@Lady_Sue It’s great to hear that this approach is working out for you.
However, I must admit I’m a bit unclear on how that connects to the challenges being addressed regarding premium. While I, too, have had many subjective positive experiences, they seem irrelevant to the matter at hand.
If you do have premium, I sincerely hope it’s proven to be a worthwhile investment and not just an added cost.
Wishing you a fabulous journey and all the best with your upcoming plans!
Let’s hope you won’t need to experience the same issues that so many others have.
I don’t think it’s due to the insurance. What would the evidence be for that? There are always going to be cancellations for good reasons, so the insurance does make sense for people who want a hedge against last minute cancellatios due to those reasons which aren’t that uncommon: family illness, pet illness, a death, unforeseen weather events, etc. Those are facts of life and the tiers and insurance make sense as homeowners would not join or would certainly not choose sitters traveling from far away if suddenly they were confronted with their expenses while in the middle of their own crisis.
You can have BOTH a tiered insurance system, which doesn’t have to be through an actual insurance agency but can be through the fees collected and distributed by THS, AND a system that collects data on cancellation and is triggered by say discrepencies in the stories about why a sit was cancelled and in the same person sitter or host having more than one cancellation within a certain period of time for whatever reason. The point would be to not have a system that completely relies on people “disputing” cancellations for them to even be noticed. In the case of hosts, most will be annoyed but will move on quickly to find someone else unless it’s a no-show on the day of the sit. In the case of sitters getting canceled, again unless they arrive to find no sit, most will move on and try to find another sit or activate the insurance if it’s within the time frame. We shouldn’t be policing each other, but the company we are all paying should be collecting data so it can enforce it’s own rules, and help solve a systematic problem (too many cancellations) by either banning frivolous cancellers or temporarily suspending members who might have an ongoing issue that makes them frequently cancel – even for a valid reason.
Cats and dogs! They are different. It isn’t unusual for sitters to show up for a cat sit while the homeowner is getting ready to leave or even after they’ve gone. As a host, I try to avoid this if possible by giving an edge to sitters who might on other sits in my city and come to meet the cats and pick up keys days before. However, several times the keys were left with neighbors. As a sitter, around a quarter of my cat sits involved a key combination set up for me, key under mat, etc.
THS übernimmt nur einen Teil der Kosten (bis zu $1500 im Jahr bzw. 10 Übernachtungen bis $150) wenn der Sit 14Tage oder weniger vorm vereinbarten Termin abgesagt/ verschoben wird.
Genau dieses Problem hatte ich auch und war sehr enttäuscht von der 14 Tage Klausel.
Teure Flüge bucht man ja schon Monate vorher.
Ich musste daher die Überbrückungszeit auch aus eigener Tasche zahlen.
Hatte vorab zwar bei THS per Mail nachgefragt (zwei Monate vorher), da wurde mir die Kostenübernahme zugesichert, aber als ich dann die Rechnung einreichte, hieß es, laut AGB ist es ausgeschlossen.
THS will only cover a portion of the cost (up to $1500 per year or 10 nights up to $150) if the sit is canceled/postponed 14 days or less before the agreed date.
I had exactly this problem too and was very disappointed with the 14 day clause.
You book expensive flights months in advance.
I therefore had to pay for the bridging period out of my own pocket.
I had asked THS in advance by email (two months in advance), and they assured me that the costs would be covered, but when I submitted the invoice they said that it was excluded according to the terms and conditions.
Edited post to include English translation via Google Translate.