Yep my sitter renewal date is now July 2029… so no decision to be made for me. I’m on Basic.
I understand the booking fee is annoying, but in the end it’s still $12 for a holiday + the sign up fee. Again, it’s frustrating for sure, but it’s still $12. Most people go out and buy a coffee for $5-7 and don’t bat an eye at it.
Am I missing something?
You still have your old reviews on your profile after 1/2 years? When you say rejoin, you mean you can just active your old profile? I thought there’s a time limit
It’s the principle. The booking fee is a blatant money grab. You get absolutely nothing extra for it. When you are on a house sit, you have certain responsibilities, you can’t compare it with a holiday. PS, I hate coffee.
I mean, it is a money grab, but I have noticed there has been new features, regular app updates this year. I mean not everything is a good update, such as the search plus feature, but at the same time I see it having potential in the future.
And of course it’s not a holiday, but there are also other platforms people can sign up to. Such as mindmyhouse, nomador etc. Only reason why everyone is on THS is because there is no other platform that comes close to this one. One of the downsides of not enough meaningful competition. Maybe one day there will be a better alternative, but till then there is premium and others. Sucks, but that is just how it is. Also the marketing spend that THS is doing right now is mental, I see a big portion of the booking fee going towards that for sure.
They need to be spending big on advertising after recent events concerning a THS sitter, absconding with a members car and dog, and a tragic ending for the dog.
I heard about it. It’s very sad, Poor husky (Maverick) wasn’t it?
Yes, absolutely heartbreaking 
It’s not THS’s fault that a marginal individual slipped through the cracks. Maybe they could be more thorough in their member screening process but regardless, the vast majority of people will probably figure that out of 100’s of thousands of members and sits this particular incident is a rarity and it won’t stop getting sitters to cover for them during their holidays.
If anything, this unfortunate situation has probably given THS free advertising and made even more people aware of their services.
I suspect that the growth is a little distorted towards new HOs and not so many new sitters. Hence the # of available sits. If more people are having to return to working in the office rather than working from home, then the pool of potential sitters is going to be smaller.
Yes, I believe that you are missing something that’s fundamental to many sitters. We don’t consider it a free holiday, that’s a very different mindset.
Free BAD advertising.
When they initially launched this they blocked access to accounts until people “agreed” to the new terms. There was of course a major uproar in the forum. Not sure how you missed all of that.
Free holiday wasn’t the best descriptor but close. THS enables travel that’s fundamentally different from holiday travel. Generally, I’d think THS sitters are more travelers than tourists and that isn’t a bad thing.
There are many more things THS could and should do in its policies that would lesson the number of high profile events like the one to which you are referring.
There are system failures at work. In the very sad event that happened, the initial sitter cancelled so the homeowner took a chance on someone else in a hurry.
The homeonwer had come to the forum after the cancellation.
At least one member (me) flagged this, not because I’m prescient, but because I thought THS could step in as I could see the homeowner being taken advantage of because of desperation of his circumstances. They did not.
I don’t know the circumstances around that initial cancellation, but I do know that cancelling is now easier than ever for both sitters and homeowners and this is bound to lead to problems. Maybe that cancellation had to happen, but if it was a choice the sitter made frivolously it helped lead to the other circumstances. So and this is just an example of how policies lead to tragedy, maybe if the sitter new that the cancellation would be tracked by THS or even public on their profile they would not have cancelled. Maybe if the company had intervened because someone in Member Services had seen this, they could have contacted the homeowner and said, "In your circumstances, maybe the best thing would be to find a foster organization that can take your dog during your deployment and then had someone possibly even looked for volunteer homeowners with the THS membership community or help reach out to organizations.
Think of the goodwill and good publicity they would have received!
In ongoing litigation about another high profile incident homeowners felt misled about the sitter’s 'qualifications" by THS. Many have suggested that the “criminal background check” for US sitters which misses a lot gives homeowners a false sense of security when they really should have the opportunity and perhaps be encouraged to do more vetting on their own. That’s policy and that is something that THS could change.
The fact that it is not changing those things makes membership less valuable even balanced against the number of matches offered. This is true for both sitters who may no longer want to be associated with this as well as homeowners who may feel the risk is to high or may be disappointed because of what they were thought it would be versus the reality.
I’m sure plenty of people both sitters and homeowners have signed up because of the ads and ready discount codes. Many of those sitters will never actually get a sit or give up after one or two. Many homeowners who don’t leave in “desirable” locations will have trouble getting sitters and not renew unless they left autorenew on and forgot about it.
I don’t know how to get it to the shareholders but all of this per sit fee, people wondering what good do bg checks do, and the situation with Andrew and Maverick have done a lot of damage to the community.
Sitters have been leaving the site (we’re both h.o & sitters) but they really should reconsider the fees and perhaps regaining trust. I used to be able to fill a sit within days in a super popular location and have noticed a huge shift. Same with the families we have sat for.
lol this thing again…
Well said 
I consider hot regions in the summer, but only if there is a private pool.
@Chayot_Machmad That is how my summer sits are (as in I am a HO). Hot hot hot, and I have a private pool. However, the pool becomes like Bathwater as does the ocean 3 1/2 blocks away. I suppose in the evening you could enjoy it, as getting out when you’re wet Makes it feel nice. Thankfully, I found the exact right sitter for the 3 months of hot summers here, I’m all set for my next one already. Please feel free to favorite my sit if you are interested in the future 
because you never know when I might need a sitter over here when it’s really hot. 