Is anyone else receiving notifications for ‘matching’ sits which do not not match their saved filters?
A big welcome back to the forum.
I will DM you for details so I can pass this onto our tech team.
Best wishes
Therese
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Hello everyone and Happy New Year from the Product Team at Trusted Housesitters. 
We are pleased to announce the improvements we’ve made to the platform in our busy first week back after the Christmas break:
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Airbnb and LinkedIn links on the App. It’s now possible to view a sitter’s Airbnb and Linkedin profiles, if they’ve added them, through their profile
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App inbox loading improvements. This is the big one, as this will improve load times across the App and was causing us latency problems across our platform. We have simplified and streamlined the inbox, so we now have an Inbox view and an archived messages view. You can still view all the conversations organised by your open dates on the Dashboard if you are a pet parent or combined member or from the Your Dates page if you are a sitter.
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Find a House Sit sort options on web (coming soon to App) We have added 3 sort options for you to choose from when doing a search. “Recommended” shows sits that you are more likely to secure”Newest” sorts the sits by the date they were added to the platform. And finally, “Distance” sorts sits based on their distance from the place you searched (note this is only available for searches performed at a city level). These were all tested towards the end of 2022 and helped more members find and secure the desirable sits.
Once again thank you for all your support, suggestions, and proposed improvements.
Many Thanks, Trusted Housesitters Product Team
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What is the purpose of the recommended filter in search? If I’m doing a search for a location why would one place be recommended over an other ?
Why is a low application filter needled? HO can only get 5 applications and under 5 is low. Does it mean they have less than 4, 3, or 2?
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@ExploreDreamDiscover the recommended sort option is something that will evolve over time and we will be iterating on this. It will be a personalised order based on sits you are likely to secure and sits that should interest you based on previous activity.
Thanks, Ben
We have also fixed the ‘duration’ of Sit filter issue that that has been reported Duration of sit
Many Thanks, Ben
@Ben-ProductManager
So what I see is different that what someone else sees when searching for the same thing. Algorithm I guess. I’m not looking for the same thing in my next house sit. It’s not based on previous searches and my interests change. How do I get around being typecast as a certain sitter.
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I also do not want to be typecast as a certain sitter - my searches vary on location and length.
Please don’t over complicate things!
Most members will just be content to know the filters are working correctly.
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@Ben-ProductManager I agree with @ExploreDreamDiscover’s and @Twitcher’s response to these updates. What I also don’t understand is the repeated requests to have an option to sort by strict chronological order is not being implemented. It’s a basic filter on other housesitting platforms.
Since the 5-application pause rule, and the manipulation with filters, I get a sense of my freedom being continually restricted by TrustedHousesitters. I get a sense of being manipulated, rather than having full access to all active sits that have not been confirmed. I am disappointed by these so-called improvements.
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I saw several of these earlier today and they all had 0 applications.
I perceive it the same way: manipulations to get more newcomers into sits, not coincidentally sidelining veterans. New members aren’t comparing their experience with the past. What bothers me most is the violation of basic terms of membership: having access, meaning being able to see, all sits announced on the site. No one has addressed this issue since it came up all those months ago.
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Hi @Snowbird the sort options are in chronological order.
Bringing listings with certain criteria to the top of the page can be particularly useful for members who aren’t exactly sure what they want. This is especially true as we have a large number of listings available. Listings can be found by running a search and selecting a sort option.
We have added a sort-by dropdown menu (this takes up minimal screen space and is generally familiar across other sites) However at first glance it does ‘hide’ some of the options available. Please see screenshot attached.
The recommended order is currently by low applications. These are ordered by 0, 1, 2, 3 applications. Is one of our top requests by members and we tested this at the end of last year and it was hugely successful in helping Sitters find a suitable Sit.
We also have ‘Newest’ sort option - this is ordered by latest Sit added. We also have added a sort option at a city level ‘Distance’ and results are shown nearest to city centre as this was also a top member request.
Over the coming months we will look into feature usage of these sort options. We will also look into adding sort options based on duration and nearest date. Finally also these sort options will be coming to the iOS and Android App over the coming months.
Hope this makes it clear.
Many Thanks, Ben
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@Ben-ProductManager - has the location search filter been fixed? When I filter sits in the UK the first three are not actually in the UK.
Couldn’t agree more with @Snowbird and earlier responses. Why would it be assumed that because I have done x sits in a certain location I would want to continue returning there? Also duration of sits sought will vary depending on personal circumstances at the time. This seems all too complicated and I for one would much prefer that the simple things like chronological order and distance were sorted out. To me these additional functions add little if anything to the search function.
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@LizBCN we have added sort option by distance and also chronological order in terms of by newest and low applications.
Ben
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I hadn’t realised that Distance means from the place I’m actually searching for. Thus when a saved-search of London comes up sometimes only one or two are in (greater) London so I have to scroll past 20 or so that are quite far away. I’m glad a sort-option for distance-from was added.
What does Chronological Order mean in this context? Date the sit was first advertised or dates the sit would take place?
I have no ideas why the things that come up sorting by Recommended do come up.
Oh and I just pressed More Filters and can’t get the drop-down box off my screen.
@Ben-ProductManager
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Hi @Twitcher
Thanks for raising this issue, not currently able to recreate.
Will investigate further.
Ben
I reported a similar thing earlier this week and the advice was to restart, clear cache etc. I didn’t do this, however the following day it seemed to have resolved so it looks like it might be an intermittent problem.
Thank you @LizBCN - THS seem keen to add more filters as they say that is what we want. It would be helpful if the existing ones worked before introducing new ones and there was more compatibility between the app and the website.
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I will focus only on this part of your response, to avoid a protracted discussion of various points. Additionally, I cannot test most features as, regardless of the browser I use, my search is frozen at the first screen - I am only able to see the first three listings.
My point was that I have seen repeated requests for a search option to have listings in strict chronological order. By that I mean, regardless of the filters used, the results display based on start date of the sit listed - earliest first. A filter for sit start date would show those for today, followed by those for tomorrow, etc.
Even when a search is done for a date range - let’s say January 13 to 20 - the entries don’t start with January 13, then 14, and so on.
If this is available and I’m not understanding, please explain how to do it. Thank you, @Ben-ProductManager
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