Yes, there was a box where I entered a brief description of why I cancelled.
I find it concerning that this new policy allows cancellation with just the click of a button. Some of the reasons sound too frivolous and further details should be requested. Otherwise it sounds too simple and easy to abuse the System. I would find it most disconcerting to receive notification from THS that an upcoming sit has been cancelled with no direct communication from the host themselves! Where is the accountability?? And the courtesy? We recently had to cancel a 3 month sit- just one month before the start date- for important medical reasons. We immediately contacted the hosts and explained the situation. They were super supportive and understanding. Two days later they notified us they’d found new sitters so everyone was happy. I would appreciate this personal contact if the roles were reversed and the host needed to cancel. This new ‘click if the button’ takes something away from the personal connection and the feeling of commitment. I agree with @ziggy its a worrying development and probably won’t end well.
I agree. I think the cancellation button should open a message to the other party and the message should be written and sent before the complete cancellation button could be pressed. This would force everyone to a minimum courtesy and would show that THS takes a bit more seriously the “extraordinary circumstances” policy.
@TheEnglishFlaneur Was there any other dialogue between you and the host e.g you offering to cancel the sit because of the sad circumstances and them appreciating that? This would give those of us with concern a better understanding of the process or was there nothing to indicate a message going to the host?
I think I can help with your question. I am a sitter and last week I cancelled a 5 day July sit. I sent the HO a message via both WhatsApp and the THS platform outlining my reason and my regrets before I canceled. My reason was of a personal nature and I see no need to share it here.
The following is the procession of steps:
I hit the ‘Cancel this Sit’ option
Next I picked the most applicable option from the THS list of reasons for canceling.
Next there was a box where I could fill in/write a message that was for THS only and the HO would not see (I simply wrote ‘as per my WhatsApp and THS inbox message’)
Next there was a box where I could fill in/write a message that the HO would see and that would appear in the THS inbox (again I simply wrote ‘as per my WhatsApp and THS inbox message’)
IIRC, I then clicked a ‘Submit’ button (or maybe it was ‘Send’)
The sit was immediately gone from my calendar and the upcoming sits section of my account.
The sit was immediately seen again as an active listing. However, it was well down the list for the area and had a ‘low applications’ tag.
Hope this is helpful.
Thanks @MaggieUU for clarifying the process for us all. Good to see messages can be written for both THS and host. Like you, I would be in touch with hosts before cancelling.
I’m assuming the host will have the same format …. but then again, where it’s THS, maybe I shouldn’t assume 
I like that there is a separate message box for both THS and the host. That way can monitor concerning hosts that sitters may get strong red flags after they confirmed the sit and I like that immediately hosts sits were listed instead of it taking two more days maybe with the old system. So I now see this as a good improvement on THS part.
As an HO I can say that any messages that originate in THS we always get an email notification there there is a message for it and there’s an option to open the message directly through the email.
I will also mention that there’s no consistency as to where the THS emails end up in my Gmail account. Sometimes they’re in my main inbox and sometimes they end up in the Promotions tab. 