JOe,
Great job telling it like it is.
I am amazed your post is still on the forum.
@Antelope - “culling” other sitters means less competition for sits, so it benefits sitters more than HOs.
Hello and welcome to the forum!
@Maggie8K offers advice I underscore: have a back up plan.
Also, some things that may help you in securing your first THsitter is to go with someone with more actual reviews not references.
Perhaps keep some of the more enticing aspects of your home in the background until your are talking with a strong candidate. Some have posted that they have shown up to sits with many amenities that were unknown at the start but knocked their socks off upon arrival.
Also be very upfront and frank about your home, its needs and your pet’s needs so that THsitters that don’t resonate with your listing won’t apply.
And let the person know you will be checking in during the sit as you see fit and the good and correct sitter for you will say: “no problem, works for me.”
Good luck. THS is a great community.
Nothing in life is perfect or guaranteed. How we handle life is what makes all the difference.
Keep us posted on how it goes for you! (Maybe post a new topic thread for that…)
2 Likes
Wouldn’t the bad sitters going elsewhere be a good thing? Similar for bad owners, going somewhere else would be a good thing.
If you recorded a cancelled sit in the same place and similar manner to a review the sitter or owner get a review but instead of a starred review for the sitter it simply stated - Cancelled sit x days before start. Doesn’t need stars but has the dates so you can see the duration of the sit as in all reviews.
For a owner same thing if they cancelled. No corresponding retry for the person who didn’t cancel.
If you’re concerned that people cancel for good reason then they can leave a response just as they can for a review. This is essentially a review just don by the system and not a person. If someone cancels once or even twice their response should explain it well enough that sitters will still apply to sits where owners have a cancellation and owners can still accepts sitters who cancelled before. But after several Ï had a good reason" cancellations you can decide that if the reasons are accurate you may still not want to get involved with someone who for whatever reason just seems to have cancellations swirling around them.
Other sites that bring 2 different parties together for an exchange do this. They’re still functioning.
1 Like
@AdventuringBoomers I second @HelloOutThere let your focus be your pets and their needs. It sounds like your sitters will be in for a treat with your ocean front home but don’t oversell your home too much as it may attract sitters with the wrong motivation. Make your needs, and your boundaries, really clear. Let the true animal lovers be attracted by your gorgeous pets and a nice, clean home then the rest will be a surprise bonus!
One of our biggest surprises was a sit for a gorgeous black lab. The pictures showed a nice looking country house but not too many details. We were invited to arrive the night before and the hosts asked if we wouldn’t mind sleeping in their guest room in the garden for that first night.
We imagined a glorified garden shed!
We arrived to a truly beautiful luxurious home with a huge outdoor heated pool and outdoor jacuzzi - neither of which were mentioned in the listing, so a lovely surprise!- and the ‘garden shed’ was actually a luxurious fully equipped and spacious apartment on top of a huge garage full of old timer cars! We were completely taken aback- in a good way! The hosts were kind and generous and took us out for a lovely dinner and we had a lovely sit- and ofcourse the doggy was a delight!
3 Likes
I think THS should show on both the host and sitter profiles the number of times they have cancelled previously. I understand that sometimes cancellations may occur due to unforeseen accidents. However, frequent cancellations demonstrate a lack of responsibility and disregard for others’ time.
1 Like
You cannot know that. There are sitters that have booked bunches of sits lined up months in advance. And then maybe they have an accident or a heart attack and need to cancel everything.
It is a difficult problem. I have not cancelled any sits so far but I am really not inclined to make a stand with the HOs against any type of elective cancellation. At my job, I had a period of two months to give notice, and I have used that. Yes, it inconvenienced them a bit but they solved it. In the same way as they would have solved me getting covid etc.
1 Like
Well, yes that it is business decision but it has to be balanced by potential reputation damage to the business in the longer term. Sadly bad sitters do reflect on all sitters. If there is a major issue of cancellations (and I have no idea whether this is the case or not as this type of information is not disclosed by THS) then there will come a point when hosts will not trust the site and will look elsewhere. Therefore it will impact on other sitters.
Not necessarily. They could just be unlucky or have the kind of lifestyle or job that frequently interrupts plans. But in any case if cancellations were recorded amongst their reviews I guess we can all decide if you want to go with someone who seems to consistently have bad luck or ‘unavoidable’ reasons for cancellation.
I had to cancel a few sits because travel restrictions meant I couldn’t get there. I would have a few show up if they were recorded and my reply under each on would be the same - Cancelled in advance so owner could have time to find an in-country or local sitter rather than hoping restrictions were lifted in time.
Similar for the owners who cancelled local sits I could still get to. They did so because they weren’t able to leave their house due to restrictions.
I don’t think either would hamper us getting sits or sitters. Cancellations noted along with reasons, similar to accurate listings with all requirements up front, give us the ability to make more accurate and informed decisions.
1 Like
THS don’t have much of an incentive to get rid of anyone, as it will lose them money. It’s like getting rid of a customer. Maybe sitters should insist that if someone cancels more than once or twice in a year, they pay a penalty. More than twice and they can no longer be a sitter. It might weed out those the sitters who are letting us all down.
I am not let down by another sitter cancelling. I took an emergency sit that way in Copenhagen, and that was nice (nice dog, nice appartment, etc). Their sitter had cancelled because they had gotten covid.
