“analysed the Conclusion of Pausing”
How was this done when the topic was closed to further comments. As far as who comments, you could say the the same for the forum overall. Some people contribute and some never do. I just cant imagine a sitter saying , yes, I like the 5 limit pause, I like not being able to apply to desired sits.
I would be happy to be proved wrong. If THS wants to say that the 5 rule is profitable fine, but don’t say it’s liked by sitters without showing numbers . Those of us that say something are made out to be complainers and bullies and in the minority. Just because other forum members don’t speak up doesn’t mean they like it. Most THS members are not part of the forum. Many people are not comfortable commenting on a public platform. THS sends out surveys but Ive never received one asking solely about 5 pause rule. The survey discussed here is under 90% satisfaction rating. So what are members unhappy with?
I understand the 5 application limit was not covered specifically in the survey.
The testing and roll out came in under the radar and a communication wasn’t sent to all members so I would say that members who are not on the forum won’t even know about the major chance to their membership.
Surely it still makes nonsense of the ‘data’ as forum users are only a minority of the total membership.
Mathew.
Your sitters are also the heart of Trusted Housesitters. Without us there is NO THS. While asking homeowners is of course valuable, asking and PAYING ATTENTION to your sitters opinions about this is possibly even more important.
The overall opinion expressed by sitters here is overwhelming negative. While paying a full annual fee we are being DENIED ACCESS to all sits. The 5 listings is horrible for us. We are excluded by time zones. I keep hearing why should we pay for sits we cannot even apply for?
i have done more that 2 hundred sits since joining. I cherish each and every one. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to even APPLY to sits.
Please do not ignore the overwhelming feedback from your sitters. This is NOT working for us. Many are leaving. I have asked many of my past and current homeowners and without fail they also HATE it.
PLEASE reconsider this. Thank you.
peach
Hi Peach, Hear, hear! It is really hard to know what to do here. So many times we have made these arguments - the people that run THS just do not listen. Occasionally we get rather unconvincing arguments about how great everything is, or the assertion that a vocal minority are against the 5 applicant system. None of this is convincing. In our own case, we cannot secure a sit in Europe from Australia in a desirable European city - it is just not possible unless we stay up all night and check the sits every 5 minutes. At the moment, I am in Europe looking for a sit in Spain in June - again, it is virtually impossible unless I check every couple of minutes (at least I don’t have to do this at 3am). So what do we do? Is our only option to leave THS? That would be a sad outcome. What I do know is this: we pay for a membership, but we cannot see or apply for sits that we want to do.
Imagine we paid for a gym membership, but we were told 'limited slots at the gym will be available occasionally, and only a few of you can apply for them. Oh, and by the way, you’ll have to stay up all night looking at the website, because they will only come up at 3am and will be gone within 2 minutes. But don’t worry, the gym isn’t empty! Everything’s great!"
It’s not a perfect analogy, but that’s how it feels to me.
It’s the gym business model. It doesn’t matter if the people paying the gym membership use the gym just that they pay. The more people you get who don’t use the gym the better as it then isn’t crowded.
@Angela_L, your statistics are misleading. I also analyzed the Conclusion of Pausing thread, taking several hours to do so. What I found was that if you remove all moderation and staff posts, and if you count ONLY ONE post per member, so that all the back and forth conversation is discounted, over 200 individual members expressed dissatisfaction with the 5-applicant rule. This is a substantial number of members, and THS continues to discount our views.
THS has no way of knowing whether members in general are happy with the 5-pause policy. They have not surveyed members about this policy. If they really wanted to understand how all members feel about the policy, they would design a survey which first explains the policy (some members, particularly homeowners, may not even know about it), and then asks very specific questions about the policy and members experiences with it. I say this as a researcher with expertise in data analysis and survey design. I analyze data for a living. The survey we were sent was extremely general and was not well designed to obtain in-depth data.
I think it’s unfortunate that THS does not want to obtain feedback from members on this policy. It has significantly changed the member experience on both sides (sitters and owners). From a business perspective, I would think a change of this magnitude is something that would be closely monitored to understand any unintended consequences that may impact member satisfaction. THS may not see the effects right away, but I think in the long run a lot of great sitters will leave.
It’s very unclear what the benefits of this policy were supposed to be. It definitely does not benefit sitters in any way, and it is also very limiting for homeowners. I personally think all sits should be open a minimum of 24 hours to enable sitters to apply and to be able to craft a quality application without rushing.
