I believe that at least some homeowners are unaware of the policies. I believe it because most homeowners don’t use the site more than a few times a year and aren’t aware of MANY policies. Most homeowners don’t notice or open every email they get from THS. They don’t come to the forum. They don’t have the kind of “relationship” with THS and other sitters and homeowners that almost everyone participating in this forum has.
Currently, I’m going to a sit for a lovely person. And I’m sure they don’t have indoor cameras, BUT they changed the dates and I was able to get them to change it on the site but now I’m dreading contacting them AGAIN with the news that they still have to click “confirm” one more time. It makes it seem like I’m being the pain in the you know what insisting they do this or that. Most people skim something once: “Okay clean house!” and that’s about it.
They don’t think. They don’t read. They don’t know.
THS policy of sending reminders is useless especially as at this point most people have personal emails that are full of junk and effectively useless. Sitters can and do figure out workarounds.
As dull as it all is, maybe rather than simply “click” to confirm, if each side had to click to confirm stuff like it was a contract you were initialing before a sit is confirmed they woud see and read the rules. This could be an auto-generated form that would have arrival times agreed on already by both party, it could have something the sitter agreed to like “no guests” or “no smoking”. It could have basic stuff that always applies “no indoor cameras”.
OR maybe it’s something that every 3 months someone has to do like a professional development class – read through, video, somethng, to maintain good standing.
Whatever it is, it’s not just cameras. It is various norms, rules, and obligations on both sides.