I don't see either the user or contractor as "less protected" In fact, my experience with homejoy has been the opposite. When I gave a rating of literally "Meh

I don't see either the user or contractor as "less protected" In fact, my experience with homejoy has been the opposite. When I gave a rating of literally "Meh. 5/10" for a decent but not impressive cleaning job, they went nuts--found me a new cleaner, offered discounts, said they would work with the cleaner to make sure she learned lessons, etc. way more than i would have done if i were hiring her directly. On the other side, if a cleaner thought my house was disgusting or hated my cats or something, I presume it would be easier for him to decline the job than if he were an employee of a service with contracts and reputations. Of course there are no guarantees about how they will dish out that $7M insurance fund but based on my experience with them, I have a feeling HJ would err on the side of paying more and maintaining their reputation.