It wouldn’t be going well ! Thanks but no thanks
I’d quickly realize we didn’t see eye to eye.
What’s up doc? You have a popular sit so you can do it all your way.
I have been passing on sits like this and there are many. Plus also some pets aren’t really socialized with other pets. Actually I think you said that.
I read one that said a pet could not be left alone at night at all. However you can take the pet with you. Where? Where can I go to a nice restaurant in your town for dinner with a pet that can not be left alone. And the pet can not go to a noisy place either. This sounds like anxiety, when I asked the HO about that, they were so offended (though they said they were not offended). Plus they had 4 other pets to clean after. Free labor. Because 5 pets is not easy work.
Anyway, sorry about complaining, they are not all like that. It’s just the audacity of making the sitter pay to do labor.
Maybe some HOs but certainly not everyone.
I am a sitter and I make sure the sits I take feel like a mutual exchange. I see lots of listings that feel like unpaid work but I just don’t apply.
We don’t have to go out of our way but we do things to make it easier and more pleasant for sitters so they enjoy their time spent in our home and with our pets.
We express our gratitude via actions not so much with words which can be meaningless.
So agree on that one.@idocsteve
Some of the nicest thank yous I’ve had:
Clean and organized dwelling.
Healthy and well behaved pets with a
Workable routine for walks and
Feeding etc
Lovely comfortable bed, clean bedding, room to put away my clothes and luggage.
Some welcome shared food or drink with Home Owner.
Readily shared Welcome Guide with no hidden extras
Local info readily available showing the Home Owner wants me to enjoy time off and time out too! Not just job description details!
all these things and cut flowers freshly picked in a vase on the kitchen table express thought and warmth..
Words often aren’t strictly necessary: actions speak volumes.
I quickly spot gratitude and hope the Home owners I sit for do too.
One Home Owner stated in his review of me “ Mark is exceptionally polite “. I take that as a compliment.
That could be a sort of warning to other hosts that you have certain expectations requiring manners and being extra polite that rise above typically expected social norms.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
So agree with your first paragraph. Don’t people know how a business works. The community part is marketing. $12.00 extra a sit is nothing. What if they said $12.00 a night extra. People leaving because of it is rather shocking. Maybe because I owned a business for 30 years I see things differently than those that do online work merely to support their travels. People leaving will just open up more sits for me. I doubt if homeowners are even giving it a 2nd thought.
You and me both, I owned a professional vision care practice for 30+ years. My wife owned several hair salons and we feel the same way as you and a small minority do.
THS is a business, nothing more. It’s rather surprising, and even shocking as you put it that people are outraged and insulted because it’s acting like a business rather than a best friend.
That’s possible but it’s also possible that they stay and decide to use the platform to make contact and then agree the sit off the platform, some HOs already have sitters who repeat and lots of contacts and can do without the membership.
Another possibility is that other platforms take the members who leave THS and, as a result, the platform gets worse and worse. Lots of possibilities.
No wonder she has such good hair 
This is a likely scenario given that most of the complaining is done by sitters and for good reason. They tend to do more sits per year so are subject to more fees than the host who may only travel a few times per year, if that, and it appears from numerous posts stating financial hardship with the new fees, that some, or even many sitters are not in solid financial shape as are hosts which is why they pet sit when traveling, so what may be an inconsequential fee for hosts who are able to take long expensive vacations due to good finances, may be an overwhelming obstacle for financial srapped sitters.
So as a result, many more sitters will leave than hosts, leaving more opportunities for sitters who remain.
The only two variables that I see are:
1- Of the masses who complain and say they won’t be renewing, many or most may take a look around and realize there’s no close second best to THS and they’ll quietly renew their memberships and in the long run nothing much will change.
2- Host such as me have been made aware of several other low cost or free pet sitting platforms, and may gravitate towards them simply to save a few hundred bucks per year because, why not? Especially if enough sitters do actually leave THS that quality applicants are hard to find, especially for less desirable sits. I don’t have a problem getting applicants however by simply posting a question on a free FB pet sitting platform I received numerous pet sitting inquiries and have already lined up a pet sitter through that group for next March. That’s one less available sit for THS sitters.
