I’ve been a member of THS for eight years now and it’s been a great experience as a sitter and continues to be. I’m also very involved on the forum. I came across this article tonight which tells the story of how successful THS has been. There were only 70,000 members in 2019 and by the end of 2022 there were 100,000 members. It was interesting to read that so many people acquired pets during COVID so that even boosted the membership of THS to 200,000 by the end of 2023. The three tier membership system has also boosted revenue. I’d like to know though what improvements THS have planned with the money they are making. It would be nice to see this put towards some real savvy tech employees that “listen” and make an effort to what members need as improvements. The latest supposedly new and improved feature was one that prevents a sitter from applying on the same sit twice. This is definitely not a new and improved feature as most members have agreed with. Let’s hope this revenue that THS is making is going to be put towards some much needed features that sitters and homeowners really want. TrustedHousesitters’ Mathew Prior on growing a category-creating pet sitting marketplace
To continue improving functionality that nobody asks for, appreciates, or finds improved?
Wih these type of investors it is all about the money. They invest where they see a good return. Initial ventures may have some altruism to them but when these big boys take over it is definitely about the money honey!
@Globetrotter thank you sharing. I do applaud THS for growing their business and surviving the pandemic ( a lot of companies didn’t make it). Couple of other things I noticed that there is not a single mention of the dreadful PC “pet parents” term used on the platform. Also please read this important quote, which explicitly states the site is focused on owners and owners’ satisfaction.
We also focused heavily on marketplace dynamics, understanding which side we wanted to recruit to grow the marketplace. We decided to focus on owners because we felt that was where liquidity started. This also led us to double down on member satisfaction as this was the lifeblood of the business.
Lately there have been a lot of unpopular changes affecting sitters, but these are all driven by owners’ requests, regardless of how sitters were going to be impacted. I wish the platform updates were more balanced towards both sides, now just the pet owners.
And if a large amount of dissatisfied sitters leave and there are then HOs complaining they can’t find sitters what happens to liquidity then? It would be really interesting to know how many sits go unfilled 
.
My thought exactly. It takes two to tango…
"Member satisfaction is the lifeblood of the business ". There won’t be a lot of that, if sitters jump ship, because of some unpopular decisions made.
Blockquote
To continue improving functionality that nobody asks for, appreciates, or finds improved?
and a new colour scheme on the website every year.
If they get so big they might have to go public and we could all become shareholders and effect some change. (Fat chance, methinks)