Pausing owner applications: An update

Hi everyone,

Ben here, Product Manager at TrustedHousesitters. A few weeks back, I shared an update about what we here at Team Trusted have been working on lately - including some important work we’ve been doing around pausing owner applications when they hit 5 applications. If you missed it, you can take a look here.

We’ve since been testing one-off pauses over the last 6 weeks, and we are now launching phase 2 of the test which is continuous pausing. This means that as soon as an owner reaches the limit (5 open applications), all new applications will be paused.

We believe that this change will lead to better sitter and owner success, and improve your overall experience on the platform. We also believe that this will improve communication and help speed up the application process.

We understand there have been some concerns expressed by sitters members, namely those applying to popular international sits. Only a very small percentage of sits receive 5 applications within 24 hours, and as there are now more global sit opportunities than ever before, we believe that this will not affect a sitter’s chance at applying for an international sit. However, we will monitor this closely, together with your feedback.

Members have also suggested that we increase the application threshold, but after full evaluation the data showed that 5 applications gives the optimum opportunity for owner success. So, we will keep the limit at 5 for the time being and evaluate in the future. Rest assured, owners will be able to unpause their listing if they are not happy with the applicants at any point.

One additional concern owner members had is whether they could unpause their listing without declining the first 5 applications (so that they could compare new applications to the first 5 they had received). Owners will now have to decline previous sitters to get more than 5 applications - this has been done to help speed up the application process, avoid uncertainty or any time wasting for sitter members. However, nothing will prevent owners from messaging any of the first 5 sitters they previously declined and inviting them back, if they wish so.

As always, we want to thank our members for all your invaluable feedback so far, particularly about visibility and clarity on how owners will know when their listing has been paused.

This is still a test and will run for 6-8 weeks. We will update everyone on the findings and next steps as and when they become available, and if you have any questions in the meantime, please do check out our handy FAQs.