I tried to apply for a sit today that the owner had listed as flexible. I couldn’t do it because it says, “you’re busy with another sit.”
This is unbelievably frustrating as it effectively stops sitters from having back-to-back sits or split sits (between partners on the same profile).
Here are scenarios where this new feature is an EPIC FAIL:
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A host says their dates are flexible, but we’re unable to apply even though the dates will not effectively overlap (because they said they were flexible in the text of the ad).
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A couple splits a sit: as part of a spouse team, sometimes one of us will go to the new sit a day early while the other finishes the sit. This is no longer possible with the new rules.
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A couple has two different sits: My spouse and I sometimes will each do a sit in a separate place. We cannot do that anymore because we can only apply to one sit for the same dates.
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The hosts list incorrect dates: Sometimes, a host will list a date and it will be incorrect. We just had this happen. That meant I couldn’t apply to a sit this morning even though the host had made the error (not blaming them–it happens all the time!). I had to wait until they fixed the dates by contacting them and then them contacting support. A huge waste of time. By that time, the sit we wanted to apply for was gone.
We are not children. This is a major problem for us as full-time sitters. We can negotiate nuanced schedules. We’ve completed 40+ sits over the past four years and have never had a problem.
Please, THS, I’m imploring you to go back to allowing us all to act like the responsible adults we are. If you cannot trust us with this simple issue of dates, how on earth can you trust us to take care of homes and furbabies?!
If you can’t tell, I’m really disturbed by this. It will make our lives much harder–and hosts will miss out on great sitters because of this.
Thank you for reading,
Rose