Sadly I see this to be detrimental for both Home Owners and Sitters. Very stressful. I’m open to change, but this seems radical. A company’s that is set up to be kind to animals, but will now cause upset to us humans.
I don’t see this working.
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Wow, this is really, really bad news.
As a sitter, this makes THS a lot less useful to me. And infinitely more stressful!
I guess I won’t be recruiting any more sitters for the site!
I used to describe trying to get the sit you want as “competitive.” Now it’s going to be full-on “cutthroat.”
What a shame that THS is now officially valuing speed over experience and/or quality.
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I couldn’t agree more! ALL members must be notified IMMEDIATELY about this new policy - and should have been notified when the test began!
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I agree an email to everyone is how this must be communicated.
Most people do not read the blog or the newsletter so relatively few people are aware of this change being implemented which is not accidental.
What does the line mean we will also update some of our key owner and sitter emails with the new process. Who or what are they?
This is a very important change in the terms and conditions as all sits are not available to apply to.
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As a homeowner and sitter, I am incredibly disappointed in this decision.
We’re you even listening to the feedback during the trial period?
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Funny, since @Ben-ProductManager claims that new sitters have a higher success rate since THS capped applications at 5 per sit. Hmm…
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Pretty sure this thread will be closed soon.
My words exactly…
1 Like
Admin Notice:
We will keep this thread open for a week or so, as we want to make sure everyone gets a chance to share their views.
There are posts about censorship and removal of certain comments. May we remind all members that we retain the right to remove any comments that contravene the Forum T&C’s which as members you have all agreed to.
We would appreciate your cooperation in abiding by these rules, thank you.
Terms & Conditions
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We’ll also direct others to this thread, or even merge posts if we see members asking about the Pausing Applications somewhere else, or we discover members creating secondary threads about the same topic. It’s imperative we ensure capturing all of the questions you have about this in one place. If you see someone mentioning the changes elsewhere, please point them here, we’d really appreciate that.
We’ve put together a FAQs document which will answer any lingering questions you may have.
Thank you again for helping TrustedHousesitters to continue evolving to meet the changing needs of pet sitters and home owners around the world.
Angela and the Admin Team
As a THS member for 12 years with over 150 five-star reviews, this news makes me feel deflated. Having worked hard to build a strong reputation now it just feels like survival of the quickest.
We give great consideration to a sit before we make contact. There are many variables which need to be thought through. Now we don’t have that luxury, we will be forced to apply before we’re really ready to commit. That doesn’t sit well with me and I think it will lead to many mismatched sits. You seem to be judging ‘success’ as homeowners finding sitters - but true success is finding the right match, which doesn’t necessarily come about through jumping in because you’re afraid you’ll miss it… Now its a case of ‘you snooze you lose’. We have repeat sits that go back many years, but I don’t think this new system will encourage those kinds of meaningful relationships so much.
Not everyone is hovering on their devices all day long waiting for sits to show up. Some of us just take a look once a day in a leisurely way because that’s all we have the bandwidth for… Now we are being forced to become constantly in the game.
I may be wrong, but this seems like a big mistake. Your data may tell you one thing, but people will vote with their feet, you can be sure of that.
Also… how come, as longstanding members who have helped THS become what it is, we were never asked directly about any of this? Feels like its being taken for granted that we will all stick around for these changes. The jury is out on that…
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I will no longer be recommending THS to others.
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Hi @anon1411559 and all members.
The only mechanism for closing this thread will be member’s comments and responses. If, as we trust, they are kept respectful, on topic, are not inflammatory in anyway ie. inciting members to contravene the Forum’s T&C’s and Terms of Use and stay within our community guidelines then it will remain open.
The choice really is up to you, our community.
Thank you.
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For sure this will backfire I feel. Sitters will make very very hasty applications without even having the time to read through the reviews left by other sitters…then homeowners will probably have to deal with cancellations…
I see it like a quiz show with fingers on the buzzers even when the participant doesn’t know the answer as hasn’t had time to hear the question if you get my drift. I’m v disappointed
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Very, very disappointing.
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I will likely keep using THS myself, because the sits I look for tend not to be what would be considered popular.
But I’ve brought in a lot of new members — those recommendations stop now.
I’m a sitter — if I were an HO, I’d be really mad.
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@Ben-ProductManager @Angela-HeadOfCommunity, any idea when we can expect the rollout of the “improvements” as listed above in Ben’s announcement? I imagine that this could be a big factor in your customer’s decisions to stick around, going forward.
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@Ben-ProductManager as @anon1411559 says, direct communication to ALL MEMBERS through an email blast is the best (and most honest) way of communicating this change. As someone who has managed continual change in a large workforce over many years, successfully implementing change so that it is adopted quickly, starts with clear communication across a variety of communication channels, not by hiding it in a blog or newsletter. Yes, THS will get many replies to an email blast but THS also needs to manage that to positively drive the change. For change of this magnitude THS needs to be communicating via email, website announcements, website pop up windows, the newsletter/blog, this forum and any other comms channel you have access to.
PRO TIP: find and leverage off some “change agents”, people who can positively influence others to adopt this change.
Admin Notice: Comment Moderated
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Very disappointed.
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Hi @Crookie thank you for the insights and feedback gained through your personal experience and that is exactly how the Pausing Applications functionality is being communicated across our global membership … all channels of communication are being utilized,
if you had asked the question we could have confirmed that this was the strategy.
Thank you
1 Like