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 Membership Services at support@trustedhousesitters.com
I think if you do those stats specifically focused on the highly desirable sits (location, length, and/or style of home - yes there’s a wide range of what is highly desirable but you can get the gist), you will find your numbers change.
For example - re: international sits, the number may be stable (although I find this hard to believe) but my experience is that the highly desirable ones are closed in minutes. If you looked at those stats specifically, you’d have different numbers.
You also say sits are on the site an average of two days, BUT again, if you look at only the highly desirable sits, those stats would be very different.
Also, can you please address why the 24 hour option cannot be incorporated? or at least try it for a few months and see if you are still able to get most of the results you are looking for, while still keep sitters happy as well?
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@Kelownagurl Thank you for your comment, If you require further information beyond what has been posted please direct your questions and feedback to Membership Services at support@trustedhousesitters.com
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I’m very anxious to hear the outcome of this subject.
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I’m very disappointed and am thinking of leaving THS because of this.
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@AliG I am certainly looking at other platforms/facebook groups etc. If most of the sits I’m interested in, aren’t even available for me to apply to when i wake up, then I have to adapt. Lifes too short to spend it refreshing a screen 24/7.
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@Carla I appreciate this community forum, and I value what each and every THS member has to say. This thread provides an important opportunity for all of us to offer our thoughts. It is, after all, our member fees which finance the operation of THS; I’m confident that Mathew Prior and all the hardworking THS staff recognize this fact, and are interested in hearing from us. THS has become as wonderful as it is because of the collaboration between management and members.
The points that @Kelownagurl makes are fair and reasonable, and she has posted them on this open forum as a way to enable further fruitful discussion between THS management and THS members. Likewise, her question about a 24-hour open option is carefully thought-out, and deserves consideration. I sincerely hope that you and Mr. Prior will encourage a courteous open dialog to continue here. I also hope that all THS members reading this will feel warmly welcomed to comment here, regardless of where they fall on the 5-applicant question. Let’s extend a friendly hand to every member, to feel encouraged to voice their thoughts in the forum!
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Thanks, Betsy, that is a very considered response. I support the idea of adding in a 24-hour option. I don’t see how this would be a problem, and if, as you say, 200 members have expressed dissatisfaction with the current 5-applicant-and-pause rule, then this compromise would be an excellent way of ameliorating those concerns and restoring trust. Why not try it as an experiment and see what happens? It seems to me there is no need for intransigence about the new 5-applicant rule, or treating it as some inviolable principle.
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@Betsy @Carla1 is offline at the moment.
Thank you for your carefully considered comment expressed with kind sentiment, it is greatly appreciated. The purpose of this post was to celebrate our community and share Mathew’s update which all members have received via email and the Newsletter.
Mathew’s makes a point of thanking our community including Forum members in his heartfelt message and highlights major updates and improvements, including news of work on the review system, a hotly debated subject here on the forum. Improvements to Membership Services, mandatory references, amenities and continued improvements to filters.
Surprisingly no reference has been made to even one of these important updates and features throughout this thread, which is quite extraordinary considering the frequency and intensity of conversations surrounding the review system for example.
The Product team have posted two comprehensive and detailed responses to member’s comments including answering frequently asked questions on the 5 application functionality.
This subject has been debated in detail and at length across the forum and we will not be opening up another repetitive discussion which would prove to be of little benefit or value to the wider Forum community.
Should any member feel the need for additional information the Membership Services Team will be more than happy to help … support@trustedhousesitters.com
We absolutely agree and the numerous topics and conversations which happen everyday are proof that the forum is working for all of our members.
May we also remind members that threads are created around specific topics in this case Mathew’s Message, please stay on topic.
@Timshazz - a sit in Athens disappeared before my eyes this morning. There were no applications showing and before I checked I could do the dates and read the listing (5 minutes max) it was no longer showing.
I can only assume that sitters are applying ‘blind’ and that can’t be good for a sitter or homeowner. A waste of everyone’s time and in the interim no-one else can apply.
We can only hope that the homeowner knows they can unpause their listing.
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@Angela_L
I think members will be thrilled when the review system is up and running but I don’t believe a time frame has been given for this?
I will also be really happy when the accessible by public transportation is available on the app 
Members usually discuss whatever changes are currently affecting them and we all know which one that is 
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Hi @Kootenaigirl thank you.
It won’t just be our members who will be thrilled when the improved Review System is up and running but I’m sure everyone can appreciate that it is a major piece of work, there will be relevant progress updates as this moves forward.
Thanks for your reply, Angela. You are always a very considered and thoughtful representative of THS.
But a few thoughts. First of all, this is by no means off topic: Mathew mentioned the survey in his message, but no mention was made of the 5-applicant rule, so it seems on-topic to enquire further.
Second, it is not surprising this applicant rule change is what most of us focus on. Nothing else has caused so much controversy, or impacted us so negatively. Sure, changes to the review system, for example, might be positive, but I don’t care about it in the same way, and I suspect neither do the 200 members Betsy referred to who are unhappy with the new application system.
Third, it is hard to see how the membership team’s responses can be seen as comprehensive and detailed. When flaws with these responses are pointed out (e.g. average time to fill a sit is a meaningless metric; how about we see some hard numerical data instead of a couple of anecdotes?), they are ignored. The responses look to me like motivated reasoning rather than a dispassionate reporting of the state of play. But how can we know? No one will tell us what the data says; and no proper survey of the application change has ever been conducted.
I am sure you find it frustrating that we all seem to return like a dog to a bone to the same issue. But there’s a reason why this is happening, and yet the management seem to pretend everything is fine and objectors are an unreasonable (and ignorable) minority. No one is convinced things are getting better, so far as I can tell. It’s because we care passionately about this platform that we keep badgering you!
And if I may also trade in anecdote for a moment: I have yet to talk to a single owner or sitter who thinks this 5-applicant rule is a positive change, for all the talk of “driving success across the platform”. Owners have told me they are getting worse applicants, weirdly incomplete and obviously rushed applications, and sitters who treat THS like Airbnb, a way to get cheap/free accommodation, rather than the dedicated pet lovers they used to see applying. Many of them still do not know that they can unpause by rejecting poor applications.
And of course we prefer to post here; writing individually to the Membership Services Team is pointless. It has already been said that the new 5 rule will not be changed. Our only hope is to keep resisting in a public forum.
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Hello Matthew,
When will your company become multilingual?
As it is so successful why not make it available to people who don’t speak English, too? Instant high-quality online translations don’t cost much anymore and are easily available. I do them all the time. Adding this one single feature could give all of us much more sitting opportunities in not-English-speaking countries!
I hope you give this some consideration.
Cheers,
Romana
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Thank you so much for your great reply. You said everything I thought but perhaps didn’t express as well!!
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Admin Notice: We’d like to thank everyone who commented and contributed to this conversation, for further information on any membership matter please contact the Membership Services Team on support@trustedhousesitters.com