First off, what sparks my post and comments is the recent survey sent out to members.
We joined THS a few months ago. We had our first sit during April. The first sit went wonderfully. Couldn’t ask for a better sitter and experience. Our next sit starts in 3 days. We are feeling very hopeful the upcoming sit will go as well after having a chance to meet the sitters a couple of days ago.
That said, in reading the forum over the last months, it feels as though the opinions from long time owners and sitters is that the original THS experience is slipping away bit by bit. The survey left me feeling like changes are coming that will not be pleasing to sitters or owners. We feel we may have missed out on the best days of THS. We shall see.
THS is what you make of it. It’s an introductory service. It’s up to the thousands of individuals to make it work for them.
I think im termed as an “old timer” and I have to admit I don’t like some of their new policies, others, I’m getting used to and one that I was totally against I’m finding it very helpful while going through the listings.
Don’t loose heart. You will find your niche and how THS works for you. I’m glad you had a good start and long may it continue.
I’ve been using THS for 7 years. TBH it was a lot better in the ‘early days’ (great customer support from actual people rather than bots, much more ‘aligned’ values between HomeOwners and Sitters … ie it’s a equal peer-to-peer sharing platform).
But a lot of sites have suffered from the same issue (due to monetisation/sale by original owner/s) including AirBnB and CouchSurfing.
I’m still happy to be a member though - luckily most of my sits now happen ‘offline’ to lovely people I’ve met through THS and I just do repeat sits for, and is also what I look for in potential new sits.
Unfortunately I’m often approached by newly joined HO who seem to have the idea that it’s a free pet sitting service (I don’t know why) ‘you will be required to arrive at 5pm, etc’. I think THS has some serious work to do managing expectations with their expansion.
@Savuti94 Currently, I think THS is still a very good value. I’m disappointed by features that were removed although the price remains the same.
We shall see how any future changes alter the value of the platform.
No one likes change and to be honest the core concept of matching sitters with home owners is still as relevant today as it was at the beginning. Unfortunately many of the changes mooted seem revenue driven and at odds with the original ethos of the company. This is also true with many platforms that follow an arc from modest beginnings to success. I can only hope that THS has good leadership and a team that are adroit in pulling back concepts that simply don’t work. I will stick with the platform for now and watch its evolution. But I’m also keenly watching for the next player to enter the market (which they will) and I will move to them if they offer a better option. The concept of loyalty to a platform died a long time ago when $$$$ became the primary metric.
Everything was always better last year
I think THS have definitely changed the general vibe with years of advertising it to sitters as a free luxury holiday and to owners as free staff to cater to their pets. Some recents ads seem to be back more to an exchange that so that’s hopeful.
However the drive for expansion and now profit that led to the 5 application limit to cut down on the numbers of sits the more active sitters get access to and the survey that seems to indicate more monetisation to come definitely make it harder work to find what you really want to do. A lot more compromise will be required by sitters and you’ll have to do a lot more of your own vetting.
The overlapping sits.
I’m still against it per se. However it is very handy when going through listings and the system highlights you are already booked for these dates. Saves having to jump from screen to screen.
Yes new HOs seem to believe that they go shopping for sitters by looking at availability on the sitter profile calendar and simply ‘choose’ who they want. I’ve had some very odd discussions with HOs who insist that I’m ’available’…. as if I’m required to sit for them simply because they selected me….
@BonnyinBrighton That’s unfortunately how the THS platform kind of suggests it to work
On the HO front page and on the dashboard there’s a button “Find a sitter”, which takes you to the list of sitters. Then there are options to filter the selection of sitters by date, location etc.
So, I totally understand why a new HO would think that’s how it works, and they get to search sitters available on certain dates and location.
@BonnyinBrighton We recently had a bizarre response from a host after we’d asked what time they needed sitters to arrive and to leave. They messaged to ask why we’d need to know that, when our availability calendar clearly showed we had space at either end of their sit!
