Is it me or is the THS platform becoming unreliable? I have been using it for years but recently, I feel it would be easier just to pack my cat and travel with her.
I just sent a complaint about a sitter today who confirmed and then asked to cancel because she wasn’t comfortable with something. She didn’t ask if we could change that something, or find a solution, no… she went straight to “cancel my sit”. She could have said so from the beginning instead of wasting my time and others’ who applied to the same sit. Is this considered an “extraordinary circumstance” I wonder? I wish we could block, report or at least delete these sitters. Now I have to go through the whole process again.
As the platform is only to find a partner, I think to call the platform itself unreliable because someone wants out wouldn’t be correct. It is of course unfortunate if an agreement falls through. The «something» the sitter was uncomfortable with, was it clearly described on the profile and the spesifics of it? I think that is important.
It is better to state clearly in profile also things that are not so great, so people know it before they apply. If someone has applied for a sit and later will cancel there is a great difference for me if the «something» was clear and transparent before sit or not revealed until later, written in welcome guide or similar.
I, personally don’t think that it’s helpful in that the Home Owner’s Guide.is only available to the Sitter, after the sit has been agreed.
There is sometimes new information in the Guide that wasn’t either touched upon, or may have been glossed over in an earlier phone call / communication.
I would like the Guide to become available to the Sitter, once an application has been made, so that it can be discussed prior to confirmation of the Sit.
Perhaps, the Guide could be a watered down version that does not necessarily include full address & phone numbers?
Although area post code would be helpful.
Names, full address & contact details then disclosed upon confirmation of Sit
I am interested to hear the thoughts & suggestions from others.
Yes possibly to the guide pre sit in some form as @dma suggests. Info is gold as a sitter. What was it that the sitter “wasn’t comfortable with” @dianamih? That would give some context to the discussion here & help contribute. #moreinfoplease
That’s frustrating. While I agree sitters shouldn’t be put in uncomfortable situations, I also agree with you that canceling shouldn’t be the first response. There are a lot of posts here that I feel encourage sitters to cancel if they see red flags, get a twitchy feeling in their gut, discover a dealbreaker in the Welcome Guide, but it’s hard to know what will set off someone’s radar, and it’s not possible to put everything in the listing and still keep it clear and concise.
I try to be clear but I also know many sitters are readings dozens of listings and may not remember all the details, even if they’d read them. During video chats I try to go back over everything, not to encourage a sitter to agree to our sit but to make sure everyone has all the facts. I have not had a problem so far, but it could happen. Like during a recent video chat I discovered the sitter hadn’t read the Home Information part of our listing and didn’t realize we are 20 minutes from the listed town. It turned out fine, but if we hadn’t mentioned it she may have ended up feeling misled so I’m glad we discussed it before confirming. Anyway, I’m sorry this has happened. Clearly this wasn’t a good match so I hope you have time to relist and find someone better.
That’s why I always do a video call. I show them the house, i talk about the area, I say the good and the bad because i want to be transparent and i dont want bad reviews either. I had sitters that never actually read the welcome guide but we met the day before my departure and we kept in touch my messages which worked great. That “something” was a motion activated camera inside my walk in closet where i store all my personal belongings. It would only work if someone opens the door and goes inside. I always tell and ask the sitter to not go in there from our first call and it’s included in the welcome guide too. Never had any issues with that until today. The more i think about it the more i believe that this particular sitter just wanted to cancel the sit and was looking for an excuse. I would have happily explained it or showed her how it works.
I think you’re right that this sitter was looking for an excuse to cancel, why would they want to go into your personal closet? You probably dodged a bullet there.
Sounds entirely reasonable @dianamih and as mentioned, why would that affect them? Plus you’ve fessed up from the start. Irritating but they sound unreliable. #bulletdodgedindeed
In my opinion what you mention @dianamih is not something I would see as uncomfortable and reason to cancel. Agree with you that that was unfair to both you and the other applicants. Yes, you probably dodged a bullet, not a good match. Best of luck!
I hope you have the camera disclosed in your listing.
All cameras must be disclosed in the listing.
Interior cameras are actually not allowed, but I view your closet camera as an exception. If your closet has a working door, and the Sitter has no need to ever open that door, then the camera will never be on.
Thanks guys. Like i said, never had any issue with the previous sitters because of that. Everyone understood and they were ok with it. Oh well… time to post again the dates. I wish though THS had a way to flag these sitters somehow. You can only review someone after the sit, and same goes for filling a complaint. I did send an email to their support e-mail address this morning with a screenshot of her excuse for cancelling explaining also the situation. Curious to see if they will do anything about it.
Wow, that’s kind of strange. I just came back from a 3 weeks sit, to be honest I never entered the H/O bedroom, because I’m not nosy and I had no reasons to enter their bedroom. They did not tell me I could not, but why do I have to go in a room where I don’t have reasons to be?
@dianamih Just be sure to disclose and explain the camera in your listing. Some sitters don’t agree to any cameras including external and that is their choice to make. In your situation, most sitters probably wouldn’t care since it’s in the closet of a room we wouldn’t be going into. But that’s up to the individual sitter to decide. You say you bring it up in the call and welcome guide, so I’m assuming it was not mentioned in the listing. Some might see that to be a red flag. Just something to consider if you are relisting.
For me personally, if the camera wasn’t disclosed in the listing, it would probably give me pause as well. I have zero desire to go into a hosts closet for any reason, so the camera wouldn’t bother me if it was disclosed in advance. But if it were not and I found out later, I may wonder what else is not being disclosed. There’s nothing wrong with you having a camera in a closet. But there’s no reason to hide it in your listing if it’s not there already. By putting it in the listing, you’ll avoid those who would not accept it.
I’ve had a few sits where there were serious health and behavior issues not disclosed. They were so challenging, I’ve had to completely change how I screen, and I apply to far less sits because of it. For me, doubts equal don’t. No one wants to change their plans after making them, after spending money on travel. That’s a loss for everyone.
For any host or sitter who has unexpected surprises at the last minute, there is an increased risk of either party having an issue. Full disclosure by both parties is critical.
I’ve recently cancelled a sit because of a gut feeling for the first time. The style of communication and a lack of transparency gave me cause for concern that the sit could be one that didn’t feel mutually beneficial. I’ve done enough sits now to have learned to trust my gut. Most sits have been great but a handful have had me feeling resentful and unappreciated or exploited and I know I don’t want to feel like that again if I can avoid it. Most of those sits that didn’t feel good were ones where I ignored or overlooked red flags or gut instinct. Instead of cancelling this recent sit I could have asked the owner to change certain things that were worrying me but in doing so I may have ended up souring the relationship anyway or may have been given false assurances that things would be improved but if they weren’t then we would immediately be off to a bad start and the sit just wouldn’t work for me. I can completely understand your frustration and a desire to report a sitter who flakes like this but it could also be argued that in not disclosing a hidden camera in a listing that you’ve misrepresented your sit and your prospective sitter might feel inclined to have you reported as well. It goes both ways and I think learning to trust that a match isn’t going to work and giving plenty of notice is probably doing everyone a favour in the long term.
I once got cancelled on by an HO within days after we had gotten the sit confirmed. The reason they gave was some white lie. Does not mean that I think that HO needs to be flagged or flogged.