No need for exercises or averages. The information is available on UK’s Companies House as public reports to the UK government.
The sentiment that a big-sounding gross revenue number equals high clover is to me a real head scratcher. Amazon had US$1/2 TRILLION in gross revenues in 2022 but lost $2.7 billion on the year. Doesn’t seem like high clover to me.
I do not care a single nit about THS’s financials or P&L statements.
Frankly, that’s none of my business. I do care about the service they have been providing and whether it continues.
THS as a service is very high value to me as a host. The same is probably true for most of the sitters we have arranged through THS. The cost for what is high value to me is surprisingly low. It’ll take quite a few price increases before I’m close to questioning the value against the cost. Until then, there’s no contest.
Many of the current THS bashers on TP and here agree that THS is high value. Review even a few and note how many start out lauding their THS experience before calling for burning down the house.
If it were as easy as so many people think to build and run an operation like THS, then more companies would be doing it well. Or maybe some of you could easily start a competitor business.
What it boils down to, is whether or not you approve of how they’re running things, there aren’t any strong competitors. If there were, many folks would’ve already left and wouldn’t be so upset. That’s one of the barometers for companies — if people stick around to complain a lot, it’s because they’re really into your products or services. Otherwise, they’d just maybe flip you the bird and move on quickly.
And really, no business has to justify their costs, profits (or lack of them). They can raise prices as much the market will bear, which is higher when competition is weak or nonexistent.
The question is how much do users value the product or services, not how much they cost to produce.
@OnTheRoadAgain@Maggie8K I respect your opinions which we are all entitled to. That’s what the Forum is about. I love THS, I just don’t agree with the booking fee. I’ll leave it at that
On the THS careers page they state the goal is to get to 1 million members.
Our goal? To grow to 1 million members and make TrustedHousesitters the world’s most-loved travel solution for pet people. At the moment, a sit starts every two minutes somewhere on the planet. We want that to be every single minute and we know the only way we’ll get there is with the right people in the right roles.
That’s the issue, one fee is one thing in the short term, what if they get the idea to start charging a fee for everything PLUS the memberships (yes, even premium.)?
It’s like noticing a rain drop here in Florida. First it’s one raindrop, five minutes after, it’s a whole deluge.
Well, there are limits, like antitrust law. THS is one of those companies that started two decades ago when the internet was young. They grew and became dominant in their markets. For THS that is the English-speaking world. Users get also locked in because they have their reviews there. That is why Mayfair valued them at over 100 million GBP. It is now very difficult to start a seriously competing company in the segment of the market where THS is dominant.
I saw an interview yesterday with Jitse Groen, a Dutch guy who started a food delivery service in 2000 from his student room. Just Eat Takeaway, worth an awful lot of money now.
I posted about business norms, which aren’t my opinion. My opinion is, THS is not a well-run business. And personally, I’ve canceled my auto-renewal and am not sure I’ll continue sitting. For me, sitting is icing and I’d still travel even without it.
I note this, because business norms are worth recognizing as we as individual consumers make decisions. Like some folks will hold their nose and stay with THS, simply because there aren’t strong competitors, unfortunately. This is also why competition is so important.
Anti-trust laws typically are based on squashing or hindering competition. What THS has done by adding booking fees is actually encouraging competition – they’ve driven some customers away to other businesses. And maybe new competitors will emerge, because clearly demand exists.
New companies can start anytime and have advantages, partly because they don’t have legacy technology, large overhead, etc. In the U.S., for example, a huge video rental company called Blockbuster p*ssed off a customer with its late-return fees and that’s how Netflix started. Blockbuster used to dominate. It was since destroyed, with one measly store left.
Could you let me know where the public information is about profitability?Frankly, given the fact that it is mostly a matching site, I’m very curious why it’s not more profitable and I still don’t understand why they haven’t been able to make changes with the infusion of new capital before raising membership prices.
Google “Companies House”. Follow the start link. Search for “TrustedHousesitters”. Two companies come up. Trustedhousekeepers Ltd and Trustedhousekeepers Group. One is operations. The other is the holding company. Under the Filings tab for each, there are dozens of filings.
More reason to first get the membership to buy in on the project. That would mean putting the cards on the table and justifying the moves. I’m sure members would be way more supportive and be more inclined to stick around.
The thing is that the response from members is not going to be felt until their membership renewal comes up. Right now the only hint of displeasure is this thread and similar ones and the cancellation of auto-renewal (which I have done). In the meantime, I am actively looking at other sites that will fulfill my needs.
Yes, THS can’t predict the future. That seems obvious to me.
As for looking for alternatives, many of us did that long before the booking fee news and there aren’t any strong contenders. That’s been general consensus, but maybe your needs or preferences are unusual and narrow, and can be met otherwise.
Just from some of the things I have read and not from my personal experience… some sitters have used sites that are more local to a certain country that they want to go to. I don’t know if that is feasible… not yet.
Right. That can work for some sits, but the problem is, many sitters want sits beyond one country and it takes more effort to patch those together. And most other platforms lack inventory, plus lack equivalent UX and sometimes lack background checks. That’s why the general consensus I mentioned.
If competition were stronger, many users would have left after the five-application limit was introduced.
I’ve just joined a few Facebook groups, just browsing at the moment, but look quite promising. Will probably keep my basic THS membership at £99, won’t be bullied into upgrading, and will use THS for longer sits, 3 weeks minimum. No more short sits for me, not from THS anyway.
idea to start charging a fee for everything PLUS the memberships (yes, even premium.)?