And then the “data” - i.e. the statistics - will show you picked from the 5 so 5 must be all you need!
From Mark Twain: There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned lies and Statistics!
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A home I had in my favorites was available but by the time I got the notification they were reviewing applications. So disappointing as I lve been waiting for it to come up. I looked the very second I got the notification. Such a bummer.
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Yes I agree . It really is awful to pay a membership and not be able to apply to house sits.
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@Ben-ProductManager Have you considered reducing the membership price for sitters since applying for sits has been greatly restricted? It really has taken away an important feature, this pause after 5 system.
Ann Marie
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I deleted all my favourites this morning. I’m sick to death of getting notifications for sits that disappear before I get to them.
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I won’t be surprised if they raise membership prices as they lose so many current members and get fewer members in the future due to the 5 application pause now and the fear of other such changes in the future.
@Jilly I know, horrible situation
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@Wetravel I’m just finishing my 1st year and was enjoying it so much then they started this terrible 5 pause.
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I’ve been wondering - if I get notified that a favourited sit has a new listing and it’s already reviewing applicants by the time I see it, will I get re-notified if the home owner declines some applicants and unpauses it?
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@Snowbird @peach Yes that’s correct. I recently followed Colin’s example when a listing was showing 4-7 and it immediately went to “reviewing applications” The next day it reopened, I sent in my application only to be told that the sit was given to the 1st applicant. This may have been the best applicant or the speediest - we’ll never know
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I think you do because there have been a couple that I kept getting notifications for. Because I wasn’t free on their dates though it was equally as annoying. My head was turned with all the notifications. As I have completely given up now I thought, for the sake of my own sanity, I would just delete all my favourites.
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Just had this today too , the sit was gone by the time I got a notification- seems they are disappearing faster and faster 
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Maybe because the applicants only send one word to take a place in the first 5 
But @Muralha what if your “perfect sitter” is in the first 5 applications? Are you going to decline them on principle to get more applications just in case there is even someone more perfect out there? FOMO can drive up anxiety in an already anxious situation.
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- If a HO in a very desirable area gets 50 applications and doesn’t pick someone, so what. If I’m an applicant I’ll wait a couple of days, then I’ll move on. So that doesn’t hurt me as a sitter. IMO we sitters are not really upset by this, really just expect it with more desirable places. At least before we were “in the running”. 2. Does THS really think we sitters will then just pick a less desirable sit, thus filling more sits? Say I want To go to Mexico in the winter, do they think if 5ed out of that sit, I’ll suddenly decide to go to Canada instead? Really…. This freeze at 5 will not “fix” anything. So if this is to MAKE HO decide more quickly and fill less desirable sits, it’s not the best solution in the eyes of many of us, HO’s and sitters alike! At least make it fair for everyone with 24 hour limit. Why isn’t that a reasonable compromise??
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I hope I’m completely wrong about this, but I feel that were going to see tiered access membership levels, as others have alluded to above.
“Redistribute applications and to help drive even more owner and sitter success across the platform” does not make money for the investors. I guess we’ll see next week, or not.
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I had recently listed our home for a sit, during this ‘test’, and over an eight day window had about 50 applicants. Of those 50, around ten were an immediate “no” from us, possibly because they stated they couldn’t make the first or last day because of a commitment, had bad reviews, or stated something in their profile that disqualified them for some reason in our minds.
Out of the remaining 40, we identified around eight that seemed to check all of the boxes for us…on paper. Of those eight, two were in the very first five applicant pool. One of those two, we suspected was the “perfect” sitter for us. In our minds, we didn’t think that any other sitters would come close, but wanted to keep the window open, just in case.
What I did, was to send a message to all 40 applicants that stated that due to this new THS test, we were forced to click the decline button, but I assured them that they were not really declined yet, that I would be closing the application window on a certain date, and I would inform them if they made the cut for a Zoom interview.
And that’s what we did. Forty letters, one after another, me having to re-login every few hours to clear the queue so others could apply.
We had a few more great applicants (that were counted in the eight that got interviews), but we still had our eye on that “perfect” sitter from the first batch. When we started the interviews they got the first one.
Well, when we got to the nitty gritty details, they quickly showed that they were NOT the perfect sitter. They were much more concerned with how long they could be away from the place to go sightseeing. They also put conditions on their arrival that would have made it very difficult for us to make our plane for our trip. Then they asked if we minded if some family members came part way through to have a vacation in our place.
Needless to say- they were NOT perfect. We finally did find the perfect sitter (in fact two of them, and we had to make a very difficult choice between them). Guess which batch they were in? The LAST one on the LAST day. The ones we picked had been travelling during the first few days of our listing. And they didn’t see it prior to the last day because the listing kept closing and dropping off their search radar because of the stupid ‘test’.
Now, I can see there being a limit to how long a listing can be open- say 7 or 10 days, but to limit the number of applicants, and to close and lock it is frankly not good for the HO or the sitter.
If you are a sitter, you should be more angry that you are missing your opportunity to even to be able to apply for a sit just because you are not faster on the draw. For me, as an HO, I am upset because I want the BEST sitter I can get. And BTW- they aren’t truly the “perfect” sitter until after the sit, and everyone is happy, including my pet 
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I agree with most of your points except for the last one- a 24 hour limit. I am a home owner, but I have talked to many sitters that don’t or can’t apply in the very first day of a listing. Many times it’s because they are travelling, or they are trying to confirm some travel logistics before they apply.
So, if I may, recommend on behalf of the sitters to make the application window longer- say 7 or 10 days. If sitters feel that maybe that’s too long, then I could see 3-5 days as a minimum.
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I don’t see how we could be more angry. I just wish the 95% of sitters who aren’t on the forum could be made aware so that they could be angry, too…
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I agree with Muralha there should not be a 24 hour window.
I’ve done 27 sits over the past almost 3 years since joining THS. While there are many things that need changing, the application process is NOT one of them!
It’s rare I can say “don’t change a thing” but I think I can here
If a HO gets too many applications, they can already stop them
If a HO gets a lot of applications, that can’t be clogging up the THS system as it is data and not high data usage as it’s only text. It’s not like THS is printing every application on paper! (At least I hope they’re not!)
If a HO doesn’t read a sitter’s application, the sitter can delete it
The HO gets to choose how many applications to consider and then pick the best one for them If it’s a great application from a great sitter, the HO probably knows if they don’t contact the sitter, the sitter may take another sit and not be available.
There’s nothing broken about this so no need to fix.
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