Hi! We’re brand new to the site and just posted our first opportunity a few days ago. We’ve had no response and don’t know what a normal time is before we see some. Is there any way to tell if anyone is even looking at our post? We leave in 3 weeks, so I’m a bit concerned. Thanks!
Sitters that had your area as a Saved search should have gotten a mobile notification or an email alert. If they would have been interested, they would probably have sent you an application already because it the sit is so soon.
Quite a few HOs are struggling to find sitters now.
Welcome to the forum
If you follow the instructions below to add your listing to your forum profile we my be able to offer some suggestion to help:
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Hoping you’ll come back and link to your listing! Folks on the forum are happy to look at your listing and can give you good advice if something isn’t clear or might not be very inviting for sitters.
Realistically you have left it a little late for a sit that comes close to or includes easter especially considering airfares etc will also be pretty expensive at this stage. Experienced sitters will have likely already made plans. That doesn’t mean you won’t still get some applications but I’d recommend making sure you have a plan b in place in case those applications don’t meet your expectations.
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Yay welcome! Definitely follow the advice to link your listing. I’ve been put off of sits just by the second or third photo! (Usually because it’s messy, but many times because the house looks fine but the photos are terrible - shows lack of effort.) Also when people don’t bother to write much information - only one or two short sentences - I wouldn’t bother with them because I think they’d expect me to be a mind reader!
Just to say … the saved sit notification definitely does not work for me. I get no notifications whatsoever even though I have saved sits and favourites. I’ve reported this to the THS team several times and the advice they’ve given me to ‘solve’ it has never worked so NancyM certainly shouldn’t rely on this being the case
She can be sure that most notifications do go out.
That does not help you, but if you want help with computer problems, you need to be precise and specific. We did a bit of a test here a few weeks ago, and despite all the complaints there were just a few participants. But we could see that notifications did go out all over the globe.
Hi, I get a daily “Saved search” email which shows things which have popped up in my saved searches. That’s it, but I’m sure I went through the notification options on my web browser to select that as the only emails that come through.
For your phone - and I’m sure that you’ve already done this, but if you go into Settings, then Apps, then select the TrustedHousesitter app - it may have notifications switched off. Sometimes when there’s an app or phone update it messes with all the notification settings. Sometimes of course it’s just because some phones are a pain in the bum!
I’m on the forum daily and didn’t see this informal “study”. I’ve never gotten notifications.
It was in this thread: Sits gone by the time I receive an alert - #30 by HelloOutThere
Members should be able to get alerts by email. When that does not work, I cannot imagine that it would be too difficult to find out why. And to fix it.
The android problem is probably more difficult.
What “Android problem”?
Given that the majority of global cell phones are Android phones it would seem that these features would be optimized. I don’t get any notifications other than a daily update which is full of sits that are already full.
Never saw this post. Thanks for the link.
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The android version of the app has problems. I don’t have an android phone, but as I understand it the basic problem is that the THS app does not show up in the list of apps that can have notifications enabled.
I have no idea how many members are affected by this problem, but it seems to be a substantial fraction. It is unclear whether this has anything to do with the brand of the phone. There are also members that report that it used to be working but that it stopped.
Companies often prioritize development and updates on iOS over Android, because even though there are more Android phones, Apple phone owner demographics skew higher when it comes to earnings, disposable income, money to invest and such. That’s agnostic of THS.
It’s the operating system, not the brand of phone that matters. Like various companies make Android phones.
Businesses often optimize for revenue, not just sheer membership numbers. The more affluent your customer base, often the more valuable your company, because people tend to be less price sensitive and you can sell them additional products or services, for instance.
Not all customers are equal from a business perspective — big businesses (or ones that want to become big) often have an ideal customer profile and try to cater to them the most. They want to retain and multiply such users. They’ll serve other users as well, but they’re not the focus. That’s agnostic of THS.
The THS app is not a revenue producing app, they make their money from subscriptions, so differing demographics of users does not explain why THS does not invest in developing the app to work better for Android users.
Yes iOs is much easier for app developers. But fully half of UK users have Android phones and it seems that THS would invest in the development of the Android app. But it does seem that THS doesn’t invest in technical solutions from other issues discussed on the forum.
@Jenny can you update us on the issues with the app not working properly on Android phones and what THS is doing to rectify the issues with notifications? I’m on a Pixel 8 pro if it matters and do not get notifications.
Many companies’ apps don’t make money directly, yet they’ll still prioritize iOS, because they prioritize those users’ experiences. Of course, if resources were unlimited, they wouldn’t have to make such choices.
I doubt that any company that has a non revenue app without advertisements is prioritizing any user experience. Demographics are irrelevant in a non revenue producing app.
iOs is far easier/cheaper for app developers versus Android. So the iOs apps will often come out first versus Android. But THS has had enough time to invest in the development of both. Half of their users in the UK are on Android phones.
OK, doubt away. I’ve spent a decade in tech and have seen this firsthand for companies where I’ve worked or advised.
Maggie, you may be surprised to learn that you are not the only one with tech and marketing experience on the forum.
Companies with revenue producing apps make all sorts of decisions based on the data from and demographics of their users. THS does not generate direct or indirect revenue from their app. They make their money from subscriptions. It’s iOs ready because it’s far simpler and cheaper to develop apps for iOs.
But the point I am making if you’ll please stop distracting from my point is that it’s a company based in a country with 1/2 of their citizens using Android phones and they need to develop a fully capable Android app.
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Yup, some of us tech folks actually have chatted off THS.
I wasn’t trying to derail your point — I was sharing context that might be why you haven’t seen the updates or improvements you want. But I’ll hop off, because I’m not looking for drama.