Hi, I’ve completed a fair few sits, however, I am new to this forum so apologies if I am posting this in the wrong place (let me know if I should move it elsewhere). I just wanted to raise my ongoing frustrations with the THS search and map functions.
Has anyone else noticed that the region borders (especially UK counties) often fail to capture all sits within the region you search for? A classic example of this is when you search “Yorkshire” results for the North Yorkshire coast AND almost all of East Yorkshire are excluded from this search. The reason I know these are excluded is because you can simply drag the map after the search and all of a sudden sits in places like Whitby and Hull appear on both the map and results list.
Now, you may say this is pedantic because I have just mentioned an easy fix above… however, this bug will skew any ‘saved search’ notifications and results which is not only frustrating as a sitter but also very unfair on any owner who lives in those excluded areas.
Please feel free to use this thread for any other search function and map issues.
@Euan Welcome to the community forum and it is lovely to have you here
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback about the map and search locations.
I had a quick look to assist you further and it might help to set up saved searches in Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and East Riding of Yorkshire to make sure you cover all areas that you are wanting to sit in.
Here is what the search terms look like in the search bar:
I did a lovely housesit with Oreo the Cat in North Yorkshire previously, but am not from the area so did a quick Google for Hull and that came up under East Riding of Yorkshire.
I am originally from Sussex and did a quick search for Sussex and the search results are split into East Sussex and West Sussex. So it looks as though the map is picking up the locations as individual counties.
I am always keen to learn about the country I grew up in and I always though that ‘Yorkshire’ covered the whole are, had a quick Google and was surprised to learn that it was split into 4 counties!
So it might be that the map is functioning that way? I am more than happy to pass this feedback on for you and if you would like to add the link to your THS sitters profile to your forum profile so that others can view it and connect here is how:
@Carla_C These definitions of areas of Yorkshire are hugely inconsistent.
The Ridings of Yorkshire (North, East and West Ridings) are the historic counties that existed up until 1974.
North Yorkshire is one of the current administrative areas (North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and East Yorkshire/East Riding of Yorkshire/previously also known as North Humberside
Yorkshire should include the whole of Yorkshire. i.e all the current and historic administrative areas listed above
It seems bizarre that the THS map / search facility allows you to search for the East Riding, or for North Yorkshire, but not for South or West Yorkshire.
Interestingly, typing “West Yorks” into the search produces one town/village “Crofton West Yorks”
Typing in “West Riding” produces “West Riding, United Kingdom” and “East and West Ridings, United Kingdom” but how is the average non Yorkshire sitter supposed to know to search for these terms as they don’t even mention Yorkshire.
Oldham and Rochdale in Lancashire appear if you search for Yorkshire. However Hull, Beverley, Withernsea and Hornsea do not and they are actually in Yorkshire!
Driffield in East Yorkshire appears in the search for “Yorkshire”. However sits in other towns and villages that appear in the “East Riding” search do not appear in the “Yorkshire” search as @Euan correctly pointed out
How on earth are sitters from other countries looking for sits in Yorkshire supposed to find some of these sits if they don’t appear in the search for “Yorkshire”? And @Euan is right, homeowners in Eats Yorkshire/East Riding are at a disadvantage as their sits won’t appear in saved searches for Yorkshire.
@Debbie Thank you for the further insight into this, I completely see where you are both coming from. As mentioned I had to play with the search and have a Google to see what might be happening.
My reply was from what I could see from just having a look and to help the member be able to set up saved searches so they were not missing any great sits. It was not from a technical standpoint but rather a workaround to help at the time.
Of course, it would be helpful if it all came up under Yorkshire for those that do not know the different areas to search.
I believe that the map used is pre-populated and THS does not insert individual locations (ie build the map from scratch, but they might be able to adjust some things), but I can clarify that and can also ask if they can look into this based on this feedback.
Thank you for looking into this and for your helpful insights
@Carla_C as someone who was born and grew up in York I was interested to check what @Euan had noticed. He is also correct that places like Scarborough and Staithes don’t appear when you search for “Yorkshire” only if you search for “North Yorkshire”. I am now spending my evening happily viewing and favouriting sits in my native county!
I understood that the map wasn’t something THS built and maintained themselves, but something they paid for to be integrated into their website. The inconsistencies in the geographic regions available just for Yorkshire and the fact that some sits can be seen in both the whole “Yorkshire” search and the sub-region, while others can only be seen in a sub-region is very concerning. If this pattern is repeated across the world, how do we know if we are seeing all sits available in an area we are interested in? I honestly don’t think the current map is fit for purpose.
That is awesome to hear! I hope you find some amazing ones. We loved our 8-week sit in Bedale and it’s the only time I have been to the area. Harrogate was a favourite of ours and we loved the cream teas!
I copied all of your comments and insights to the internal product channel and will also add in the last part as it is important to know that the map is accurate across the globe as you said. Thank you for following up on this.
Hi @Carla_C, thank you for passing this onto the internal channels. Hopefully these minor map glitches will be fixed by whomever is providing the map data. Much appreciated.
@Debbie thanks for pushing home the point! The only reason I noticed this error is due to the fact that I am cycling and pet sitting around Yorkshire for 3 weeks in August and was hoping to spend some time by the coast. For weeks I just thought there were no THS listing near the Yorkshire coast as I always just searched “Yorkshire”. Luckily, after a while I searched the individual coastal towns which made me realise the search boundaries weren’t all too accurate. I’m glad future fellow admirers of Yorkshire won’t have this problem on THS.
I’m a sitter and yes you are completely correct. I live in Durham (so I search for N Yorks alot too), and if I search for Durham it’s fine, as it picks up the city and the neighbouring villages, but if I search for County Durham it only shows a tiny amount. The same for N.Yorks and Cumbria.
Personally, I’ve gave up searching via the County after about day 2 of joining. I now just search for a certain large town, zoom out on the map to cover an even larger area and then visually scan down the list of sits.
I don’t think other countries (ie mainly the USA) recognise how much we use our County names, we use them just as much as they use their State names.
So yes, you are completely 100% correct. But I think alot of UK sitters would have realised that quite quickly, so maybe we all do the same by searching via a town and scanning out on the map so that the list ends up covering most of the county.
I feel sorry for the pet owners who put their County name as the main place name, as I never search that way anymore, due to the issue in the first place.
@HappyDeb The only annoying thing with that is the map window is a tall rectangle (even taller on the mobile app) so it picks up places far further North and South than one would like. A map feature where you could draw the boundary or add multiple locations to one search would be a great help. I understand that may be too big a change/effort to include but hey if you dont ask you dont get!
