I wish, THIS pausing choice, really was up to us, the THS Community. But alas…
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Well explained. And sad.
I was a stockbroker and we had a term for things like this: churn and burn
Forget even trying for real quality.
Just go with the original McDonald’s formula to get a burger out in 30 seconds.
And you’ll have it their way.
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@Ben-ProductManager when will the change go live on the app showing exact number of applications on sit listings? I can see it has happened on the website but still shows 0-3, 4-7 etc on the app
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Important Admin Notice:
Hi Everyone this thread will be temporarily closing at 3.00 pm BST or 7.00 am PT (Pacific Time) Saturday September 24th re-opening at 9.00 am BST, 1am PT (Pacific Time) Monday 26th September.
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I’m a low volume sitter and a homeowner and I think the pause at 5 is a terrible idea. I’m sure you are right though that the majority don’t even know about this change
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Actually, I don’t agree with you on this one. Not your point about the THS’s reasoning to do this, but rather with the outcome. In other words- true, this is what they think will happen, but no, it won’t.
In those first five applications, you have, inevitably, a submission ratio of high-volume and low-volume sitters that was the same as it was before this rule. Now, what is different, is that the home owner will still compare those five, and if they are slanted towards accepting the sitter with the most sits and reviews, they will STILL pick the high-volume sitter.
What now changes is that if the sitter just wants to pick the best of those five, it actually REDUCES the chances that they will find a low-volume sitter that fits the sit better.
Now, if you are a home owner like me, I will just decline ALL sitters for a period of time, until I get enough of a pool to feel comfortable choosing from. That’s exactly what I did this previous time. I had dozens of applications in the end, but I had to go through multiple rounds of declinations and reopening the listing. Ridiculous.
In the end? We ended up interviewing six applicants. Four were high volume and two were low volume. Who did we choose? A LOW volume applicant. Why? Because they were the BEST choice out of all the applicants.
But this rule resulted in a process that was both cumbersome and frustrating. How many potential applicants, both new and hold, high volume and not, did we miss out on ? How many sitters maybe would have been even a better match, but never had the chance because they didn’t see the listing?
So yes, I think you have pegged exactly what Ben and the team was using for reasoning. However- their reason for doing this is not logical, accurate, or truthful. I am already seeing and talking to many home owners and sitters alike that will now leave THS. There will be a competitor that takes advantage of this mistake by THS, and they will lose their market dominance. This will result in not only no more word of mouth recommendations, but actually you will see people telling peers to stay away from the site (as I have already been seeing on social media and even on this site).
I have never seen a company shoot themselves in the foot so clearly as I am seeing now.
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@meow we are low volume sitters (6 sits over the past year, averaging no more than a week in length). I still care because I think we will be affected more than most. I work in an environment where I cannot have access to a phone, so we will miss many great sit opportunities.
I do agree that this decision is entirely financially motivated. It is completely natural for some sitters to do many sits and others only a few - it depends on their life circumstances and availability to travel. Those who sit full time can still only sit for a maximum of 12 months each year (give or take a few days where couples split to cover overlap). But as you say, full time sitters are not as lucrative as several occasional sitters.
I do think there will be consequences for THS further down the line. Less than 6 months ago, THS had a shortage of sitters
https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/sitter-owner-ratios-helping-to-redress-the-balance/13235
This decision has already caused a number of full time sitters to leave the platform, and this trend will likely continue as renewal dates come around. Will the remaining, mainly part time sitters be enough to fill all the sits? Only time will tell.
I feel sorry for @Ben-ProductManager and the Forum Admins. This decision has been taken at a much more senior level, but they are on the front line, having to deal with members anger and disappointment. They aren’t responsible for this decision, and they may well not personally agree with it. However they work for THS and have to do their jobs.
Our membership is due for renewal in 4 days, With 3 confirmed sits booked, we will renew and see how things go for the next year. I think we will still find good sits in the UK, although we won’t see all of them. We do mainly apply for rural / village sits where a car is required, and these normally receive less applicants. We will sit tight for now and see what happens.
