In my arsenal of “applications”, both on my laptop and phone, I now have a boilerplate “short application”, which I can quickly customize and send off in order to hold our spot.
@Muralha post was an interesting read from a HO’s perspective and response to the new pause feature, and their work around solution.
Did I see somewhere that the number of applicants would be limited to 5? If so, is there anyway to have more? I am unable to locate the information but thought I had read it somewhere.
Hello @Cawall … I’ve moved your question here as this is the topic where you’ll find all the information about the pausing of applicants (see Ben’s first post at head of topic). I’m also going to tag @Lucy-B so she can check in and see if you need any help with this when back online in the morning.
Question: If one sends a one-liner to get into the first 5 applications and the 5 are reached and applications close, how will one’s follow-up full application get to the owner?
@Lauraa once you have submitted a one-liner you will have “made contact” and will then be able to message them. Hope that makes sense! 
Even if they haven’t responded? Ok thanks.
@Lauraa yes you can still message them even if they haven’t responded
@Ben-ProductManager, it’s 4:30 AM US Eastern Time, and thankfully I could not sleep at 3am, so I checked the TH app. Saw one of my favourite sits come up, with 4-7 applicants, and not knowing at all if this functionality has been implemented here, stayed up to apply. When I finished applying, looks like I got my sit in under the wire, but then the dates disappeared. So who knows?
Your comments indicate that this new functionality will only affect a very small percentage of sits. Well, those must be the sits we apply to, because I’m experiencing a deluge of favourite sit notifications with no available dates. Having to sleep and work, there is no way for us to be able to apply for the kind of sits we search for, and we’ve been keeping our eyes open for Thanksgiving (US) and Christmas (Europe, Australia, New Zealand) locations.
With over 5,000 open sits, yes, people will be people and some home owners will not reply right away. But this functionality has caused only misery and lost opportunities to us, and if it continues without at least a 24 hour application window, you are driving us (sitters with 32 five-star reviews, and home owners with 11 five-star reviews) off of this site and on to other sites with less restrictions. That would be sad.
It feels like this new process is using a sledge hammer to deal with a mouse. Surely to goodness it’s time to open the application to a 24 hour window, and stop this race for sits to which some of us look forward to applying, and letting our credentials speak for themselves.
I’ve participated in some of these earlier discussions, then sat back thinking that the TH team would actually be listening to those of us on the forum, otherwise, what’s the point of having it?
Please, please, please. When can this problem (that we NEVER asked for a solution to) be addressed, at a minimum by keeping sits open for 24 hours?
Yes, if you submit a one-liner, then contact is made. First, within the five-application window, you have to actually find the sit and submit the application. Otherwise all opportunity is lost.
Thank you @anon36831737 - yes, we all pay the same membership fee to see all the sits. If this process is going to continue, then my fee should cover only the east coast of North America.
Agree, this is nuts. This has to change, or TH will continue to lose sitters.
Meanwhile, I got a card, in an envelope, with real postage on it, last night from TH (mailed from Minneapolis, MN). It was written to my dog with a stock statement of how our last sitter was wonderful for him, and we should promote more sitters joining the site. (I had torn it up as junk mail with no return address, then my husband glanced and saw ‘sitter’ in the text, in the garbage pail). So there is money to do this, but not to focus on real site improvements??
We have stopped promoting to any potential sitters (never give our code out anyway, it’s too much for people to track), until this issue is solved.
Things just go from bad to worse.
I bet your dog would be mortified if he/she knew how much the postage was and that it was being paid for by members!!!
The most worrying aspect is despite all the comments on the forum, not one concession has been made.
Clearly, time zone implications were not considered and it will impact a large number of sitters.
Stating it is just a test is not the response people are seeking .
Hi Breezylake,
The really unfortunate thing is what THS has decided to monitor. “We will be looking at the time it takes for sits to be filled and we will be looking at the % of Sits being carried out by International Sitters” according to Ben.
THS analysis would not identify how many sitters were frozen out because of the artificial limit of 5. We prepare our applications on Microsoft Word and then cut and paste into the THS site. If the sit is paused, we will have wasted loads of time with THS having no record of this.
We will reluctantly move to a one-line placeholder application, and then follow up with a well-crafted full application.
Really strange how THS has decided to punish its customers.
I believe sitters did ask. Not for this solution, but there was A LOT of griping about HOs not responding to applications. The Pause after 5 applications seems to be THS’s answer to force HOs to respond.
In my experience, forcing someone to modify their behaviour is not the best solution.
Like others have said, I do hope THS is listening to the feedback provided on this Forum. It would be interesting to read more HO’s feedback to gauge the reaction to the new control feature from their perspective. We can only hope THS will be surveying those HOs who have been among the “test” listings.
I also believe that a few members of the Forum have complained about HOs not responding to applications.
There are approximately 5000 Forum members, If you scroll down the list of Forum members you can see that there is only a small proportion of these 5000 who are active on the Forum
A small % have complained.
THS have listened to this tiny amount which may be about 50 members or even less and have altered the whole process which affects 100.000 members.
I just do not understand…
I was wondering why sits would pop up, disappear, pop up again etc. A fellow housesitter made me aware of this new rule, which I - with all due respect - find appalling! So far I have been a very happy member of THS for 4 years. As a full-time traveler the pandemic was already something that hit all of us hard. This new rule just adds to the difficulties. Why???
Would you please remove this rule asap!!!
Having a template reply is fine. But not being able to see the sit or reply at all is the issue.
Just adding my 2 cents worth….should be open for ALL TO SEE for 24 hours! I’m not an IT person, but how hard can that be? We’ve been sitter for 4 years on THS. I do check sits daily, but not 10 times a day. We all have lives……this isn’t rocket science!
I wholeheartedly agree. Just my work around for now.