Hi all! Brand new here, expected a struggle to get the first sits and some reviews under our belts, but instead, we are getting invites out of the blue. Two so far, before a single review for our first sit (just ended). Is this standard, or unusual, or somewhere in between? For context, we are in the Seattle area, in winter, so probably people aren’t rushing to apply, but still. Any thoughts?
This happened to us within 24 hours of joining THS we started to receive sit invitations and this has continued on average 1 or 2 a week . Sometimes 3 in one day .
We’ve never been able to accept any of these invitations because the locations or dates didn’t work for us . However , if the sit was attractive, dates worked and they had good reviews from previous sitters we would definitely consider accepting an invitation like this .
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Hi and welcome @FromScratch !
Does your profile say Seattle for location?
And are the invites you are getting also Seattle?
I just a did a Seattle WA US search and it says 279 sits open…
Looks like you may have your choice of sits!
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There are tons of sits in Seattle. The Seattle are is one of the most concentrated areas for sits in the US. There may not be enough sitters wanting to come to the area. Lucky for you, this gives you a chance to do some local sits and get sone reviews under your belt.
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Maybe these invitation come from HOs that are used to paying for sitters. And then they see advertisements from THS that one can get pet sitters for free. And assume that it works in the same way. Just pick someone from the pool of local sitters and send an invitation.
I guess that it may be a bit of an American thing. At least I have not gotten any invitations, not even since I “relocated” to England.
I started getting invites from the start, after joining THS. Similarly on Nomador. And the unsolicited invites have come from Americans, as well as French hosts (which is the concentration on Nomador).
I get multiple unsolicited invitations on the same day sometimes. In my case, I think many hosts like that I’m an older female telecommuter who sits solo.
Having strong reviews helps, but I got unsolicited invitations even before I did a single sit, and I didn’t have any reviews or references at the time.
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I find it comes in waves and is perhaps down to the algorithm. Sometimes I think we must be at the very top of the search list as we’ll get a tonne of invitations, and then we get nothing for weeks or months. I just ignore it to be honest as most invitations are for sits we wouldn’t want to do or dates/places that don’t work for us.
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I joined two years ago and the day after got an invite for what turned out to be our first sit in London (which I now know is an incredibly popular destination for sitters so doubly lucky) and the beginning of a great and enduring friendship. We obviously had no THS reviews but had posted three reviews from neighbours when we had cared for their pets and/or homes in the past. Perhaps we were just lucky and in the right place at the right time but it can work for new sitters as is shown by the positive comments on this thread.
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I joined only 5 months ago and decided to sit fairly locally and for up to a week in order to get some reviews. I’ll be on my 4th sit soon (a repeat sit) with a 2 week one in a different part of England booked for June - I have some saved searches for places on my wish list, and now that I have some reviews I will apply when those come up with dates that I can do.
Right from the start I got invitations for very varied sits but declined them all due to dates, location (one and the same town as me!), pets (too needy, reptiles), amenities. I’m not as fussy as this makes me sound!
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As a HO in a not particularly high-demand area if I’m slow getting suitable sitters I reach out as a deliberate tactic to newbies who may be willing to trade off a less exciting sit against a good first review. If they respond, I’ll make a judgment call based on talking to them.
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Hello
How do the HOs invite you for sits?
As HO, if we see a profile we like, we’re able to contact HS and invite them to private sit dates…a button displays on HS profiles for us.
I rarely get requests but I’m not in a high volume area. Your location and the current supply of open sits can have a huge impact on invites received and applications accepted.
Alternatively, you may just have a very desirable profile put together?
Our hiding location has been compromised. After a year of no invites a few days ago we got an invite for a housesit which was 8680 miles away or 22 hours flight time.
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Did you accept @BunnyCat ? 
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The invite wasn’t personalized and they need a vegan sitter, otherwise we would have been packing our suitcases. 
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@BunnyCat I bet that invite was from New Zealand! 
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I think it’s unusual. I’ve gotten some invites now and then usually out of the blue or sits I applied previously that didn’t happen. Once to London but the timing was all wrong! It might be a glut of new pet parent members who don’t quite know how things work. Or maybe you’re a specialist? Good with big dogs? Horses? Snakes?
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My thought is that there are people that have to take a trip, but have had no applicants. I know we just listed our first and I’m a little nervous since we are under an obligation and must leave for two weeks. If we have no applicants in time, I would send invitations too.
@ziggy Actually our profile is based on a small Antarctic island and the invite was from Vancouver, Canada. We got another one today from West Virginia, US so I think something has changed with the invite algorithm. After a year of not getting any invites we quickly got two. Either homeowners can search in a larger radius or they are ignoring the travel distance of their potential sitters.
@Marion you have access to the HO’s invite functionality. Has anything changed lately? For example can you search for sitters with 50+ reviews anywhere in the world?
I like your other theory too, both invites came from brand new HOs, so most likely they are trying to invite as many sitters as possible, regardless of the distance.
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