Reply rating for owners & sitters

THS News & Feedback
1

I’m a member of Aussiehousesitters & kiwihousesitters to give me more opportunities, in addition to THS, for sits while I’m travelling in NZ and Oz.
There’s always a lot of discussion on this forum about the slow, or lack of, response by owners and sitters to applications/requests for video chats etc. The other 2 platforms mentioned have a reply rating. People start off with 5 points but if there’s been no response within 5 days that rating is dropped to 4, and so on I presume. This is the message I get when that happens:

“ We’re sorry about the non reply

Unfortunately, a first contact message you sent 5 days ago, received no reply.

As a result, the recipient has had their Reply Rating reduced by a point.

We have also archived the original message in your account as a reply is unlikely.

Message Recipient: xxxxxxx

WHY PEOPLE DON’T REPLY:
Often, the reason is simply that people find it difficult to say “Thanks, but No”. Then of course, there are things like illness or computer issues. Either way, we actively encourage a culture of courtesy and cooperation, hence the Reply Rating.

THE REPLY RATING:
The Reply Rating is one of the ways we work to maintain a high quality member experience across the board. For first contact messages, we send a number of reply reminders to the recipient, before we apply a penalty (reduce their Reply Rating).

We trust you have a better experience with other messages.

Warm regards,
Aussie House Sitters team”

I wonder if THS might consider implementing something similar? Obviously I appreciate it might come down the list of priorities like the review system & sorting out the 5 applicants pausing which most members seem to be unhappy with.
If you like this idea please cast your vote in the top left hand corner :blush:

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2

We’re members of KHS too and agree the reply rating is a good system. Not only for prompting homeowners to reply quickly, but you can see from the reply ratio if it’s worth applying for, or waiting for a reply before applying for more sits.

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3

Exactly @DKNZ and if I see a 4 or less reply rating I’ll likely give them a miss. I don’t know what happens if in the future they respond quickly. Do you think their reply rating then reverts to being increased by a point?

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I don’t know either actually. I just went to look at a previous message that hadn’t been replied to in 5 days but it’s gone so…

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I, too, have found the rating system implemented by Aussie House Sitters a real advantage of using that company and would love to see THS implement this as well. Great you’ve highlighted it @Smiley.

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I had mentioned this in the forum before as I was a member of a Canadian house sit site about five years ago who also had a similar rating system. I think it’s a great idea!

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Being a member of Aussie Housesitters and Mindahome Australia, as well as THS I come across this a lot. I believe the reason homeowners don’t reply half the time is because there is no charge for homeowners to join Aussie and Mindahome so they advertise on both sites - 80% of the time. So when they choose someone on one site, they don’t remove or follow up anything on the other site. Really really annoying but what do you do :person_shrugging:. I think the rating system is excellent, I don’t normally apply for sits with a low rating as I sometimes feel it is a waste of time

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I’m not optimistic that THS will implement something like it in the near future though, sadly

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9

Apologies. I’m often suggesting people search before posting so I obviously didn’t myself on this occasion!

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We’ll just have to have positive thoughts that THS will actually take notice of this great system and put it on their lengthy list of improvements to be made @Smiley!

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I think you could well be right @ziggy and I honestly don’t think it fair that owners don’t pay for those sites yet sitters do and feel it should be the other way round!
I’ve also found that on those other sites people mess around with the dates, on several occasions I’ve applied for sits to be told by the owner that the dates may change and they’ll get in touch with the new ones! It’s so frustrating when you spend time reading the listing and personalising an application.

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This is a very good idea. It’s been suggested before but maybe @Ben-ProductManager will consider it now. THS adopted the pause after five to speed things along. A reply rating system would grease the wheels even more. HO would have an incentive to reply to applicants and sitters would not leave HO wondering if they’re interested or not. The many members who complain about being ghosted would feel heard. If you are in favor of this, I encourage you to cast your vote. I have.

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13

@Smiley here’s the answer to your question from the equivalent Canadian arm of that company:

“For every first contact message that goes un-replied, a point is deducted. To redeem a lost point the member needs to answer promptly to the next two first contact messages that are received.”

@DKNZ

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14

What do you know? The latest owner to have been bumped down by a point in her reply rating has replied! So the email telling her that news either worked or just coincidence she responded after.

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Thank you for bringing this to the attention of @Ben-ProductManager and also drawing my attention to the vote at the top of the page. I hadn’t appreciated it was there!

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Thank you @Snowbird, another very helpful member.
If you haven’t already and like the idea for THS please cast your vote :pray:

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Just wondering if you’ve voted at the top of the page. I can’t tell who has, although no doubt there’s a way of finding out! :joy:

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If you haven’t already, please cast your vote for bringing in this system. Thanks :pray:

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For any new people reading this thread and approving of the idea, would you kindly vote at the top left hand corner of this subject? Many thanks in advance

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You sound very optimistic, i doubt THS listens to members, otherwise some improvements would have been made, and bad ideas (such as 5 applications limit) abandoned…
Nomador too has a rating ststem and has changed a lot lately. Memberships are a third of THS

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