I’m curious as to what other experienced (ie. been using T.H. 1 year+) sitters think about the functionalities that we sitters use and how well (or not) T.H. is meeting those needs? I myself have been a senior product manager elsewhere and am frankly disappointed with T.H. on a number of matters:
Removing sitters’ ability to cancel a sit (there used to be a ‘cancel’ button that sitters could use), regardless of how far in advance you are intending to cancel. Last minute cancellations or lack of notifying owners could have been handled in a much more elegant and respectful manor to sitters than simply removing the functionality and putting the action in pet owner’s hands only; this ‘resolution’ method was poorly conceived and treats sitters as naughty children.
The ‘search’ functionality in the past year seems to have got significantly worse: specifying an area no longer only brings up sits in that actual town/city/county but ANYTHING listed within 100 miles or an hour by public transport! Searching on “London” (not greater London) now returns sits not even within zone 6 London nor within the M25 ring-road around London. I’m guessing that rather than geo-locating sits by postcode / zip code, that T.H. allows owners to ‘tick a box’ for their location and so they tick what they think will be attractive, even if the reality is vastly different.
Often by the time the site alerts me to a sit that meets my saved criteria, there are already multiple applicants and/or the sit is already under review. As this should be an algorithmic feature, how can this be? I look at my alerts immediately upon receiving them and my feedback is 99.9% 5 star.
I have been a member for over 7 years and, unfortunately, in all those years THS has taken no notice of the problems on the website and app we would like them to address. Instead, they have been tweaking things that were fine and introducing things we don’t need.
The search function has always been useless, the website and app aren’t aligned. Only a home owner can cancel a sit if for extraordinary reasons for themselves or because a sitter has good reason and asks them to. Alternatively, after consultation, THS can cancel a sit.
It is heartbreaking to see how, what was once an excellent platform, takes no account of members’ views and requests to the extent of being disrespectful. The introduction of booking fees recently was the limit for many, and rival platforms have noticed.
One great feature recently introduced is telling sitters when they begin an application that they “Previously contacted” this homeowner. I personally think this is really helpful, especially for sitters who’ve been on the platform for few years already.
But then, search function, overall functionality of the app are absolutely abominable if we consider that same simple issues have been reported by probably hundreds of users over many years and not even listened to. An app that still freezes or lags every time is opened…
Ah and not only not improving but removing functionality, eg removing search function from inbox.
The dysfunctionality of notifications is by design!!! Don’t let yourselves be fooled. It is by algorithm that different sitters get the notification at different timestamps after new dates are listed. They try to sell that it is because the 5 applications have been submitted so fast, but most of the time listings sit in the queue for 20-30-60 mins and the notification is sent exactly when the 5 applications were reached.
But hey, who said users should be happy, it’s enough if the service is good enough for them to pay.
It is interesting to read that you think this is a great new feature.
Before they changed the Inbox, once you started an application you could read all of your communications with that person over the years. This was very helpful if you had applied for a sitting before and could read why you decided not to go ahead or whether the owner declined you.
It is far from helpful and I have raised this many times with Product as it is unprofessional to not know what has been communicated beforehand
As a sitter with THS for over 16 years, I have an inbox of thousands of threads. If I read that I have communicated with them before then I simply cannot trawl through these thousands of messages to see what was said.
Oh, I agree with you, what you describe would be the full functionality. But half functionality is better than none at all. Right before this feature was added, sitters would not know if they’ve been in contact with a homeowner before submitting a new application. At least now we know we have, even if we don’t know when or waht we discussed previously and will take another 30 mins to search for the convo. FOr who is this helpful, please any admin, enlighten us.
that is definitely the case. Also home owner could make a genuine mistake. There is a current sit advertised which is in “Tarbert UK”. The owner talks about being on an Island. The Island in question is definitely HARRIS, in the Outer Hebrides, 100 miles West of mainland Scotland, (which involves a ferry or a plane ) but owner has picked TARBERT UK from a drop down list?, and unfortunately picked the one on the mainland, in Argyll-shire. I have messaged the owner to let them know of their mistake, but as yet they have not replied. I have also let @Jenny know.
