Completely agree! As a frequent, regular, and heavy user of the platform I really liked the way the saved search alerts listed them all in the email. In fact, it didn’t even bother me that much that it was once a day.
I do however HATE that the feature went away entirely. That was the most useful part of the notifications and now they are significantly less useful. Why would you remove functionality that worked perfectly?!
So sad, THS has been making some changes recently that have been making the platform worse, its such a shame. Why are we going backwards? The change to applying to overlapping sits and this new change to the saved search notifications are making the platform worse. Such a shame to see.
I use saved searches on the map, a part of England now, with dates. That works when I use that saved search and change “Sort by” to newest. (A constant annoyance that that setting does not stick! But a workaround is to leave that window open.)
I cannot understand why they made the email alerts so useless. I have switched them off.
As many have indicated, this daily email summary was one of your best features.
I am subscribed with your competitors and this change is pushing me to use their service more because it has now become easier to find available places quickly and automatically with them instead of with you…
As I said, you may want to consider rolling back before you drive your customers away and your competitors capitalize on this blunder.
Thank you for your feedback it has all been passed on to the Product team.
They understand your concerns about the saved search emails no longer containing individual listings. The team had received lots of feedback that by the time members had seen the emails the listings were no longer available. (They were available at the time the email was generated, but as a live system they might have gone into review or been filled by the time the email was opened)
Therefore with the listings on the emails, the team could not guarantee that the listings showing would still be available when the member opened their email. This created a less-than-ideal user experience, so with the new emails with one click, you can view your saved searches.
The team are working on making sure when you click the link it shows you the newest listings first. Apologies if this was not the case and caused any issues.
As lots of members still prefer email notifications. With this new email system, the team will be able to increase the frequency of the email sends, rather than just once per day. Giving these members more opportunities to see new listings that match their saved search.
The new system will also allow for further optimisation of emails and notifications which we will keep you updated on here.
Thank you for all of your feedback. The forum team will keep you updated about any new email features as they become available
I totally understand that. It’s happened to me as well. It can be frustrating. I appreciate your response and transparency.
But that’s part of how this all works. Same with job listing notifications, classified ad listing notifications, etc. Sometimes they are gone when you go look at them. The vast majority of email notification services include at least of subset of the results of a search to encourage me to click into the site. Those example results are the traffic driver.
BUT no listings in the email is worse for you and worse for me. I could always click on the search in the previous email to see the live search results. No listing is worse for me since if I am only passively looking for sits, I am not going to open each search on the site every day. The daily notification with highlights of the new listings was ideal - I could glance at it and click into any of interest across all my most recent 6 saved searches. Now there is just a “new” listings email that I am unlikely to click on. This is bad for you because I will go to the site now less frequently - if at all. I suspect if you look at the site traffic, it’s gone down since you rolled out this change. Look at the metrics on how many people click the email now vs. previously.
This might be different if I was actively looking for a sit in a specific place at a specific time, but I can say that I haven’t gone the the site once since the email notification change rolled out. I used to go there multiple times per week if I saw something that caught my eye.
Maybe this is different for more active sitters but I’ve done 12 over the last year, so I’m not that passive. To me this is like getting an email for a sale that just said “There is a sale! Click for more info”. I’m not gonna click that…
Yeah. As a relatively new member, I’m finding this the number one reason not to even take advantage of my membership (let alone renew) unless I am totally bored and want to repeat all of the searches that I already did to mark favorites et al. I assumed that this function was a software/coding function that already existed rather than a staffing expense issue.
Hello, @jhoward15 & @Fitzychick Thank you both for your feedback, we have added it to the feedback we have collected for the team.
The team are working to make sure when you click the link you see the newest listings first and they will also start sending the email for each individual saved search more frequently throughout the day, so you don’t just have a once-per-day email!
Please feel free to update your settings on the website (if you don’t use the app) and turn the alert off if you do not want to receive an email alert. You can also do this via the app if you use it.
The only people who need an email more than once a day are the sitters who look for sits in the most popular places, that get snapped up quickly.
Can’t you let the USER choose how often they get the email?
At the moment this email is annoying the heck out of me as you have made it WORSE not better for me. BUT… when I’m busy working online, it is also reminding me to look for sits.
So while I am happy to receive the email ONCE a day, I do not want to have to opt out of it completely… but that’s what will happen if you email me more than once a day.
Hello, @BillyBonnieBenji Thank you. I will make sure I let the team know about your suggestion for members to be able to select the frequency of the emails. With our new email system, this might be possible in the future.
For now, there is no way to choose the frequency, but the emails will be sent more frequently so members who prefer email notifications can make sure they see the new listings sooner and get more opportunities to see and apply for sits that match their saved searches.
If I hear about any more updates I will let you know. Thank you
Well, this was implemented a while ago, so it looks like the “few days” for changes have passed and now we’re stuck with what it is. And like the 5-application thing, I don’t expect it will be changed despite members not liking it.
I do not see any benefit personally to the new system, and find it annoying.
As others have pointed out, with screenshots, the e-mail no longer shows the NEW sits just posted, right in the e-mail. Now I have to go to the site, and scroll through the whole list, rather than deciding right from the e-mail that I do or don’t want to look at a specific sit. And as others commented, some of what you scroll through when you use the link, are ones that have been posted for some time.
I do not want to sort through all the listings from a particular province or state that I’m interested in, to see the new ones just posted. How does that improve anything?
What the heck was wrong with an e-mail that listed THAT DAY’S SPECIFIC NEW POSTINGS?
C’mon, TH. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Um… how does this change anything? By the time the e-mail is opened AND the member has had to go to a general saved-searches page and THEN sort through for the newest listings they could still be gone because someone else got the e-mail sooner.
By showing the individual listings you were letting us know immediately what was available and we could decide to look at them or not. Now we have to go to the site and the list and then figure out which ones are new.
This doesn’t make any sense.
Like someone else posted, it’s like getting an e-mail that says “There’s a sale!” without telling you WHAT is on sale.
AND, of course, THAT problem could’ve been solved by not limiting applications to 5, or letting homeowners choose how many applications they want to pause at.
But wait, we all had that discussion already, didn’t we?
With the app, there is a push notifications setting for saved searches. I’ve had good luck with being able to see sits before they go to reviewing . The non app site only allows the choice for email notifications. The email notifications are not what I expected it to be when they changed it. It’s not useful at all.
The push notifications in the app are a great improvement.
I really don’t see the point in the emails if they don’t show specific listings and they are only telling us to rerun our searches. I don’t want these pointless emails cluttering my inbox. When they detailed the new listings they were useful but now it is just another unread email in my inbox.
Yup.
I can go to the site and run the search myself – the e-mails accomplish nothing. Any listings that are going to get paused quickly at 5 applicants, will probably already be paused by the time you get the e-mail – just as they were before – and then have to go to the site. And then, Oh look, these are the same sits that were listed last time.
I might go and look rather than just deleting, but, it’s more time-consuming.
I’m glad this wasn’t introduced a couple of months ago when I was actively looking for a sit in a specific area for a specific date. I was already just running searches on the site a couple of times a day anyway.
I think we’re beating our heads against a wall though, asking for things that worked OK to be left alone, let alone “put it back like it was”.
Well I dont get push alerts to my Android phone. Still. So that is a feature I pay for and do not receive. For years.
And I have something like 20 saved searches since I can’t search “Europe” as a whole. Do I understand I will receive an email but then have to run my 20 by-country searches to figure out what is new? Awesome. Sigh.
I also hate this new update, I use the site both for finding housesits, and for getting someone to look after my cat, and since this update my previously booming applications have dwindled to almost nothing. I also used to have my housesit alerts as a fun day dream, oh look at all the pretty cats i could maybe go see, and the favourite a lot of people. I don’t do this anymore, as when i open the alert on the website, it’s the same sits that i’ve already seen, so now I’m ignoring the alert most days.
I just had a chat with a customer service person, and they seemed to have no idea that this was negatively impacting users. Hopefully they will listen and switch back on the old alert system.
Hello, just a quick update from the team. The saved search emails will be being sent more often throughout the day. This is currently capped at 6 emails a day to save your inbox from receiving too many emails straight away, but we’ll be increasing this cap gradually to make sure you get email notifications when you have new results for your saved searches.
Thank you for all of your feedback on this thread, it has all been passed to the team and any further updates we will keep you posted.
