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Translation: we expect our loyal members to pay more to improve the return for our shareholders. We’re going to mention unspecified future investment and cross our fingers that you believe it; however you don’t actually matter enough to be told what the ‘investment’ consists of.
I would prefer the board of directors and senior management to be listening to feedback not the teams on the ground who have had to implement the board’s/senior management’s decision.
THS decision-makers: stop biting the hand that feeds you.
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Agreed. The whole problem with the fee is not about the fee only, it is the spirit and moral of THS is being irrevocably changed.
Living in the contemporary world, most people’s hearts are already burdened with the struggles against greed, profit-driven orientations, financial advantages/being taken advantages etc. For sitters, traveling and caring for a stranger’s pets for free is a path to get away from that mindset of capital-over-people, and feel free, feel generous, feel human, feel the joy of mutual exchange without money.
THS used to be a platform on which a community can find itself based on this simple principle. But what THS has shown the community is that this platform has become yet another profit-hoarder that has only an eye for the money and has no heart.
Previously, clicking confirmation for a sit was a joy for meeting a new friend. Now this meeting and this joy is turning into just another transaction.
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To be clear, it’s not just the booking fees themselves that are the issue.
It is the way it was done- coincidentally after the black Friday membership sale, without warning, by individual email. There was no option to upgrade before the elements of the membership level were changed.
Personally, having never needed the additional features of premium, I was happy with my standard membership. If you warned if the change ahead, I likely would have upgraded. And the members would not have felt ignored or cheated. But the way it was done cannot be waved away. It was clearly underhanded.
Further, with a company worth over 100M and run by an investment firm with a platform that already has not made improvements to support the feedback we have made over the past several years, dropping this on us instead of making even slight improvements first and then raising the cost, or adding cancelation fees… it’s just too obvious that we have become just numbers to the company.
The claim that we are a community of animal lovers is true. But that’s not because of THS. It’s because that’s what WE are. And I love us for that.
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To be clear here, TH is not worth 100M. That’s just what the private equity firm valued it at and that valuation is based, in part, on future profit that it thought it could squeeze out if it before selling it, which it has now partially done by increasing fees.
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If I were your communications crises advisor, I might suggest that Mathew Prior needs to address his customers directly. This is no longer a community. That has been a facade for years.
The moderators have done a fine job, but there needs to be a response and justification from those who made these decisions. What were they thinking? I understand this will mostly be prepared PR talking points, but hiding behind a forum with the protection of admins/moderators screams of cowardice in a crises.
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I hope THS have noted that the views on the ‘Other House Sit Sites’ have reached over 4,500 so far!
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My reality is I’ve lost faith in THS… the trust just evaporated….
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Hi Jenny,
I’m sorry you had to leave the statement.
I see the reasons why members feel legitimately betrayed. This wasn’t just a fee grab, it was a change from the site’s origins and even its advertising promising “unlimited” for a one fee.
The rollout was a mess.
It’s clear that the site needs major updates and work, but I think it’s insulting to all members when a company recieves an enormous influx of cash that instead of using that cash to improve services to members, the first thing that happens is a focus on bringing in more revenue.
It’s not clear to me that the company has any visiion beyond get more revenue quickly.
I absolutely agree that the community is the strength, but I’ve seen extreme divisivenss – not all of it here but on fourms and social media where there is discussion fo which members should be charged fees and the sentiment that some members should pay the fees for others. I would have thought with all the capital put into the company, they could have come up with a better plan for raising revenue that wouldn’t cause such an uproar. Suddenly offering a little more of a rationale for why fee needed to be raised is too little too late especially after previous muddle headed AI-speak explanations of “smooth experience” or whatever.
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Did AI write this? It sure sounds like it. Boooo.
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I’ll say this, I’ll pay for my wonderful sitters fees. But I suspect my Wonderful sitters won’t stick around. I’ve said for years, love the sitters, hate the app. Now add not keen on any of it. Sitters tell us where you’re going and I’ll follow you there.
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It’s definitely got a marketing spiel template feel to it.
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Trust pilot rating down to 3.7 now. Ouch.
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Seems to be working ok? there’s about 26 pages now of negative reviews.
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Agreed. They certainly need better writers. My former job was to try to brutally edit the corporate gobblygook created by attorneys and spin doctors to make it less offensive to people like us - customers. This is a big fail and very inauthentic. It could have sufficed in 1998, but not now. I would have suggested starting over. Writing by committee always ends with a disjointed mishmash word salad with little meaning. This was poorly conceived and executed during a dumpster fire. Think of your audience, not yourself. I don’t really want to help as we are leaving, but with all their deep pockets, they need to call Michael Sitrick.
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Just been contacted by Trustpilot for my full name, telephone number and membership number.
No problem, knock yourself out. I am/was a genuine member.
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They’re also copying and pasting ChatGTP cookie cutter replies to everyone
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Didn’t expect anything else.
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