I have been receiving ALOT of requests for dogs well over my stated weight limit as well as for services that I do not offer. (travel sitting) When I decline an offer that affects my search ranking correct? If so, my question is, how is that even remotely fair that we take a hit because people don't read our profiles and requirements or requests are not screened properly?
Our number of declines does affect our search ranking, but requests like you're talking about, even if they seem really common, generally don't impact our standing. The requests where it's clear that someone hasn't read your profile or looked at your calendar are going to spread themselves out fairly evenly over the sitters in your area. If you're getting them, chances are others in your area are getting them as well, so over time they don't tend to negatively impact any one person more than the others. If you're finding that you are more frequently targeted than others in your area, that might be an indicator that something in your profile is causing confusion to potential clients.
Something I notice quickly about your profile: you mention that you are comfortable handling all sizes and all breeds of dog, but you don't accept large or extra large dogs. For a client reading your profile, they may see part of that if they're skimming or reading many profiles, and assume you'll take any size. Rewording that ("Even though I love dogs of all breeds/sizes, at this time I'm only able to board dogs under 40 lbs..."), or removing mention of larger dogs/breeds completely, may help.
Thank you so much, i will definitely take that suggestion and make that change. Its quite frustrating when people dont fully read your profile. Maybe I am just anal but i read EVERYTHING. LOL
I know what you mean.. I put a ton of time into fine-tuning my profile to make it clear what services we provide and give people a good idea what our home and lifestyle is like, so I hope that my clients will take the time to look through it all carefully before contacting me. But I also understand if you're looking a lot of profiles it can get hard to remember which one said which thing. That said, there are tons of people who don't read them at all, and that gets really frustrating. Just remember it's happening to everyone!
I do love it when I meet someone and they mention something like "I love that picture of Aster's goose impression!" and it's something buried deep down in the pics I've uploaded (seriously, I have tons).. that makes me so happy because I know they were very thorough.
When you decline a request from a potential client. Do they recieve a message telling them their request has been declined