Hmm personally I would’nt be very happy if somebody else was present at the house and it does state that the ‘sitter should have exclusive use of the property’ I would put that up there as a serious issue and here lies the problem with what you suggest (even though it might be worth looking at) as what one person considers serious another person might not and how do you get to an agreement about that?
Yes of course, but because the THS code of conduct is already clearly set out it should be easy to implement boxes to tick for the things that break the official rules so these serious issues can be investigated immediately (this would include dog bites and unannounced guests for example).
And then, for the things that contribute to a bad experience without technically breaking rules (e.g. a very dirty house), there can be an “anything else” space and these can be reviewed if and when a member gets more than 1 or 2 complaints against them.
Obviously this would be for THS to work out, but with the more expensive plans recently introduced they should be able to improve the member experience and safety.
At the end of the day it would be easier to report issues as part of the normal process after a sit, so you don’t have to justify yourself to the owners/sitters as to why you reported something, you can just say “THS automatically asked me a question and I answered honestly”.
Sorry I’ve gone off topic. Dog bites are a serious issue and I sincerely hope not many members have had/will have to deal with that.
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@Elleco yes I see where you are going with it now and yes if THS looked at what they consider serious breaches of membership (it would need to be a system that applies to sitters also that HOs can apply to be balanced and fair) and whatever reported (lets say dog bites, people at the house not disclosed, cameras in the house not disclosed, sitter had other people staying, sitter kept neighbours awake all week with their drum kit, blah blah and whatever based on what THS has decided not acceptable) slots into a box (lets call it red!) then for as you say less serious issues (call it a yellow box for discussions sake) eg house by any measure not clean, sitter left the house a mess (though I still think this is subjective and would need some proof…photos and then it gets tricky!) and then perhaps other boxes which just flag up minor issues and are more for information purposes. I think though we need to keep in mind that THS is running a business and the more ‘scrutiny’ thats brought to bear on HOs and on sitters, the join up becomes less and less attractive and everybody starts to look elsewhere for a ‘smoother ride’ . This whole thing is very tricky and a very fine balancing act. We can and should raise issues (It must make for a better service at the end of the day) and I have not seen other similar sites that offer a forum where members can do this but realistically there will always be restraints on putting what we know to be good ideas into practice. Nice reading your thread @Elleco and I hope @Angela_L might make some comment on what you propose?
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Hi @Elleco thank you for your feedback and suggestions and @carpediem also.
We are in the process of rewriting the Code of Conduct, revising T&C’s and other areas of governance on the site and these valuable member discussions will be taken into consideration by the Product & Development Teams during this revision process and you are absolutely right it is a fine balance and there are many considerations to take into account, however standards of safety and trust should never be compromised for convenience.
To address the original subject of this topic, any member who is aware of or confronted by an aggressive or dangerous animal of any kind in a sit situation, must remove themselves from harm and immediately contact the owner and report it to Membership Services.
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I don’t suppose you want to share your “homeowner questions”with me as a newbie… Do you?