We have had the basic plan for a few years now and I’m just wondering if those who upgraded to the more expensive plans (Standard or Premium) have been worth the investment and why.
We will be full time sitting most of Oct, Nov and Dec (with a secured sit all of Feb, March and half of April) and wondering if upgrading would be worth the investment. After April we will only be part time and occasional sitters.
Just wondering what your experience has been with the pricier memberships…worth it or no??
Hi @carpediem16. Another great question with so many different ways to look at which is the most appropriate. As an owner, we originally had just the basic service which we were able to receive many applications from sitters, but we decided to upgrade the next year for more exposure, more benefits, including 24 hour vet help, boosted profiles, liability insurance, etc. The premium upgrade gives even more benefits which include lounge passes (if you are traveling by air…with long layovers), and especially during this hard time of flight cancellations, delays, the sit cancellation insurance is quite beneficial. Each membership is easily well worth the yearly fee, but it just becomes a question of what you really need.
I wish you luck and know that whichever membership you decide to have, you will be happy with the outcome!
As sitters we did the pros and cons of upgrading and made a decision to stick with what we had. We have travel and health insurance. When we fly we look at all the stuff involved and book accordingly. And when (or if) pet owners cancel we are resourceful enough to make our own way.
Our membership cost is worth every penny. We treat THS as an introductory service, nothing more, nothing less.
For us all the value of premium membership is in the cancellation insurance and this hinges on whether your sits are located in places where you are comfortable paying for accommodation for the duration of the sit. We have ~10 sits planned in Europe for Jun-Dec this year, some were confirmed as early as Oct 2021…at this point 3 have been canceled or dates changed by the host, 1 during the sit when we were already settled in. We always respond kindly (understanding other people’s plans can change for many reasons and there is nothing we can do about it ultimately) and have been able to make other plans ourselves without too much loss, but since we are mainly traveling in “expensive to us” countries we recently upgraded our membership to include sitter cancellation insurance for peace of mind as lately experience has shown, a good chunk of confirmed sits will experience change, life has a way of staying surprising! though note the insurance only covers changes/cancellations by host within 2 weeks before the start date, plus other T&Cs.
We upgraded and feel it is worthwhile. We even had to take advantage of the insurance on our last trip and will use the lounge passes on our next trip.
We’ve just been informed the money will be in our bank account within 7-10 days so I think it went well. We emailed the necessary documents to THS, they checked it over and we had to provide some extra info, then it got sent to the insurance company. About 3 1/2 weeks later that came back approved, and we provided banking info. Money to be deposited in 7-10 days. I"m quite happy with it all. Everything was done by email.
I wrote about it in more detail on another thread.
You do need to read the details about what and when things are covered. It’s quite specific, but our situation fell within the boundaries and we are able to get a short-notice sit for 4 of the 6 cancelled days.
I don’t know, yet! I upgraded to the sitter premium plan for the cancellation insurance. I’ve had a 3 week sit cancelled but have been able to fill in all but 2 nights. And the replacement sits are in London whereas the cancelled sit was in Dorset. I’m still looking for something in London for 7-9 Sept and may find a short term sit. And the cancellation was more than 2 weeks out. So how will that qualify for hotel reimbursement. At this point I was thinking to just use hotel free night points that I accumulated while I was working. Or I could pay and hope that I’ll be reimbursed.
The lounge passes are nice but I have access to SkyTeam lounges for international travel and Delta lounges when I fly in the US. Plus my Chase card give me full access to Priority Pass lounges - not the access where you still have to pay $29.
So would I renew the premium - not sure.
We just accepted a sit in London and think it may be worthwhile to upgrade our membership to premium for the insurance. Two questions to sitters who went premium.
Do you think it’s worthwhile?
As we have already accepted the sit (for October) are we cornered or do you need to upgrade before accepting a sit?
Your question has been asked a few times before here on the forum. You can always search with key words to see. Here’s one of the posts that may help you:
I would have thought that if at least either the sitter or home owner had the upgraded options then that would suffice. Why both have the vet upgrade as surely only one party needs it? Also probably ore cost effective for someone who sits near on full time to have their own third party insurances etc.
We upgraded as full time sitters after a couple of international cancellations that were flaky to say the least. Since then we’ve used the lounge passes ($45 for two that would have cost $90 so already worthwhile) and haven’t had to claim but have it in hand JIC.
I believe you can upgrade at any time but THS could probably answer that.
Never bothered with the premium level as I don’t see the insurance as actually being of value. It seems very restrictive - the owner would have to cancel in the last 14 days before the sit only, you would have to still travel there and find a hotel there and I suspect if THS ‘found’ you an alternate sit I suspect you would have to accept even if it wasn’t suitable. I also don’t like to rely on insurance as they are always very cagey about what they will cover until you have spent the money and then refuse to pay out.
The Standard level is probably the minimum you can get away with now as you need the alerting that basic doesn’t have in order to have a chance of getting an application in
We did the upgrade because things can happen at the last minute…either from sitters or Ho’s. If a sitter were to cancel last minute and you are trying to take a trip, you would need to find immediate back up care for your pets. Insurance covers that. If an owner cancelled on you when you arrived into their area, you would need to find alternative housing…Insurance covers that.
I feel it is worth the little extra in cost, and you also get to lounge passes included which are worth at least $100.
Everyone needs to make their own decision though as it all comes down to how comfortable you are going forward, and also how many sits you are involved with on a regular basis.
Hi @Oztravels
To answer your second question, so long as you upgrade well before your confirmed sit, you will be covered. Therefore, if you upgrade now, your confirmed sit in October will fall under your premium membership.
The main thing seems to be that for an extra 40 USD I could get “instant notifications” of saved searches so that I would have a much better chance of getting an application in before the listing gets closed at five.
So is this something that actually works? Some people report problems with notifications. And it seems from reading on this forum that they are not really instant but are delayed by up to an hour? Then one could still lose against others that constantly refresh the page for eg Vienna. (THS: how about truth in advertising?)
@pietkuip At any given point in time The majority of sits available on this platform are for U.K. and USA so if you are looking for sits outside this area they are limited . Upgrading may alert you to sits but it will also alert everyone else who is a premium member with the same search saved .
I don’t understand this completely. Currently I get a once a day email of saved searches
Things like…
New Orleans
Feb 10- 19
cats
My saved searches are not instant.
I also get notifications when one of my favorites becomes available, the ones I hearted , I can see those on the app.
I’m not so sure those are instant notifications.
I have premium but will be going back to standard membership.
( INSTANT ALERTS FOR UNLIMITED SAVED SEARCHES
Don’t miss out on that perfect sit - save your searches to be notified by alerts from our app and daily email alerts when house sits which match your criteria become available.
though note the insurance only covers changes/cancellations by host within 2 weeks before the start date, plus other T&Cs.
, I can see those on the app.