Yes. I’ve been offered sits off platform from existing or previous hosts on THS. Some are leaving (or have left) and some might stay, but don’t care whether I belong to THS or not — they ask me to repeat sit, because we’ve proved to be good matches. Some also have referred family or friends, some of whom are on THS and others who’ve never joined.
My next sit is a repeat for hosts who always checked first with me before posting any sits. And now they’re not renewing. I expect to keep sitting for them and other previous hosts.
Like this message came from another pair of hosts, unsolicited:
This has been the coolest & most unexpected experience for me after joining THS. My biggest challenge is saying “no” so I have enough time to visit new places!
Yup, I usually repeat sit only in select places, like where I have a lot of friends. And sit only when I telecommute, because I don’t want a vacation with responsibilities for someone else’s pets or home.
I’ve been using THS sits only for icing, plus I’ve reduced down to only a handful of sits a year anyway. I can afford to travel without it, and if I wanted to, I have a newly built mother-in-law unit that I could swap on home exchange sites. We’ve been using it only for personal guests, but there’s no reason we couldn’t swap it for locations elsewhere in the world.
And did your wife charge her employees for every hair appointment they carried out for her as well as add an extra cost to each of the clients when having their hair done @idocsteve?
I don’t know how she handled her business, That was before we met. I will be happy to ask her when she catches up with me in the Solomon Islands after she finishes up with business in Australia. But she agrees with me that some members are taking the booking fee way too personally. She also says I’m obsessed with the THS forum lately but that’s another matter entirely. 
She’s had a lot of work done. More than I think she needs but when I mention it, it doesn’t end well. 
I’m not sure you’ll see any effect on your chances of geting a sit. You always have to be among the top 5 applicants. 5 out of thousands of members is a low probability. All my favorites receive 5 apps in less than 5 minutes and the Ho’s always choose one of these 5 candidates.
The number of members will remain high in my opinion. The pet owner market is huge. There will always be new members interested in joining THS, perhaps for 1 year, perhaps for several years, we do not know how many years they will remain members. Which, moreover, is not a guarantee of longevity for THS.
Here’s my experience based on 3 sits. We fill up our applicant pool in under an hour and have received as many as 8 applicants for a single sit before the listing is paused. Or, in reality the listing is paused at 5 applicants but if sitters have the application page open when the sit is paused, they can still submit their application. Or at least they could, this may have changed recently but not when we listed the most recent sit a few months ago.
Anyway, although we have chosen a sitter from the first round on 2 of the 3 sits, we worked our way almost to the bottom those recent sits. The first sitter really doesn’t count because she had sat for a prior THS host that recommended THS, and we joined at their recommendation.
Many sitters apply for sits that they ultimately can’t do because the dates don’t line up but they want to get that application in when the window opens. Or, they decide that caring for 3 dogs, 3 chickens, a half a dozen rabbits and as many guinea pigs, a few goldfish, 2 turtles, plus watering a few potted plants (formerly it was a lot more work but I installed an automatic irrigation system) and monitoring the pool water levels and chemicals wasn’t worth enjoying a villa on a mountainside overlooking the Saronic Gulf and distant Corinth and Athens.
So we tend to work through the list and in the last 2 rounds we chose a 4th or 5th round sitter, mainly for the above reasons but also because we received a few applicants that had no established history who we declined.
So, you never know.
Making money as an entrepreneur is something I understand, but I don’t think they spent much on advertising.
They certainly gained the majority of their new members through word of mouth, without receiving free months of referrals most of the time. When I talk about THS, there’s usually not the right context to add to the conversation “contact me if you want to be referred and get 2 months free ” Or “give me your email to be referred”
With the new booking fees, I don’t know if members will continue to recommend THS as much. Similarly, with the limit of 5 apps and therefore increased competition, it’s less appealing to promote THS to new pet sitters.