Can community members help me understand two things about saved searches? I recently upgraded from Basic to Standard sitter membership because I was hoping that the saved search and notification of such functionality would be more robust. See my screenshot of the very limited information on the membership page. I had already been using saved searches and was receiving notifications on my Basic membership, but also noticed when I went in and did a manual search, the saved search and notification of such was missing some of them. I happen to be interested in sits that are in highly competitive cities for sits. So, it is important that I jump on applications when I have an upcoming trip planned. I thought maybe the upgrade would afford more benefits like more complete results, or at least push notifications on my phone.
I had before and have now, settings set to push notification on my phone but all I ever get there are notification of conversation updates. There is no notification of saved search results, contrary to what my āupgradeā led me to believe.
Can someone shed light on this topic? Itās about saved searches and notificationsādifference if any with Basic/Standard membership. So far, I see no difference and may downgrade again.
Hi @tortimom Iāll add the explanation from Ben about Saved Searches.
From my experience, notifications on your phone happen:
if you favourited a listing via the phone app,
if a listing is posted for a homeowner youāve previously sat for, or
if youāve set up a specific saved search via the phone app.
My understanding is that the difference in membership levels is that those above basic level have unlimited saved searches. As a basic member, a person is limited to three saved searches.
@tortimom if you are using the THS app just check that your notifications setting is set to āall notificationsā then you should get nofifications of a new sit as soon as one is listed that is in your saved criteria. Also check how you have set up your saved parametres, they might be too narrow & therefore no new sits are being captured. If none of the above fixes your issue try the old IT support basic step to turn it off & on again! Try deleting your searches & reinput them as fresh searches or try uninstalling the THS app & reinstalling it then turn off your device & turn it back on again. If none of this works contact support services via this forum. DISCLAIMER Iām not an IT expert just rehashing what Iāve learned from the IT gurus over the years when Iāve had IT issues
@Crookie, I can relate to your suggestions. I also made the mistake of marking my favourites and doing my saved searched on the website initially. I only later learned that notifications only work when those steps are done on the app. Someone correct me if Iām wrong, but thatās my take on it anyway.
Yes, but the upgraded Standard membership which states that it offers instant alerts with no stipulation that they would have previously been favoritedāan impossibility if this was a new fresh listing.
Hi @Crookie, and yes, all settings are as you state, but on an iphone the option is simply āAllow Notificationsā. My search criteria is one city, and one type of pet, that is allānot too narrow as any dates are fair game.
I will try the laborious reinstall method and see what happens.
Thanks @Snowbird. I had seen that update, but it doesnāt address my issues. I forgot to attach the screen shot, but here it is. As I mentioned, I am seeing no differences between Basic and Standard with regard to saved searches. I only have one. I got the same notifications with my one search for Basic and for Standard. I also have no idea what ādedicated member supportā is. I have asked support this question about saved searches three times now.
Hi @tortimom In Basic, I could do a saved search for Chicago, California, and UK on my phone. It would notify me anytime any listing (of those categories I mentioned earlier in a bulleted list) happened. However, with basic, if I then wanted another saved search, Iād have to delete on of those three to make room for my new one. So if I wanted to go to Toronto more than Chicago, Iād delete Chicago to make room for my Toronto search. If I upgraded my membership, I would be able to have added that fourth saved search, and many more. In that case, I weigh up the cost and see if itās worth it to me to upgrade. Thatās how I see it anyway.
I donāt know the answer to ādedicated member supportā. Sorry.
OK, well I guess this answers my questionāI donāt do TH as a regular pastimeāonly when I have planned travel, so I only ever have one saved search at a time. I may just downgrade then and get my money back.
I sure would love to know why Iām not getting alerts on my phone in either Basic or Standard level.
Unless someone can explain the ādedicated member supportā function.
@tortimom the scenario I gave you was based on my membership as I have basic and have three saved searches but I just changed the locations. I have an iPhone and I have notifications set on my phone for two of the locations and get notifications all the time. The third one is for a country and I donāt want my phone pinging all the time and so I set that saved search on my laptop so I get a daily email for that country. I suggest you check your email settings on your THS account and your notification settings on your phone. Also the suggestions @Crookie made are important and can often fix things.
I donāt get them. Only conversations with HOās. No saved searches. Itās a real pain because I have to pick up the email on my phone, and then log in again on my app to see the dates of the sit. I want to solve this problem. @Angela_L can you help? I donāt know what is wrong with my not getting notifications on my phone.
Hello and good morning @tortimom. Angela is now offline so Iām picking this up on her behalf. Iāve read carefully through your original post and it seems that you are saying that you arenāt receiving push notifications for saved searches particularly on your mobile. I know that on my phone I had to āallow notificationsā for the THS app in the phone settings, but as you say itās a little odd you are getting some but not others. But there are also ācontrolsā in the THS app settings under notifications. Iāve included a couple of screen shots of mine for you to compare. If youāve done both apologies, I just want to double check.
.
If these are set the same, I think the best thing we can do here is to refer this to Membership Support who can check this with the tech team and get answers to your questions. Let me know and I will escalate this if necessary. I will make sure the answer is posted here too for the benefit of others. Thanks for your patience and hope this gets resolved for you soon.
All the best, Vanessa
I also want to add instructions on how to make sure your notifications are actually turned on for the app on the phone, just in the off-chance you need them.
Please escalate on your end which is what Iāve been trying to do 4 or 5 times now on my end. I canāt get through. My emails are stacking up to support. The answers are vague.
All my settings MATCH your first set in the app, but I canāt find this second set of settings. Could that be Android only? These, screen shot below, I do not have access to, but ironically these I DO GET. So it doesnāt matter.
What I donāt get are the saved search push notifications. Only emails. Never push notification. Never have, in either Basic or Standard membership which is very troublesome. I miss out on popular city sits.
This is what I want corrected. I have also deleted and reinstalled the app.
Hi @tortimom I have passed this over top the tech team however from tomorrow Wed March 30th TrustedHousesitters has a 2 day Company Conference which will cause delays on BAU responses ā¦ emergencies will be prioritized and managed.
Hi @torimom Iāll jump in and see if I can help. If youāre referring to the two screen prints Vanessa did, opposite post #13 (of the THS app), notice that the second image partly repeats the first, and the second is really just the last two options.
I have a Basic membership, and Iām on an iPhone, which Iām guessing you have, given you asked Vanessa if hers was Android. In the Basic plan, I donāt have those last two options.
If youāre referring to her screen capture in her post #14 (phone notifications), mine looks the same on my iPhone 11 as Vanessa has shown.
If you have also tried turning your phone off and on again, and deleting and reinstalling the app, then Iām out of ideas.
