I also had a phone call re Ben and team re the calendar. They asked if there was any point in having it and I really don’t think there is considering it’s too cumbersome and not user friendly at all to maintain.
I would support having it, but certainly not the way it is now.
It can be very useful if HOs can see if I am available before inviting me to a sit (or asking me to sit again). It can save time on both sides.
Please give us a decent calendar where dates can be blocked out. Is it too much to ask for when we pay USD200 a year for the membership?
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I have just been invited to two sits in less than two hours!!! When will I be able to cross out my unavailable dates on my calendar!!!???
@MissRien you can’t cross out dates in your calendar. Dates can only be crossed out by the THS system when you have confirmed sits with THS. The default white dates generally mean you are unavailable but as few sitters proactively use the clunky calendar white dates become meaningless.
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This has been the case with me too. Green dates for available makes sense. It would be great for the calendar to have more clarity for sitters and owners. Perhaps a legend, perhaps crossed off dates for all unavailable dates.
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Hello, @Sitandsat I would like to wish you a warm welcome to the community forum and thank you for your contribution to this topic.
I am unable to see your membership with us, if you have a sitters account please feel free to add your THS sitters profile to your forum profile so that you can connect with other members and they can give you helpful feedback and tips.
Here is how to add it:
https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/how-to-add-a-listing-or-profile-link-to-your-forum-profile
You can also add suggestions to this thread:
If you need help with anything please feel free to DM me 
I often turn down 2 or 3 sits a week when owners invite me, mainly because I am often booked up a year ahead and also do things of my own. I like to look at the sits, see how realistic it is to get there. Do I want to see the area, is it a clean tidy house that I would want to live in. What are the reviews like. I keep the calendar up to date but most people don’t look or understand it. Experience has taught me to read the adverts very carefully I have been doing this since 2013!
I do a lot of repeat sits, I don’t go back to anywhere dirty and untidy.
Most of my sits have been really positive and owners have become friends.
The cost of travel has become an issue in my choices and I certainly refused an invitation to Canberra, I live in the UK, with 3 weeks notice over Christmas! I think the cost would have been astronomical at short notice
Admin Notice: Post edited to stay ion topic and adhere to posting guidelines.
It would be really helpful if we could put where we are available, in addition to when. I try and keep my calendar up to date, but without putting location it’s not helpful. For example, I’m doing sits in Colorado in April/May and I have a week open between two sits. I’m very much available on those dates as long as the location is reasonably close to the other sits. But unfortunately, there is no way for me to indicate location for the available dates.
I usually leave my calendar all white since it’s supposed to mean unavailable. I think many homeowners think that the dates without a strike out mean available. I leave my calendar white because I dont really want invitations. The reason is that when I’m not pet sitting with THS I’m staying very busy at home.
I always politely decline with a message to any and all invitations.
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I do think the availability calendar would be easier to understand/read if ALL unavailable dates had a strike out automatically. OR if sitters could strike them out personally.
I completely agree that the current availability calendar setup is cumbersome and not user-friendly. Having to individually click on each date you are available gets tedious fast, especially if you have large blocks of availability.
A much better system would be allowing us to select or highlight the dates we are NOT available. That way you could quickly mark off a vacation or other committed period in just a few clicks.
The current method of clicking day-by-day makes it far too easy to accidentally miss a date or range in your availability. And it’s just inefficient compared to letting us indicate blocked off dates all at once. I’m pretty tech-savvy too, but still find the calendar 2024 a headache!
Hopefully they can update the system to be more intuitive and flexible. Allowing providers to indicate unavailable dates rather than available would make the process smoother for everyone. I can’t be the only one frustrated with the current setup! Would love to see some revisions to make it less of a chore.
Hi @jessencan and a very warm welcome to the Community Forum and thank you for joining in with this thread 
For reference, as a member, you can also add your TrustedHousesitters profile on to your Forum profile by following the attached link, should you wish. This will then enable others to offer you helpful advice and feedback.
If you are unsure how to do this, or if you have any questions at all, do not hesitate to ask, we are all more than happy to help.
Also, remember you can use the spyglass symbol at the top of the page next to the TrustedHousesitters logo and search for any questions that you may have as they have most likely already been answered on here and of course if not then please just ask! 
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Hi where is the availability calendar? I’ve recently joined (Basic level) a calendar would make so much difference, trying to organise the inbox is a nightmare. Very poor user experience so far on this website & the app doesn’t correspond either - where are the favourite labels for example?
@Tallbird The availability calendar is on your profile.
It is very unfortunate programming that there are two profile previews on this system. There is a link that you see yourself and there is one that others see. The calendar is on the latter one.
To get there, you need to navigate to your Dashboard (not to profile - it does not make sense). Scroll down on your dashboard, and there is a link to Preview.
Anyway, the calendar is not really functional.
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Thanks for your reply @pietkuip. Yes I agree the UX is poor on THS. It took me a while to even see the dashboard! The App functionality is different to the website, and there’s a lot of problems with both. I’m a new member, so far navigating the site and app is so clunky, I honestly don’t understand how THS has managed to get members to put up with it for so long.
Also the calendar function would be super helpful in the inbox and favourites sections, it’s so difficult to plan or find anything in those sections. Can’t believe they put the favourites into the same format as the inbox, it’s so confusing.
I’m a bit loathe to pay more money, but does the site improve for premium members? That’s all I can think that they’ve built a new site, but it’s only accessible to higher subscribers?! Otherwise, where exactly is all the money going?? Not into site development by the looks of it.
@Tallbird The company must be enormously profitable. It was sold now for GBP 100 million to Mayfair Equity. That is 500 pounds per member/customer.
The website was written about ten years ago. Now they are afraid to touch it, they cannot even add a legend/key to the availability calendar.
No, all members have access to the same site
Members put up with it because THS have no serious competition
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Also because members get locked in, for example when they want to book sits in the next year of billing they need to have auto-renewal on. Also, experienced sitters have a load of reviews here that they do not want to lose.
For continental Europe, the main competitor is Nomador. And they are become less focused on French-speaking members.
It is fair that if sitters want to book sits for next year then they should ay their membership for next year
It is always a good idea to keep all your reviews somewhere away from the THS site. They are your reviews, you are entitled to do so.
Nomador is very France-focused and can only be called a serious competitor in France,
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