Correct, like me, we are out of luck for any assignments outside of our time zone.
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As a Sitter living in California and applying for sits in Europe, I worry that my applications won’t be received…
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Thanks for letting me know there have been some that received those extremely high application numbers. I’d be curious to know the percentages.
The real shock for me is that the owner’s had no ability to pause or choose to stop receiving applications! That just seems crazy.
Prior to the 5 application pause implementation, I know owners had the ability to stop receiving applications. A couple of questions come up:
Did ALL owners know they could stop receiving applications?
How many owners chose to receive 50+ (or some other very high number) of applications if they were aware they could stop receiving them?
Letting owners choose to pause or stop receiving applications as they desire would seem like the only thing that needed to be done, perhaps with THS sending out an email at 25 asking if the owner wanted to keep their listing open.
Instead, THS chose to stop at 5. As I’ve said before, it’s like there were a few cars speeding at 100 miles per hour so the solution was to make the maximum speed all cars could go be 5 miles per hour. Makes no sense.
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I won’t be renewing either.
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The more I think about this the more I feel very disappointed and somewhat foolish for having signed up to a service which has fundamentally changed its terms and conditions following what seems to be a very opaque consultation process. I wouldn’t have known anything about it if I hadn’t joined the Forum. If there have been other communications (as has been alluded to) I have missed them and I would be grateful to be pointed to where these can be found. Furthermore the data that has been gathered hasn’t been shared - rather a series of often questionable outcomes have been presented as demonstrating the perceived value of the change about to be imposed. Referencing one ‘happy’ member does not negate the huge amount of concern that has been raised by numerous members of this forum. Given that without sitters or HO’s THS would not exist I think that we have been at best been taken for granted and at worst treated with disdain.
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ABSOLUTELY! That message is loud and clear.
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I have been composing my response for weeks but to be perfectly honest pretty much anything I wanted to say has been said over and over to no avail.
I doubt very much, even with the tweaks mentioned, that the process will work for me as I am, in the main, seeking winter sits in warm countries. Unless my personal needs change I expect to be cancelling my renewal.
I will now focus my attention on composing a fair and balanced review for Trust Pilot. THS works well in many respects and that should be acknowledged but I do feel that I need to warn potential members of the difficulties they will now face and the seemingly new ethos that management has adopted.
As we say here, ‘things ain’t what they used to be’.
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Hi @anon1411559
We have already started work on the improvements and will keep everyone posted when they go live.
Thanks, Ben
@Ben-ProductManager
I keep reading over the past 3 months and it is repeated in the recent FAQ:
Only a small percentage of sits receive 5 applications within 24 hours
So why on earth are THS going through this massive change, causing unwanted stress to your valued members if it only affects a small number of sittings?
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@Ben-ProductManager so you are in the early stages of improvement developments? Do you think it will happen before the end of the year? I have a vested interest because that’s when my membership renewal is due.
Any intention of sharing the data the substantiates the permanent change? I’m guessing no?
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@Angela_L what is the time line for when we are all going to receive emails notifying all THS members of this change?
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Hi @anon1411559
We are already working on these changes as a priority and they are in development. As they are introduced we will notify you all.
All these changes should be made before the end of the year and before your renewal is due. We will release each change individually as and when it’s ready and has been thoroughly tested.
Many Thanks, Ben
@Ben-ProductManager specifically how will we all be notified of the changes? I hope more direct & personal comms than a newsletter.
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Hi @Crookie,
I will be updating this forum thread and also via product updates when the changes are made. The changes would also be included in the newsletter, this is the best way to reach all our members as it has the highest open and click-through rate of all our methods of correspondence. We can never guarantee everyone reads everything sent to them, which is why we will continue to email and prompt via the dashboard.
As stated in the post yesterday:
We will further share this new process in our owner member newsletter later this month. We will also update some of our key owner and sitter emails with the new process. Owners will continue to receive an email when they have reached 5 applications, letting them know their listing has been paused, and a message will appear on their dashboards and in the member’s inbox, too.
Many Thanks, Ben
Am I being stupid? I cannot find any newsletters on the website. Can someone please direct me to the link / page?
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Totally agree with you. We are also long term members and feel particularly disappointed that there was no input from long term members.
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One positive story compared with all the feedback received here?
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FYI, not many people read newsletters today. A good open rate for newsletters is merely 17-21% which is pretty much the same as the open rate for marketing email.
A personal email with an appropriate header sent to all members has an open rate of 70%
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@Ben-ProductManager I disagree. THS should be covering all communication channels including direct messaging through emails. @Angela_L said earlier
So I asked the question and now you are giving a different answer to @Angela_L. Come on, please have some consistency in your messaging.
Why are you resisting direct communication? Not everyone reads newsletters, not everyone reads emails but if you use all available communication channels at least your clients can’t say they weren’t informed.
The way THS is handling this is at best causing more confusion and at worst driving suspicion and mistrust in your clients who ultimately will vote with their feet.
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@LizBCN - the newsletters are sent via email and copies of them do not appear to be available via the website