I don’t think noting the number of cancellations on a profile with a percentage, or some AirBnB style-like notation, would be fair because I think it could paint inaccurate pictures of many sitters.
One single incident of illness, injury, a family emergency,etc…could lead a full-time sitter, or someone sitting for an extended period, to have to cancel a large number of sits all at once. A HO checking out their profile, and seeing 12 ‘sitter cancelled this sit’ notations in a row would not be an accurate picture of that person’s reliability.
The issue of blocking out sit dates so they can’t rebook something else is also problematic as someone mentioned above. Someone may want to find a sit in another area to be near an ill family member,etc…
I have been sitting full-time for 10 years and I have only cancelled sits a handful of times and they were always for very legitimate reasons.
I suspect any sitter vouching for this sort of public noting of cancellations has never been in the position of having to cancel a sit. And that is great if you never had to, but you never know what the future holds.
Every time THS has inserted itself more into this process, no one has ever liked the results, especially sitters. If they started doing some of the things people suggest here regarding this particular aspect of the process, I have no doubt it would quickly turn into a ‘be careful what you wish for’ scenario.
I agree that people who appear to cancel frequently should be dealt with in some way, but I don’t think most of the suggestions people make about it are the best way to handle the problem.
The other thing they know very well is the number of insurance claims for last-minute cancellations. Based on the extra cost of premium membership, one can estimate an upper limit of a few percent cancellations
That’s a great idea @BonnyinBrighton because if a sitter or owner does have a genuine emergency for cancelling a sit, why would they then need to re-book a sit or sitter for the same dates!
@Crookie
One possible reason would be a full-time sitter dealing with a sick family member wanting to be near them to help with their care, or in the case of a death, wanting to be near the funeral.
Also, for example, If a person needed to cancel a one-month sit because of a death in the family that would be tended to over the course of a few days, I don’t think it would be fair that they couldn’t book any more sits for that whole period.
I’ve just had the experience of a HO cancelling for a 2nd time…… however as a local sit it’s less of an issue for me (I won’t disclose here the private reason for the HO cancelling) the messages letting me know were very apologetic but because we’d had good communication already so that I had a context I entirely understood. It’s a sad situation, and any inconvenience for me is simply minor when compared to what the HOs are experiencing.
See. I don’t see the transparency as a penalty. A penalty would be a cancellation fee or charge.
It would be nice if TH was proactive in doing something about it, but they aren’t which is why I want the transparency in the first place. It seems that many of the forum members are honest and honorable, but in recent years, there has been a shift for the worse. I’m talking about for both sitters and H.O.s
Legitimate cancellations can always be explained. Having infrequent cancelations can always be explained and doesn’t signify an issue in my opinion.
However, if someone has 5 different cancellations over the span of a year - that signifies a problem and I want to avoid a sitter like this. Of course, things need to be on a case-by-case basis, but the current way cancellations are being handled isn’t working. That’s all I know. There are no regulations with this current system to protect H.Os and sitters.
@BonnyinBrighton, That actually would be a great solution, but I see @systaran and @KC1102 points about that. There could be an emergency where a sitter seeks accommodations (Family illness, death of loved one). Not that this is the majority of emergencies at all, but I guess it doesn’t seem fair to penalize the ones that are honest and legitimately need to rebook.
It is not uncommon that sitters have many more sits than that lined up. Then something happens, maybe they fell when walking a dog and sprained an ankle. And the sitter would need to cancel a string of sits.
If you need better reliability, you need to hire a sitter via a company that can send a replacement sitter.
Perhaps it is just a run of bad luck, but we have had 3 sits scheduled in the past nine months where if the responsibilities/behaviour had been signalled on the listing, we would not have accepted the sits and therefore not needed to cancel. Yes, we shoud
have vetted HO’s thoroughly. And as experienced sitters, we blame ourselves for that.
We would never cancel except for genuine emergencies or for reasons listed above. But it’s unreasonable to be tied into a sit for example, with a dog described on WG as aggressive around other dogs and strangers coming to the house!
There was a woman that worked at the same place as my husband that constantly had bereavement leave, it got so wacky that my husband was concerned there’d be no-one left in this woman’s family! And he was pretty sure her grandmother had died twice.
Similar to yours, also ‘worked’ with a young lad who had an ill family member virtually every Monday. Turns out he was playing online poker during Sunday nights/Monday mornings
We did a pre sit visit at the HO request, 2 months prior to a 2 months sit. We noted that the cat was sluggish with a large growth on its side. No explanation was given and we didn’t like to ask. The cat sadly died 3 weeks before the sit was due to commence. Obviously,we werent needed.
We agree, there is a need for transparency and accountability and the ball is very much with THS.
I find that really difficult to understand. What does one do a pre-sit visit for? (I will do one tomorrow. Sit advertised on a Dutch site, not much information in the listing. Seems really nice though, this visit will be worth it either way.)
We were merely an hour away by train so HO requested a pre sit visit. Yes, we should have asked about the lump, instead of leaving the ‘elephant in the room’, so to speak.
@Catin88 Thanks for your comment. The blocking off of dates could also be problematic for a HO as well. For example, let’s say a HO believed they needed to cancel a sit for a really legitimate reason, but then circumstances changed and they actually are going to take their trip. To not allow them to create a listing that contains any of the dates that are now ‘blocked’, therefore not allowing them to use the service they paid for, would not seem like a good system.
I know cancellations can be really problematic for both hosts and sitters in a variety of ways, but there is risk in everything, and the possibility of cancellations are unavoidable. I just don’t think a lot of the suggestions are good ideas, and no one ever seems to be happy with the change THS makes to address the various problems that crop up. I think the less they involve themselves the better. Ultimately they are a matching platform, and I don’t think they should get too heavy handed on restricting what people can and can’t do on either side.
Cancellation information would be useful, but I’m not sure how well it would work with the way the THS is currently structured.
First because only pet owners have the ability to cancel by pushing a button. It wouldn’t be fair to have sitter requested cancellations end up on the pet owner side.
Second because sitters can’t receive the official Welcome Guide until after they’ve accepted the sit. It wouldn’t be fair to the sitter to have a “cancellation” recorded due to the pet owner not disclosing important information before providing the WG. Same with significant changes made to the WG, responsibilities, pet health, pet behaviors, extra pets, etc. at a later date.
if the HOs had to pay few quid to the Sitters tht would certinly cut down on the cancellations … the HOs get the best part of the value proposition … you don’t get chaance to sightsee at any of these sits because the dogs spaz when nobody is around …
I’m very sorry that happened to you. That’s not your fault at all. The H.O.s blatantly lied and were deceitful.
In cases like that, I don’t think cancellations should be made public. If a sitter or H.O. was found to be deceitful in their application/welcome guide, the other party definitely should cancel
You did the right thing. Who knows what would have happened if you went through with the sits - drama for sure.
