The arrival and departure times should be negotiated between owners and sitters. They are often impossible to predict and require discussion. It is infantalising the process to have in the owners’ initial ad.
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I like how you published this before dropping the new “booking fee” on everyone. Really, well done, you.
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I agree! Very poor practice on the part of THS.
The chat feature is awful on the app version. The scrolling sticks, it doesn’t load on real time, and when typing you cannot scroll or make adjustments to text easily.
THS doesn’t provide any peer to peer options for interviewing sitters. I have to leave the app for most of my communications, like a Zoom interview. The chat feature is so bad that I cannot use it to communicate each time with a sitter.
Are there adjustments being made to the app to improve these things. For the price of the membership and now a booking fee, I should have a flawless experience in the app from first contact with a sitter, through the interview, and communications during and after the sit.
Very disappointed in the changes listed here where the app is outdated and hard to use.
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I love these updates, especially the arrival and departure times! One other thing I would love to see made mandatory is an area/community tag so we know exactly where in the city the sit is in! It’s great that owners tell you it’s near a park or major roadway but narrowing down the area of the sit would let sitters scope out what’s nearby and figure out if it’s walkable or how easy transportation etc is before applying! I do a lot of local sits as well and there’s just some areas I wouldn’t want to be in due to proximity to the airport, my appoinments etc!
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My last sit finish date was 10th, then maybe 5th, then probably 7th. I suggested 8th and was accepted. I left and they won’t be home till sometime later. No big deal to me as my $ 10,274 flights and hotels were booked, but I won’t be using THS again with this crap $$fee they are going to change
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Thank you for the update
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And, bigger pictures of the Homeowners so that sitters can be more discerning based on facial presentation and expression. A picture paints a thousand words!
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My thoughts exactly ! For a sit booked months in advance, travel plans are often not yet cast in stone and are fluid - on both sides. Grown ups on an equal footing should be able to discuss arrival / departure details without micro management from THS. I can envisage these time frames having to be tweaked and tweaked again. This is sledgehammer “solution” to a walnut problem of what would appear to be “meek” Sitters not asking for video calls or important questions before confirming a sit.
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@Megg I feel those details are best discussed at interview/videochat stage. You can usually identify location from previous sitters’ reviews but a lot of home owners would want to protect their privacy by having less information available to all and sundry.
TBH, I think larger photos of homeowners is a useful and overdue “feature.” I’m a woman who travels alone. I leave info on my hosts with my spouse just in case, and being able to match a profile photo with the person who answers the door is just a good safety precaution.
And honestly – homeowners have plenty of photos of me, so seems like it shouldn’t be a problem to have at least one discernable one of them. 
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Agreed. This falls under the category of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and adds an unnecessary complication to the process.
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@Jenny it is starting to smack of micro-managing to me.
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LOL, the number of times I’ve tried zooming in on photos on my phone, print-screen and trying to enlarge in Paint… 
Agree 100% with you. Along with the “mandated room tagging” let’s have one good photo of the hosts.
Well, “isn’t it ironic”, given the subsequent release of the new T&C 
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What is PP WG?
@Janinalynn Pet Parents and Welcome Guide
I think it’s good to have the homeowner start to think about this. There could be the opportunity to tuck one or several boxes, e.g. “negotiable”, “ between x and y hours”, “may come the day before”, “must come the day before”… or just let the homeowner respond in whatever manner they wish in case they have specific preferences.
Hi all,
Apologies that I haven’t replied a little sooner.
Yes, absolutely.
Couldn’t agree more, though that isn’t always the case. These features aren’t designed to replace the need for great communication between members, instead they should aid it. 
Homeowners/Hosts can set a time range, which could be fairly wide depending on their flexibility.
Glad you like them! Yes, features will be communicated beyond the forum - though as a forum team, we’ll do our best to share regular updates about changes which are coming soon.
Yes - there’s a forum discussion about that here.
Agree, these are minimum requirements, it’s normal that listings include many more. The aim is to support sitters in being given a fair and accurate representation of the home before they apply.
Thanks,
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Thanks for the info!
Will these fields be able to be filtered? So that pet sitters can filter on time alone, for example. Or number of walks, etc.
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@Janinalynn, apologies for acronyms. Pet Parent Welcome Guide.