And the ultimate irony: Sitters cannot cancel Sits.
They have to ask the Owner to cancel the Sit, or perhaps Membership Services would cancel the Sits.
But let’s get back to topic of this thread: Owner was not notified when Sitter did not renew membership. Unbelievable. Owner had to scramble.
Come on, THS! Throw us a bone!
I agree @BJW that it does not seem correct that in the situation where a membership is not renewed
How can that be fair to the sitter? They’re left unprotected by a host who isn’t a member? It flags or prevents it happening if the sitter hasn’t renewed, is that right @Silversitters? And no review will happen either. Surely that’s THS’ responsibility @Jenny?
Hi everyone,
Just a quick note to say that Carla’s already passed feedback to the team about the messaging around sitters not renewing, but I’ll update them with the more recent comments on this thread and let the team know that there’s an ongoing discussion.
As always we can’t promise anything - but we’ll always feed back if we’re able - and you can always contact Membership Services with any specific concerns or questions. 
Jenny
Thank you @Jenny, @Carla and everyone who has contributed to this thread.
It’s an important one, not only for members who land in situations like I did, but should be an important consideration for the risk to THS as well.
I was lucky to find sitters at the last minute, who turned out to be wonderful. But it very easily could have gone the other way. I stood to lose thousands of pounds in last-minute cancellation fees for the holiday we’d booked for our family of four adults.
This kind of situation could lead to legal cases being instituted against THS, as well as adverse news and media reports and social media posts, etc. For something that must be fairly easy to fix, is it worth the risk?
The alternative could be to make it very clear to members that they should not assume because the dashboard shows a confirmed sit that this is the case and that they need to stay in frequent contact with their sitters/homeowners between the time of confirmation and the sit. This would place the onus on members who otherwise could reasonably expect to be informed if a sit is cancelled due to non-renewal.
I hear you @BJW - the Product team have acknowledged the comments and the discussion thread - and if we get any feedback we’ll be happy to share
I’m surprised you don’t know how to contact the sitter off of THS. I wonder if the sitter is actually intending to show up; at least, if you’d already given them your contact information and/or address. For my own part, I think alternative contact information is a must.
That said, it does seem strange that THS isn’t taking some responsibility for this. It can’t be that hard to add some code that monitors memberships and sits. (I say this as a former software engineer.)
Aparently ( according to previous threads ) it is not flagged by THS to the sitter, the sitter is not notified ,and the sit still appears on their dashboard . The sitter may by chance notice if they try to contact the HO through the platform or access the Welcome Guide because then they will see that they can’t because the member is inactive - otherwise they may not realise since the sit is still on their dashboard .
I would like to know @Jenny … since the sit still appears on the sitter’s dashboard when the HO’s membership has expired - does it block the sitter from applying for another sit for those dates ?
As suggested by @Jenny - I have asked the support team the question again. First response is “if one or both of the parties don’t have THS membership at the time of the sit then it is considered a private sit and not the responsibility of THS.” Have said in reply, that wasn’t the question that I asked you (or the ongoing discussion on the forum)….and asked for a second time. #backssoonwithanaupdate
@rosawoodsii
I did have the sitter’s contact details, as per earlier in the thread. Before confirming the sit, I spoke to her on WhatsApp as the sitters who were originally confirmed cancelled. I wanted to be sure that she was definitely serious about doing the sit - and she assured me this was the case.
I only became aware that she had not renewed when I could not message her through the THS platform. I tried contacting her directly via WhatsApp and she did not respond to my messages (although I could see she had read them) or answer my call.
Sorry, but I certainly hope that she is not able to be a sitter on this platform again, this is totally unacceptable…is there a way for THS to make sure she is not able to participate again. As a sitter , its people like this who give the rest of us that actually follow through and make a commitment and communicate a bad name.
@Cuttlefish this is exactly what happened to me, but as the HO - 10 days before the start of the sit. The sitter had not renewed her membership two months prior to that.
That’s tough. Support still haven’t come back to me with a definitive answer @BJW - will update when I hear more…
Somewhere in the back and forth above, the OP states that they were connected on WhatsApp. They messaged the sitter via WhatsApp. Messages were read, but not responded to at all, so they flaked.
I am so sorry this happened to you @BJW . You were let down both by THS and by your confirmed sitter. There are so many responsible and communicative sitters in this community. It is so sad that outliers like this give us all a bad reputation.
Hello everyone, I have an update from the Product team regarding members that expire after a confirmed sit.
How it currently works is when a member expires the sit stays confirmed so the member can renew and the sit will hopefully go ahead as planned. The team appreciates that this does not always happen which is why the new feature has been introduced.
The new feature as shared by @Silversitters will make sure that going forward members with confirmed sits will not be able to expire as they will be set to auto-renewal, however, in the interim the Product team will look at coms around contacting members where the confirmed member is no longer active. @BJW thank you for raising this.
As well as looking at coms around this, the inactive members and how they show up will also be looked at as part of the new inbox system that the team are currently working on. I will post back here when there is more to share.
In the meantime, if a member sees that their confirmed owner or sitter is now inactive, please reach out to the Membership Services team and they will be happy to help.
Thanks @Carla, this seems to be moving in the right direction, and I appreciate the Product Team working on this.
There will always be members who do not want to auto-renew, and this is their right, so coms around advising the other party in a confirmed sit when this happens will be great and prevent nasty surprises at the last minute. As will highlighting this in the inbox system.
I look forward to the updates, and thank you again.
@BJW You are most welcome 
I’m sorry that you had this experience and I will post any more updates here. Best wishes with everything!
Support sent this as a response @BJW @Silversitters et al
For all members, regardless if you are a pet parent or a sitter, if you attempt to make a sit the system will prompt you to turn on your auto-renewal. This will need to be turned on for the sit to go ahead within the platform. In an attempt to cancel auto-renewal, you would need to cancel any confirmed sits to be able to do so.
@Cuttlefish so reading between the lines and putting all the puzzle pieces together. It seems that THS have recognised the issue and made changes ( around Nov 23 ) so going forward this shouldn’t happen .
However for anyone who already had a sit agreed before the “product change” ( like @BJW ) they don’t get any notification if either of the parties membership lapses - the sit stays on the dashboard - although if it does go ahead it’s not an “official” THS sit .