@Crookie - thanks for the info but really I am thinking should it be this complicated? The minority of members on the forum can see these work rounds but what about the other members struggling in ignorance? What a mess.
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@Twitcher I think we’ve seen from recent ‘improvements’ they don’t really want members to find work arounds. They want those low application listings filled by hook or by crook. But I think the old adage…you can lead a horse to water…etc. applies here.
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Every time that I click on a notification now, I feel like I am being force fed the sits that nobody wants.
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That’s the way the business model goes. They need Owners and Sitters to keep renewing every year. So every Owner needs to be able to find a suitable Sitter and every Sitter needs to find a housesit.
However if Sitters keep taking more than one sit then it reduces the chances of every Sitter getting a sit and then they won’t renew if they wasted their money and couldn’t find anything. So they implement a 5 application limit to reduce the chances of a ‘regular’ sitter getting too many.
Likewise they push the low application sits to encourage you to apply for those as those become all you see and all you can an application in for.
It’s also the reason why there are no sanctions for bad Owners. They need these to drive the process. No sits and it all falls down so owners can fudge the conditions of a sit, make unreasonable demands and cancel sits without recourse.
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Ah well, I have deleted all my Saved searches on the app so that I could make new Saved searches in the web interface (on the map). (As a basic sitter, I am limited to three there.)
I hope the daily email will keep presenting listings with new dates. Otherwise I will delete those searches too.
I cannot really see how this was a smart move from a business-model point of view.
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Hello, Just a quick reminder for anyone who missed it higher up the thread, that the saved searches should show new listings first. There was a small glitch in the release that changed this, tech is working on a fix and I will keep you updated, so it should reverse soon to show the new listings first again. Apologies for any inconvenience that this caused.
@Carla my saved searches are still low applications on top. So not fixed my end.
@pietkuip don’t feel special. We all are.
What @Carla tried to say was, how it should be. That is not what it is now, not yet.
I find it a bit hard to believe that it was an error. @Ben-ProductManager presented this as a “search update”. He said the purpose was to get parity between the web interface and the apps.
And indeed, this has been a known problem on the web interface. When one clicked “View all new sits” in the daily email message, the web page that opened in the browser did not give the new listings first. That is an issue that has been reported in threads on this forum.
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@Carla thanks for clarification of what THS wanted to accomplish with the change. The reasoning and expectation that @Ben-ProductManager provided was contrary to that position. I won’t speculate as to why that information was shared, but I hope you can understand how it resulted in confusion.
What I (and the other users posting here) would prefer is allowing us to set a preference for this display order. Why not give users more power to personalize our experience?
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They don’t even let HOs choose how many applicants they can get so I highly doubt they care too much about giving users any more power to personalize their experience.
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Hello, @weirdholyman Apologies if there has been any confusion as Ben mentioned above the update was to align the app and website search filters:
So the app was made in line with the website options of being able to filter by newest, recommended and distance.
The saved searches should not have changed and there should be a fix for that coming soon. I will update you all further once there is more news likely next week. Thank you 
Thank you for the additional idea, I will make sure that is passed on.
I was avoiding updating the app to avoid the “Low Applications” problem but it was forced overnight and now I’m having the same problem. I hope that this fix, whenever it might come, will save our preferences so we don’t have to choose and re-sort every time I get new result hits. That won’t really be much of an improvement.
The update did not fix the problem with “Anywhere” searches returning zero results on iPhone.
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@Carla The problem with aligning the app with the website is that then both will be opposite to what sitters find useful. 
The overwhelming request from sitters is for new listings to be the default setting. This manipulation of members is escalating and is so frustrating.
Ironically, now when I get a notification on my phone of a new listing for one of my saved searches I go to my laptop as I have that defaulted to new listings (even though TrustedHousesitters would prefer I view recommended - low applications - first).
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@Carla can you please let us know when the fix is done so we can all start looking for sits again? It’s just a time waste until that happens.
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Bang on @Snowbird like lambs to the slaughter
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Thank you for providing an update on this update. I agree with many of the other commenters that this now forces me to scroll through numerous “low applications” listings in order to see the new sits that I was notified about as part of my saved search. May I suggest that the low applications listings might not be low because they are not being found, but because the home owner is not posting good photos, or providing adequate descriptions of the residence, or that they are seeking someone to provide much deeper levels of care for their pets than should be acceptable (there are a lot in this last category, from what I’ve seen). Perhaps, THS should consider educating pet parents on acceptable posting practices - this may help to better match pets with sitters, and reduce the volume of stagnant posts that exist.
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When I search for a sit all places are come up with 'low applications '. What is it and how do I remove it? It seems to be a category in the search for house sits but its on all the ‘looking for a sitter’.
In the app, I think the only way is to scroll down until the label with “low applications” changes color and says “new”. Yes, that can give you fatigue in your thumb.
To avoid repetitive strain injury, it is better to use the laptop. In the web interface, you can change “sort by” from “recommended” to “newest”:
(Is there a way to make that one’s default?)
So @Born-in-June had created a thread with a perfectly clear question in its title, and then it was locked and hidden: How to remove 'low applications' when I search.
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I was scrolling down the listings today trying to get past low applications and I felt like I was on Wheel of Fortune! 
