Last year, when our account was blocked for two weeks with no access to it, I decided to Screenshot all our reviews to make sure I had back up somewhere incase anything happened to them! I was thinking- if we were to get kicked off the platform or if a tech glitch deleted them by accident etc..
What I had not considered is the following; If another member cancels their account completely and becomes listed as a ‘Former Member’ all the reviews they wrote are removed and only the Stars remain! I’ve often seen listings currently ‘inactive’ (the member is taking a break) but Sit details, reviews & all our chat dialogue are still there.
But I just discovered, by accident, when looking at our past reviews, that 3 of our former hosts have cancelled their Accounts completely. They are now on our review Page as ‘Former Member’. Their location, sit dates & review for us are all gone and only the Stars remain! Very fortunately I had already done Screenshots before that happened, so they are not completely lost, and I now intend to keep screenshotting every review as it comes in, to secure them. At least the Stars remain so the review total does not decrease but many hosts write lovely reviews and its a pity to lose their personal commentary as well. We work so hard to earn those reviews!
What you described, with just an indication of a former member and star rating, minus the written review, happens when the former member has requested that their info be removed under GDPR, a European consumer data protection law. Companies that are required to remove consumer info will face fines if they don’t abide.
By contrast, I have had two sets of U.S. hosts who are no longer THS members. Their reviews appear as they wrote them originally, with star ratings. The only difference is that when you click on their photo, it doesn’t go anywhere, so you can’t see their profile. There’s no indication otherwise that they’re former members when I do a view of all of my reviews when I’m using the website profile preview. But if I look individually from my past sits screen, it indicates that the host is an “inactive pet parent.” That’s also on web. I don’t use the app, except to check for missing reviews from sitters (for hosts).
I don’t know that that’s the case. Maybe ask membership services about that.
GDPR requires deletion after a two-year period, AFAIK, if an account is not resumed. But GDPR doesn’t legally apply beyond the European Union.
Of course, a company that operates internationally could choose to apply the two-year deadline universally out of convenience, instead of country by country, even in countries where it’s not required.
This isn’t cool. I think the retention of the reviews needs to be a feature. If, for privacy reasons, names need to be removed, so be it. But the content of the review (the sitting “work") needs to be retained. No different than a job or business review.
That’s not possible under GDPR law — if the consumer requests removal of their info, anything they wrote would be included in that. Companies aren’t given a choice of whether to retain the info as you described.
I have screenshots of all of mine because I took a break for a while. I was told that everything remained for two years but I wanted to be sure. Thankfully when I resumed everything was as I left it.
You have prompted me to update my screenshots from my recent sits, thank you.
Reviews written by a member who cancels (or does not renew) their membership remain public for two years. After that two-year period, they are deleted.
You can’t. I just meant if you want to preserve your reviews for yourself- for any purpose. If a host cancels theur account completely the Star ratings do still remain so you don’t lose everything.
Yes that’s true- exactly what I mentioned in my post. We have a number of currently inactive hosts and it is as you described. Everything is there including their review of us and their profile picture but you can’t click on it.
THS has a 2 year (ish) limit on holding profile data So its not actually clear if these ‘Former Members’ were inactive hosts who went over the two year limit and everything got deleted automatically or if they consciously cancelled their membership and specifically requested all data to be removed. Either way screenshotting those sacred reviews is a good idea!
I don’t know whether that’s true, because my first host is an inactive member and our sit happened more than two years ago. I don’t know when their membership lapsed, though. Last I checked, they hadn’t done any more hosting, so they probably didn’t renew after their first year.
I might check back out of curiosity, to see whether the review disappears, but it doesn’t matter pragmatically. They gave me a great review and mentioned wanting me back, but I have many such reviews now, so I wouldn’t miss it.
For what it’s worth, I am in Canada and I have a review from 2020 and one from 2023 from no longer active members, and as noted, their profile links just aren’t active.
As far as how to share the screenshots, I guess you could say in an application that you have more reviews available and could email/message them to a prospective HO.
My OP was only meant to draw awareness to the fact reviews disappear when a member leaves THS. So screenshotting is a way to preserve them for the record. What someone does with their Screenshots is something else!
My primary purpose is to preserve our hard earned reviews (for posterity!) If, in future, I ever need reviews for a different platform at least I’d be able to offer my large number of THS reviews. Ofcourse a link to the actual Website to see the reviews live would be more ideal but if I am no longer a member I would not have a live link to offer!
) If, in future, I ever need reviews for a different platform at least I’d be able to offer my large number of THS reviews. Ofcourse a link to the actual Website to see the reviews live would be more ideal but if I am no longer a member I would not have a live link to offer! 
