I mean, many of us would be upset at the introduction of any fee at all, but starting with a lower amount would make it more palatable.
Another option (which is what couchsurfing did when they made the annual fee mandatory) would be to give existing members their first full year free - meaning the next renewal until the end of that renewal. Clearly they have invested in the tech infrastructure to differentiate between who needs to pay and who doesn’t, so that would not have been a big deal on the back end.
Yes, they try to hang on to you. There’s probably a commercial team meeting going on right now where people are saying, “Well we expected this push-back. It’ll die down after a few weeks, it always does. Anyway, most people don’t follow through on their threats to leave - we’ve seen that before. And we’ve costed in the ones who do, so they don’t matter.”
Enshittification, coined by Cory Doctorow, describes the three-stage process where online platforms degrade in quality: first attracting users with great features, then prioritizing business customers (like advertisers), and finally extracting maximum value from both users and businesses, leaving a worse product but still dependent users, seen in Google, Facebook, and Amazon’s decay. It’s a pattern of “platform decay” where companies shift value from users to businesses, then to shareholders, exemplified by rising ads, spam, and worse search results.
The Three Stages of Enshittification
Benefit Users: Platforms offer high-quality, free services to build a large, captive user base (e.g., early Google search, Facebook’s initial appeal).
Benefit Businesses: Once users are locked in, platforms start prioritizing business customers (advertisers, sellers) by degrading the user experience (e.g., more ads, less relevant content).
Benefit Shareholders/Executives: The platform extracts maximum profit from both groups, often through algorithmic “twiddling,” leading to a heavily degraded, ad-filled, or spammy service that users still can’t easily leave (e.g., modern Google, Amazon, LinkedIn).
Nice one THS. I think about 30 sits so far and 5⭐️ reviews from all our hosts but if you think we are paying a booking fee AND a membership fee you are mistaken. We’ll not be renewing.
I’ve just been alerted to new T&Cs, drawing attention to clause 17 which includes:
17.7. WE DO NOT ACCEPT ANY LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FOLLOWING:
17.7.1. any additional sums incurred by the Member as a result of the processing of their Membership Fee and/or the payment of any refund due to the Member (such as Member bank charges);
17.7.2. any loss of income or loss of savings you may suffer or extra costs you incur arising from a Sit or the performance/non-performance of a Sit. ;
17.7.3. the retention, deletion or loss of your Member Content. It is your sole responsibility to maintain backup copies of your Member Content;
I feel exactly the same as this. For many sits looking after a pet is work (I’m not saying it’s not enjoyable, but it still is!). When I tell people I don’t get paid they can’t really believe it, but I say it can be a fair trade off if you land the right sit in a nice place.
Then there’s also the length of sits. Is it going to be £9 for a 2 night sit and also £9 for a month long sit? People who need sitters for shorter sits are going to lose out here, because people will be reluctant to pay an extra £9 for short ones.
THS are delusional if they thought this wouldn’t go down with members like a cold sack of sick.
I’m truly stunned and disappointed by this decision by THS! I’ve worked very hard over the past 5 years to become a nearly 30 time five star sitter (and maintain that status) only now to be rewarded for this by paying another £9/$12 for each sit? Makes no sense! Instead, how about penalising those who cancel sits rather than the rest of us who play by the rules?
I truly hope that THS reconsiders this decision or I may need to take my business, as well as my many repeat clients, with me elsewhere. I doubt very much that they are happy about this either.
I’ve always taken pride in recommending THS to others, which has been free advertising for them. Not anymore! I will not be recommending THS to anyone going forward. Nice job THS. Very disappointing indeed
Well there goes the one and two night sits advertised any chance of getting a sitter. We will be doing one week or more from now on. And any repeats will be done of the site.
I’m no data expert, and may be reading 17.7.3 incorrectly but it’s the data handler’s job to keep data safe. Therefore, THS need to ensure that there is no problem with retention, deletion or loss of member content; it’s not the members job to do that.
I asked Frankie the bot how to backup my Member Content and it doesn’t know. There’s nothing relevant in the FAQs either. So, ask too many awkward questions and your data could be lost, without any backups to retrieve and restore it.
You’ve got to be kidding. We’ve been members for more than seven years, completed over 70 five-star housesits, and we honestly have no words for our disappointment. The service has steadily declined while the fees kept rising, and now this. Do you not realize you already have far too few housesitters? You’re about to lose many more, because this is simply outrageous. RIP THS. It was a great ride, but you managed to ruin it.
Nah I am absolutely FUMING about this absolutely disgusting manoeuvre from TH. The yearly membership is already extremely costly and now with this added booking fee? Its basically a push to get majority of people on the more expensive Premium membership. I have recommended this site to SO many people but now feel like I can no longer do so.
Thankfully my membership renewed last month so it will be a year for me before this kicks in (very much hoping in that time based on the members response TH will do a swift about turn on this dumb ass move!)
I can definitely see many members leaving, especially those who have succeeded in doing lots of return sits. I personally used this hobby as a way to see new places so I rarely do return sits, though moving forwards if someone I have sat for previously does list new dates, there’s nothing stopping me and the rest of us from confirming outside the site.
Shameful TH, and a decision that will tank your platform
