I wonder if there is anyone who has NOT been offered it when their membership lapses. All cases I have heard have been when the membership lapses, not before that.
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@anon42303101 You could cancel your debit card and tell your bank it was stolen 
THS won’t be able to take your money if your old card no longer works.
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I took Premium on Black Friday. It applied for the rest of my membership and was costing me less than $40 and was worth it. Then THS came out with their new fee (right after Black Friday). So I’m not affected by the extra fee but I am opposed to it and decided to cancel automatic renewal. I was offered 20% (on Premium) and took it (I let you down 
). I have only one sit under my belt at this time (relatively new member).
@Solela I doubt that is the case and we have no evidence of this. It’s more likely that THS are trying to keep members they have after introducing the unwelcome booking fees.
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Thanks Ziggy, I have emailed the HO
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I have cancelled my Auto-Renewal as I will definitely not be renewing my membership next year. This is in protest following the recent introduction of the ‘Booking Fee’. I was never made aware of this charge being introduced and only found out when I accepted a sit invitation yesterday!
I will honour this sit as I don’t want to let down the owner, but thereafter I will be boycotting TH, unless they withdraw this underhand and unnecessary fee.
I already pay £131 per annum for the privilege - and it is a privilege - of looking after owners’ dogs. However, TH has seriously abused that privilege. If I were to do more than one sit per month, that would more than double my annual fee, and I refuse to be pressured into ‘upgrading’ to Premium membership, for dubious ‘benefits’ that I do not need.
I do not accept the copy and paste, meaningless and patronising Corporate PR non-statement posted by TH. In my opinion, this is just another example of blatant profiteering and sheer greed by money-grabbing Private Equity parasites!
If the hundreds of negative comments on this Forum are anything to go by, this disgraceful policy decision will backfire badly on TH, when previously loyal members leave in their droves.
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Unfortunately I don’t think so.
Too often people have threatened to leave THS because of various factors like the implementation of the 5 applications rule and overlapping sits not being allowed anymore and nothing significant happened so THS is quite confident that this also won’t have a major impact.
Even if some people leave, it won’t be enough to make a difference. I also would leave and move on to another platform, but there’s not one comparable and big enough to ensure that I find adequate sitters…yet.
I don’t know why people are still waiting to join the 3 new platforms. Of course they can’t grow if nobody joins. And especially Global petsitters is free for the first year after joining. There’s nothing to lose and one can easily screenshot reviews and they copy them automatically to your profile. So go for it, because writing here doesn’t change anything, joining another platform does!
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Did I miss something on this thread? You mention 3 new platforms (including global pet sitter) but this is the first time I see one mentioned. What are the other two? I took a quick look at Global and it seems very interesting. BTW… this discussion continues a lot and yet every time I look at it, I get the following:
“This topic has been solved. Only reply here if: You have additional detail. The solution doesn’t work for you. If you have an unrelated issue, please start a new topic instead.”
^That last thing is an automatic thing. Once the OP chooses an answer to be “solves this”, that is shown every time when there is a new response being written (to me as well, now that I am writing this).
There’s a thread about this. These are the new sites:
Global petsitter
The Guardians Tribe
World sitters
It’s more like a couple of thousands. The original thread closed at nearly 1200 (with over 200 deleted) and there are a lot of posts regarding booking fees on other threads.
I simply ignore it 
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you must be my long lost twin as these are my sentiments exactly. Only difference, the sits I have already booked after my renewal date have been cancelled on site, and will go ahead privately. This suits the pet owners and myself.
you seem to assume that sitters NEED a platform, any platform. Wrong. I am currently on my 56th THS sit, I have also done 3 privately for friends, so with 59 sits under my belt, names and numbers of pet owners on phones for repeat sits, them recommending ME to their own friends and neighbours, I no longer require a money grabbling middle man.
Thanks THS for being an “introduction agency”, anything different, I am simply not interested.
(Edited in line with the Community Rules)
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Oh, so very sorry to have assumed that sitters might need a platform! How do you know that I am only talking about sitters? Reading my posts you might have noticed that I am not a sitter but a host.
Btw, why are you still here if you don’t need any platform?
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I am still here because my membership has not yet expired.
FYI, this forum doesn’t require THS membership. And when I mentioned previously that I was going to let my THS sitter membership expire, the forum’s moderation leadership actually encouraged me to stay in the forum and keep contributing. (That was done via direct messaging.)
In the case of sitters like @RedLassie, others and me, we can – if we choose to – continue to share experiences and perspectives, especially since some of us will continue to sit, even if not necessarily via any platform. That’s easy enough to do if anyone has done enough successful sits and been invited back by appreciative hosts (and/or have been referred by them to family or friends), regardless of THS memberships or not.
Going without a platform is much easier for part-time or occasional sitters, because we don’t need to fill dates like full-time sitters try to do.
Theoretically, a host could also have sitters without using a platform, if they’ve had successful sits and have built relationships with sitters who are open to repeating even without any membership.
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Thanks for that top tip, RedLassie! Now why didn’t I think of that? I’m on it!
I had also drafted a template decline response to any future invitations, informing owners of my decision to boycott TH, and inviting them to complain to TH about the Booking Fee if they agree with me. I will now add your suggestion to arrange the sit ‘offline’. Thanks!
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I am sure all of this is true, but then I also ask myself why there are still thousands of people using THS every day if getting sits without a platform is so easy? It can’t be about the, nearly none existing, benefits from THS.
If THS were so unnecessary why are a lot of people so critical about new sites? You don’t need to criticize anything you don’t have to use.
All I said initially is, that people will just move on and only a, for THS irrelevant, number of members will not renew. I actually even predict an increase of numbers, because as long as members don’t have to renew their annual subscription they won’t leave. Additionally, they will refer their personal code to others to make sure the renewal date moves further away and they don’t care that new members will have to pay the booking fees. If everyone were so fed up with THS the new sites, especially those who offer free membership for a certain time, would be flooded, but funnily, this isn’t happening.
This is a straw man. Many of us got established via THS, so no one is saying there was/is no value.
Simply, THS is evolving in ways many folks don’t like, but THS got started early enough and built enough momentum and scale that it’s now significantly harder for competitors to gain ground against them. That’s a common business concept called “first mover advantage.” And that’s why many folks are stuck with THS despite its compounding missteps.
As for people quitting, it’s happening in staggered fashion, since everyone’s membership expires at a different time. And yes, it’s unknown how many will actually quit. Plus, in membership businesses like THS, the value of a company can be damaged even if people stick, but cancel auto-renewal, because investors like predictability in revenue and will pay more for it. Of course, THS is privately held, so churn rate and valuation are elements that are generally opaque to outsiders.
Personally, I’m glad I got value from THS before it evolved in significant ways I dislike. Because sitting has been icing for me (and I imagine some others), it’s easier for me/us to quit/let membership expire. Some folks — especially full-time sitters — will stick, including some who hold their nose and will complain, because their THS experience is declining/has declined. All that’s common behavior.
To underscore: It’s never a binary situation when competition is weak in a business space. People can get value and have gripes, some enough to leave, some not. If competition were strong, people would just quickly quit in large numbers, because they’d have real choice. That’s not the case here.
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