I am with you. Out of three experiences, two were terrible. Friday was supposed to be my third sit, and the girl canceled less than 48 hours before my flight. I am scrambling to say the least to trying to avoid literally anyone at this point to watch my dogs. Nobody is available, paid or through my family/friend community. I told her before her flight that I could not pick her up from the airport and she replied “no worries”. When she landed, she realized it was $70 for a train ticket up north or about $25 to take the bus 3 hours north. Instead she cancels since I wouldn’t pay then proceeds to gaslight me, sending messages to the app that I was lying, didn’t tell her how far NYC was and where I am is “basically another state”. She has my address too now because it was required for her to check-in. I was shocked earlier, then honestly unsurprised this happened.
Thank you very much for your message. Other’s have not been so kind
Not good at all. What to do in the future is the question
They said they put an internal note on her profile in case she doesn’t it again. So, no immediate ramifications. They even had me go back and ask her to type out a message basically to get a direct written answer vs the voice message she left. Then proceeded the extremely rude messaging, gaslighting and lying lol. Really wild to me
@Frequenttraveler24 what a nightmare! I can see from your listing that you’re clear on where you are locates. I’m guessing the sitter was expecting NYC? Part of the problem (beyond them not being able to use google maps…) is that THS has a really weird idea of how to categorise places. So someone looking for a sit in NYC would potentially see your sit under the search teem New York City. If they’re in a huge rush to apply and inattentive to the extreme I can see how it could happen.
Hope you find someone for your sit - it sounds great and if I was still upstate I’d go for it. Small silver lining is that you probably really don’t want someone like that looking after your home and dogs.
I think one of your challenges may be as well that there’s always a enormous amounts of sits available in the UK, versus just few in the rest of Europe.
I don’t know if the large supply of UK sits on THS is matched with an equally large supply of UK sitters, or whether there’s a mismatch. I sometimes sit in the UK (I live outside the UK), but only in cities or towns that I can easily get to by quasi-direct train or plane from ‘the continent’ and that locally allow me to get around without a car.
@Gwenvilla I note that you are not the only member expressing their opinion that their experience of THS has for them changed for the worse recently.
What alternative services will you use ?
Will have to research other options. As I said before I have had great sitters over the years. Like most of us cannot afford to pay sitters all of the time.
Hi @Gwenvilla and sorry to hear your recent experiences have not been positive.
You sound like a very honest and open host and we need more of those on the site, not less.
There are still great sitters out there but unfortunately due to a rapid growth in membership, some very dubious marketing, along with restricting applications, I feel it has made it more difficult for great sitters and hosts to find each other.
Thank you for your message. I totally agree with you. Some people on the forum have misunderstood my post and one on particular was not nice. I am just trying to have a sensible discussion about the issues that you have just highlighted. Not sure anything can change now.
Yes, I think they were expecting nyc. I didn’t think anything of it though because her profile says she’s based in nyc so I assumed she was a NYer trying to get a break in the city. Later I realized she wasn’t living anywhere and is using this site to bounce from one place to the next until she can affords an apartment.
@Twitcher. Totally agree with you about the dubious marketing. THS went down the wrong road with the “free holidays” ads, and as a result have attracted the sort of sitters we read about every day in this forum. Pets! What pets?
I agree too. THS has changed from original format
It seems you weren’t 100% transparent, thus perhaps you should state the ticket price and time required to get to your location in your future listings. 3 hours and $70 for a train ticket seems like a lot. For half of that amount or even less, you can fly across Europe and back
Edit: p.s. just checked the tickets - the cheapest one costs USD 46 and the ride takes 3.5 h
It is very common for sitters looking for sits in a specific location specify that location as their base.
I’m so sorry to hear this Frequenttraveler24! Your sitter who canceled was definitely out of line. 1.) Transportation to and from the sit is the responsibility of the sitter. Always. If the homeowner wants to do the sitter a favor by picking them up or handling bus fare, that is good on them, but it isn’t required. 2.) Your sitter was showing unreliability and lack of preparedness to the 'N’th degree. Google maps makes it very easy to see how far it is from point A to point B. RometoRio makes it easy to find transportation (and costs). There is absolutely no excuse for that sort of behaviour, and hopefully THS will somehow get that message across to the sitter - and flag the profile (even internally) to make sure it doesn’t happen to others.
I agree. There is Google maps and Google Earth for sitters to do their research
@Frequenttraveler24 so sorry that you have had 3 poor experiences so far. That isn’t the norm at all.
From what you have said it seems that your listing has attracted applications from sitters who misread and were expecting to be in NYC. This is not your fault as far I can tell , since you are completely accurate and clear in your listing and title that your location is Upstate New York ( not New York City ) .
I have a few suggestions that may help to avoid receiving similar applications in future . You could add a sentence to the beginning of the “Home & location” section where you emphasis your location for example
“ Great destination for a sitter looking for an escape away from NYC my home is situated in Upstate NY . The nearest airport is xx which is xx miles away ( xx mins by car ) . The nearest station is xx “
You could also change your title to “Escape away from NYC - stay in Upstate New York” or something similar . This may help attract the attention of suitable sitters.
Going forward when you have a phone call or video chat with a potential sitter ; you can ask them how they plan to travel to the sit ( car, train, flight) and where they will be travelling from. Confirm that they understand where you are located before confirming them as sitters. You can explain that you are asking because previous sitters thought you were in NYC and then cancelled on you.
As soon as you confirm a sitter provide your full address ( or as much information as they need ) so that they can start making their travel plans. If you don’t provide this information until the last minute this may contribute to the issues that you’ve experienced.
I hope you find some great suitable sitters going forward and when you do please do leave them a review. as I note you haven’t left reviews for your previous 3 sitters.
Your sit sounds lovely to me and I suspect I am the kind of sitter you want. (No arrogance intended.) I do think there are several problems intersecting here.
One is the number of sitters who don’t reflect the original ethos of THS. Also there are far more UK sits than anywhere else. And there is the 5 applicant limit…
Sitters like me are competing with folks who get their applications in before we’ve even seen your listing. In the meantime we have booked something else, never seeing your listing. Finding the right sit/sitter means I have to be online all the time looking and you have to be online all the time rejecting applicants and re-opening your listing. It is annoying and frustrating. I am also thinking of leaving THS but decided to hang in fir one more year. Good luck.
I am wondering if the HS didn’t do their research and was confused by the Upstate NY in the title. I know approximately where that is, but is that a common knowledge for everyone?
I am in Northern California but that could be really vague to someone coming to sit here for the first time. There is a limited public transportation options and the closest largest airport SFO is 4 hours drive away. With train and bus that trip could double to 9 hours.