It may still be true that it is only a minority of listings that get a bunch of applications. There is often the “Low applications” label on listings of average homes in the agricultural countryside or in industrial cities. But that is of course how most people live.
I now see a listing in a nearby village in the Swedish forests. It would be relaxing in summer for tourists from the continent. Not very attractive in January though, mostly boring. Which is of course the reason that the HO chose this time of the year to take a vacation on the Canary Islands.
It must be even more difficult to attract sitters in the UK or the US where there is a glut of offers.
THS does not scale very well with the size of membership. The limit-of-five was a very crude way to try to deal with the problem. And then it changed the behaviour of applicants: the race of thousands of members to get one of those few slots for the attractive locations.
It wasn’t that much of a mess. That is I didn’t interview four people and go down a list. I interviewed two initially and offered it to one, and then when that didn’t work another. Then another interview etc. There were many applicants who never got interviewed.
Nice experiment! And describes well the problem I and other (experienced) sitters have these days in certain parts of the world - I usually don’t have the luxury of watching and refreshing the site all day every few minutes to be amongst the first 5.
Since the 5 app rule was introduced, the number of sits I’ve done has certainly dropped (even during covid I did more sits) and the amount of effort I’ve had to make to get those sits has increased, including weeks and weeks of refreshing the THS page 10-15 times a day (I know, by far not enough; one needs to refresh every few minutes to stay on top) and not getting anywhere.
I was told that recently by a home owner.
She said all who applied sounded good so she just went the first one to apply. I appreciated her taking the time to type to me.
I guess it is true for at least half of my mobile notifications, even when I click immediately. It is so stupid that the THS system sends these plings.
This evening I was in time for a sit that I had favourited in Groningen. I felt that I needed to be fast and take up one of the five slots. But what I would really like was a repeat sit at the listing in Groningen where I was last summer. So I sent them a message. They don’t know yet where they will travel, but they knew the dates and I was welcome to do this again
So I withdrew with apologies from that other listing. But it had already gone to review status. Within three hours, and it is not a touristic area at all.
