Gauging by this thread and another the OP created, they might prefer to not get any applicants and instead get their money back if possible.
THS works for some folks, but not everyone. If for instance someone doesn’t want to market their sit (as mentioned in another thread by the OP), it’s probably a nonstarter.
Thing is, THS is cheap compared with paying for sitting or kennels/catteries. There’s no free lunch. The reason is it’s so much cheaper is because the hosts and sitters all trade off things and put in effort. Like marketing is a given on both sides. Otherwise, it’s unlikely that matches will be made. And if someone doesn’t want to deal with planning or coordinating schedules, that also makes THS unlikely to work well. Like if someone prefers to do things last minute or serendipitously, the risk becomes higher that they won’t find matches or will have to settle for weak matches, which boosts the odds of sits not going well.
Those are just realities of bartering this way. That doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with such exchanges — they’re just not for everyone.
And it’s everyone’s responsibility to read up or otherwise get info if they’re signing up. Many of us were able to figure things out, because there’s a lot of info on the platform about how it works. That info is available to anyone before they join. No membership required.
We all have different means. If the membership cost is dear to some, then it would seem that they should make even more effort to get informed before signing up.
From the OP’s other thread: