Emails List Countries alphabetically

Hi everyone!
I have been with THS for over a year now, and I love it! Every sitter I have had has been excellent. Until recently I have never had issues finding a sitter.

However, recently there has been a dramatic drop in applications. I think this is because of lack of advertising of certain sits, via the “House sitting opportunities” emails. The emails have always listed sits alphabetically by country. However, they used to list countries past the UK, but now they stop at UK. I looked at emails from earlier this year, and indeed, sits listed in “later alphabet” countries used to be listed. But for the last 5 months or so, the emails drop off these countries. I know maybe it’s a little petty, but it doesn’t seem fair to me. I am wondering if anyone else has noticed this change, and if there is anything we can do about it? Note that I contacted THS already but they seemed to dismiss it…

Cheers!
Sarah

1 Like

Hi @Sarah_H

Thanks for flagging this issue. We have outgrown our daily alert implementation as we now have a lot more listings on the site.

We are currently working on a new email template! Will provide more of an update nearer the time.

Thanks, Ben

2 Likes

Hi @Sarah_H! Another thing to keep in mind is that many fulltime sitters (including us) have commented that they’re booked out for several months. Typically we book sits about 2-3 months out, but we’re currently booked nearly 7 months out! The general consensus seems to be that vacations travel is happening all at once as the world opens up a bit, where as it used to be spread out over the year. So the demand for sitters is higher than it’s ever been.

We wish you the best of luck finding a great sitter!

1 Like

Hi Ben. I understand that this has been the case for a while. My assumption is that it’s the USA listings that aren’t being accommodated. As @Sarah_H has mentioned, that does seem unfair that a workaround isn’t being found. Is it too simplistic to think that, if you’ve outgrown your template allowance, that you couldn’t do a regular release of USA-only sits, to accommodate Sarah’s point? @Sarah_H , I’m guessing that currently USA homeowners have to basically rely on in-country sitters. I’m in Canada and, unless I fly in, I can’t do the sits I’d usually do there. Also, I then have the added expense of COVID testing for me to return home. Currently, for those reasons, I only consider sits in Canada.

For all existing U.S members, we created a U.S saved search, so they can get a preview of new Sits and link to all new domestic listings.

Over the coming months, we are testing improvements to the Saved search email: showing dates, pets and more listings in the email.

We are also testing subscribing members to a domestic/Saved search when members first join. I will keep everybody posted on the progress and if this is a success.

Thanks, Ben

3 Likes

I am using it and very pleased. There is a huge demand for sitters from where I sit. No pun intended. The country (USA) is massive and it is best to search by regions. I currently am flying to my sits so longer sits have greater appeal.
I am declining requests as I am booked now into late March. Have even made adjustments to my intended personal holidays to accommodate requests for repeats and now even family. I love it. My son will be joining soon as I can’t cover his needs. I wish I could clone myself there are so many beautiful possibilities out there.
My advice to HO and sitters, be proactive in looking on the site. Post early your needs and/or availability. People are excited to get out now. Establish relationships, they will yield plenty.
All the best and happy tails to all.

3 Likes

Hi Ben,
Thanks for the reply! I don’t get the US only email- Does this exist yet or is it in development?

Thanks,
Sarah

Hi @Ben-ProductManager
Why can’t we go back to the twice daily emails, or once daily if there still aren’t that many?
Surely this would reduce the number of listings per email?

Hi @Sarah_H so we put in place a temporary fix where we created a Saved Search for U.S members. If we didn’t create one for you. You can make a search and then you have an option to save this search and if new results match the search criteria you will receive a daily email. How do I create saved search alerts on the app? – TrustedHousesitters

Thanks, Ben

Hi @JackieX

The twice daily emails is not scalable solution for us. (It was taking a lot of time to process and is causing performance issues elsewhere on the site.)

We also had some members who found the twice daily alert quite spammy. Some members who loved it.

Based on survey and interview feedback we are working towards an email where members can have preferences and more control over the daily email.

Thanks, Ben

2 Likes

Thanks Ben. This, and another reply you did, shows that there’s no easy fix, and no solution that pleases everyone. Some time ago I created a US saved search. However, the pinging of notifications on my phone soon made me cancel that idea. It went crazy :roll_eyes:

One factor you may need to consider is that many people are nationals of more than one country, so addressing ‘domestic’ or ‘for all existing U.S. members’ may be excluding some. For example, I live at the border of Canada and the USA, and many people I know have both Canadian and American citizenship. I’m guessing that similar situations occur in other areas of the world. Also, full-time nomadic sitters may not be happy with designations for ‘domestic’, which they may not identify with.

It’s unfortunate the idea of releasing the latest listings more frequently isn’t workable, as it does seem like an easy and fair solution. People could then have the option of choosing frequency of emails, as is the case for many other sites.

@Snowbird if you create a Saved search on the web then you will get a daily email with results.

You can create a saved search for U.S and Canada, which means you will get a daily email with both results.

1 Like

Thank you for this suggestion.

1 Like

Hi @Ben-ProductManager I loved the twice daily email, scanning through this gave us inspiration for places we hadn’t even thought of visiting.
We often do housesits while travelling long term as our RnR so are opportunistic in our approaches rather than having a set plan.
What will be the process for just seeing what is out there to replace the backwards step of losing the twice daily email? Surely if people felt it was ‘spammy’ they didn’t have to read it?
If I set up a saved search for anywhere, any time would the system cope with this?

2 Likes

Your suggestion didn’t work well for me. I am at my limit with saved searches (3) with my membership level. I receive instant notifications of individual relevant postings (including location category), which is wonderful. If I remove one of those and add on, let’s say the USA, my phone would ping so often I’d soon turn off notifications. That would defeat the purpose for me. Yes, I could upgrade my membership to have more saved search options, but for so many reasons, I’m currently not willing to do that. I can now understand how frustrated many US members are, who merely want notifications of neighbouring states, not every state.

@JackieX I totally agree with you! I loved the daily emails. Whilst saving sits in your favourites is great for places you know that you wish to visit, having the emails provides inspiration for new places to travel to.
@Ben-ProductManager please provide us with something similar asap

2 Likes