Thanks for posting your suggestions. I’m familiar with Zipcar but never used one. Your list of specific actions makes sense to me! And why reinvent the wheel, if Zipcar has already? =)
Yeah, a little more structure would help everyone have the same expectations.
And to go with the overall topic, here are some of my feature requests:
let PPs see how many views they get each day, and how many favorites
helpful for them to improve their listing, like on Airbnb
better metrics to help PPs improve their listing (and ditto for sitters)
(e.g., for a given city/query, how many people click on my listing vs other listings?) (how many apply, relative to other listings?) (time spent viewing listing) (can also do an AI analysis of what makes the most popular listings and how I can improve)
give PPs at least the option of a free background check like sitters. Similarly, I wish PPs could get external references to start out.
allow PPs to include a more accurate listing location (e.g. like Airbnb) (GPS? cross streets? bus stop?)
when viewing a listing’s photos on the app (iPhone), let me swipe left to see last pics (i.e., pet ones)
allow PPs to unpause simply by clicking one button (e.g., “unpause listing”) (don’t require them to decline any sitters)
let PPs favorite a sitter from their profile page (currently can do only on the page where you search for sitters)
let PPs reorder pet photos
fix UI for TH messages/invites: it looks like you can send an invite with explanatory text, but you can’t and it’s two separate actions. E.g., I may plan to write a message, click the date checkbox, and then click send. That’s how I would imagine it would go. But if you do that, then the message part never gets sent, but the text box is cleared, so you’ve lost your message and you might not even realize it was never sent. Very confusing and unintuitive.
Can THS not introduce a time limit to how long a sit is under review? I don’t like applying for multiple sits as I don’t like letting people down but it’s frustrating when 14 days pass and the applied sit is still under review. There are only 5 people to choose from! How long does it take? I agree with others that if you haven’t heard it’s probably not you, but I hadn’t heard back from a great sit for 10 days, nearly gave up, but was invited to do it.
I just think it encourages a disrespectful attitude towards sitters to keep them hanging on.
Let Homeowners choose whether we want a sitter “vetted” (by a for-profit third party company) or not. Let us choose if we want to be restricted to five applicants or open to more. Just STOP imposing unnecessary and silly restrictions. We are adults who know how to talk to people and make decisions for ourselves.
The forum could have been implemented to boost SEO, as that’s something THS has been great at doing for the past decade: appearing first in google search. I, too, would love to chat to the tech team. I have a lot of questions about the functionality of the website and suggestions that, in the world of devs, are super easy to implement. Now in the world of higher management, it’s another story. I really appreciated reading their reviews on glass door, to have a feel of what it’s like to work for THS. I wasn’t disappointed.
I’d like to have the option to see sits in date order. Say if you have been let down last minute by a HO and need to find another sit in a certain location quickly, it would be good to see them by date order rather than trawling through pages of sits. I know you can filter by dates but sometimes a lot of sits are available during a set time period.
I’ve raised this in the Help section but @Carla suggested posting here as well.
I’ve just noticed that when feedback has been given to a HO following a sit only the primary account holders name shows under our profile pic even though we’re doing this as a couple. Our whole profile states we’re a couple so I strongly feel that both names should be shown across all elements of the platform, especially when we leave end of sit feedback.
I’ve emailed @support to see what their response is.
I’d like to make the suggestion directly to Trusted Sitters and I’m not sure where to do that, so I’ll try here.
I think it would be very helpful to include a daily (by hour) at-a-glance type checklist form to be included both in the welcome packet and under the responsibilities section of the sit listings.
There’s so much information in the welcome packet that these important details might get overlooked. I also think it would be hugely helpful to have an idea of what to expect your day to look like in regards to sitters task lists. Listing these items in an (approximate) hourly format would give a clear summarized check list of activities.
There is a way for HOs to create a calendar of events. However, I’ve just tried to add an event (for trash collection) and I am unable to change the time of day. The 15:00 and 16:00 is fixed and can’t be changed. This is probably a system glitch @Ben-ProductManager .
Here is one that would make a search easier: The ability to add more than one date span to a single location. For example: Cirencester - date range 19-24 May or 5-30 June. As it is, I have the date range 19 May to 30 June but most of the notifications I receive are for sits I can’t do, as they are for dates I am not available.
Re- no.3 on the phone App you CAN see all sits and sitters with/without reviews/feedback. But on the desk top version you only see those who have received reviews or feedback. Its important to cross check when rearching for a sit… for that purpose I ALWAYS use the app.
We recently listed a sit and were inundated with (unsuitable) applicants. Consequently we were continually declining applicants to unpause the listing. We explained we were declining applicants to unpause our listing and it didn’t mean they were unsuccessful. Several of the declined applicants then reapplied (not sure they actually read our listing!)and we had to decline them a second time. Is there any way to prevent this?
Hi all, I think many sitters might relate to me on this suggestion: The site should require owners to read all applications within 1 week of the applications’ submission. The owners do not have to make a decision to accept/reject the sitters that early; I am merely suggesting that they READ the sitters’ application to help save the sitters time in planning their travel. After all, we all know how expensive plane tickets can get depending on how early you book them in advance! Sitters take a lot of time to reach out to owners, so the least the owners should do is be responsive and at least read the detailed messages of the sitter applicants.
If you have any other questions, do use the the spyglass at the top right to do a search, as there are many interesting discussions on all the various threads.
Best wishes
Therese and the forum team.
I completely agree with the general point that the least owners could do is read and respond to applications, but I dont think this specific point is realistic. I think you (the sitter) can only control your actions, not the home-owners.
You could always say in your application that you would appreciate a response by [date] so you can book your plane tickets in good time. If they’ve not got back to you in time either (a) move on or (b) send a follow-up message.
