Cases FOR booking fees

Product Updates
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I offer the following in sincere hope that THS is successful over the long haul. I have very much enjoyed our sitters and hope they feel the same. It has been a much better for us than the alternatives.

The rollout of the booking fee was incredibly ham fisted. I think it very unfortunate that THS leadership did not take advantage of this forum and present their case for needing to increase revenues to the community. Generally, I think THS members are appreciative of the THS community and the premise of equitable exchanges and would be very sorry by its demise. They definitely could have handled it better.

Had THS made the case before the announcement, I’m guessing they would have shared information that is already public and made a case to fix the underlying threats to THS. First and foremost, THS is unprofitable. Revenue minus expenses yields a negative result. Running a business in the red is not sustainable over the long term. For now, the backers are covering THS losses but only on the expectation of future profitability. If THS does not generate new revenue, their existence is threatened.

Second, and related, is my suspicion that THS is working to replace their software. Speaking from my own extensive experience with new software products, it is typical that 1st generation software is a combination of demoware and cobbled together chunks jerryrigged together to get something/anything to work. The 2nd and 3rd generation software uses the mistakes and gotchas of 1st generation software to formalize use case requirements on which sturdier and more versatile software gets built. Recognizing that THS expanded from a UK-centric cottage business to a multinational offering with a much larger membership base, the transition from 1st to 2nd to 3rd generation software would be a very difficult effort fraught with existential threats. But I think a rewrite explains the need for 20 software engineers on staff at the end of 2024 (2025 numbers won’t be available until mid-2026).

A reality-based case for booking fees is simply recognizing that no similar on-line product has survived on subscription-only fees (with very rare exceptions I have not been able to find). Some have tried subscription-only pricing and failed miserably. Indeed, virtually every on-line service charges booking fees (check your cost breakdown next time you buy concert, airline, sporting event tickets or book flights, hotels and rental cars).

At the human level, there is a weird but strong tendency that individuals value less what they have not paid for even if what they pay is nominal. Yes we pay subscription fees for participation on the platform but there have been too many recent reports on this forum of sitters or hosts canceling sits without an underlying emergency. I would not be at all surprised if forfeiting a nominal booking fee reduces cavalier cancelations by either party.

Finally, for those who think THS is attempting a money grab, be assured that they are among the most inept money grabbers based on their financials.

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“The Booking Fee will be refunded in full whenever a booking is cancelled, regardless of which party initiates the cancellation.”

https://support.trustedhousesitters.com/hc/en-gb/articles/31909692472989-Booking-Fee-Cancellation-Policy

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Thanks for your well written piece OnThe RoadAgain. I do disagree with you in some areas not because you or I may be wrong but we don’t know the financial situation of THS. Members have been speculating on here that they may be churning through money. We don’t know that also members have said that their financials are in bad shape. Are they just showing it this way to reduce tax, we don’t know.

From reading the forum I agree with you that it appears that more sitters and home owners are cancelling. I don’t think a fee of this size is going to stop most of that. What would reduce it is they had the amount of times a homeowner or sitter has cancelled on their profile. However, there are very legitimate reasons to cancel a sit and trying to determine the genuine ones against the opportunists would be difficult unless they have a history of doing it multiple times.

As you have said THS management is one of the most inept organisation you have come across and I agree with you. I certainly will not be writing favourable reviews for them and I will not be selling their subscriptions to people I know because I don’t trust them.

One thing that does worry me the most is from what you have said THS IT specialists are designing a new platform. Will this new platform be about maximising money for THS backers or will it be a platform members like using. I think most of us know the answer to this from their past performance.

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Cancellations could be tracked. Our second host was somewhat aggressive about being reassured we would actually honour our commitment. He had been let down before. We were definitely naive when we started. We just assumed both sides commit all good. Just like Airbnb have metrics showing how quickly a host responds there could be metrics on cancellation. Sitters could address reason for this in applications as hosts could in their listing. One cancellation perhaps not a big deal, a string of them shows something else. If people knew it was showing on their profile it would influence behaviour.

