Yeah, I’m combined and feeling this on both ends. Given that there is no senior discount, the idea of facing discrimination or extra hurdles with my paid membership does not sit well.
I’ve had a couple of sitters on the younger side turn down the sit after a chat. In one case, they chose another sit – fair enough. Yesterday, the reason was more vague. I felt uneasy during the chat, almost interogatted. I was asked about three different ways if there were any “peculiarities” about the cats’ behavior. This was a situation mind you, where the booked sitter had cancelled for legit reasons, and I was in a hurry to get the sit refilled and just wanted the chat to put a face and see if they had questions for me. I wasn’t expecting an inquisition. They had applied and there are no red flags in the reviews and nothing specific they were asking about which at least would have made sense, like if someone had done a deep dive and asked what happened with a specific sitter who didn’t leave a review something, but this felt like they were trying to trip me up or look for inconsistences, to the point where it was almost a relief when they turned the sit down. Can I still find sitters? You bet. As soon as I got the “no.” I had a chat wiht someone else and got it done.
The thing about discrimination is that people rarely say that that is the reason. You are always left to wonder. I don’t know the history of these sitters and what they faced. I do know that I won’t invite them again, which I often do when after vetting people if the dates or something else doesn’t work out.
As a sitter, on two recent sits that we got, I was warned and asked about stairs very pointedly. This despite my profile describing my love walking long distances and exploring places by foot, and a photo of me literally doing a headstand which I added because of these concerns. I’ve learned to just anticipate the stair question and keep it simple: “Stairs aren’t a problem for me.”
Given the number or retired people on the site as both sitters and homeowners, I think as a company there are a few things that THS might do to keep older members happy active as both sitters and hosts. Of course this would also create less churn:
- Take out age from sitter profiles. Homeowners need to vet sitters and can make their own judgements based on the chat, and photos. Putting age on the profile is problematic for several reasons: It’s personal data about the sitter on a public site for one thing. It’s also placing a thumb on the scale if the homeowner wants to discriminate by age whether that’s “too” young or “too” old, and the company shouldn’t be helping people to do that.
- Maybe feature some really active older sitters in media or even the site blog. Older hosts too. But instead of just doing this to attract members, do it with the mission of educating younger sitters that older people have nice homes and probably aren’t more statistically likely to have dirty stovetops or clutter, and actually do know how to text, AND as sitters have actual petcare experience as opposed to “growing up with pets.”
I have noticed that on the app, they’ve eliminated the age ranges they used to offer for “finding sitters.” I think this might be more to protect younger female sitters from actual stalking and danger then to help prevent age discrimination, but I’ll take the win.
IMO, there probably is a certain age that’s probably popular with homeowners – mature but not too mature. It would probably be helpful for a lot of sitters in their 60s and 70s if the site just got rid of age. The fact that sitters older than 65 are relegated to 65+ is not helpful at all and IMO lessens the worth of my membership. It would be insulting to be offered a “senior discount” although that might be one remedy for an account that has less worth. A better solution would be to eliminate age on the profile altogether.