A community or a business?

THS News & Feedback
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Mods please feel free to move this to the booking fee thread if you feel it’s not relevant as a seperate post.

I have been mulling over the recent booking fee “initiative” and trying to fully understand the visceral pushback from many THS members.

I understand the pushback, but I see, in many cases that it moved from simple protest, to a corporate lynching and evangelical like furore where virtual street protests were encouraged aka the Trust Pilot review pile on.

I think the major issue here is that THS initially nurtured a culture of “community” to build the platform and grow the business. This would seem a sound strategy when you consider the “mutually beneficial “ nature of the transaction but what it did was establish a false sense of security.

The downside of that sense of security and being part of a community is that people in that community have a sense of ownership so when they feel the corporate weight of capitalism coming in to play as happened with the booking fee they are (understandably) shocked and rebel.

THS was and is a simple productised match making service nothing more, nothing less. I have been trying to think of a decent analogy and the only one I could come up with was if a software company increased the price of its subscription model for a product. In that case it would seem silly if those who paid for the service had a similar reaction to THS members

I may be way off with this theory but I would appreciate your thoughts.

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I think it’s the double dipping and the corporate rubbish about “ providing a smoother experience”. Most of us believe it’s just an extra fee with no benefit on either side or a straight out push to upgrade. Overall it feels disengenous and I think that’s what most people are angry about. Being treated like fools with a bunch of babble that in fact means nothing.

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100% agree. In another post I commented that if THS had framed the fee initially as a “user pay” fee I.e. toll road analogy that the pushback would have been much less. They handled it very badly. .

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Also it might actually work in the reverse for us and I downgrade from standard to basic. I think maybe I chose standard for the vet call line, but now thinking more useful to just liaise with HO’s and their own vet. Push to premium backfiring, reckon those lounge passes useless for me.

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This is a very well put sentiment and I am sure a lot more people feel the same way than it appears on the forum…it is a fraction of the membership and tends to skew towards the negative.

Most people who sit at least on a semi-regular basis probably rely on THS a lot of else they wouldn’t react the way they have–I do think some of the reactions and the desire to ‘ruin’ the company was a bit over the top.

While many are upset about the price changes in principle, I think a lot of people are upset because they operate on very limited funds, and to even upgrade to the premium membership would be very difficult.

To an outsider unfamiliar with the membership fees, the way people complain about the annual cost, they would probably be very surprised to find the fee in question is the equivalent of a night or two in mid-range hotels–depending on the tier– in the countries in which most members live. But with all that being said, I do empathize with people who are in this sort of position as I have been there myself in the past and I am not judging them negatively for their response.

I do think the email could have been put together better–lots of ‘marketing speak’ full of meaningless statements. This did irritate me for sure.

If people are that unhappy, they are free to no longer utilize the service.But I suspect that many will end up continuing on, and they know this, which probably adds to their upset.

Overall, I never like having to pay more for something and I don’t like some of the changes the site has made, but in general I am happy with the service. As a service expands and its base expands, there is often a rethink of how pricing works ,etc… and I know it is frustrating to the people who are already members, especially when they don’t seem to be getting anything in addition along with the added cost.

Like any online space, the forum can become an echo chamber of certain points of view, and while I have no doubt that this isn’t a popular change among the membership as a whole, I doubt the majority are having as visceral reactions as expressed here.

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I am only hope it actually leads to improvements. @Erlend has made some interesting analysis on the other thread regarding financing and also basic web building. All seems to make sense. Maybe if they stopped marketing so heavily and invested in long overdue improvements people would once again feel they are getting value for money. Capitalism and continued growth has its costs and in fact limits. There are surely people on here that the site is not going to work for. They either ask too much or offer too little. Personally I think the recent marketing has attracted a lot of people with the wrong expectations. I too was sucked in to the “free holiday” idea. After first sit I realised not a holiday and taking responsibility for someone’s pets it bigger than I initially gave thought to. However it also gave me the joy of borrowed pets and I will continue to seek that out. Every sit has taught me how to be selective and what my criteria is. I pass by many sits, but I have the good fortune to sit as and when I choose, not to constantly put a roof over my head. The “community” seems to have grown in unexpected and perhaps unwanted ways when I read the expectations on both sides.

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I also was surprised by the visceral reactions but then I realized it was mostly from sitters, and sitters have a different experience than I do as HO. For me, I might travel 3-4 times a year for 2 weeks to 3 months. So for about $200/yr I can continue to use and enjoy this service. Maybe there are improvements in the works? Even if it’s just a money-grab, it’s still a great value to have kind and responsible animal lovers stay in my home.

By comparison, many sitters sit much more often than HO’s travel so $12 x 10-30 sits a year is not nothing. My last sitters are nomadic by choice. They sat for me twice with FOURTEEN sits between ours in April and September. It does seem like a punishment to charge them for being available, willing, awesome sitters.

So on top of the quality of sits diminishing and THS customer service proving to be basically useless I can understand the rage. The cherry on top was the platitudes. I hope a solution is presented because I don’t want to lose more sitters. It’s already becoming hard in the US and my experiences with paid sitters haven’t been nearly as good as THS sitters.