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As I have stated previously, I am not hopeful that premium level will remain free of booking fees for long

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The financial information is old but publicly available so we do know the situation as of December 2024. I’m sure a lot has changed but not the red tape.

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Yes, the software needs work. There is still some ancient code on Github.

Then Sunscrapers were called in, here is their description of what they found and what they did 2012-2013:

That is still in principle the current software. And I suspect that now again it “has reached its capacity and made the product unstable, difficult to maintain, and almost impossible to scale, both in terms of supporting the growing traffic and adding new features.“

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Thanks for that. It sounds like THS is working on 3rd or 4th gen software. Another piece to the puzzle.

It’s too bad that THS’s current software performance + public financials are not exposure enough for THS to be upfront and forthcoming about where they are and what they’re trying to do. It’s not like their problems haven’t been nearly cliche in the world of startups or that they have serious competitors nipping at their heels trying to leverage their stumbles.

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So basically they been operationally inept for the last few years, with software patches, poor scalability. But it would have made more sense for the VC to come in, repair the platform and introduce increased fees, $20 US per annum initially, then introduce the booking fees as they provided a improved platform. It was the rollout that was tone deaf.

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TH repeatedly states that they are only a matching service. This puts them in the same category as a dating app, not flights or hotels. Tinder does not charge people per hook up/date and that is the equivalent.

On the finance front, they’re running at a loss likely due to servicing the debt that Mayfair slapped on their books. Private equity doesn’t hand out money. They’re not “covering THS losses”.

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I see Airbnb or Turo as a better equivalent.

Maybe. I don’t see any debt servicing in the financials but I admit financial statements aren’t my forte.

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How so?

Airbnb is an accommodation booking site, with a nightly fee for each stay and you don’t pay a membership fee to join. Turo is a car rental booking site, again with a [time-period] fee for the car and again no fee to join. The expectation from all parties is that money will change hands, in one direction from customer to product provider, for the product that is being provided via the third party: accommodation (Airbnb) or a car (Turo).

TH is just a matching service. A mutually beneficial exchange. There is no expectation that money will change hands from one party to the other via the third party (TH). Who would you consider to be the customer on TH, the sitter or the HO? Who would you consider to be providing the product? Both sides are both customer and product provider, because it’s an exchange! It’s not a transaction.

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I’ve genuinely loved using THS for the last several years. What a gorgeously executed website, app, and overall concept. I’ve made friends through housesitting and seen incredible parts of the world. I’ve also met some of the most interesting animals :slight_smile: I told everyone who was interested in travelling about THS – my physician uncle, my siblings, my parents, people I serve at the restaurant I work at, barbers, dentists, tattoo artists, bus drivers, friends…

However, almost every company who is successful at the beginning, draws people in, and builds a large trusting and trusted base, eventually ruins their goodwill by doing exactly what THS is doing – introducing fees on everything. It’s late stage capitalism. I was hoping THS, who presents themselves as so people- and pets-first would be different. Alas, that seems to not be the case. I feel you could have increased the subscription fee a bit instead. But c’est la vie.

I will be telling all these people I spoke to so highly of THS the opposite in the future.

Personally, I’m cancelling my subscription and not using THS again. You built up a ton of trust, but have so very quickly toppled that tower. I’ll be using HousesittersCanada, HousesittersUK, and other sites in the future. Even though their sites are not nearly as nice, they essentially do the same thing and there are no booking fees.

One of your main arguments is that everyone does booking fees… yeah, that’s the problem. That’s late stage capitalism. And simply because something is done everywhere else does not make it a good reason to continue, or start, doing it.

Across every industry the prices go up so those at the top can make more money for the same service (or less of a service and quality in many cases). No one agrees with the astronomical, predatory fees of airbnb nor ticketmaster. Have you read the news lately? Also, let’s check the salaries and bonuses of those at the top of all these industries you quote as having booking fees and maybe then we’ll find the real reason for them.

