Well said.
Great summing up, your comments will be “passed back to the team”, and, as you say, forgotten about.
The target of a 1,000,000 members seems like something an imaginative accountant (if that isn’t an oxymoron) has come up with. I wonder if THS did any real research in the probability of achieving that.
Doubt it. Probably a random number.
If you were British I might think you were being sarcastic. I don’t think PE investors would do anything randomly. It’s a headline number that carries a lot of weight, emotionally and otherwise.
I said random, because it’s unlikely to be based on any research or such about their actual ability to achieve it.
What you described, about trying to impress, is not based on anything I’d consider legit.
There will always be new sitters arriving to replace those who leave THS. No one is irreplaceable, especially today with the economic crisis; going on vacation and paying for a hotel or Airbnb is very expensive.
The THS pet-sitting model is well-known thanks to word of mouth. With 280,000 members and 15 years of experience, this brand is well-established worldwide.
However, we shouldn’t overlook the new alternatives. It’s a very large market. There are pet-sitting groups on Facebook three times larger than the THS community.
Nomador is an example of a platform that has survived and grown significantly. New platforms also seem promising, based on the work I’ve seen in creating the plateform.
Sure, there are plenty of people who would want to stay without paying. The question is, how many of those people are responsible enough to take good care of pets and homes?
About there always being new sitters: Sounds like more hosts are saying they’re not getting applicants or are getting ones who aren’t a match. That runs counter to the idea that there’s an endless supply of sitters.
Personally, I think it will be interesting to see how things unfold, business wise, even if I don’t renew.
I’m not sure THS will be recognisable if they reach the milestone of 1,000,000 members. Personally, I enjoyed it when it was a little quirky and niche.
The same applies to pet owners.
We have to do our best since we’re rated at the end. I read a lot of reviews, and 99% of them are 5 stars for both parties.
This isn’t a professional platform with selection and recruitment of professionals, so we can’t be too demanding or picky. Sitters are free not to return. Hosts are free not to use the same sitter, which seems to be very common despite the good ratings. There’s a turnover.
Personally, I’ve always received 5 stars, and I’ve sometimes told the hosts I’d be happy to come back, but they haven’t contacted me by private message on THS or on my personal phone number.
Relationships between people are very dependent on the level of expectation and chemistry.
Your answer seems tangential and wouldn’t change over time. Yet hosts saying they’re not getting applicants or mismatches is on the uptick.
As for repeats, some sitters like them; some don’t.
Personally, I get a lot of requests for repeats. The hosts message or text me directly most of the time. But I do only limited ones, because I prefer new experiences, as many sitters do.
We don’t know the breakdown of new members, who are sitters or HOs. If it skews too much towards one group that may affect long term viability and success.
I have a # of saved searches for the UK that I setup solely to monitor how many sits go unfulfilled, right now I see a lot with few applications and many with none. Lots of factors behind this, but whatever the reason it’s not good for business. Once word spreads that HOs couldn’t find suitable sitters that could be very damaging.
New members may be signing up, but the loss of experienced sitters with multiple great reviews will have a disproportionate effect.
@anon52083843 A few weeks back I did a count, one week apart, of how many sits were slated to start the next day. Both times there were about 50 sits listed to start the next day. In both cases, about half were for less than a week.
In some respects I supposed 50 is not many when you consider the number of listings. However, if you are one of those 50, then a host no doubt may question whether their membership is worth it. Of course, we know that some hosts cause their own problems when their listings are poorly created.
I understand the real impact of multiple parameters. I’m not giving a projection, just my ideas. At the moment we don’t know how many experienced sitters already left and how many will leave in the future. The same question for petowners.
We will never know that kind of internal business info. But we can see signs, like more hosts posting that they can’t get suitable sitters or any applicants.
The day the Facebook group with 690,000 members opens its own platform with a competitive subscription to THS, it will be a tidal wave.
There can be many reasons for that besides the fees.
I didn’t say everyone left because of fees.
Yea. I believe FB already allows you to have subscriptions on a “page.” I’m just not sure what it involves or what you get for your fee…probably gated content. But it is a starting point for an idea that could evolve. Im already having thought about how I can connect homeowners and sitters amongst our followers. Not as a commercial prospect. More as a ‘they are a little more than complete strangers’ trust kind of thing.
As a HO, I would never use a random Facebook group. There are no vetted reviews, and no background checks at all. Yes I understand a background check by itself has limitations - but it’s something versus nothing. I will take that. If it doesn’t work, I will get a paid sitter. Not worth it to have sketchy people on my home, no thank you.
Frankly my experience on THS was / is: Initially, before the political turmoil and the site changes, I would put up a listing and get 5 applicants within 24 hours. Of those 5, 3 would be great. And I have a nice suburban home, but I am not oceanfront or luxury by any means.
Recently, I got 3 applicants with 3 days of posting. 2 were terrible, one was great. All of the 3 applicants skewed younger (under 40). The applicant we matched with was mid-30’s (they volunteered that in their profile, I never ask age).
So I think there is some truth to the the theory that more sitters sign up as others walk away. Whether the balance between newer sitters/leaving sitters vs homes available matches up - only THS has that data.
My guess is right now there is an imbalance with the news - and in the US more palpable - but my guess is in 2-3 years that will re-balance. Doesn’t help HO now struggling to find sitters, but eventually more HO leave, then the balance is there again. So, that’s just my random thoughts.