Hi everyone,
I was curious if anyone else is running into a similar situation as me where the selection of experienced sitters is limited. Time of year? Ive been a bit disappointed and curious of its just me.
Thanks !
Jen
Hi @Sidaleee and welcome. It may partly be time of year as thereās been SO many listings for Christmas-New Year and experienced sitters are usually booked months in advance. However due to the promotion and expansion of THS there are thousands of new members and this is only going to continue so it may be far more difficult now for owners to secure experienced sitters. However we all started off with no experience (owners and sitters), didnāt we?
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Thank you! Yes we did start that way. No prejudice here. Just wondering if others experiences this and if they tried to include ā experienced sitters preferredā in their intro.
Thank you!
@Sidaleee Iām an experienced sitter and HO. I donāt do sits within driving distance of where I live. I mostly do international sits. I have a senior dog myself and use a paid sitter for her when I travel.
I am not taking sits right now. The cost of air travel has become prohibitive. Add the cost of my own dogs care and it just doesnāt make sense.
Iād put a lot of stock in references for a less experienced sitter. Have them come the day before.
It would make me less inclined to apply.
@Sidaleee itās entirely your choice . If you decide to exclude new sitters you may find you end up with no applicants at all , as there are far more sits than sitters available.
A sitter who has just recently joined THS (and therefore no reviews ) may have lots of experience outside of the THS platform .
We are very grateful to the first four owners who confirmed us as sitters when we started on THS this year and had no reviews . After the first sit for them , they all invited us back to sit again and we are just about to go to one of them for the third time this year.
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No, itās not just you. Various hosts have been posting about low applications for holiday sits, even ones who havenāt had issues finding sitters in years past. Even in some locations that are normally in high demand, like in NYC.
THS being a marketplace where hosts and sitters meet and potentially match, there will tend to be imbalances as the companyās membership grows. They have very limited control over that, and thatās agnostic of them ā itās the case with many marketplaces.
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In other marketplaces, supply and/or demand are more elastic and there is a mechanism for adjusting and matching those: with money.
On THS, large imbalances are unavoidable. Like you mentioned in another thread, the elasticity needs to come from somewhere else: not traveling, taking the pets, kennels, relatives and friends.
Even with money, itās hard for marketplace companies to control imbalances, because 1. They donāt typically control the prices set by sellers. 2. Signups of various types of members (or partners) is uneven for a host of reasons, which marketplaces companies often donāt control. They sure wish they could, though, LOL. 3. Thereās usually a time lag even with what control you have. That usually means pains for users meanwhile.
It may be a problem with the ā5 sit cut offā. Iām an experienced sitter but find sits in my area now āreviewingā even before I get an alert about them!
I notice they often become re-available due to sitters cancelling, and Iāve even been contacted by former HOs Iāve sat for because of that but by that time Iāve often made other arrangements.
THS just doesnāt seem to be open to reviewing this policy and seems to actively shut down discussion related to it. Itās weird.
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Hi @BJane
Just popping in to say weāve got an ongoing discussion here about that policy. Although the Forum team doesnāt have the power to change the policy, we want to make sure our members can discuss it, and we collect any feedback given on the thread and pass it along to the relevant team.
Jenny 
With hosts youāve previously sat for, itās better for them to msg or invite you directly, so thereās no five-application limit at play at all ā easy for you and them. Like I have a sit planned for mid-2024 thatās not on the THS books yet (and will never be listed for anyone else to apply for), because the host and I msgād directly for me to do a repeat sit.
And if youāve sat in a specific area and have liked those sits, have you considered messaging the hosts directly, since youād have all their contact info? You could even ask them to spread word among their local network if youāre interested in more sits there.
Hi, thanks.
Yes, obviously, Iām in regular touch with sitters Iāve already sat for as they are now friends. They message me directly via WA to ask if Iām available etc and often ask if Iām available to sit for their friends.
But this doesnāt help with finding new sits via THS, which is what I pay my annual subscription for.
Well that hasnāt been the āForum teamāsā policy in the past where they have closed valid member discussions related to this. I know because I was part of it.
I hope the ārelevant teamā actually do listen to the many many people (and not just sitters) who raise the ā5 sit ruleā as one of the most detrimental things to have happened to this site rather than just constantly reinstating their justification for it.
I also hope youāre monitoring some of the reviews youāre getting in recent years too.
I canāt help feeling thereās been some breakdown in the whole ethos of how the site works, and the ā5 sit ruleā and the way it was imposed is part of that.
(Edit -Link removed due to the posting terms as the link contained full names and personal details of THS members and this is a public forum)
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Hi @BJane
I canāt comment on anything that happened before I joined the team - which was fairly recently - but moving forward the team is working hard to provide regular product updates and to collect feedback as thereās lots of valuable feedback from our members here.
Company reviews donāt fall under the Forum Team, but Iām sure the team that look after reviews will be looking at sites like the one that youāve linked here.
Things are getting a bit off-topic now so itād be great if we could get back on track to the OPās original discussion topic. Youāre more than welcome to pop over to the thread I linked previously if you have more thoughts to share on the five-sit rule.
Thanks!
Jenny