Hi @CarolB , another thing you can do is scroll through all the listings that come up for both locations, both active and not active, and mark those that look good as favorites. (Click on the heart -do this on the app, not the website.)
I usually do the search on the website—the results are easier to scroll through and you can search by distance, and see the where they are on the map. Then I email the links of each listing I like to myself, open them on my phone and favorite them on the app. This way you will receive an immediate notification when they post a sit. If you were to click on the heart on the website (and not the app), you would receive a daily digest— many, if not most, of these sits are gone by the time you see them.
Make sure you have notifications enabled for the THS app.
Thank you - knowing about the sort by distance feature is useful. BUT only if people list their homes accurately. I understand that HO don’t want to be too specific, for security reasons, but surely if they had to put a postcode into the app when they list, the THS app could then produce an accurate map without disclosing the postcode or address.
Just a thought developers - if you read this.
Thank you - I have now tried that for my Hertford search and it’s helpful. But for Melbourne, some suburbs are listed and some aren’t, so it’s a question of keep trying things. It also doesn’t address the issue of a HO saying that the home is somewhere and then reading the description to find it’s an hour away!
I agreed to a sit in “Phoenix” and even after speaking to them was very surprised when the Guide came and it was actually 1.5 hours away! The owners have an option to list what city they chose to. I called Customer Service and they said because it was the next largest city and that was absolutely Not true , there was a city of 65k a couple miles away.
One told me it is an automatic default to the nearest largest City and a different person told me the HO can choose which city they want to use on the listing. Absolutely it is up to the sitters to ask and to get the Welcome Guide asap. I have been surprised a few times when they send it right before the sit starts. I think the Welcome guide should just be available to open as soon as both sides have agreed. The fact that the sitters have to Request one is very odd…
@katybjork, so you didn’t learn where the house was exactly till right before the sit? Wouldn’t this come up earlier, like during the video call? I usually ask for their address if they’ve not volunteered it early. There’s no chance I want to be surprised about the location.
I suggest asking for the address. I tell them I want to plan where I’ll be buying food, having meals and such. If they’re not comfortable giving me their address early, I’d ask for an address of a supermarket or restaurant or other business within a few blocks. There’s zero chance I’m going in blind on where a sit will be.
The point is you shouldn’t have to. The sitters should not have to be detectives to determine where a house actually is! The HOs should not be able list a city that is further than half an hour from their address.
I doubt any sitters would say you should have to, LOL. But given the circumstances, you do what you must, so you don’t end up an hour or more away from where you expected.
@katybjork & @Maggie8K
In our 5 years experience most HOs do not have a welcome guide ready prepared to share immediately the sit is confirmed. I agree it would great and perhaps it should become a requirement for HOs to create one when they join. A lot of hosts prepare their own pdf and send that on- often very close to the sit dates. We always ask for a hard copy to be left on site.
Re- location- if the listing does not describe the home location in a clear way then this will be one of our first questions. We also ask about parking, if not mentioned- off street, free onstreet etc if possible we get the address immediately, sometimes even before confirming, so we can google precise location and shopping possibilities etc
I think if an HO has got to the point of a video call with a soon-to-be-confirmed sitter its absolutely OK to share their address right away. I don’t understand any need for reticence at that stage and if a host refused to share that vital info before confirming I’d just withdraw! Trust has to begin somewhere!
Note to self . This no longer works. The New York County filter used to show only sits in NEW YORK CITY. now it shows Connecticut
and New Jersey. Makes no sense.
Keep in mind that you are still at the mercy of the location that the Owners choose! If you search “New York County” and then filter the results based on “distance,” any bonehead who actually lives in Connecticut or New Jersey or Pennsylvania should fall to the bottom of the search results.
I’m looking at sits in the SF Bay Area for the first time since last summer, and things seem to have changed. I look for specific towns, and click on the one for city rather than region, yet I’m getting the whole region now. When I am looking for a sit in San Francisco, I don’t like to have to wade through the listings for the entire Bay Area. Why the change?