You also argue “…there have been too many recent reports on this forum of sitters or hosts canceling sits without an underlying emergency.” As @Silversitters pointed out above:

“The Booking Fee will be refunded in full whenever a booking is cancelled, regardless of which party initiates the cancellation.”

https://support.trustedhousesitters.com/hc/en-gb/articles/31909692472989-Booking-Fee-Cancellation-Policy

As well, you say they have shite financials. That should not be on the consumer. That’s on them. I’d have been more than happy with a small increase in subscription fees to help with this. They had built a beautiful community that they probably could have explained this to… but they didn’t.

In short, I hope this reaches the appropriate people – the decision-makers.

You’ve screwed up and it’s not too late to rectify this, but I fear, like every dig-their-heels-in exec, you believe you’re in the right. You’ll say, “Well, everyone has booking fees. We’re just catching up.” No, you’re taking away what made THS so special – a company that seemed like they wouldn’t nickel and dime; a company that branded themselves as, and appeared to really be, for their community. And maybe you believe you’re too big to fail now, but you are, unequivocally, not.

No company is. Your community, which you’ve angered, is your company.

Hopefully I’m wrong.

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I see your point and I agree that what they did was half assed. When I got my notification about the booking fees a sent them an email about my upset at the news as my hubby and I are retired and are 3 year 5 star full timers here in the US and the booking costs would be exorbitant over time - not to mention occasional hotel stays when there’s nothing available. They also didn’t consider this:
“Also, your company heads probably haven’t thought about this aspect - a lot of our sits are repeats bc the pet owners keep asking us back. To avoid booking fees, both sitters and the pet parents could be asked back to sit without going through TH and make that an ongoing thing. You’ll not only lose your booking fees but over time may lose your members as well. Just a thought.”

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Your points are well taken, but in case you aren’t aware, if you do so many sits that the booking costs will be exhorbitant over time, a Premium Membership at roughly 120 euros per year eliminates the booking fee entirely. When this is mentioned, oftentimes members jump in and say “well yeah but THS is going to start charging Premium members a booking fee too1!” To which my response is, base your decision on the facts as they are now, not on what “may happen”. Even if that does happen it would almost definitely be after the next renewal period so a member could choose to opt out without penalty or paying the booking fees if so implemented.

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Yes, i think thay will lose some members, probably the most experienced ones with all the contacts. My membership will jump from £99 to over £200. I don’t want either the insurance, heard too many bad things about that, or the airport lounge passes, and won’t be bullied into upgrading. IF I decide to renew in June, and that’s a big if! Considering other house sitting sites are charging £29, I will only be doing a few long term sits. It’s not about the money for me, it’s the fact we are being treated as cash cows.

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I don’t understand. I read that they need money because their business is in deficit, For their part, they justify the booking fees to make improvements !

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It’s more effective marketing and reflects more favorably to say the booking fee proceeds are for improvements to the platform rather than “we need the money because we’re bleeding”.

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The frog dropped into cool water analogy is coming to mind here……

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I’ve now sent three emails to Trusted telling them of our disappointment in the ethics of their company and how full timers will be more impacted during short stays to avoid hotels in between long stays. I also read from someone in comments here that pet owners who use the service for weekend getaways will also be impacted. They also suggested that I could always upgrade to Premium to avoid the booking fees to which I replied that you’re basically pushing us into having to upgrade. When I asked again why they’re implementing these booking fees they just replied it’s to keep everything running smooth, to provide good ongoing customer service, and make sure sits are confirmed. Exactly what they said the first time so I asked again here’s what I said:

Wow, so your TH reply is just a placating smoke and mirrors game. The fact that you can’t tell us exactly the reasons why you’re implementing a booking fee says a lot. I’ve been to the Community Board and see I’m not the only one who’s upset about this.

Just thought I’d mention a few of our repeat pet owners who also received your email said they’ll continue to use our services outside of Trusted to avoid the booking fee and we will both be looking into and adding pet sitting insurance as well. I have a feeling many members will now also be looking for alternatives.

Really disappointed in the turn your company has made and its downgraded ethics. I thought you were better than that.

Sent from my iPhone

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