. He said I wouldn’t have to take care of them, but come on, they’re basically his additional cats who happen to eat trash with their little hands.

  3. I’m pretty well-traveled and have been using TH for years. Pet parent lives in a major US city that I’ve already visited several times, in fact it’s one of my favorite cities. He seemed overly concerned with what I’d be doing there and doubtful that I’d be able to navigate the public transport or walk 25 minutes to a more exciting neighborhood. I guess he was worried his neighborhood wasn’t interesting enough but it felt condescending. I had to reassure him that I can figure out how to get around and entertain myself.

  4. Pet parent hasn’t booked his travel yet (!) but pressured me to commit to either arriving at his home the day before he leaves and staying the night there, or staying in a hotel at my own expense and meeting with him the day before the sit starts. As a solo woman, staying with a strange single man with no reviews on TH? NOPE. I told him that’s not my personal policy. I generally arrive the day of the pet parent’s departure. He said he had spoken to a couple who had offered to stay the night before he left, so he thought it was the norm. I told him it’s their prerogative to do that (also there are TWO of them lol) but every sitter is different. The fact that he gave me pushback on that when he hasn’t even finalized his travel plans was off-putting to say the least.

So yeah… all that plus his general vibe was a no for me. I ended the video chat with a vague “let’s keep in touch” and withdrew my application a few hours later. Such a shame because the cats–well, the two I saw in the video–seemed sweet and the house looked gorgeous in the listing. :frowning: And it was a long sit in a great city.

What red flags have you noticed during the first phone/video chat that made you change your mind?

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2

I pulled out of a sit after videocall once. The hosts were a little vague in their communication, but what made me pull out was that the home seemed cluttered and dusty and from the communication it was pretty clear that that was how it would be at the sit.

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3

Most of my withdrawals have happened within 48 hours of a host not replying.

Red flags for me have otherwise involved hosts giving off bad vibes during video interviews (or even while setting them up, in a few cases) — entitled, making unreasonable demands or thinking the world revolved around them.

But the above pale in comparison with the great hosts and sits I’ve had.

To me, being selective is totally worth it, because the No. 1 dealbreaker for any sit — no matter how good otherwise — is a bad host. That’s because good sits require good partnerships, because plenty of things could go sideways with sitting. And if so, you want to have partners who’ll help problem-solve and show grace. And that works best from both sides.

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4

I would not have actually considered any of that red flags. The racoons sound cute. Throwing out a bit of food for them is not much different to throwing food to ducks in a pond or birds. I have had to fill a few bird feeders when house sitting. And it does sound like he was just to provide indforamation on where to travel and the public transport.
And | actally arrived the night before very recently and stayed overnight with a single man for a house sit. and |I was the first house sitter he had. Perfectly fine and prepared a lovely evening meal. I never dfiscriminate with people I will sit for and 80% of my sits are staying the night before in pet owners home.
I have only withdrawn twice and that was because pet owners had not reponded to messages for several days and I applied for another sit I saw where I did get immediate replies.

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5

We pulled out of one sit where the house looked dirty and cluttered and the host only wanted to talk about if we had enough Spanish to manage her cleaning lady and the another where it was clearly an interview and they were way too micromanaging. Hopefully your new HO will learn the ropes @Alecia #bulletdodged

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6

When we found out that for a 10 day sit the hosts would only be away for 6 days because they had planned an overlap at either end of the sit .

When we found out that the 3 big dogs would need to be driven in our car daily to a suitable place to walk them .

Both times owners , pets and homes were lovely but from the additional information we gleaned from the video call we realised they weren’t good sits for us .

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7

If you weren’t getting a good feeling that is enough to not go ahead with the sit and you don’t need to worry about rationalizing it.

It is really important to go with your feelings. Whether those feelings are always accurate is another matter…after all, if we never go ahead with the sit we won’t know if those vibes were correct. But with the number of opportunities available, I don’t worry about whether I am getting it ‘wrong’ or not for a particular listing.

