@Pawtastic I haven’t had to test their support or insurance. I plan to stay within the structure . If something happens and they fail to stand by their end of the arrangement, I’ll leave the platform. I would like to see THS stay as a no money exchange platform, all sit days be overnight, and no drop ins to check on pets.
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This is so disappointing
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@systaran I bet THS didn’t think of the situation where they have to pay a sitter’s insurance claim for the hotel stay because the sitter can’t apply for sits because the sit ended early and the sitter can’t apply for a replacement sit because…the dates overlap!
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@Crookie interesting, but I’m sure they won’t cover it because it does not fall under a cancellation situation. A HO returning early is not a cancellation per say, but who knows?
@Knowmad Actually, if an HO shortens a sit, those days are supposedly covered by insurance, it is cancelling part of the sit. I don’t know if it would actually pay out though.
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This would defeat the purpose of the five-application limit so there is no way that TH is going to add such a button.
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Returning early would be a cancellation (although insurance companies being what they are I’m sure they will try and get out of paying)
We will reimburse sitters up to $1500 (or foreign currency equivalent), at a limit of $150 per night, for up to 30 nights per membership year, in respect of loss from having to source alternative accommodation due to a pet parent cancelling unexpectedly. All claims are subject to the terms, conditions, and limitations shown below, as defined in insurance limits or as amended in writing by us.
“Unexpectedly” means a cancellation that occurs up to and including 14 days before the agreed sit start date or during the sit, but before the agreed end date.
So I would take the owner returning before the end as them initiating cancellation. I would call THS (you have 24 hours to do this) and tell them the owner wants to end the sit prematurely so you will be claiming insurance for the extra dates in a hotel.
If the owner told you before 14 days before the start and you weren’t agreeable they could change the dates or just cancel and relist and you would be outside the insurance window.
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I type in “ speak to a human”
Then I got connect to a real person.
Question (to sitters mainly)
With these recent November changes (Overlap), do you find you are slower to press the final accept a sit button, knowing it will lock you out now for a definite period from applying for others ?
For me, I thinks its a yes …ie slower to make a definite commitment…which again is another bad consequence for all since the imposed change
Absolutely! Our Christmas sit has inconvenient arrival and departure times. When we were invited I didn’t worry too much, thinking we could jigsaw a solution together that wouldn’t disrupt our workdays.
Had I known this new “feature” was forthcoming, I probably would have not accepted so readily. It’s a huge pita to pack up everything and relocate, and so much easier to stagger arrivals and departures when there’s overlap.
I don’t have plans to let my membership lapse, but I also won’t be using it as frequently from now on.
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I’m hesitant to even apply for sits with dates that aren’t quite right. There are two of us and we are trying to spend time in Michigan during the holidays. We could easily overlap sits, there are a few that do not have any applicants and probably won’t get any, but with the new changes I’m waiting to see what else gets listed.
We can always stay with family and save ourselves a lot of cleaning and tidying up as we walk out the door!
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(I tried to send this to customer service to something like that directly, but it didn’t work, so please if someone on here sees this and could pass it on to the powers that be, we would appreciate it.)
My small family of four has been housesitting quite a lot over the last 3 years. It’s been nothing short of amazing. We love it and are continuing to use housesitting as a means to travel and see this beautiful world. Last night however, we see that we can no longer apply for a future sit if it overlaps at all with a confirmed sit we already have. To us, this really limits our possibilities and options for Housesit’s. Although we try our best to not have to overlap Housesit’s, when there is an occasion for it, we communicate thoroughly about it (ask the confirmed sit homeowner if they are comfortable with, then share with the potential new homeowner if they would be ok with it) and then split up my wife and I and each of our children so that we can cover both sits. For example it has worked like this, (we have done this probably 3 different times at least) we have a 3 week housesit in the south of England confirmed. We then keep looking for a housesit to follow that one. We find one that looks amazing for a month in northern England but it starts 4 days before our other one ends. So we communicate and apply and get confirmed on both. When the time comes we put my wife and daughter on a train to arrive on time for the new housesit and then when our current housesit ends my son and I follow and catch up with the others. All responsibilities are fulfilled. Homeowners are satisfied, our family enjoys the adventure and one on one memories and our housesitting can continue on seamlessly. So with the new function on the app, this takes away this possibility altogether which is a major bummer. I understand that I have a limited view from just being the pet/housesitter, I’m not a homeowner on this site and I don’t run this website and app to know the fuller picture. So I just wanted to add our perspective if it can be of help to those that run the site and also ask that you would consider revising this new change or adjust it, or at least just hear our point of view. Sorry if I’ve put this in the wrong spot and if there is an admin out there that can get it to the right people we would REALLY appreciate it. Like we said before, TrustedHousesitters has impacted our lives in amazing ways and we love being a part of this community. We hope to continue for many years regardless of the apps functions :))
Thank you for your time,
Sincerely
Caleb
(Sorry everyone, I’m not exactly trying to start a community chat about this,I’m sure there are lots of legitimate perspectives, feel free to share if you want, but my goal here is to just add ours to the people running things.)
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To contact member services directly you can send an e-mail to : support@trustedhousesitters.com
I recommend that you do that for your voice to be heard as member services do not appear take any notice of the opinions expressed on the forum.
If you need to overlap sits frequently it may be worth getting an additional membership in your wife’s name ( using your refer a friend code ) for a discount ( currently 30% discount + you would get 3 months free membership added to your original account) . Then you would be able to use the second account to apply for sits where the dates overlap. Not ideal as your reviews won’t carry over to the second account but THS have stated categorically that they are not going reverse their decision on the overlap rule.
You could also ask member services for a special promo code on a second account. Homeowners who have two properties to list can get a discount on a second membership .
I assume that they offer the same offer for sitters, but haven’t seen this confirmed on the forum so you would need to check with member services.
If I were in a couple, I would never do that. I would start the second account at a competitor.
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@pietkuip It depends which country you are looking for sits.
In UK one year ago we joined THS and the main UK competitor. We have had 14 sits with THS and 0 from the other site.
From reading the forum, it seems that for France and Australia competitor sites have far more sits than THS.
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This is what THS want though
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On our part, we want to join all the voices that this change is affecting and that are altering the essence of what we initially subscribed to. Most in this thread have already spoken and expressed the points that reveal the discontent of this community and platform members.
We cannot comprehend corporate decisions without transparency with users; they are not obligated to be transparent, but it is something that would be appreciated. Especially when we received a newsletter from THS in early November announcing the design changes, which may or may not appeal to us, but at the same time stating what I emphasize in red…
The result… well, we already know that it was not so.
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