Ah, that’s the first time I heard of the survey sent to a HO.
I started completing it but to be honest, what’s my income got to do with anything? I just deleted the email and didn’t submit the survey.
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Yes, I would estimate that only one of ours is a ‘desired’ sit in THS’s eyes, but highly desirable to us.
Yeh, there are far more sits than sitters… and they are going to lose a huge number of full-timers to other sites now. Up until VERY recently I loved this site.
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It is sad the direction they’re taking. I may be wrong but they seem to be looking for “elite” sitters for elite homes (with its focus on California). Very divisive and it is cerainly no longer about the pets.
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@Wildcolonialgirl Maybe there will be elite pets too! “How desirable is for you to sit for a pet who is housebroken, quiet, does not throw up on the rugs, and can be left alone for up to 4 hours?”
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But I decide that when I choose which sits to apply for. The control by owners and sitters seems to be slowly vanishing.
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I don’t quite understand why such elite HOs would be looking for sitters that do it for free. Don’t such people have staff for that? Or a discrete agency with proven sitters, so that they do not need to advertise the property with bedroom and everything? Sitters that would do this several times at the same place, that one could send away if the HO wanted to return earlier, etc etc. Sitters that one would not be expected to socialize with.
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@pietkuip in my life experience, it is those WITH money that don’t SPEND money - on others. I have found that the more money people have, the less they are prepared to part with it. They spend money to make money. So getting free pet/home care is right up their alley. I am sure there are exceptions but I have rarely met them.
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I’m only speculating, but I think that a discrete agency may be an offshoot THS is looking at. Who knows, but that survey implies something … …
@pietkuip I totally agree! 
Of course, we’re not privy to what THS is specifically doing, but context might be useful:
Why many companies — agnostic of THS — want to know how much users earn (and other such info): So they can target advertising / marketing to people with similar demographics and get more customers.
For example, let’s say THS learns that 20 percent of users earn $100k or £100k. And 80 percent earn $75k or £75k. Then THS could target such potential customers on ad platforms / social media platforms such as Facebook. Then the company could avoid wasting advertising dollars on the wrong people.
Likewise, on advertising / social media platforms, companies often can target potential customers for a bunch of other criteria, such as homeownership, education, location, age, specific hobbies, etc.
The above is common worldwide and companies often ask users this type of info. I’ve seen that as a consumer many times over the years and all of you probably have as well, but might not have noticed (or might have ignored surveys). Many companies — when doing such surveys — make such questions optional, because some people balk at sharing such info.
FWIW, companies don’t typically care about your info individually in such scenarios — they’re looking for patterns. Exceptions: Some companies want to know who’s affluent, so they can sell them (or cross-sell) products and services. Like if you’re rich and they want to sell you stuff that normal people can’t afford or get you to invest money or such. In those cases, companies can survey people and/or buy such info, which is widely available. Some companies survey to avoid spending on buying the info or if they think they can get better info by surveying existing users.
Usually, Qs about income are based on dollar ranges. Likewise with ages and education levels. Once a company gets such info, they can say target advertising toward potential users who earn $75k to $100k who own homes. Many ad and social media platforms allow advertisers to be specific.
They can even target say ZIP or postal codes. There’s widely available info for such. Like if you google specific postal codes, you can see breakdowns of typical residents’ earnings, education, homeownership percentages, the median price of homes there, etc.
Companies also can use customer data to pitch business partnerships or make themselves more attractive for investments or to be bought by other companies. These possibilities happen less frequently than the marketing / advertising use cases. Generally, the more affluent your customer base, the more attractive your company.
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Holy cow. Homeowner here, I received the survey. I wasn’t going to open it but you all got me so curious! Sounds like the questions are the same, intrusive and irrelevant. I just renewed but I’m not really happy with the direction things are going. I’ve stopped referring HO’s due to the number of truly unsuitable applicants I’ve had to sift through this past year. If they keep going this way I’ll be looking for an alternative. Bummer that they are putting so much effort into changing things for the worse 
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Hello, @Wildcolonialgirl Jenny is currently offline, but please feel free to reach out to the Membership Services team as they will be able to direct you further.
Thank you to everyone who has either answered or feedback about the survey. We never want anyone to feel uncomfortable so if you received the survey know that it is optional and if it’s not something you would like to take part in please just disregard it.
The forum team don’t have any more information at the moment, but we have passed back all of your feedback, including it feeling intrusive. Thank you.
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@Carla I know you are trying to help, but it’s not just a case of feeling THS are being intrusive, THS actually timed that survey when a huge chunk of sitters AND owners are already feeling deflated and let down by the new overbooking rule. It was totally ill-timed when everyone’s feelings are already heightened in disbelief at what has now happened.
They asked very personal questions in a very impersonal way, with no care for the person that was answering. It was like THS got a third party company to create a survey, without understanding their customers at all, but it will have been THS that timed that survey to take place right now.
I know you are here to help us, honest I do, I’m not getting at you. I loved THS until that overbooking rule change, but the timing of that survey was very bad. Sorry to moan at you, I know you’re here to help! I do appreciate what you do to help us all.
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If you don’t like the survey, just don’t complete it.
I won’t.
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We haven’t received this specific survey, but hope we will so we can see what everyone is talking about. We’re homeowners as well as sitters.
@HappyDeb Thank you for your kind words, they are very much appreciated. We have collected several members’ feedback from this thread and will also make sure your sentiments about timing and general feelings are also shared. It is important to feed how members are feeling back to the wider team, so thank you for sharing this 
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One is curious… so I would probably take the approach by @Sarah22, like I could claim to be a zillionaire etc 
Totally understand this @Maggie8K but THS are not that dynamic or strategic in their marketing and BD planning so it’s moot. I love. a good survey. It makes me happy when organisations act on it. And if you’re (we) are smart then tell the survey participants why you need/want/love their input in order to make the XYZ improvement. The delivery, implementation and communication are the fundamental flaws here. And I know YOU know this. Just venting as a whole. 
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It’s really very disappointing. I’m hanging in there as my membership isn’t due for renewal for some time, however I have joined another UK housesitting site - sister of a couple of others I currently belong to!
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