That he didn’t have set dates at the time you talked would have been an issue for me…I wouldn’t confirm a sit if the dates to which I am agreeing are not firm. As a full-time sitter that often books sits back to back, I usually won’t have a lot of flexibility to accommodate different dates than to which I agreed. I won’t hold off on booking other sits for prolonged periods while waiting on someone to give me their firm plans. If the sit ends up starting later than originally agreed, I would probably end up having to pay for accommodation since it would probably be difficult to find a sit to fill those few days that are now free.

In the 11 years we have been doing this, I can only recall one instance a year or so ago where we didn’t accept a sit after a video call. There were a few things we noticed that I didn’t know if I would like dealing with for a longer-term sit–it was two months.

But we didn’t tell them ‘no’ right away on the call…they didn’t seem to expect us to give an answer right then so we took advantage of that. We then wrote them back shortly after the call letting them know we didn’t think it was quite the right fit.

Our withdrawals are typically a result of not getting a response to our application.

I don’t have any firm deadline of when I will do this, but if more than a couple of days pass without hearing anything, especially if they have read our application relatively quickly, I may withdraw. But in my experience, most hosts tend to reply quickly.

Also, If there is important deal-breaker-type-information I need that isn’t in the listing, I will ask about it in the initial message I sent with my application, and I then may end up withdrawing if the sit doesn’t work for some reason.

For example, in certain areas of the world it may be more common to have cleaning people and other staff employed full or near full-time and based on having done a sit where this was the case early on, I really didn’t like it and it is a deal breaker.

I remember years ago applying for a sit in India that noted a cleaning woman but there was no detail about the frequency. So I inquired about this right away and it turns out she actually had living quarters in the house. That is a definite ‘no’ and we withdrew.

So in our experience, withdrawals tend to happen very early in the process way before we would connect on a call.

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8

The listing had 3 dogs. But they only had 2 dogs. The third dog was their daughter’s who brought it everyday and picked it up everyday while she worked. So the third dog was daycare. And I had to deal with the daughter coming and going. When I declined, they said they could arrange the dog to stay full time while I was there. And I just thought it wouldn’t work. And another, recently, the woman was just not diligent on when the chat was suppose to happen, then she had to get off the phone, then didn’t get back to me.

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9

None of those are red flags to me. In fact, I find feeding the raccoons kinda sweet! And I wouldn’t worry at all about staying overnight with a single man, more than any other type of HO.

I only withdraw an application if the HO doesn’t seem really to want me. i.e They don’t respond within 24 hours. Yes, I know everyone’s busy, but anyone can do what several HOs have and send a quick message “Really like your application and don’t want to lose you - will be back to schedule a [video]- call soon.”
If it’s clear they’re letting my carefully thought-out application, into which I’ve put a lot of time and energy, just sit, in the hope someone better comes along… I’m out.

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10

I can’t recall many, but we once withdrew because one of the dogs (think there were 3) was getting progressively worse dementia for dogs, and would have more and more accidents and moments of disorientation. The sit was still about 3 months down the track, but we just couldn’t face a 3-week sit with such a factor. Luckily they found someone else who seemed to have done a great job, based on their mutual reviews.

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11

I our 3 years of housesitting, we only withdrew once, after a video call with the homeowners. We had applied for a long, rural sit in a South America; two dogs, usage of the car included. They had a few sitters before and had some 5 stars reviews but also not all sitters left feedback . We’d done long sits in rural Panama before and thought this one might be a good fit, especially since we’ve always wanted to explore South America. But during the call we got this weird vibe from the HOs, it felt more like a job interview than a friendly chat. They insisted we use the car only for shopping in nearby village and I had the impression they didn’t really want us to leave the property at all, which was odd given that their listing highlighted lots of historical landmarks and ruins to explore. We are digital nomads and homebodies, we would never leave pets for longer periods of time but we do like to combine petsitting with some exploring. After the call we looked at each other and both said NOPE! This is not a good match! We withdrew the application a minute later with a short message.

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12

I frequently withdraw my application if they either haven’t read it in a timely manner, or, possibly even worse, HAVE read it, but then not replied. That is just rude. My time is valuable. I am nobody’s Puppet on A String.

I once withdrew my interest after meeting a woman and her dog. It was out of control, almost pulled her over. We went a walk together, and on returning to the car park, when she called the dog he just wouldn’t come, and her answer was “We will just go that way”, to where he was.

