Hi everyone, I am a standard tier up for renewal. Thinking I might drop back to basic. The one difference in wondering about is the “unlimited notification of saved searches” which apparently is not available to basic. I’m doubtful the insurance and 24 hour hot lines are of any real advantage. Thoughts and experiences?
I have been on the basic tier for quite some time. But as a full-time sitter I will be upgrading to the premium obviously, because of the fees.
You can save up to three searches at a time. This is sufficient for me. The saved search function, in theory, would be great for popular areas, but in reality, this is where it is the least useful given they are not in real time.
For me, they are about just being able to more quickly see sits for particular areas and time frames in which I am interested, and this usually isn’t more than a few different combos of dates and locations. I often don’t even set a notification for them.
It’s not unlimited. Apparently, it’s only 50 in reality. There is an old thread somewhere where someone hit the cap, if it hasn’t been archived. And I think you get 10 on the app for basic, 3 on desktop.
I am also wondering about my alerts for favourite sits, because that’s mostly what I use. No mention of that in the description. I’m not expecting to sit a lot in the next year, so being extremely picky with my applications.
@Cathie since upgrading to premium, I find saving searches and favourites so much better. Didn’t know I needed it until I had it 
FYI, recently I let my membership lapse, a week later I got a 20% discount offer, didn’t take it. Another week later I got a premium for basic price offer which of course I took. So maybe good idea to wait in the hope you get the same offer. Nothing to lose apart from a few weeks without membership which you can renew when you want to anyway.
@ziggy, when you let membership lapse then presumably you had no future committed sits? It is our understanding - perhaps wrong - that when a member lets membership lapse then future confirmed sits become cancelled.
@KC1102, in case helpful - we find Saved Search function to be very effective. Provided that a) we respond rapidly to attractive listings, b) we are in similar time zone to listing. We find that finding housesits from distant time zones is much more tricky, especially when listing time zone is popular geography (e.g. applying for Schengen listings from Canada). No idea if the search function works differently across membership tiers (as full-time international sitters, we chose premium). Happy hunting
@GotYourBack I had cancelled both my sits as I wasn’t traveling so you are correct. If I had existing bookings, I couldn’t have changed my membership tier. So when I had no future bookings, I let my membership lapse as I wasn’t traveling again for a while. But me being me, of course that changed
Thanks @ziggy , membership due next month, one future sit booked, so I would have to cancel that if I wanted to try the discount game. I can’t see I’m going to sit enough to warrant premium to be honest, unless it made me look more “premium” to premium hosts 
@ziggy did you cancel auto renew when you let your membership lapse?
When you rejoined were your profile, references and reviews all still there?
@Sarah22 yes I cancelled my auto renew for sure. @Nofurbabies everything was still there on renewal, I’ve cancelled before for a lengthy time and everything still there. You don’t lose anything
Do you know whether canceling auto-renewal versus simply letting the membership lapse makes any difference in terms of renewal offers down the line?
I would like to know this. I (on stardard membership) cancelled auto renew and was offered 20% discount to stay but still cancelled on principal against fees. I am torn between going on basic or premium but would need big discount or leaving THS and just sitting for regulars 
@august from my assumption and knowledge from past experience, once your membership is due you will start to receive notifications it’s about to expire. Then if you just let it expire/lapse, you should start to receive offers, from my personal experience. If you have no future bookings and cancel auto renewal, you will still receive those same notifications that your membership is about to expire. If you then just let it expire, no doubt you would probably receive the same offers. Again, these are just circumstances from my own personal experience and as the offers are generated outside of the human support team, they can’t guarantee you will receive the offers. (that was told to me by the support team). Maybe I was lucky or maybe everyone receives the offers, I couldn’t definitively answer that sorry as I don’t know if there is a criteria for being offered the discount or upgrade. Pretty sure 15/20% or close to is probable though. Not sure about the upgrade offer.
@Sarah22 for me the difference between the basic and premium upgrade was so minor it was a no brainer for me to do it as I am sitting throughout the UK and Europe again now for at least 4-6 months full-time.
Thank you for taking time to reply