If you are truly curious and want to understand, there are well over 1500 posts across many threads to fill you in on different perspectives. If you want to tell me how to feel and how to value my money, I will pass on that kind of âpositivity,â but thanks all the same. Have a happy holiday. May the season give you time for reflection.
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I meant that having the right to do something isnât a reason to do something.
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But Iâm quite confident that when people do something they have their reasons. And itâs quite common to say âI do it because itâs my rightâ meaning âitâs my wish to exercise this rightâ. Itâs a sociolinguistic convention, just the same as we say â the sun risesâ when everyone knows it doesnât rise at all.
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I fear you are a fairly new member and donât understand the initial ethos of THS which was mutual aid at low cost to everyone. It was fabulous.
I was shocked to see the ÂŁ9 per sit hike. Itâs basically extortionate. And is extortion - get premium membership or pay loads for each sit. Does this apply to one or two day sits too? Also on the T & C front, I just had to re log in and couldnât even read the t & cs, the button didnât work. I then pressed the help link which took me to a phone number which when rung says it is no longer valid and to go to the website. KafkaesqueâŚ. Itâs sad to see such corporate supermarket behaviour: Corner the market and then treat all your loyal customer group like crap.
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I get the sadness, the shock, and even the fury at what is clearly corporate greed at the expense of long term loyal customers. I get why some financially strapped members may be afraid of not having the funds to stay with a platform that has provided positive experiences.
That much said, I canât even begin to wrap my head around someone being insulted or feeling hurt.
Hi all. Weâve been members of THS for three years now and have had a fantastic experience. We have pet sat our way around France, the UK and Australia and also had some fantastic sitters here to look after our cat while doing so. We have met many people who we regularly keep in touch with and who we now consider to be good friends.
The introduction of a fee per sit doesnât necessarily worry me and it wonât stop us using THS in the first instance. When you consider how much accommodation would cost or how much a cattery or kennels would cost it is still a really good deal. THS saved us thousands of pounds during our trip to Australia. We visited Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Townsville and pet sat in every location. It was absolutely amazing and weâre doing it again next February.
I totally understand why people are upset. There are other pet sitting sites but, for us, the international aspect of THS will keep us going, for now anyway. I also get that some peopleâs finances may not stretch to extra fees etc. Weâre not going to become premium members, weâll just pay the fee and it will still save us money for sits and having a sitter.
In the end, successful businesses always raise their prices. Itâs just the way it is. We either accept it or move on. Itâs everyoneâs individual choice, I suppose.
Good luck, everyone, whatever you decide to do!
Ps on the subject of tâs and câs, I never read them to be honest. I just tick the box and carry on. I donât recall having to accept new ones here so I donât know what the shock is regarding them?
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The fuzz is that it is a price increase that doesnât offer any additional benefits. I was a premium member but the benefits were not useful to me so I went back to standard. I sit enough that now the premium tier will be the option I choose once I decide on my plans after my membership expires. Itâs a price increase hidden in a booking fee that does nothing. THS has always advertised a membership and then unlimited opportunities to sit âfor freeâ. This is no longer true. Unlimited opportunities to sits was discontinued with the 5 application enforcement, I am prevented from seeing, or applying to a large percentage of homeowner listings. If the price is a good deal depends on oneâs personal budget allowed for this type of travel. $90 a year increase can push the budget for some people. There are many other cost too including air travel , etc.
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For me itâs not the cost, itâs the crappy way it was rolled out.
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Yes. This 
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Weâve just upgraded to premium for an additional ÂŁ70, but weâre in a really good position because we have free membership until Nov 2030 off the back of referrals so we only pay about ÂŁ70 once only, and itâs free for all of our extra free years, and weâll continue to gain free years beyond 2030.
I totally understand other sitterâs frustrations though, and the way it was rolled out was bad-bad, THS didnât allow anyone to look at their account unless they agreed to the new t&câs, everyone was forced to agree, or they couldnât use their existing membership. All those people who had current sits were given absolutely zero time to review the t&câs, thatâs not on.
That said, weâve had more than our moneyâs worth, pretty much full time accommodation for 3 years. Plus we ONLY paid for our first year and then we got it for free thereafter, not sure why others donât do the same as us, but obviously weâll not be refering anyone new until the dust settles.
Without our referrals it wouldnât have been worth our while in upgrading. We have no use for lounge passes, as we only take 3 hour flights and we only take carry-on luggage, so donât need to be at an airport ahead of time. Also, we had 11 weeks worth of sits cancel in the past, and it only took me 3 days to fill the whole period with new sits, so the likelyhood of meeting the cancellation terms is slim, because if we apply for a sit, we typically get given it, so the cancellation benefit wouldnât kick in.
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I used to recommend the site and have received 3 or so referrals.
However I stopped referring a few years ago as I was embarrassed at the lack of Customer Service and the website as a whole
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Whatâs got to settle? The new fees and policies are in place, Iâm not seeing what else is going to change in the near future.
Unless you are referring to whether there will be a significant dropoff in members and therefore less sits/sitters? Iâd be surprised if enough members leave to make a noticeable difference, my guess is THS will still be the largest platform for the foreseeable future.
Thatâs weird because earlier you couldnât understand the sadnessâŚ. Maybe it would be best if you went on to Facebook where you can make unhelpful comments to your hearts content.
Iâm already on Facebook. Generally my comments are well received as they are here.
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I donât think they are well received. I think youâll see that largely people ignore them, i. E. They arenât âlikedâ. I for one find them irritating and unhelpful as they are mainly just criticising others.
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Both FB and this forum have a very useful âblock featureâ. I use it so I donât see the posts from those whose opinions may be different to mine, on everything, without any self-awareness and sometimes seem to be nothing more than rage bait. If the cap fits, wear it.
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I think what you donât understand here is that while you are technically correct, you are not speaking of the same thing. On THS the users are what THS sells: the access to other users. On book shop books are what the shop sells. So the asset of THS is the paying members the same way the books are the assets of a book shop.
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Yes, one potential change is people leaving the platform.
To put it more complicated: As those who have the most to gain (owners with difficult pets) have higher motivation to stay, and those who are most into the community feeling have higher motivation to leave, it is possible that when dust settles, the kind of sits available are not as desirable as they were earlier. I wonât recommend THS anyway, as I disagree with their business actions (yet I use it - yes things are complicated), but if I did, I would want to make sure that what I am recommending is offering value. As a sitter, that value is (among other things) desirable sits.
The other possible change is the availability of short sits. When I sit, I do it full time for several months. While I prefer long sits, I do also -need- short sits to patch up my sit plan. If there are much less short sits available, the site will not be the same value to me. In this case it is possible the members base stays the same, but their offering changes: for one-two-three nights, it might make sense to just ask the neighbor to feed the cats. Not because 10e fee is much, but because getting a sitter is still always a risk and work, so the 10e is the last straw.
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Agreed. Itâs likely that the quality and quantity of sits and sitters will decrease, itâs a question of how much of an effect there will be and if the remaining members and new members will care, as the alternatives are distant seconds when it comes to the numbers of members.
The effect could be minor, as many of the complainers may ultimately choose to stay after checking out the competition, and although it seems as if there is a huge backlash, itâs quite possible the vast majority of the 250k member base donât really care all that much about a relatively small fee compared to the savings on services and accommodation.
Or, the loud complainers will stick to their guns and not review, it could snowball, with more and more members leaving as they find less quality sitters or available sits and THS regresses to being a minor player in the field or even goes bust. I donât see that happening.
Any real effect wonât be seen for at least another year.