Who knows. Maybe they’ll reconsider.
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Were you actually given that as a reason? When I’ve asked about it I’ve got: “We don’t have that capacity yet” type answers. I really resent the way they put the burden of dispute when sitters cancel on homeowners. We shouldn’t be policing each other.
That’s what I recall.
You are right. It’s not our role to police each other.
THS is a business, they have employees who they pay salaries to. They now have a large investor who lists their ethos on their website. It would be worth looking at that to see they seem to know what they are doing.
I’m assuming he means a sitter might cancel a sit with an eye on a “better” one to apply to. There are always last-minute sits coming up. I would never cancel for such a selfish, disingenuous reason. I did have to cancel one sit a few weeks before it was to start because I had a scary medical issue develop and felt nervous having a diabetic cat to care for on the sit while my own health was rocky. I might have needed to be in the hospital. The HOs were as gracious as could be under the circumstances and fortunately got another sitter quickly. I was so relieved. Even though I had their cat’s well-being in mind, I felt terrible. Luckily I sat for then a few months later and I’ll be back again soon. In my case, it was obviously a medical emergency — but I was also lucky the HOs didn’t hold it against me. I agree with JOe that frivolous cancellations are NEVER okay. I think without knowing how often this really happens we sitters can’t possibly make practical suggestions, but I do think it’s important for THS to emphasize in their communiques with sitters and HOs that cancellations should only occur in extenuating circumstances.
It’s great you have the perspective of both a sitter and a pet owner. It’s awful what that sitter did. It doesn’t surprise me, because there are lots of people in the world like that, but it’s still awful.
Agree. As sitters and owners, we really don’t get a say in company decisions. We are here voluntarily after paying a fee. If we don’t like how anything works or the how things are set up, we are free to not participate.
I agree. My THS experience has been great. I’ve not only saved money on sitters, but I’ve had a fabulous time on my sit “vacations” in areas that I love traveling to and in areas new to me, but this is ultimately a person to person exchange. The company isn’t “supervising” what’s happening on the ground or even reacting to it. They are a matching service, but I really have to make sure before accepting a sitter or a sit that I’m comfortable with the communication and not ignoring red flags.
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In all the vitriol and venom directed at sitters who cancel,* there seems to be no acknowledgement that sitters can’t “do” the cancelling.
From THS itself:
What happens if I need to cancel a sit?
If you have confirmed a sit but need to cancel, you must inform the other member immediately so that they can make any necessary alternative arrangements.
Remember, a sit must only be cancelled if both you and the other member agree, or if there are any extraordinary circumstances“
So, no unilateral cancelling by sitters is possible. Sitters can initiate a request to cancel, home owners have to be involved on the process and agree.
The THS help does not state what happens if a home owner doesn’t “agree”.
A couple of replies have mentioned this, but it needs to be emphasised: sitters cannot just cancel all by themselves.
*and I don’t believe for one minute that “it happens all the time”. I’m not using caps because I don’t need to shout at people.
For every “sitter has cancelled” horror story there a “owner has cancelled” one as well. There’s currently one playing out right now in this forum where the sitters stand to lose a lot of money if they can’t salvage something and even then it will still cost them.
I would like to see a ‘review’ posted automatically for every sit that is cancelled for both owner and sitter. Rover and Turo has something like this. If you look at a sitters in Rover there is a single sentence saying the sitter cancelled the booking. I think it may even say how many days before it was cancelled. Truro says the car owner cancelled the booking.
I’m sure I’m going to be besieged by people telling me there are legitimate reasons for cancelling and I’m sure there are, but you can still carry on with something that says you had a sit that you cancelled if everyone knows there are reasons. However if you end up with 3 or 4 of these people will start to realise the reasons may not be genuine or they may not want to trust all their money on booking a trip that they may have to cancel (owner or sitter).
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I agree with your comments. We make commitments several months in advance and even halfway accross the world. We will (hopefully never) think about canceling and only if, there is a true emergency. Both host families and housesitters make commitments and usually with financial costs to travel, etc.
We cherish this website, so yes the organization should enforce the principles of this site and remove persons on both sides of the application whom do not honor decent principles of this side.
We are homeowners and sitters both. It is one of our biggest fears (as a homeowner) that our chosen sitter might cancel on us, and we would then have to go through the selection process all over again - now under even more pressure. That said, NONE of our chosen sitters has ever cancelled once the sit was finalized. GOOD ON YOU, FORMER SITTERS!!!)
On the other side, last year we finalized as a sitter for someone. We were SO looking forward to this particular sit. It was in the perfect location, with the perfect sweet pet, and the homeowner seemed like a wonderful person. Everything had been decided. We had a video chat and everything. And then we had to cancel. I had to have surgery, and the surgeon told me I should definitely not make the long-haul flight due health risks that could be life threatening. (We had already booked the tickets!) I explained all this to the homeowner, and we mutually cancelled the sit. But, I still feel guilty about having to do that! I know she found another sitter, but I cannot understand how people can just blythely cancel on others without good reason. That’s true for either side, too! I personally don’t want to deal with someone who is so inconsiderate they cancel just because they find a better place, or something else they’d rather do. That’s a selfish choice, not a legitimate reason. There should be a way to track post-finalized sits on the member’s profile - both sitters and homeowners. At least that way, people can have an idea who the “deadbeats” are, and avoid them. If someone has many sits, and one cancellation, it’s good to know they are reliable unless there’s a very good reason. Someone who has a bunch of cancellations…well, we’d be able to make a choice.
