@Jenny@Carla I know you are trying to be helpful, providing details about how information from the forum is shared internally. And how this process makes it unnecessary for forum members to tag other people on the team. You have posted this in other threads also.
What you are seeing from your members is desperation. Our voices are not being heard, and if they are, they are not being respected. These policy changes are made without consulting us, the people who are impacted. It feels like when we voice our opinions after the fact it goes in a black hole. So we do anything we can to be heard by the most people.
My understanding is that in the past, the Product team would come on the Forum and post updates, and engage a bit with members. That’s no longer going to be the case, as per @Carla’s update here.
It’s important that we manage our members’ expectations, and if we don’t confirm the feedback process as I’ve been doing, we’re concerned that our members will then feel ignored by the people that they’ve tagged as previously they could expect a response from that person.
As a Forum team member that’s relatively new to THS, I can’t speak for how previous updates were handled, but I can confirm that our new process was developed to make sure that our members are given more notice of updates and most importantly that @Carla and I can elevate your voices with the right teams, by collating everyone’s feedback, and bringing updates from the team wherever we can.
We’ve already been able to provide a few updates from the team, and there should be more to come, but I’m sure you’ll understand that it’s not an immediate process.
We’ll continue to do as much as we can to elevate everyone’s voices and to provide updates wherever we can.
Why doesn’t THS spend a bit of development effort in actually fixing UI/UX issues with your site, instead of just constantly introducing new changes that cause frustrations and hinderances.
Will you make it easier for HOs to amend dates after a sit has been agreed, but have changed? It seems that currently if the HO asks for flexibility, and then decides to shorten the sit by a few days, even if we both agree to it, that they will need to cancel the sit, I will have to reapply for the sit, they will then have to invite me to the sit, I will have to accept the sit.
In short, stop always making things worse, and at least do some good things as well.
Suggestions that are off-topic moved to the relevant thread.
We’ve got different teams here at Trusted HQ working across a number of different initiatives.
As an example, our Product team is in the final stages of testing the new review system before it goes live to make sure it’s as good as possible - we’ll share a separate update on the launch when it goes live.
We’re passing along feedback from our members wherever possible, including your feedback here, and we’ll do our best to make your voices heard.
@Jenny Thanks for the response. I know you intend for your words to provide reassurance. But based on history I , for one, just don’t see the feedback loop working from the member point of view. The only way to build trust in it would be for us to see measurable results. Until then, they are just nice words.
Thanks for being so honest with me @weirdholyman - I hear you. We’ll do our best to make that feedback loop better for you, and I’ll make sure to share your words with the team.
I think THS is ambivalent about sitters that take a lot of sits, the nomads and the retired members, the members that are overrepresented on the forum.
What they really want is lots of new members that use THS for a vacation once a year or so.
Of course THS also need sitters that can take listings outside the summer vacations (for HOs on business travel etc). But THS probably thinks that those should pay a bit more. Especially the couples.
The problem is it gets passed along and put into a black hole of feedback. I’ve been a sitter for a number of years and I know the ‘filter out requires a car’ has been requested for as long as I remember.
A skilled developer could implement that in an hour, yet it is either never heard, or fully ignored.
@Carla and @Jenny I understand that you guys are pig in the middle and I am going to repeat myself here but I think THS need to employ a communications manager.
You appear to be making a lot of changes at the moment and managing change is always a tough ask. However, where is your consultation process, where are your surveys, focus groups etc. let alone your systems for informing members? Where is your data around the change decisions? THS does not need to be a complete open book but it should provide some clarity around decisions being made and those decisions can be better accepted if it is clear that members have been consulted and issues considered prior to launch.
You are having to put out fires not of your making because of a lack of prior communication. THS has a wealth of very talented and experienced members at their disposal, both from previous employment and/or sitting/hosting on this and other platforms that I am sure would very much welcome the opportunity to assist with future development plans.
It has been said before but I will repeat again, around 8% of members are on this forum. Potentially the same amount may get/read the newsletters and potentially a similar number may read the blog/help articles so a large number of members are completely blind to all these changes. Email is not always perfect for reaching all members either but a combination of all methods should be utilised. A short survey (Survey Monkey or similar) would help to initially get some feedback on what methods of communication members prefer and will also give you some response rate statistics. None of this is rocket science to an experienced communications manager but I feel THS is very much dropping the ball in this area.