Also, she expected me to carry cooked Liver Cakes in my pocket for him on the walk. No thanks, smelly. Gross.

I couldn’t foresee any time when he would merit a reward for good behaviour anyway.

Finally, when I said I still had another dog to meet, for similar dates, before I decided she tried to bribe me with payment! No thank you, I cannot be bought. Goes against the rules of this site. If I wanted paying I would be on Rover site.

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13

@Alecia, surprises are bad.

We withdraw from perhaps a quarter of applications following the video call. This is despite significant prior diligence on the listing and location. The primary reason is factual surprises from Pet Parent that become disclosed during the call. Often this relates to listings that simply do not contain information that we seek to assess the attractiveness of our potential experience - e.g. exercise routine of dog(s); pet sleeping location; separation anxiety; pet parent trip details; pet parent trip dates/times. As in many things in life, we learn from experience and as we reflect on housesit attributes that have brought us joy or otherwise. A minor subset of our housesits have included surprises that we wish we had known prior to sit confirmation. There are times when we have withdrawn due to perceived poor human fit, but this is far less common than surprises.

For Pet Parents that become frustrated by low applications or withdrawn applications then we encourage them to review their listings carefully. Complete all sections! Add information that a prospective housesitter may seek. A modest amount of effort upfront by Pet Parents to complete a great listing probably attracts higher number, better quality of housesitter and probably a better application confirmation rate.

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14

Say that louder!! The quality of communication with the host is EVERYTHING and the way they treat you during those beginning stages says a lot. Glad you listened to your gut!

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15

Good call-if you had accepted the sit and left the house as you found it, you might have received a ding in your review.

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16

Okay, the raccoons themselves were not so bad actually, they were cute. I’m glad he mentioned them instead of waiting until I got there, but they definitely should have been mentioned in the listing because it was clear that he wanted me to look out for them too, despite what he said. He barely talked about the cats at all. Some HO’s have a mentality of “oh it’s just cats, just feed them” but there’s more to it than that. When the HO is vague about responsibilities–especially when I ask directly–I’m out.

With regard to transportation, it was more like a job interview. He wasn’t giving friendly advice about the bus system or restaurant or whatever, which I would have gladly accepted. He was almost interrogating me about how I would get around and wondering if I would be able to. (Which shouldn’t really be his concern, as long as I make it back to the house safely?) I told him repeatedly that I’m good, I can figure it out, I’ve already been to his city before. This is another topic that seemed more interesting to him than THE CATS!!

It’s not so much that it’s discriminating against a single man per se. It’s a single man with no reviews, giving off creepy vibes, not answering my questions. Not a situation in which I would want to stay overnight! I have stayed overnight under better circumstances but I don’t prefer it.

Anyway, every sitter/homeowner has different boundaries and things that make them say nope. I’m glad things have gone relatively well for you, although being ghosted is a time-waster too!

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17

@cuttlefish Nope!! Cluttered homes and expecting you to manage staff (beyond just paying them with cash that the PP left) is too much. And the job interview, whew I’ve been there. One couple, who seemed otherwise easygoing, had a list of questions ready and put on their serious interview voices. “Tell us about your most difficult petsitting experience.” lol ok Dodge that bullet!! :raising_hands:

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18

We have pulled put twice, once, when two slobbery dogs were jumping over the (laughing) host all through the call and another when the hosts spent most of the call telling us how bad all their previous sitters had been.

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I am very, very selective in choosing prospective sits and can’t remember ever withdrawing my application due to something happening during the chat or otherwise. So, the only times I withdraw my applications are: 1. when I accept another sit for the same period of time, or 2. when I apply and I don’t hear anything from the host for about 48 hours

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20

Was this recent? He might see this post and I mean since he is new to trusted house sitters let’s give him some grace. They usually don’t know much. Usually first timers can be more wary since they’re new. I’ve actually have done sits for lots of first timers funny enough and they usually don’t know how it works and I will tell them about it and kind of teach them what to expect and how it’s supposed to be a mutual exchange. I always mention to check out the forum + more

So far it’s been good!

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