I had a printed welcome guide from a bit back. Now I have added information and wanted to print it again. Well, how can I say this in a nice manner?
The print version is just a SAD statement of what THS has become. 
10 bucks for people wanting to sit and/or HO unless you are premium. (we are)
Support from THS sucks most of the time.
And now the print version of the welcome guide for what I took some time to make sure it would have really all the infos. UNUSABLE.
(if that is a word)
I appreciate when host prints the WG. Sad to hear that it has gotten worse. I recently sat for a new host and I had the feeling like the printed WG was worse than before, but I could not be sure - so this confirms that they were not making a beginner mistake with their WG, but that THS has gone worse yet again. I tend to ask new hosts to print the WG, to instill this behavior, but maybe no longer makes sense…
Hi @Jac
I’m really sorry to hear that you don’t like the printed welcome guide.
Whenever I can, I do pass along feedback to the team.
Do you (or anyone reading this discussion 
) have any thoughts on what you think would work better? I’d be happy to pass along any feedback.
Jenny
Hi Jenny
the layout is horrible. The one before had on the main page the emergency numbers of THS. I think even with a cute picture. then the page breaks also made sense. Now they are anywhere.
Do you want me to pdf it and send it to you?
Thanks again for trying to make this better.
Wait, what? They charge you $10 for a printed version of your WG?? 
That’s something you ought to be able to get off the site as a PDF or Word document, just out of your account. ??
Or are you talking about the booking fee in addition to the WG problem?
From the sitter side, can I just say, the WG is atrocious. It takes forEVER to go through each page/section, copy/paste into Word on my laptop, and then print it (with my glitchy printer, but that’s my problem).
WHY can’t there be a simple PDF with everything ALL ON ONE PAGE, or continued pages, instead of having to click through a fazillion sections that have 1 or 2 paragraphs each???
YES, I am old-school and like to have a printed copy of things.
Yes talking about 10 bucks for the booking fee
I personally dislike the WG. I don’t have a printer and if host unable to print it it’s endless scrolling through on my phone. Much prefer if the host has condensed it into a word document or even written it out.
It’s unusable.
I have a welcome guide in Google Docs. I share the Google Docs link with sitters in the THS messaging app and that works perfectly well.
This way, they can search for keywords if they want / need to. Also I had one couple who were native Spanish speakers so I had translated version as well.
Of course printing from Google Docs is easy and I leave a printed version in an organized, tabbed binder at home.
The printed format (the last time I even bothered with it) leaves huge gaps and spaces making it really unusable as a printed document.
Also there is no ability to search the online welcome guide.
In case useful to other folks: I screenshot WGs and can search for words even among those. Maybe try on your phone or tablet and see if that works for you.
I wouldn’t hold my breath for THS improvements.
I don’t understand why anyone would care to use the default THS Welcome Guide as compared to making one of your own.
By doing it yourself, you can customize it, make it as detailed as you like, add photos, and constantly update it as responsibilities, property features, and pet behaviors change (for example).
We keep ours on Google Drive and confirmed and even potential sitters are invited to view the Welcome Guide via a link sent on WhatsApp or through the THS message system, so they know what they’re getting into prior to even accepting the sit.
There’s none of this “I can’t send you the Welcome Guide yet” or “The Welcome Guide won’t let me do this or that”.
We print a hard copy and put it in a plastic binder that is available during each sit.
@Jenny, there have been prior threads on this. Can dig up if helps.
First, there appears to have been THS effort to add more sections and subsections to the WG. Guess this is akin to someone adding more and more layers of folder in an email client. At some point it just doesn’t work. So often, simple is good.
Second, what does THS imagine the use case of THS WG. We guess that THS WG are only designed for use on THS platform. Not printed. Not exported to PDF. We sometimes housesit or walk dogs in remote places that lack internet - so we always want an offline copy of WG (e.g doc saved on phones). Print-to-PDF is horrible, piecemeal process (as so many damned sections and subsections).
Third, we suspect - perhaps wrongly - that THS makes WG deliberately difficult to use offline, on the basis that Pet Parents don’t really want WG printed or exported by housesitters. But surely this impacts pet care, if internet not available?
At least half of our Pet Parents, probably those with more than a few prior sits, have given up on THS WG and have developed their own document in MS Word, Google Docs or equivalent software. They often print such documents for us. Great. We never receive printed copies of THS WG documents - perhaps for reasons noted by @Jac.
Just one thought - you may want to share the link to your document on the THS messaging app. That way in case of any dispute the THS system itself has a record of the sitter receiving the message with the link (vs an outside system where you would have to send THS proof that you sent the link).