Sitters used to be able to cancel with one click, without a word of explanation to the PP? Wow, if that happened to us we’d never renew our membership.
I’ve been a premium combined member for over 5 years. There is nothing “premium” about THS, their customer service is almost non existent these days. You are lucky if you get a reply from an email to their support, what a joke calling it that! Just read their online reviews on Trust Pilot and Reddit and some of the forum threads and you will get the answer to your question.
The improved mail system is awful. I honestly believe it was instituted to make it more difficult for homeowners to find previous sitters and invite them. Therefore, homeowners are more likely to use the “public” listing system and give more people a shot sits in desirable areas.
It also makes it harder for sitters to go back and refresh their memories when they see a listing: Was this homeowner who ignored your application altogether and you eventually withdraw? Was this homeowner you had a chat with and they asked you for all your social media and copy of your driver’s license and you said never mind? Was this the homeowner who mentioned the boarder who would only be there on weekends?
I actually can’t remember there being a Cancel button for sitters to use and I’ve been a member since 2015. There’s always been a Withdraw application though. Any other old timers remember a Cancel button?
I am very surprised to read this! That has not been my experience! Until the recent (useful) change notifying us that we’d had previous contact I only discovered that AFTER applying, and only then the whole dialogue would open up. I felt a bit stupid & unprofessional, a number of times, on realising I was communicating like a brand new applicant when we’d had a dialogue before! Especially if it had led to a decline from the HO!
Since the new update it happened recently that I pressed Apply and was informed we’d had previous contact. I had no memory of it at all and had to scroll back 3 years down my Inbox to find the dialogue and realised why we had not proceeded last time!!! So I was able to stop the process before making an idiot of myself!
@BethMe I’ve been a sitter since 2018 and, regarding your 3 points,
1- I have never known there to be the possibility for sitters to cancel a confirmed sit. It has to be done by the HO or THS. The sitter is able to cancel (withdraw) an application by hitting the Cancel button at any time BEFORE confirming but once the sit is confirmed, there is no option available for sitters to cancel by themselves.
2- The location function has always been glitchy. Its been reported many times over the years that many listings have the wrong location attached and this can be very misleading, especially for those rely on public transport suddenly finding the location is more remote than they anticipated. We recently applied to a very attractive long sit in France, attracted by the location. The HO wrote immediately giving us more info including their actual location which is a tiny Hamlet 1 hours drive from their listed location! We withdrew our App because of that descrepancy and the HO apologised and said they’d update their listing to include more accurate location info. But they have not done so. If they hadn’t volunteered that info we’d have asked anyway. We always do. Some hosts are happy to send their actual address then we pay them a visit on Google earth. This is before we confirm the sit. I agree some HOs probably do list themselves as being in a more attractive or convenient location, to draw sitters in. Its unfair and misleading and should not be allowed.
3- There is a known time delay on receiving notification of new additions on saved searches. It has always been this way. I set up saved searches all the time but never wait to be notified, I actively check my saved searches directly if I’m keen to find a sit. As you say often the listing has multiple applicants or already in ‘reviewing’ by the time the alert is sent out. Especially popular listings. Don’t rely on alerted.
Basically THS does not listen to any of the huge amount of feedback submitted by loyal, and actual, users of the platform. Yet they do continue to update the platform with many unpopular and unhelpful ‘tweaks’. All long term members -who joined way before your time- will mist likely agree that the platform has changed almost beyond recognition. And certainly in some ways not for the better.
Here’s a great example of how bad the search function is: when I do a search for Puerto Rico (and I also have this search saved), nothing comes up. But when I look on the map, there is a sit available on the island.
This happens to me often and also the other way round. I have an active search for the Isle if Man and it includes several locations in Scotland and other places. When you are really interested in a place, you have to do several searches.
I am not sure if some of the notifications are getting sent out exactly once the sit is filled, but all of them are being sent out with different delays. That’s a fact, and the opposit to what they are promoting - “instant notifications”.
Sitters can check back in their past sits to find previous owners. I would think owners can look at their listing’s reviews from sitters to find previous sitters.
Especially if it had led to a decline from the HO!