@carpediem16 I thought Nomador janky and canceled, but I sit only part time and THS has turned out to offer more sits than I can do, so no need for me to renew on Nomador. I joined Nomador during my first year of THS and sitting, so was testing the waters.
In your place, if I were interested in sitting in France or other places where THS is thin, I’d see about joining other platforms, whether Nomador or otherwise. Even if they’re not great, there’s not much choice out there when it comes to THS competition. And no platform with great global coverage and strong functionality / features.
My experience on Nomador was, even with little effort, I landed sits in NYC and Hong Kong, which I’d applied for. I had just recycled my THS profile and linked to my THS reviews. And I was offered multiple sits in France, which I hadn’t applied for, since I have no interest in sitting there.
I’ve since decided that I will sit exclusively in the U.S. and U.K., because I just want to be a tourist without responsibilities when I visit other countries. That makes THS plenty useful for my sitting purposes.
I sit only when telecommuting. When I want an actual vacation, I just pay for a hotel, a cruise or such.
FWIW it’s only the most recent sitter who didn’t review. So 2/3 left positive reviews. The first sitter with the blank review left a glowing review…but as a reply to the HO’s review of them…
I think HO would like the same option. What this really means is that people are not willing to leave honest reviews because of the potential blow-back. That’s why I think reading reviews is so important, especially reading what is NOT stated.
After seeing the explanations below, I see what the HO are trying to do. I always think it’s kind of funny how the very, very rich often give the smallest tips, and apparently in this case, trying to get free project managing.
It’s true that as a dual-member, I could theoretically contact a previouis sitter to ask that person about a sit. Maybe a sit where they didn’t leave a review. I could do that by sending out a “fake” invite date and saying something like: "Hi this a fake invite date. Please reply if you’d be willing to tell me why you didn’t review you sit at ___________ over ______. However, there is a good chance, I would think, that the sitter would be annoyed by this email, so I wouldn’t do that. I don’t think many other combined members would consider this a super power and do it either. Also the number of combined members is pretty small.
IMO, the review system is what we have. We all need to be honest but kind. If I don’t see a review for a homeowner, I might ask what happened. If I don’t see ANY reviews for a homeowner, I might consider it a red flag.
@Candide
On THS a sitter or owner cannot delete a comment or review.
I was referring to the site Nomador. I had read that owners can delete reviews that sitters leave. We were on Nomador for 6 months and I was not impressed with the platform at all and when looking for reviews about the site itself, I read this comment about the ability to delete reviews…I have no proof.
yes, same. I actually sent it to Trustedhousesit as an improvement to be added.
I didn’t apply to a few sits because some sitters didn’t leave any review. I asked Trustedhousesit if there was something wrong with the listing because there were several reviews without a comment,they said that is usual that some sitters don’t write anything…that is nothing negative…i still wasn’t convinced and didn’t apply for those sits with blank reviews.
When we were new to sitting, I initially thought that sitter-to-sitter contact would be useful, but not now. As we’ve gained in confidence and recognise what to look for in a sit to suit our own preferences, we 've found there are more than enough sits to meet our needs. If something sounds dodgy or reviews are missing, why not either ask the pet parents (I realise you have to apply but you can always withdraw your application if their response doesn’t convince you to take things further) or you can pass, and move on to the next one.
As sitters, we wouldn’t welcome lots of individual requests for further info about past sits, since that’s all covered in our reviews.
It’s difficult to bring a “proof” when a comment has been deleted, unless you make a print screen of the comment and then the print screen where no comment appears…
I was surprised my negative comment was deleted by sitters, they did not warn us our dog fell ill, went to the vet several times,
I wrote to Nomador, they answered me by mail ( you can’t reach them by phone) owners and sitters could delete comments
The only thing which cannot be deleted is " we do not recommand"
Ask them. I’m no longer a member. I doubt they changed these rules
The system is funky that way. You can only see “missing” reviews for homeowners, not sitters. You can only see missing reviews on the app, not on the web. This isn’t deceptive on the homeowners part. It is just one of several weird differences between the website and the app.
I’ve been thinking about this one. I agree it would be nice, just like hiring a contractor at my house I would love to chat with his previous 3 clients to see how it went.
So, is there anything stopping us with THS from adding to our profile our personal email address and adding something like; “please feel free to reach out to me via email if you have any questions for sitters”
I admit I have not researched THS policy on this but wondering if it’s an option that would not violate the rules ?
For reasons of privacy and to avoid spam and phishing e-mails and other fraud , I personally would not be choose to publish my personal e-mail address for all the world to see
Literally anyone can see your THS profile . It is not restricted to paid up members of THS .
They won’t do that or members will just bypass the THS system and everyone will lose the community, support and limited protection of being on here. Apply, connect & chat through the portal is much safer. Also not a great plan for GDPR @Junior#keepithidden
I would quite like to be able to contact other sitters. Not all members are on the forum. I have sent PM to a couple of sitters via the forum to ask a question about something that was useful to know before I spent the time making an application.
A useful tool also to speed up research into an area that appeals. I find these days by the time I have done travel research etc the said sit has already gone to review. Just my opinion of course.
A comment I had written on a couple has been deleted by the sitter.
I was surprised, wrote to the organization, as you can’t reach them by phone, they answered , explained to me it was possible for a sitter ir an owner to delete a comment you dislike. You may doubt it’s a “proof”.
I had written that couple had left our house clean, that our cat was ok but I criticised the fact they did not tell us they had gone go the vet several times ( without paying, we had an account set)without informing us.
Although they had promised to let us know “whatever would happen at home” while we were away.
They sent photos, but never told our dog faced bad issues. Reason given on our return ? “We did not want to spoil your holiday”
Retaliation to our comment ? they wrote " sit not recommended". And this comment cannot be deleted…