We’ve been waiting for almost two years for the review system to be overhauled @Jenny - hence the reason for much of the disbelief in any sort of solution for other tech and USABILITY issues we are raising. “Coming very soon” was back in August. It’s now almost December. You’ll have to forgive our scepticism here….the massive irony is that COMMUNICATION is at the heart of a good sitting pairing. THS need to look at the same core value with their members (read paying customers). #beyondfrustrated
I know the review update has been a long time coming @Cuttlefish, so it must feel a bit empty to hear us say “it’s coming soon” when you’ve had such a long wait.
It’s clear the feedback loop as a whole isn’t a magic wand that will sort out everything, but the Forum team are genuinely committed to improving the experience for everyone, as much as we’re able to.
As with all the other features, which don’t work or need an update asap, this thread and all the complaints and reasoning will come to….exactly NOTHING. They want it this way and they will ignore us.
@Jenny@Carla (hope I’m tagging the right people), can you confirm that couples would be able to make a separate account for the other half of the couple? Feels like a fairly easy (if annoying) workaround. And would you consider a couples level membership? Like others have said, pay a bit more and both get the background checks along with the ability to overlap
I am on another house site as an owner; when I post a sit I can check a box as to whether my dates are flexible. It would be helpful to have this option on THS, which would potentially then allow sitters to connect with HOs despite having sits already booked.
I’m beyond disappointed and frustrated. As @Colin says, the “power users” of THS are ambassadors for the brand. It certainly seems like the new direction of the company is recruitment rather than retention. While perhaps the growth numbers are good for the bottom line, the decreasing quality of new users is diluting brand trustworthiness way way down. I have taken the referral link off my business cards and will no longer promote it on social media.
This is heavy-handed attempt to make certain we’re “trustworthy,” without taking into account the multiple issues with the platform itself. If confirmed dates could be easily amended, variable dates allowed, or the calendar to function at all, then the uproar wouldn’t be so loud.
My partner and I sit full-time, and we manage our schedule by occasionally overlapping, so that one arrives or leaves ahead of the other - it’s never caused a problem, that I’m aware of.
I’ve just tried to apply for a sit to cover a three day gap we have coming up, but a pop-up tells me I can’t apply as overlapping is against Ts and Cs, which I must admit I wasn’t aware of.
Also, we sometimes do seperate sits so we can be near family - we had planned to do this over Christmas to be near our respective families, but now find we can’t apply for two sits at the same time. We didn’t know this change was coming, so it’s going to give us some scheduling headaches!
I wonder if other couples are experiencing similar problems, and how you’re dealing with it?
@pitcherplant yes I am on two other house-sitting sites and all that is required to change dates is for the HO to change them, one step, done! No chopping and changing back and forth hence confusing and frustrating both HO and HS. Both sites run 100% smoothly in every way without any of the things that TH is/has and is planning to, implement.
Don’t remember seeing a bigger outcry of a subject since the “five” issue and look how that ended for everyone!
My suggestion to THS is that they could solve this by Creating an option for a couple to register jointly - paying a slightly higher membership fee . Not as much as the cost of two memberships, just an additional charge to cover the cost of an ID check for the second person. Allow couples that have this membership where both have been ID checked to apply for overlapping sits. Keeping one profile and all reviews .
Currently THS permits couples to sit, for the same membership price as a solo sitter. There’s a tick box to select that you sit as a couple and both names and ages are added to the profile . However currently only the primary sitter is ID checked.
@Jenny please pass this suggestion to the relevant THS Product team . If implemented it’s a win/ win no additional cost to THS, reassurance for the homeowners , no pets abandoned and works for sitters.
Alternatively when a homeowner has two properties you assist them to have two accounts that are linked ? THS can you do the same for couples - two accounts where the reviews are linked ?
Same, Alice. This is going to cause us massive logistical problems - not to mention family/Christmas problems, where we had planned on visiting our respective families. TH seems to be making things harder and harder for sitters. It’s such a shame.