If you do that, you should not wait for notifications. You should refresh the search. Because I have the impression that that is where new dates can be seen first. And I believe that notifications go out up to an hour later.
On a level playing field, the only solution would be some kind of lottery. But I guess that the big investor will start thinking about favouring premium sitters.
Serious! Yes, some strange things!
As we are all members of the THS community/website why don’t we become more considerate of other fellow members by not applying to sits that have not been read for 100% suitability and just applying with short or pre written messages just to get a ‘foot in the door’ as soon as they get listed. Let’s lessen or remove the frustration that the 5-application limit has imposed on us all. This won’t solve all the limitations that this rule has imposed moreover it removes the frustration, as I read in this forum, that owners get receiving unsuitably thought-thru applications and frustrations that most sitters have in not being able to be given any chance of applying to sits that would be ideal for them. You still have to be quick however removing those ‘ghost’ applications just might open a window? I hope this resonates with everyone.
Hi @prholst
I don’t know if it is just me but I don’t understand your thread
I think that @prholst is asking sitters not to send “placeholder” applications (brief applications before the sitter has really read the listing to confirm suitability), because that takes one of the precious 5 applications and prevents other sitters from applying.
I send these placeholder apps for very popular locations because if I wait, I might be too late! If I subsequently decide that the listing is undesirable, I withdraw the app. In theory, I should be able to start an application and read the listing carefully before submitting it. In practice, I have had problems where the wifi went down, the site crashed, or other tech problems where I lost my chance.
The way to remove the frustration with the 5-app limit is to eliminate the limit, but that won’t happen.
Yeah, now the fast ones get the chance instead of the good ones. But as far as I know the HO can choose if they apply to this system. Many of them, however, may not know this. THS is not good in communicating options, only restrictions. Sorry, but my high esteem of this platform service has diminished.
(edited by Forum team to meet Community Guidelines)
@BeckyOnTheHill applications get paused automatically by the system after 5 are received.
Homeowners can not opt of this .
They can decline some or all of the first five applications and then un-pause to ( hopefully) get some more applications .
I’m coming to the party on this issue but surely the answer is to let the home owner decide how many applications they want to consider. Some may only want to consider 5, some 20 and others will accept them all. This could be a simple setting for the home owner.
That is how it was but no longer unfortunately @Paul66
The aim was to share out the sits and speed up communication but in my opinion the jury is still out on that one!
On the flip side - think about it, if you’re both good and fast then you can apply to sits and be in with a good chance of getting them. Maybe try and work out how to get faster? I.e by downloading the app and checking notifications regularly. I will say though that if I was only going for the very most competitive locations I’d be struggling - I’ve wanted a sit in Madrid for months now and have only managed to apply to three, none of which I was picked for! And I’d say I’m pretty fast and write a decent application. So it can’t purely be fast but rubbish people applying as the few times I have made it through, others have submitted applications that were “better” in some way than mine.
Getting faster means more time spent chasing sits as far as I can see.
Checking notifications regularly is time consuming and not everyone is willing or able to do this and is especially problematic for those looking for sits in a different timezone. Whilst there may be ways around these changes surely the point of a responsive customer-centred business is that it works to make the user experience as good and efficient as it can be rather than making changes which on the whole seem to have reduced the quality of customer experience for many sitters and hosts.
Apologies. I know this topic has been discussed many times.
While the comments I’ve read appear to be overwhelmingly NOT in favor of the 5 application policy, THS appears to ignore the feedback. They did take a poll in October , which I only just found out about. But again, no change.
So I’m going to weigh in one more time, in hopes of gaining enough support to create a change in the policy.
I live in the US and joined THS in order to travel to abroad. However, I have only been able to apply for a handful of sits since the 5-app rule began. I get notifications of my Saved favorites in Europe several times a day, but 99% have been scooped up by the time I open the notification. Like running into a brick wall several times a day.
Why do I keep opening the notifications? Because I believe that one of these days I’ll win the lottery and be able to apply in time, and then maybe even get chosen for the sit.
Please, please, please, keep making noise about this issue, if you really are as adamant as I am about changing the rule.
Even 10 Applications wouldn’t be too much to ask for a homeowner, and would give more of us a chance. Thanks for reading.
@Joaniest Not only have THS failed to take general feedback on board, but have actually shut down your latest post and moved it to this thread where people have to scroll through 470 comments in order to read it. Wow – they really don’t want to listen! They’re taking money from both sitters and homeowners on the promise of connecting them, but then effectively limiting the vast majority of communication between the two parties by only allowing homeowners to hear from five applicants at a time, and sitters to only apply for a fraction of advertised sits. Surely there is a middle ground where home-owners can select the maximum number of applicants they want to hear from? At the moment, the THS marketing blurb of ‘180k+ happy members’ isn’t quite ringing true…
i have the app, but it makes no difference. The European sits are under review by the time I open the notification. This happens several times a day and night. SO frustrating.
Thanks Becca. I see they merged my post within minutes of it appearing! I don’t even know who to contact about that? Do you?
Just wanted to clarify that it’s standard practice here on the Forum to merge a new topic when there’s already an extended discussion on the same subject.
We mention that we may do this in our Community Guidelines under “Moderation”:
We thrive as a community on our member’s contributions and the creation of individual topics, however there are occasions when a topic may have already been discussed and the new post is a variation on an existing subject. When this happens, and to help members locate topics of interest keeping all relevant information in one place, we merge the individual post into the most relevant topic covering this conversation.
Apologies if this isn’t something you weren’t aware of previously, as it’s something we’ve done for a while now.
We’re unable to provide any further updates on the subject matter of this thread, but because we know that our members have concerns, we’ve left the discussion open so that our members have a place to vent.
We believe it’s better to have all of those opinions in one place in case the subject matter is reviewed in the future - meaning everyone’s voices are heard here as a collective - instead of potentially being missed.
Jenny
Thanks for the clarification Jenny. However, since there are well over 400 comments on this thread, it is a lot to ask people to spend so much time reading through and actually getting to the latest feedback.
Please recommend to whomever that new threads on the same topic can begin after 100 comments.
I appreciate the fact that there is a platform for feedback. And clearly, this is a topic that is an ongoing concern to your members. Thank you.
I hear you @Joaniest.
What we’ve done previously for another “megathread” is start a new thread when it got to 1000 posts.
I will put it to the team that maybe we could look at doing something similar with this one, as I can imagine 400 posts is a lot to digest.
Leave it with me for now and I’ll get back to you. Appreciate your patience in the meantime!
I have the app. I get notifications all day, and open them instantly. Too late 99% of the time…
Thanks, Jenny!