Ouch 
At least this year the accumulated sit fees will add up to less than upgrading my membership. But now I won’t take any sit that lasts less than a week. I notice that there are a fair number of short sits in my area that have no applicants.
I will never understand why THS didn’t just raise the membership fees by a small amount rather than go through the trouble of collecting these sitter and host fees: double-dipping every sit if the members don’t have premium memberships. Good luck to all the HOs asking for sitters for short sits going forward. Furthermore, they’d better change their advertising to reflect the changes. No longer is it accurate to say “unlimited sits covered by membership fee” for either party.
I’ve stopped doing short sits now.
It would have to be very special for me to do under a week I think. For a two of three day sit by the time you get there, the pet gets used to you, you are ready to leave again.
I’m worried about the ramifications of the new fee as well. My renewal comes up soon, so I will be paying the fee if I don’t go to premium.
I am both a sitter and a homeowner. As a sitter, I actually prefer shorter sits, and I’m worried that homeowners won’t list them as much if they think they won’t get any applications. As a homeowner, I sometimes list short sits, and I will offer to pay the fee if the sitter is not a Premium member. Short sits have never been that popular, but I usually find someone local who is just starting out and looking for reviews. I just hope I continue to be able to do that with the new fee in place since people will naturally be shying away from short sits.
@sledgejoyce As a sitter I appreciate your offer/intention to pay the sitter fee for short sits. I think that is a very helpful offer and I, for one, would be more interested in your sit (if it fitted my schedule ofcourse) It would be helpful to write this offer at the top of your listing. It will be a selling point for sitters who are avoiding short sits because if the fee. Our membership is up for renewal in September so the fees are looming.. still debating whether to upgrade to Premium- at the next Black Friday offer or just pay the fees and aim for longer sits. We used to do a lot of short sits, especially at the beginning when building up reviews or as gap fills. But less often now so its less relevent. Much as I dislike the fees, or the pressure to Upgrade to avoid them, the reality is that the fee is worth paying if a gap-fill sit means avoiding costly hotel nights..
They need reoccurring revenue
The reality is to raise the same revenue that individual sit fees is going to, it would not have been a small increase in the annual fee, it would’ve been a substantial increase. For a sitter doing an average of 5 a year, which is a conservative guess, they would’ve had to raise the annual fee by $60. That’s a big jump. I assume they think a smaller fee per sit is not as noticeable.
Same. I used to take short sits just to help out my fellow humans but now I won’t. I work in a school and have the whole summer off unpaid so paying more to help people doesn’t make any sense. Any sits I take will have to have something really special like a hot tub, pool, or offer food or … I doubt I will stay for more than another year. This is my 7th year with over 30 sits.
Hi Lokstar,
Going to preface this by saying I’m quitting the forum* because I feel like I’m being a gloomy gus and don’t want to be a voice of negativity, but IMO you should either upgrade or not upgrade or not renew, all legit choices, but yours. The idea of relying on homeowners to pay a fee on short sits basically means you will still pay the fee to THS and they will pay you to pay them. So if this as a principled stand against fees, it’s not because they still get paid. If it’s an economic one, you are basically passing on your cost to another member – a homeowner. Given that you don’t know what else the homeowner has done at their own cost – hired a cleaner, bought a new suitcase holder, or by their own effort – scrubbed away cobwebs, cleaned the oven, or their economic situation – long delayed visit to grandson can barely afford the petrol, it feels a bit unfair to ask them to pay for your decision regarding membership tier.
The truth is very few homeowners read the forum and if they find they can’t fill short sits or people suddenly apply but then start in on demanding this odd amount of money, there are just going to be fewer homeowners using the site with any regularlity and fewer sits. So far no one has suggested I pay a fee and I still get applicants when I use the public listing system, but if someone asks, it will be an automatic decline for me. As I find it frankly insulting Like my home and hospitality isn’t good enough. My sit is not high value enough without my paying this weirdly symbolic amount. It also feels profoundly unequal. All sitters get the same deal from me which is generous and hospitible one. I’m not giving people who don’t have premium a special reward that other people don’t get.
(Asked but the account is still open and I can’t resist popping in till it’s gone)
@anon9376833 Just to say I was not speaking about myself personally. I would never dream of asking a host to pay my fee! But if they offered, because they want to and it feels worth it for them, then I would not refuse! I was commenting to @sledgejoyce on their offer to pay the sitter fee for their short sits. I personally think its a good incentive to entice a sitter who may otherwise not apply. And ofcourse they can also just choose a sitter who has Premium or doesn’t mind the fee. I also explained my point of view clearly and the choices we, personally, are considering. And I also commented that the fee is far less than the cost of an overnight pretty much anywhere so in the case of potentially expensive gap fills the fee would be more than worth it.
The fees were a very unwelcome introduction to the sit experience and, as you know, there have been huge discussions about it. Ultimately each member will choose how they wish to respond to it and therefore they may also face consequences. In the end it will all sort itself out.
@anon9376833 I will be sorry to see you leave the forum. Maybe you just need a break for awhile?
I’m With Cathie, Marion, I’ll be sorry to see you leave the forum. I really love your thoughtfulness and balanced thinking. I don’t agree with this one topic, I think it’s fine for HO to offer to pay the fee. But I still appreciate your point of view and will miss it if you bow out.
No, I won’t be doing short sits anymore due to the fee. What a shame.
Maybe THS feel that they need to recoup the lost renewal fees from when members are able to claim the referral extended membership, sometimes for months & years before renewal is due again?
A few months ago I logged how many sits were still open for the next day. I think it was in the 50 to 60 range. I just did a count and there are 126 listings asking for a start date of tomorrow. For the geeks like me, here are some details of those 126 listings:
82 - for less than a week (about 90% were for the June 26-28 date range)
44 - for more than a week
Of those, here’s a breakdown by location:
78 - USA (of 6507 available)
29 - UK (of 3787 available)
19 - other than USA or UK
As I see it, many who just want a weekend covered are at a higher risk of not getting their listing filled. I have to think that the booking fee in part is a factor.
I am curious, whether, in your data collection, you looked as to whether those sits had applicants. There is a possibility the sits were listed, the hosts decided not to travel, but never got around to canceling the listing.
@Auscal No, I didn’t extract that information. However, at times I do look at that and often notice that there are applicants.
How much are the fees? As a HO, my first thought when I heard about the fees were to offer to pay them but I don’t know how much they are!
They are the same for sitters and hosts. So whatever the cost in your country it’ll be the same for sitters.
Not all members currently pay the booking fee. It depends on the membership level and renewal dates.