Systaran is absolutely right. And I would add a second voice of expertise. I am a retired professor of sociology, with an expertise in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. The survey you sent out was, to put it kindly, amateur, and it would not be possible to draw any conclusions about the 5 applicant rule from this instrument.
I agree, surely this should be down to owners to set their own limits instead, if they wish to impose limits that is? They could be given options, such as a limit set at ten, or twenty or just unlimited applications.
Thank you for all of your comments. We love having such a passionate community and understand any changes to the platform will bring up questions. Therefore we have provided the answers to the frequently asked questions, please see these at the bottom of this post.
We read each post and your interpretations of the data from your personal experiences provide further insight, which we are grateful for. However, we want to reassure you that we are working from a full spectrum of data points captured across the platform and the full membership base.
We launched pausing 
initiative over 6 months ago and this was a big change to the platform it meant that we removed oversubscribed sits from the platform, meaning that sitters were in a smaller pool of applicants and the owners are more likely to engage in the applications. It also means owners are not overwhelmed with applications.
To address some of the questions:
Q. Its harder to get an international Sit (time zone make it harder to secure a Sit) 
International sits (Sitter securing a Sit abroad) are stable and are consistent as this time last year. It matches the same levels compared to this time last year in relation to the growth in the platform.
Q. Now fewer opportunities on the platform
We actually have more opportunities, however, we now have a quicker turnover of Sits. Long gone are the oversubscribed Sits.
Q. Sits go within hours. 
Yes sits are not on the site for as long as they used to be, as we now pause sits after 5 applications. Currently the average is 2 days 11 hours a listing is live for. This is a slightly shorter timeframe where a listing used to be on average live for 3 days 4 hours.
Q. Pausing has caused more cancellations to occur because of rushed applications.
If we look at data before and after pausing, we compare data from this time last year owners are cancelling fewer Sits. This includes sits cancelled by sitters as the owner take the action to cancel the sit via their dashboard.
Q. Pausing has impacted the On-Sit experience
We have an on-sit survey which is triggered after a Sit on the Pet parent and Pet Sitter with questions on the overall sit experience, the communication, pets care/ pet responsibility and cleanliness. This has not changed across pre and post-pausing functionality with 90% + extremely satisfied. We continuously strive to improve satisfaction throughout our community.
Q. Can Owners unpause?
Yes, Owners can unpause the listing after declining a Sitter. The owner feedback has been positive in terms of reminders to respond to Sitters and not being overwhelmed by applicants
Q. Is Pausing staying?
Yes, pausing is here to stay. We understand that this is a change for some members, but it drives success across the platform and has made it possible for even more Pets to be looked after.
TrustedHousesitters is constantly evolving, and member feedback has already influenced many innovative changes. We are seeing increased member success across the community resulting in even more pets being kept safe and happy at home. 50 thousand so far this year with over another 400,000 already confirmed for 2023,
Thanks everyone for your comments, this subject has been discussed in depth across the forum. If you require further information beyond what has been posted, please direct your questions and feedback to our Membership Services Team at support@trustedhousesitters.com.
The fact is that sits in very desirable locations close within minutes. I just watched one in Europe that was posted today. It closed within 10 minutes. So, the vast majority of sitters are completely locked out from applying. The averages really aren’t that meaningful in this scenario. You are completely discounting the actual experiences that sitters are dealing with and essentially telling us that we don’t matter.
Could you post a copy of the post sit survey as I don’t recall ever seeing one in over 50 sits. I have never been asked to rate a sit on cleanliness , pet care, communication etc.
I provide a review where I award a star rating and comments on the overall sit.
I’ve never received this post sit survey either.
@Expat6 & @systaran regarding the post-sit survey question, please reach out to the Membership Services Team at support@trustedhousesitters.com and they can assist you further. Thank you
Carla,
Thank you for your response but rather than taking this off line I would like to see the survey published here on this forum.
We are being told this survey was used to determine how satisfied owners and sitters were when the 5 application pause was instigated. The statement being no change in satisfaction.
I am interested in how many sitters/homeowners received a survey.
@Betsy well done! The only way we can fight this awful rule is by being rational , factual and exposing the the vague ‘everyone loves it but you few moaners’ with actual data.
Thanks everyone for your comments, this subject has been discussed in depth across the forum. If you require further information beyond what has been posted, please direct your questions and feedback to our Membership Services Team at support@trustedhousesitters.com
What is disappointing is its the faithful members who’ve stuck with, supported and recommended THS for many years who’ve lost the most with this new rule.