What Features Would You Like to See on THS?

@Karen_E well there you go! My most humble and sincere apologies. That is very good to hear, thanks for clarifying! I take it all back :raised_hands:

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What a great way to handle those who don’t respond! Kudos!

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Hi all - I’m sure this has been mentioned in one of the other 422 responses, but I haven’t seen it yet. I would like to be able to cross-reference my favorites with sitters/homeowners who have saved us as a favorite. It might make things easier for us to ā€˜find’ each other!

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An easier way would be to have a section on the forum, with suggestions and proposals, with individual threads. That way things would be more organized, and also more accessible for the product team I think.

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@Karen_E @Ben-ProductManager

I would like to know about the suggestions on this thread that have been implemented- that would be a great feature in Trusted Times and demonstrate how TrustedHouseSitters listens to its members suggestions .

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I would like it to be possible to find the TrustedHouseSitters support email address on the website. I do not want to use the chat box feature.

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@cat.tails it used to be easy to find but recently I was looking and could not find it. I had it saved from a previous inquiry and was able to contact the help desk that way.
Chat box was useless

@Silversitters Great minds must be thinking alike as this is one of the projects that we are currently looking into. :smiling_face: Thank you for also suggesting it and that is a great idea about the Trusted Times, we will look into ways we can best share this.

I’ve thought of some more…

  • ability to block users
  • bulk invite for new sit dates sent out to any sitter who has favourited your listing
  • better use flow for review process so that there’s less fear of retaliation (review only gets posted at same time when both people have submitted…if after x amount of time one party does not submit, review window closes AND only responses to the other review can be added so that each person gets a chance to post a true first impression and then from there, you can only see afterthoughts)
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I would like to see the listings dated with the original date that the Sit was posted.

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Would love to see a filter for smoking/nonsmoking!

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It would be nice to have a filter for dogs that includes a size option. For example, some sitters will consider caring for small dogs (less than 20 lbs for example), but aren’t comfortable with large dogs. As it is now, one has to wade through all possible dog sitting jobs which is pretty time consuming.

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I’ve posted something similar before on forums about ā€œcancellationsā€ but I’m going to put this out again here. A few months ago I had a sitter cancel for ā€œhealth reasonsā€ 4 days before my sit after picking up my keys. There were some sketchy things around this. I won’t go into it here. I could have reported this but I accepted the reason as valid and moved on. Got another EXCELLENT sitter and felt strongly that I’d dodged a bullet. However, I now realize all these months later, that they took another sit that started 2 days before mine would’ve and ended 3 days later. (I saw the review.) So proof that they were not being honest about the reason for cancelling 4 days before the sit began. There was also a real weird, ā€œWell I guess I could do paid drop ins if I only had to be in your house a short timeā€ offer as well. So the person not only cancelled on me at the last minute, but then offered to do paid drop ins. I am not out to open an investigation. I’ve moved on. But this is why, I strongly feel that THS needs to monitor confirmed cancellations. Some kind of automatic email needs to go to both parties to make sure they both have the same understanding of what happened and who initiated the cancellation – that’s super important since technically the owner has to release/unconfirm the sitter. Also the system needs to monitor how often individual sitters are initiating cancellations to make sure they aren’t doing this to take other sits or for other not good reasons. They should also of course check if HOs are cancelling frequently. Putting the onus of reporting on the homeowner is just not cool. It turns homeowners into the police. They shouldn’t be policing other members. And frankly they may have concerns about retaliation. Frequent cancellation has become enough of glitch to result in several forums, so it’s an area that needs improvement. THS needs to monitor what is happening and not rely on HOs to report. HOs are more concerned with finding replacements than getting into a messy fight. Ultimately, this affects the bottom line of the company since HOs are likely to drop the membership if sitters often cancel and the homeowner can’t depend on someone showing up.

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Well spoken @Marion and so sorry to hear your story, I’m flabbergasted to be honest. Waaaay too many cancellations lately, I have a pretty good idea why. Definitely a story worth sharing :pray:

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Couldn’t agree more @Marion - confirmed cancellations definitely need to be managed. The challenge is that they only an HO can cancel, not a sitter, so unless the sitter then reports the HO (& vice versa but there’s a process logged) it’s totally reliant on the community again. Plus TGS taking it seriously and making notes on the system. Apparently some sites have a flagging system. One yes, two watch your step, three you’re off!! :raised_hands:t3::raised_hands:t3: #ilikethis

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I’ll admit, part of my reignited anger upon seeing the actual review comes from the definitive knowledge of having been played. I was actually going on a sit, and had a back up plan – my spouse would’ve stayed home with our cats OR I would’ve hired a neighbor to do dropins, but I very much feel this person was trying to take advantage, and saw me as a mark. The present system allows for this behavior as most HOs won’t report and don’t want trouble, and I’m sure some in desperation might accept the kind offer to do paid dropins. There was very little actual harm to me. I spent a lot of time trying to contact sitters, but reposting got me a sitter right away. However, had this been my first THS experience, I’m not sure what the result would have been, and it could have had a ripple effect if I had had to cancel the sit I was going to. Tracking cancellations doesn’t assume wrongdoing, it merely looks for patterns and data, but it would serve as a deterent to this kind of behavior, and keep things from turning into disputes over what happened. [Updating to add: Whenever I’ve posted about the need for THS to track cancellations, I’ve gotten upvotes from both sitters and HOs. This isn’t anything divisive. It’s something that would benefit all members who aren’t abusing the system.]

I would like to ask…no, BEG the IT department to somehow PLEASE find a way to prevent HO’s from posting a sit listing unless the required photos are included.
I can’t imagine it’s that hard to have a box that they MUST check (much like ā€œterms and conditionsā€ on every site we know) that says ā€œI confirm/verify/promise that all of the required photos, including all the interior rooms the sitter will be using are clearly posted on my listingā€ and that box must be checked before the listing can go live!
This cannot be so hard to add this to the site, can it?

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Here’s another one: Have HOs prepare a document. It could be a part of the existing welcome guide that clearly shows beyond the listing what the daily responsibilities, tasks, pet care, house care, gardening care, etc are like, how long they can be away, restrictions on house and rooms, etc. (It doesn’t need to show personal info, addresses, phone numbers, passwords, emergency contacts.) When a HO confirms a sitter that document should go out immediately to that sitter. That sitter should then have x number of hours – probaby up to 24 to read the document and confirm the sit. Until the end of the 24 hours unless the sitter declines, the HO should not be able to choose a different sitter. The sitter should not be able to choose a different sit unless they decline the sit. The sitter should be able to contact the homeowner to ask questions and/or negotiate around the document eg: ā€œI’d love to accept the sit, but you didn’t previously state I could only leave the house for 4 hours at a time. That won’t work. Is there a way to change that?ā€ The sitter could still decline to confirm the sit if they can’t agree on the terms. (If HOs are befuddled by this, THS could offer help and samples. It’s not a contract in the regular sense but a very individualized list of the actual duties so petsitters could decide if it is ā€œtoo muchā€ and there is no miscommunication.)

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THS App Feature Improvements members would like to see to make their user experience even better and in turn help make a great platform the very best it can be.

Just had to laugh at the ā€œHOPS toā€ and the Bunny logo! Thanks for the grin!