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I was thinking the same for my next renewal. I’m a host with premium and given the insurance is probably useless (as per the updated Terms that shift liabilities away from the platform plus user experiences that were posted) and the lounge passes may prove to be a disappointment, I may as well save the upgrade costs and just pay about 4 booking fees per year. Probably not what THS had in mind.

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To me, this is a clear example of a business model disguised as a community. Little Red Riding Hood comes to mind

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I don’t like that it is called a booking fee. It’s like they are out of touch with the company they are trying to grow. That wording puts a whole different feeling on this mutual exchange. I think it would have been cleaner if they just said, we are moving to a one pay membership fee. With your next renewal both sitters and homeowners will be paying ( insert what was the premium yearly cost is now here.) it is really only about a $150. A year difference. That is one night in a lower budget hotel in the US. Two night sit a year covers the cost of membership. For those that can’t afford to pay all at once maybe they can have the option of being billed twice with auto pay a couple months apart. How is this new implantation for those not premium going to work. Is your credit card now on file and THS takes the booking fee from card on file when both agree to the sit? Or are we notified that we now have to enter our card info once both agree. What if they don’t respond fast enough to this request. Will either the homeowner or sitter move on? I like THS for my 3 or 4 sits a year. I have looked at other sites and they don’t appeal to me. I think a lot of people venting will stay. New people joining won’t know how it was and will accept what they find. Life will eventually just go on and as they say, business as usual.

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I’ve had a combined HO/sitter standard account for four years. My assessment of the premium account is that it just wasn’t worth it. The “insurance” seemed so limited and with so many requirements as to be pointless. The total coverage for a cancelled sit is “only” $1,350, and you have to jump through a lot of hoops to recover that. Personally, I can bear that risk myself. And, I’ve had nothing but excellent experiences as both a home owner and sitter. Since I sit 5-10 times a year, I will maintain my standard membership and just pay the booking fee. Not ideal, but a small additional cost to enable me to afford to travel.

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I’m assuming you’re talking about the sit cancellation “insurance” since that’s the only one that comes with premium? What makes it useless? I’ve yet to see someone say they weren’t paid out except for some people who just missed the basic requirements but expected to be paid out anyway.

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I’ve seen members post about THS not reimbursing them through their insurance and pointing out how THS limits any payout to the amount of a member’s yearly membership and that other restrictions made it more difficult to be reimbursed. It was not clear from such posts which insurance they were referring to other than it’s been difficult if not impossible to get reimbursed for claims and now with more shifting of liability away from THS and onto the members this issue can become even more problematic. I’ll see if I can find some of those posts, I think most were on the unofficial THS Facebook forum.

The post by @Cleeflang is typical of what I’ve read in regard to THS insurance being almost worthless.

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@Shafofo very well stated!

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If you mean the comment just above then this is also typical of what I see - someone complaining that it’s useless but who has never used it. The “hoops” you have to jump through are to notify THS, book some accommodation or a paid sitter or kennel, submit your costs. The worst part is probably chasing for the payment but even that seems to have improved for some.

I have seen some complaints where people were told they weren’t covered but for obvious reasons:
Most common is sit cancelled outside of the 14 days
Multiple sitters who decided to stay somewhere outside of the 20 mile range of the original sit you have to stay in
I think one who was driving their so could just not drive there and therefore ineligible since they would suffer no loss.
One current homeowner who paid there friend to look after the pets and seems a little surprised insurance won’t just hand over money without receipts.
Many, many complaints that are just surprise at what is covered because, shockingly, they didn’t read the details of what it covered.

The accidental damage, home contents etc coverage you get at the standard level is pretty poor (I could use other words to describe it) but it’s essentially gap cover so I wouldn’t expect much. That really is a waste of time. Again there was one failed claim but since they basically refused to claim on their own insurance which clearly excludes them from claiming on the THS one that’s just an own goal.

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I don’t have any experience claiming anything from THS. And most people that share their experience for cancellation coverage do say they get reimbursed. For me, the requirements and the total amount reimbursed just aren’t worth it. As a sitter, the cancellation has to be within one or two weeks of the sit, you have to try and find a sit, and, they’ll only pay for accommodations ( not travel expenses) in A location within 20 miles from the cancelled site. And, the max they’ll pay is $150/days, with a total of $1,500 minus a deductible of $150. I’d rather pay less each year and cover cancellations if they occur.

As a homeowner, I have insurance and THS always requires you fill with that insurance before you claim anything with them.

So, for me, I don’t think premium is worth it.

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@Ray2 You’re probably right, the cancelation insurance may be just fine if properly utilized and the member’s expectations are realistic. I’ve not used the cancellation insurance, I’m just going by what I’ve read which in retrospect was rather foolish given the large amount of misinformation being circulated lately.

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You know, that’s what I recall reading at one point. That THS cancellation insurance won’t kick in until you make a claim through your own insurance which most hosts have anyway, and some hosts were denied THS coverage because of complications related to their homeowners insurance. Or something along those lines.

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No that’s incorrect. The cancellation insurance (not insurance, plan :slightly_smiling_face: ) doesn’t require any other cover. It’s the accidental damage, home contents cover that requires you make a claim on your household insurance.

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Ok, I’m clearly out of my league on the insurance issue. It was a mistake for me to parrot what was said by other members who seemed to be in the loop about it and the potential drawbacks. Can we just pretend I never said anything about how the insurance works?

!eek

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