Cancellations are to be expected. Make plans for that! Like for example the airlines that are overbooking seats, they count on a certain percentage of passengers cancelling their flights.
3 Likes
same here, it’s just a moan fest too often, shouting at people just for the sake of it.
My reality as a sitter has been much more positive too, thankfully!
1 Like
Initially, maybe. But, if I were a pet owner thinking about joining and read that sitters wanted to kick off other sitters because they had heard sitters cancelled all of the time, I may not join, because how would I know who will be a reliable sitter or not? Profiles don’t show it. Pet owners say that because they have to cancel the sit on their end, there’s no record on either end of who has cancelled the sit.
With the new investor on board, they are growing THS. This means getting new members and retaining members, not kicking them off. What’s the point in disparaging sitters like this on the forum then? Does that help the reputation of THS and it’s sitters or make it worse? It seems likely that THS already bans members who have done something serious, but is cancelling a sit really serious? No. Disruptive, yes. So sitters and owners should be able to see each parties cancellation history on their profile to be able to make better choices.
Ideally, as THS grows, maybe there could be functionality added where when someone cancels a sit, maybe a window pops up that both sitters and pet owners have to complete: 1) Pet owner cancelled, or 2) Pet sitter cancelled. Then they have to agree just like accepting a sit, and those cancellations appear on their profiles, just like the reviews do.
Yeah but we’re not allowed to overbook anymore 
That’s because people come to forums with problems looking for solutions and assistance.
I’d wager there’s a great many sitters and owners who have had better experiences because of what they encountered here and not despite it.
1 Like
Lots of people come here looking for solutions, but a few seem to come here just to say how bad others are.
I know it’s off topic, so I won’t expand further.
If the history of cancellations is on both the sitters and the pet owners profile, then the penalty is that they probably won’t get any sits or sitters anymore, or maybe get less desirable ones because of poor reviews or a history of cancellations. That works for both sitters and for pet owners who cancel, without anyone having to police anyone. What’s missing is a record of cancellations on both profiles. If that gets added by THS, then if someone feels they want to explain to someone why they had to cancel, they can decide if they want to at the time they are seeking a match.
1 Like
There is so much virtue signaling in this thread. Sitters who would never cancel, HOs and sitters who would like some form of public lynching for sitters who have canceled, etc. Why would this post be directed at sitters who cancel and not all THS members who cancel? And why on earth are these claims of constant cancelation being made without any data at all?
Cancelation is likely a very infrequent occurrence (<1%) and is a problem for HOs and sitters. THS should collect data about cancelations. There should be more clearly defined expectations about the consequences of canceling for both parties. Perhaps some better insurance options could be offered to compensate those HOs and sitters who are left with financial losses due to cancelation. Perhaps THS can develop some policy that will terminate membership for HOs and sitters who cancel with impunity more than a certain number of times.
But to ask that this information be publicly available is inappropriate. What if a HOA gets a cancer diagnosis and has to start therapy and cancels a sit? That’s what happened to me. I was holding a 1000 dollar airfare and a expensive rental car. The HO should not have a black mark on their profile for canceling. What if a full time sitter who has 8 sits lined up has an accident that means they have to cancel all 8 sits? That sitter should not be penalized.
Everyone’s commitment must be very high in this model. But life is messy and there will be times where despite everyone’s best effort, sits don’t happen as planned. We needn’t go on a witch hunt. Perhaps this thread has run it’s course mods?
3 Likes
@cawosey Of course, we want the bad sitters to leave, but do we want to lose the good sitters too. When you introduce policies that affect everyone to get rid of a few people, it typically has negative results.
Reasons I think showing cancellations on profiles is a bad idea:
- Even one cancellation will mean that some HOs will never select that person. That goes both ways too, sitters may not apply for sits for a host that cancelled in the past. Something bad happens in someone’s life and, in addition to dealing with that, they also have to worry about losing a good part of their life (sitting for adorable pets or getting sitters for their pets through THS).
- Having to put a reason puts people in a position of having to share personal/private information in a public place. Even if one puts a reason, as we’ve seen on here many HOs don’t believe the reason which mean the sitter will have to add detailed info in hopes that future HOs will believe they had a valid reason to cancel. If something traumatic happens in my life, I’m not going to post detailed information for anyone to see (our profiles are not just accessible to members).
- If an HO decides to overlook the cancellation and have a virtual meeting, the first thing they will ask is about the cancelled sit. Again, if something traumatic happened in my life I wouldn’t want to have to discuss it with a stranger every time I apply for a sit.
- For nomadic sitters or anyone doing multiple sits in a row, one emergency could result in multiple cancelled sits. If I have 3 short sits in a row and must have emergency surgery, all the sudden I have 3 cancelled sits.
- Another concern is that if (when) THS implements something to show cancellation, it will most likely be only for sitters. No one seems to care that HOs cancel without a valid reason too, often at great expense to sitter. THS is very one sided and I will be very surprised if the tracking is for both HOs and sitters.
I’m a reliable and conscientious person who would never cancel a sit unless there was some emergency situation. I wish no one cancelled for no reason. However, based on my experience with THS so far, I think any policies that they implement to address this would hurt more members than it helps. Most sits proceed without issue. We don’t have data, but there’s no reason to think that a large percentage of members are cancelling without good reason. I would bet it’s less than one percent of sitters (and HOs) who do not take their commitments seriously.
1 Like
@anon42826925 yes, I agree.
And @systaran also my thinking on the subject