Cart before the horse!
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HOs especially with premium may insist you do them through the system of insurance or other reasons.
I’m married to IT, and IT has been working from home for the past three years, so I know enough to know that if they are overhauling the system this could take months at least with beta testing and who knows what along the way. It’s very clear from the feedback in this discussion that the update alone is going to make it more difficult for sitters WHO DON’T ACTUALLY HAVE AN OVERLAP to accept sits because of the issue with dates. This not only makes membership less valuable to affected sitters, but it makes it less valuable to HOs – especially in less competitive locations – because there will be fewer sitters who can even apply.
Therefore, it would seem to me that the common sense solution would be to figure out the work around that sitters and HOs need to use. Right now the system for changing dates on confirmed sits is cumbersome. At the very least if it cannot be changed for goodness sake send a memo out to sitters and HOs making them aware of this issue and the need to update dates in the system and the current steps that the HOs need to take to do this.
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Thank you @Carla . I did miss seeing that on the thread. I must admit it has become so stressful reading the Forum lately that I tend to miss things. I am going to take a break as all these changes and issues back and forth are really quite confronting when all I really want is to find, apply and obtain a suitable sit. Since joining the Forum I am finding out things I would rather not find out sometimes. Things were so less complicated when I originally joined. Lately there are far more topics about TH issues and uproar than actual issues needing to be addressed by HO’s and HS’s regarding specific sits.
I am taking an “ignorance is bliss” attitude break for a while to regroup my emotions. I didn’t sign up for all of this change and stress, I just wanted to travel and sit as I did when I first joined, for the few remaining years I have left to be able to physically do so 
I wish everyone well 
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This is my concern too. If I’m confirmed for a sit where the dates change, and the HO reopens it for reposting to change them, what’s to stop them from selecting a new applicant?
I’m only going to contact customer service if this is the case. Otherwise I run the risk of losing sits which are already confirmed, and that’s a very expensive proposition on my end
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@Carla This is just not an acceptable answer. I know you are just the messenger, but THS needs to take this seriously. You are saying that THS understands that this is a major issue that affects sitters right now, but they’ll get around to fixing it in months, maybe a year. That’s the the timeline I expect if it is part of an overhaul to the application and message system. So basically, that’s just too bad for sitters. Yet, another way to curtail our ability to apply for sits.
THS is going to end up with no good sitters and lots of HOs complaining that their sits are going unfilled and/or they are only getting unsuitable applicants.
I just tried to message a homeowner whose listing has been live (no applicants) for a solid month. When I went to apply (it’s a Christmas sit), I got the following pop up message:
It then says “if you’ve discussed this with the pet parent, you’re free to apply.” However, the application doesn’t go through. I get a message that says they’re no longer looking for a sitter, which is clearly not the case.
Why doesn’t THS contract out for emergency coverage when unscrupulous sitters don’t fulfill their commitments? Why can’t they actually address the very real consequences of growing their membership to target a younger, less experienced demographic?
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I agree, I prefer doing that now that the overlap rule has been put in place. I find it works better and no more hassle of using THS. A lot of repeat sits I’ve done even say they are thinking of leaving the site now because whenever they post dates, hardly anyone applies and it’s easier to just ask me if I’m available.
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I mean sure, the illness fakers for a better sit seem like a rare occurrence. A likelier scenario is when a sitter’s travel plans get disrupted and they need to cancel as soon as they know in order to make sure they aren’t leaving anyone high and dry. But it goes both ways, I’ve had HO’s (pet parents -for those who have pets) cancel on me last minute which gave me very little time to find another sit let alone an affordable airbnb. This I believe is the risk of creating this equal exchange. I just wish it felt more equal for sitters in the atmosphere of THS, 50% of the time it feels like I’m being treated as an impersonal service on par with Rover but without the pay.
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This captures it perfectly - in French and English @Els - THS ask for our opinions, knowledge, thoughts, feedback and discussion around these issues. On ALL occasions we the members, as ex CEOs, tech guys, barristers, business people, pet owners, nurses, sitters & humans happily give that valuable insight to the THS team. We spend our time explaining why this does NOT work for us and on every single change THS have made, they’ve listened precisely never and made no adjustment. Don’t ask us for feedback if you’re doing zero with it. @Angela_L - am beyond disappointed. Even more so now. Why have a voice if the voice is simply ignored? It’s no voice at all.