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While it’s true that sitters don’t have a cancellation button or such, sitters can cancel simply by saying they’re not going to do the sit as agreed to. That can be for legit reasons or totally flakey ones, and at least a few sitters have simply not shown up, as mentioned in forum posts by hosts. And judging by hosts who’ve been let down, THS doesn’t tend to do much, if anything, to the sitter.
Similarly, when some hosts do egregious things, THS rarely does anything, according to various posts. That can include canceling without good reason.
What it comes down to is, everyone should choose carefully, whether they’re sitters or hosts. Of course, even due diligence can’t guarantee good sits, which is why having a backup plan is important, whether you’re a sitter or host. Without a backup plan, you’re potentially setting yourself up to be trapped or left hanging, whether you’re a sitter or host.
THS doesn’t guarantee you a sitter will show up or be reliable. It also doesn’t guarantee you that a host won’t flake or do something that makes a sit untenable. Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn’t understand what they’ve signed up for.
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Maybe, in addition to the statement about the cancellation (for both homeowners and sitters), there should be a place for the canceller to explain if they want. If they have a good reason, they should be able to say so and then people considering them would understand the circumstance. If they don’t want to leave any explanation, that would be fine, too. It would be up to them. But if several unexplained cancellations were documented, it might make a difference to people who are looking for sits or sitters.
As potential new hosts with a cool Waterfront location and 4 pets, this is one of the reasons why we are hesitating to post our upcoming dates - I do not want to be thrown into a crisis because of a last minute cancelation, especially since we’ve just moved to a new state and haven’t gotten fully established (which is also why we have yet to finalize our post due to moving boxes everywhere and lack of good pictures)
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This is a voluntary exchange and there is always a risk of cancellation. In life, things happen that we don’t plan for. THS is not an agency providing sitters, it’s a service to match people. If someone wants a guarantee, then they need to use a paid service that can provide another sitter if the scheduled one is ill or unable to do the sit for some other reason. Otherwise have a backup plan just in case (this goes for both HOs and sitters).
I still believe that most cancellations are for legit reasons. Just because there are a few bad sitters and HOs who cancel without valid reasons does not mean all cancellations should be suspect. Just because a sitter was vague and did not provide significant detail about a reason for cancelling does not mean it isn’t a valid reason. How much detail about someone’s personal situation is a host entitled to (the answer is none).
Reading these forums makes me want to stop sitting entirely. Fortunately, the majority of my sits have been great with wonderful pets and hosts.
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Perhaps there could be a way for THS to add a space in the sitter profile that indicates that a sitter has cancelled at the last minute, or how many times they’ve done that, ie., a red dot for 1 cancellation, a black dot for 2 or more cancellations, etc. I can’t imagine that a homeowner would see that and still choose them.
And then the same for HOs please. On another thread on this forum, there are at least 3 sitters reporting about recent HO cancellations of their sits within <14 days of the sits taking place and the sitter actually NOT agreeing with the cancellation (e.g. no meaningful reason provided) - but nothing they could do other than swallow the (financial) consequences.
It’s true that sitters can’t actually cancel in the sense that HOs have to unconfirm them. I guess if a sitter says, "Nope, I’m not coming, " and an HO doesn’t cancel, the HO could review the sitter and say they never showed up, but I doubt this hqppens much as the HO would need to unconfirm in order to begin to find a sitter for those days. I don’t know why the sytem is set up this way, but if I had to guess it is to make absolutely sure the HO knows the sitter isn’t coming so there is zero chance of a pet starving to death.
HOs can still “dispute” a cancellation even when the sitter initiates it by request and the HO complies. This would mean starting a formal dispute and from what I’ve gleaned in the forums and been told by member services as long as the sitter offers some reason they won’t be kicked off the site. However, they may “watched.” No idea what that entails or how many sits it would take before a serial canceller is kicked off the site. My guess is probably a lot as most of the time petparents will not dispute a cancellation even at the last minute. Therefore, THS can close their eyes and say there are very few disputed cancelations.
HOs of course can cancel sits but again it should be for an extraodinary reason. I’ve never had to cancel a THS sitter, but in the past I’ve had to change vacation plans because of pet emergencies and cancel trips and paid sitters. This sometimes involved losing a deposit to the sitter. I’m not going to leave a sick pet. This is one reason I slightly favor nearby sitters who are not full time travelers and/or members with premium rather than people coming from far away who will really be stuck if the sit is cancelled.
I also sit and invite sitters if my partner accompanies me. If a sit I was going to was cancelled and I had a sitter coming and the cancellation was within the insurance timeline AND the sitter coming didn’t have premium, I would consider activating my premium and going to the sit location and staying at airbnb so the sitter wouldn’t have a problem.
We can all speculate on different policies but what it comes down to is that casually cancelling causes chaos on both sides and isn’t something members should be doing, but sometimes sits need to be cancelled for legitimate reasons and this is a risk for people on both sides of the equation.
Wrong choice of word!
I’m not sure I understand why you as a sitter are advocating culling other sitters because of their behaviours. Why is that of interest to you? Are you in fact an HO? THS are always keen to increase their home owner base as well as their sitter base, both of which are lucrative and they are not about to take steps to penalise house sitters (possibly unfairly)and drive them off the platform.
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