Yup. (You paying attention, THS management? Hello? Anyone???)
I’m thinking about doing this too, for a weekend local sit. It would be a repeat for me, and just a chance to get out of my crappy neighbourhood. So it wouldn’t be hard to make the suggestion to the hosts, “Hey, do you wanna…?”
For the off-site sits, you could still ask them to write a review for that reference section.
Today, I am following through on my comments above, and elsewhere.
I am starting a sit that would previously have been a THS sit, both myself and the HO were members, she has now left the site due to the fees, my days left, remaining as a member, are numbered.
THS take note, when we say on here that we will leave this site and do sits privately, we are not just bumping our gums, we are deadly serious. We have the power.
This is the first of quite a few sits I have arranged privately, since that fateful day in December, panto season, when this site Shot the Goose that laid the Golden Egg.
Pauses to watch non UK residents reach for Google….
European but non UK, I left THS 3 months ago, joined other platforms, got very good HS for a long stay (5 weeks). No regrets.
Well said @RedLassie . As a long time member of 13 years, I have just organised my first non THS sit, as you said, “we have the power”. Not arrogant at all, 100% true.
Plenty of people sit without THS. To think otherwise is delusional, because if you look at the myriad platforms and groups out there, you see it happening all the time. THS is one avenue, not the only one.
None of us individually matters to any platform or group. But like with all consumer products and services, we can vote with our money individually. That is what many consumers and businesses recognize as power.
Hi everyone,
Just a quick reminder to keep this conversation about the booking fee, as we do have to moderate any off-topic comments.
Thank you 
Jenny
I love this picture! 
I wish I could take the credit. It was taken by a friend I know on a now gone Fuji camer owners photo site.
I’ve just received a reminder for our annual premium, and if I understand correctly we will now also have to pay a £9 booking fee for every confirmed sit. This is for, among other things, behind the scenes services. This is my favourite hobby and we love the site, but this feels a stealth tax! Is it just me??
Yes, you are correct, if you don’t have the premium membership, you will have to pay the fee. But if you book and confirm any sits before your renewal date, even if they will take place after your renewal date, you won’t pay booking fees on those sits. I am about to renew next month, so I am hoping to book out most of my sits before renewals. Of course, sitters have no control over when sits are posted, so it is doubtful that I will accomplish this. I only have one post-renewal sit booked at this point. Most members are not happy with these fees and some have even left as a result. I only sit a few times each year, so it won’t cost me much. It still leaves a negative note.
@Leon This is the second post on this topic. The first was closed by moderators at a point I think where it was past 1,000 entries. This one is now heading for close to 600 entries. Each time I read the heading of this post I feel a sense of irony in that they may have heard our overwhelming negativity towards this change. However, they have no doubt dug in their heels and I doubt have any intention of truly hearing us, or caring too much. Unless, of course, it negatively affects profits. We are numbers on spreadsheets to this company.
Im assuming its just for uk sits. But that’s where I need to be for 6 months of the year, so it should work for us.
I am incensed about these “booking fees”. We commit to about 6+ pet sittings each year but as a result of these booking fees, will be doing fewer from here on out. We will be far more judicious about the sits we commit to. As sitters, we already are PAYING to provide a FREE SERVICE that allows THS to remain in business. Charging us additional fees to book pet sits is ridiculous and extremely petty.
Customers ARE your greatest assets and though I have completed THS surveys and recommended some ideas for hosts to make sitters feel welcome, I never got a response from THS. Was I even heard?
Sadly, I agree that Forum conversations will not change the decisions or minds of corporate, but a mass depletion of available sitters might. I see so many “low applications” I can’t believe hosts looking for sitters would invest in this platform.
I am surprised to see there are still many 2 nights sits ----even some one night ones??----listed. But as you say, all “low applications”.
I would really love to see membership numbers from Before and After Fees. I don’t suppose such information is available to the public? Other things in the world may be changing the number of people travelling but it would still be very interesting to see how things looked in the year 1 B.F. vs. now 
The word “tax” here shows the ways in which as “members” we think we have some kind of agency as people might who live within a system of laws and elections. It’s not a tax becuase generally that’s from a government and requires some kind of decision by people “representing” others. THS is a private company. It’s a fee. It’s a new way to make money because the model of only making money with a membership fee wasn’t showing profit. There is nothing stealth about it.
There were previously no fees outside of annual membership fees. Now there are unless (for now) you pay for the highest membership tier. We really aren’t “members” any more. We are “customers” whether we are hosts, or sitters, or both. However, in terms of our behavior towards each other, we can continue to treat each other with mutual respect as members. Eventually, the membership ethos that caused the site to expand and grow will decay.