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How do they create a private invitation?
I have to agree with @Cuttlefish. We joined this forum with great enthusiasm but we quickly found out that all feedback and suggestions are ignored. Your time will be better spent by posting cute dog/cat pics or posting recipes in the THS cafe thread.
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Locate [the sitter] in your inbox and click on the “invite to private dates” button at the top, above your messages.
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@Carla Then surely they should delay implementation of the no overlap rule until they fix this very serious impediment to making it a success. Without the ability to easily change confirmed listing dates, it will be a shambles for members (ps and ho) and membership support (as they are inindated with change requests). It seems a no brainer. Why would the product team choose to create so much angst, confusion, frustration and dissatisfaction, when they could head most of it off at the pass by fixing a long standing problem for both sitters and home owners. The mind boggles at the lack of logic (care and respect for members.)
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Considering that this new change will affect pet sitters who travel/sit as couples the most, I wonder how many memberships on THS are couples? I just did a quick scroll through “Find a SItter” and it looks like maybe half the sitters sit as couples. If it becomes impossible for them to do overlapping sits that are agreed upon between HO and sitters (where one of the pair goes ahead to start the next sit while one stays till the end of the current sit) - what happens next? Will they have to split their membership into two memberships and then THS gets a 50% increase (if half the current members are couples) in paid memberships ? Is THS hoping to increase membership from 180,000 to 270,000 in this way? (correct me if I’m wrong but I think I recall that the latest total membership was 180k+)
Can a THS staff member please tell me what percentage of members are couples rather than solo sitters?
It is not only couples that will be affected. I am a single sitter. So far there have been plenty of nights between my sits. This gives me the time to travel from one long sit to another long sit in a different country.
But next spring, I was thinking of touring England, where there are many sits. I wanted to string together many few-days-sits back to back. With this new measure, that is going to be too much of a hassle I think.
So I am not sure I will go there anymore. If I go, I would try for longer sits. So that is not good for the HOs with short sits.
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Perfectly put @Cuttlefish - I am sure you speak for many of us.
As well as all the life experiences we bring to the table there are many years of pet sitting experiences that we are happy to share with the community.
Unfortunately THS will never know the true value of that free resource until it is too late.
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Hi @cat.tails I don’t know the answer to your question but I think you have made a wrong assumption .
If there are 180k members they are not all sitters - so let’s guess that half are Homeowners that leaves 90k as sitters and from your guesstimate half of these are couples 45k ? So if required to get 2 memberships these would increase membership to 225k .
I also would like to know from THS the split % between sitters / homeowners / combined .
Thinking of combined members who are both homeowners and sitters and a couple how would that work ? 
Too early for me , I need another 
!
Also not all couples do back to back full-time sits - many just use it for a holiday once or twice a year so the overlap issue doesn’t apply. We sit as a couple full time and it never occurred to us to overlap sits just because of the logistics of travelling to the next sit .
THS seems to have a real lack of consistency in the way they are approaching many key issues for sitters and home owners. In the thread about paying vets bills upfront it was fed back from membership services that the majority of sits take place without any issues and this was the rationale for leaving the onus on sitters to sort out with home owners how any potential vets bills would be managed.
Now, on this thread there is an issue of, I assume, (although no quantitive evidence has been provided) similar proportions where a small number of sitters are apparently putting pets at risk through leaving early. This has been addressed by a draconian new policy taking away the ability to have any overlap on sit dates. Firstly how do these two issues link? Are the people leaving sits early to move on to their next sit or are they just leaving early because they need to be elsewhere?
Secondly, if THS follows the logic it employed relating to vet expenses then they would be leaving overlap sits to be sorted out between home owners and sitters. I would have thought that any responsibile sitter would make sure that both sets of owners were happy before setting up an overlap sit.
This leads me to think the only logical reason for this is indeed revenue i.e. stopping couple sitters benefiting from one membership.
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@Silversitters
ah, yes of course! My error - I probably should have had another cup of tea or even a coffee before typing up that post 
btw I am a full-time solo nomadic cat sitter so I do try to organise back to back sits. So far was quite successful at this but of course there are always a few gaps where I stay in airbnbs or hotels.
This new change will not affect me unless I agree with a HO on dates that are different from their original listing and they do not change those dates on the site. From now on I will definitely insist that they change the dates when necessary.