I understand your view. But I just started Jan 2024. And because I spent the winter in the south, I am now at 15, 5 star reviews. I have rave reviews. But I applied to one sit, a few months ago, when I had less than 10. The wife contacted me and thought I was great but her husband was reviewing. Suddenly I got declined. Probably, like you, I didn’t have enough sits. But I am a retired professional, widow. Travelling alone, with my own car and I am getting rave reviews. Sometimes the limitation, limits you on who you get. You could get a relative newby who will be excellent. Take excellent care of your pet, leave your home clean. Keeps a small footprint in your home, no guests. Stays around, not site seeing. Maybe you have a list of questions and you send it out to your applicants. How long do you anticipate being out of the house? do you have a car? Are you traveling alone, anticipate guests? And see how they respond.
Exactly what I said.
@Jenny I believe a number of the comments made in the original thread before you just moved them all to the old Five Applications Pausing Discussion were not directly related to this. I know my comment wasn’t and I would appreciate you removing it from here please.
Hi @temba
Thanks for pointing that out - I’ve moved all the posts back to the new discussion that was started so that I can preserve the whole conversation - as I don’t want to remove anyone’s replies.
We do try to keep anything on five pausing in the main feedback thread, but I’m happy to make an exception here!
For anyone else reading - I merged this post in with our main thread about the five pausing feature - but as @temba pointed out there were unrelated points so I’ve moved everything back to the original conversation.
Jenny
Thank you @Jenny
Shockingly Rover doesn’t do a very good job of background checking (if they check at all).
A woman in my community hired a sitter through Rover who was arrested for a crime he committed while staying at her home. She only learned about his arrest after not hearing from him for three days (while her pets were left unattended in her home). She was horrified to learn that there was also a warrant for his arrest for not appearing for court after committing another violent crime in another city months before he signed up with Rover.
I have heard several horror stories about Rover, which is why I would never use them.
Rover is a big company, according to google they have over two million users, so it’s an over-reaction to say you would never use them because you have heard several horror stories.
Rover is not the problem, the few individuals are.
What about the horror stories you hear about THS, or Doctors, Nurses, Policemen, Teachers et al.
You would never use any service again if you let the actions of a few taint the reputations of the vast majority.
You made a great point. I do not like that either. I have some “requisites” that are always posted in my listing (for example we require liability insurance if the sitter does not have premium or standard membership), and also request a personalized message, to at least know that the sitters have read our listing and not sending a chatGPT generated application copy and pasted to everyone. In my last published dates I am having trouble finding someone and I am also the type of person who always replies / declines with a note to everyone that applies to my sittings. Anyways it would be great to have this limit lifted off, and a button so you can manually pause applications at some point.
And you ask your sitter to send proof of their insurance? I write personalized ChatGPT messages all day long, doesn’t make them any less true. I read everything, express my thoughts in a rough way to ChatGPT, and let it refine them. Nothing wrong with that.
One thing is send personalized messages using ChatGPT (which I also do) and other thing is having an standard message and not even starting with “hello Cristina” or even mention my pets name in the message. Sorry but for me those are a no go. They are people just applying to all sits and did not even spent a second reading my listing.
Yes I do ask to send a proof (screenshot of their standard membership - premium shows already) or a photo/copy of their alternative insurance.
Yes, but why should sitters have liability insurance? Don’t you have one with your THS membership in case something breaks? Do you want your sitter to be using it when a glass breaks, for example?
I’m not sure I understand this part ? Please clarify ? Only THS members can apply - if the application has come through the THS platform they are genuine members , already ID checked . Non members can’t apply . All membership is covered by THS liability.
Are you sure this is also the case with Basic membership?
No, the basic membership does not have any liability insurance included. Liability insurance is required for my sitters. For example: they accidentally break something, the liability insurance (from the sitter) will cover this type of things. For me is mandatory that my sitters have it. My liability insurance @Fatamorgana only cover if I DO damage, not my sitters.
@Jenny please can you confirm with member services if this is correct ?
I disagree with the host having a filter to limit the applicants with number of reviews. We all had to start somewhere and a filter as described would make it even harder for newbies to get a sit. Who knows , someone signing up today may be the sitter of the year next February! Everyone should get a chance if they fit the specific criteria of the sit.
The problem seems to be potential sitters not reading the listing properly or ignoring some of the things the host wishes. Yes, I’ve been cheeky and asked a host if they would consider me and my grandchildren sitting for them. If the answer is no, I recede the application immediately. If it is yes, I apply properly.
The five application rule is a nuisance as everything has to be done in quick time but do sitters realise if they press the apply button they can then research for as long as they like because they are in the queue. If they then decide they don’t want to apply they can discard the application.
It’s been awhile now the 5 only application has been in place and it would be interesting to see if it has helped to spread the successful applicants more as it was intended to do. May we see the data please?
Not true.
I believe there is some confusion here. Liability insurance and home and contents insurance serve different purposes.
- Liability insurance covers accidental damage.
- Home and contents insurance (or the Home and Contents Plan in THS) covers intentional damage, theft, and incidents like break-ins.
Since I rent my apartment, the contents belong to my landlord. If accidental damage occurs—such as breaking the kitchen countertop—my liability insurance would cover the costs. On the other hand, home insurance (or the THS Contents Plan) primarily protects against theft, break-ins, or intentional damage. This is the standard approach in Germany.
As I understand it, the Home and Contents Plan covers theft or deliberate damage caused by the sitter. While I trust in the good faith of people and assume this is highly unlikely, accidents can always happen. That’s why liability insurance is essential for me.
I hope this clarifies my reasoning.