Oof. I just saw a “new!” listing that is far from it. I had read it a couple of weeks ago, and it was still active just a few days ago. But with zero applications despite being in a popular place (Lisbon) and being a cat sit. Well, there was quite a nasty exchange between HO/HOs and a past sitter, and it did not reflect well on the HO.
Now suddenly a “new!” listing shows up, with no past sits/reviews. Same people, same sit.
I assume this is a case of one HO paying for a new listing. If not, I would hope THS didn’t delete the negative review(s).
Unfortunately, what this does is make sitters more wary of “new!” HOs. Kinda like how bad Airbnbs start over.
It’s Lisbon, cat sit, Dec start date. Don’t want to post the link and dox myself, since THS still has our personal profiles attached to any link we provide.
(Post edited by the Forum team to comply with the Terms of Service)
The homeowner probably hid the first listing (since you can’t cancel once a sit is booked and completed on the platform), and then created and paid for a brand new account and created a new listing, in which case there would be no prior review history. Hopefully the host learned their lesson the first time around.
Thank you for sharing this. I would hope that my membership fee would pay for THS to help keep the listings on the platform from gaming the ratings and review system. I see no value from THS, other than a matching platform. I feel claims of help, service and assistance especially for sitters are completely a marketing front. Listening to homeowners, they have expressed similar frustrations. When you really are in a bind and need help, THAT is when I would hope THS would assist. I’ve seen zero evidence of this being the reality.
The same thing happened for a cat sit in Stockholm. The old profile disappeared, up came a new one. The old one had a 3 star review and some 5 star ones containing critical remarks.
THS has only ever been a matching platform. I think of it like I would for dating apps. If I were to set up a date on one of those apps, what kind of help, support or intervention could I expect from the dating app when my wife finds out? I expect about the same from THS and proceed with using it accordingly. Do otherwise is to delude myself.
