I am both a sitter with vast experience/super reviews and a pet parent. My membership is due to renew in Dec but I am thinking of letting it lapse due to the impossible competition for highly desirable sits that fill up in minutes – 3 weeks plus, no car needed or car included, cats or easy-ish dogs that can be left occasionally for more than 4 hours, etc. Not to mention the many ways THS has lost my loyalty over the years, from requiring background checks for US sitters only (insulting), to reordering the sections of my profile without telling me, to broken app notifications, and on and on.
What happens if I let my membership go? Is my info gone forever? What if I return in 2 years? Thank you.
If you don’t renew, everything on your profile as well as all your reviews will remain. Legally I think it’s two years but this below states a little different. I have lapsed and renewed before and everything was still there. I hope you can remain.
My membership is currently lapsed (since July '22). I was informed that they keep my profile, reviews, details etc. for two years. But I did take screenshots of my profile page and all my reviews, just in case!
@Shella_in_the_Forum , two years used to be the cutoff but before responding I wanted to double check. I could find nothing about this on the Help Desk so wrote to Membership Services. I received this reply:
The answer used to be 2 years from expiry to deletion of account. But now with new European privacy laws, the answer is not too clear. But, rest assured we are never in a hurry to delete a utilized membership after it has lapsed.
I have just replied asking for the official THS rule regarding this. I’ll post when I hear from them again.
UPDATE: This is the most recent reply I received:
The most accurate answer I can provide is we will endeavor to keep all profiles and listings available for 2 years unless local laws in a particular jurisdiction prevent this due to privacy concerns.
If you want a more specific answer, I would suggest you contact Membership Services directly.
I’ve let my sit lapse a couple of times and THS have told me I can renew any time (but this is subject to change).
Be sure to make sure ‘autorenew’ is switched off. If you’re charged, just let them know and they will refund you. THS customer service has been great in my experience.
When you autorenew you lock in the current member pricing.
I’ve had so many amazing holiday experiences via THS since 2018, and even though I really struggle to find even half-way decent opportunities on the site these days, I still look at it first before airbnb and booking(dot)com, because even ONE one-week sit in London makes the membership fee worth the investment.