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I fully understand the frustration of sitters when owners fail to reply in good time or don’t reply at all.
However, as owners who normally receive numerous applications and who always reply to all applicants and decide on our chosen sitter within 24 - 48 hours, the limit of 5 applicants before being paused is too low and too simplistic.
If the problem is that some owners are behaving inconsiderately, then surely it would be better to highlight the matter with these individuals specifically in order to encourage better behaviour?
Other websites analyse and publish the average response time of “owners” - providing total transparency about how proactive, courteous and conscientious the owner is. If this information was included in the advert it would enable potential sitters to prioritise their applications towards considerate owners.
If this monitoring could be used to allow “good” owners to have more flexibility in how many live applications they are allowed, the process would hopefully encourage owners to be more considerate towards potential sitters.
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I totally agree with your points.
I also think customer satisfaction will fall due to a slimmer choice of sitters. Recent marketing in the press by THS has focused more on a free vacation than great pet care.
A different type of sitter is joining and possibly someone looking to sit once a year in a vacation location focused more on seeing sights than loving pets,
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I didn’t get asked why I was cancelling auto-renew, I wonder why? Could it be that they don’t want to acknowledge how unpopular the pausing at 5 applicants is??
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If this was the problem would it not have been simpler to limit the number of applications a sitter can make over a certain period of time? Or is that too simplistic a view?
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They don’t seem remotely interested in loss of membership or the level of dislike for the 5 app pause.
I’m sure it’s no fault of @Ben-ProductManager - he’s just having to implement the insane plans of the corporate bean counters.
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That is VERY well said and great to hear from a homeowner who had to experience unnecessary hassles and wasting time for what was a simple process.
While THS says the data shows 5 is perfect, from the comments here that is obviously not true.
You can make a survey to show whatever results you want. I’d love to see the actual survey questions, how many they were sent to (I think I saw someone say they were sent to only 5 sitters and 5 owners) and the actual results.
You can view statistics and interpret them how you want to match your goals. As Mark Twain said, “There are 3 kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics.”
Simple solution:
Pause at 10
Send email to owner they must respond to and get 10 more
Repeat to a maximum of 50 or until owner chooses to stop receiving applications
Actually, I’d prefer no pause at all but some owners post and just let the applications run and I’ve spoken with other owners who didn;t know they could stop applications or how to do it!
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I never contribute to forums as I am capable of dealing with any issues that arise whether house sitting or as a home owner in a respectful and adult manner.
However, I regard this change as a breach of contract. I paid my subscription to have access to ALL advertised sits and to hear from ALL interested house sitters.
This is a service you have now denied me only half way through my annual contract.
You will see that I have cancelled my automatic renewal, which has run for the past five years and I will not rejoin unless THS goes back to offering what I signed up for.
Post moderated
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May I ask what those other websites are that show those response times? If this is not the appropriate forum, there is a forum topic where people share info on other sit companies (which hopefully THS will not delete).
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I was asked when I cancelled recently and told them it was due to the 5 application pause. Maybe they’ve stopped asking since then.
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Just dropping this in here in case anyone missed earlier. Time for us all to take a break now from this topic and we’ll see you when it reopens Monday when the full team back. Thank you for your patience and enjoy the rest of the weekend. Vanessa
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This post will reopen at 9am BST (1am Pacific Time) Monday 26th - see above post from Angela for more information. Thank you.
I was writing an application and it is gone again I have spent 30 minutes …oh such a joke …
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If the HO wants to look at a lot of applications, fine. I have zero problem with that and believe the HO should have that opportunity.
I like the old system but to help keep the HO involved, here’s a simple solution
Paused at 10 apps
HO gets email asking if they want more
HO must say “yes” and they get 10 more
Repeat at 20, 30 & 40
Maximum of 50 applications
Plus HO can choose to stop receiving apps at any time
Sound reasonable?
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