Our sitter just completed a nearly 2 week stay. It is our first time hosting and I am conflicted how “honest” to be in the review, as I am not sure how many of my expectations were realistic or not. Here are some of the issues I experienced - please let me know which you would mention:
Sitter verbally told us he would arrive around 1-2 pm on the day of the sit, but didn’t arrive until 5:30 pm. He did not update us or communicate that he was to be later than expected. It was our first time leaving our two 8 month old kittens, one who had just joined our family 2 weeks prior, so we were quite anxious that they were alone that long (we left at 10 am that morning). We had 7 people apply to our housesit and chose our sitters based on him telling me he’d be working from home and mostly around the house, and only a couple days expected with long stretches of time away (more than 8 hours).
The only communication after he arrived at our home was that one of our cats were interested in his bags. Our outdoor security camera picked up that he left our home 1/2 hour after he arrived, came back close to midnight, then left again at 12:45 am and returned at 3:45 am. The next morning we did not hear anything from him, so we sent him a text to see how things were going. Still no response by 1 pm so we sent another text. All we can think is that he was probably sleeping in and missed the 8 am morning feeding, and we were very worried. He finally got back to us mid-afternoon. We told him about the middle of the night security alerts and asked him if this is typical of his schedule and he replied no. However, through nearly every night of the stay he came back between 2-4 am.
After 5 nights of him returning in the middle of the night and no communication from him regarding their eating schedule, we explicitely asked that he messages us in the morning with a picture of them eating. He did it once at 8:30 am and verbally reassured us he is usually up by 7:30. I am not sure how a person can function on 3-5 hours of sleep at night, so it was not reassuring. I would have preferred a daily morning update–usually he doesn’t message us until late afternoon or in the evening.
During the stay we asked them to take out the garbage and recycling once a week. They nearly forgot one time and we had to message them late at night to ask that they bring out the bins to the curb. This is all detailed out on a paper on the fridge.
When we got home, the place appeared tidy but I noticed lots of debris on the floor. I vacuumed and the entire canister was completely full. I felt a bit disgusted that they probably did not vaccum for a couple days at least - but wasn’t sure whether a clean house is something i should expect. The house also smelled like cigarette smoke, but got better after airing it out the next morning.
I noticed they left the back side gate unlocked after we got home. The last time they would have accessed this side door was 4 days prior to take out the garbage bins, so it was likely open for that long. It showed me their lack of responsibility and maturity.
Please tell me how many of these are true issues that i should mention and what I should let go.
Are the kittens doing well and seem nourished? If so I would let the nocturnal schedule go and just mention in your review how they ‘kept up with morning feedings despite being a night owl’. I would also note they arrived late and generally didn’t provide regular updates as requested.
The rest of seems kinda minor, except for the smoking. I would remove a couple of stars somewhere (cleanliness?) and strongly note that in your review.
The cigarette smell is more troubling to me than anything else which all seems minor.
I would leave a 5 star review rather than coming across as unreasonable and nit picky which could deter future potential sitters but that also depends on the sitters review history. If your review is competing against st multiple 5 star reviews it’s going to undoubtedly be viewed with skepticism by potential applicants.
If this sitter had no review history it may be reason to consider only established 5 star sitters going forward.
Ick; tbh I’m impressed he lasted out the sit…I’d have been scrambling to get my backup sitter on the phone after just a couple days.
I would definitely mark them down on Communication (not proactive, also frequently non-responsive,) Organization (arrived late, needed reminding after forgetting the bins, didn’t adhere to agreed schedule), and Cleanliness. Their overall lack in following most of your agreed terms would cause me to mark them a 3. I think a 4 would be generous. [Edited to be more generous than my original suggestion ]
Arriving late and the major lack of communication seems to me to be the biggest issues. Communication is KEY for a POs peace of mind; if they can’t even do tgat, you have no idea what else they couldn’t manage. They were also dishonest about their schedule, even after you tried to reconfirm. Probably no need to detail every specific issue, but I’d note the following to explain your star ratings:
Arrived hours later than agreed & without informing you of the delay, leaving young kittens alone all day long, which was concerning on your departure day.
Failed to provide a requested daily update on a consistent basis, sometimes even after being texted to ask if things were ok.
Their daily schedule didn’t remotely reflect your pre-sit discussions, resulting in long absences during which pets were alone and/or unsupervised.
Had difficulties following instructions for trash removal & had to be reminded to take it out, despite it being documented on the refrigerator.
Home could have been left in a cleaner state.
Anyway, my 2 cents. I’m glad the kitties were ok at least, and hope your future experiences are much smoother. This person is really the exception to the rule, from what I can tell.
I am writing from the viewpoint of a sitter. Your sitter really doesn’t deserve 5 stars. If you provide supportive reasons within the body of the review as to why you deducted stars (cigarette smoke, poor cleanliness, poor communication, late arrival are all good reasons), I would not consider you to be nitpicking or unreasonable.
Goodness…Quite the review you have ahead ! I hope that ensuing sits are better for you and your kittens.
Whichever you choose to address, please be sure to remain objective and offer concrete examples when possible.
I’d address arrival time discrepancies, erratic daily schedule, failure to adhere to agreed upon feeding schedule, poor communication and failure to respond to yours in acceptable time range, poor cleaning and “inattention to security” (gate issues).
As much as the smoke issue is a BIG one for me, unless you discussed this prior it , unfortunately, is not addressable.
Be as honest as you can - objective, concrete, use examples and avoid emotion.
It sounds like you’ve had a tough time with a few key issues. When reviewing, it might help to focus on the areas that directly impacted your peace of mind or the care of your pets, like communication (arrival time, updates on kittens), safety (unlocked gate), and missed responsibilities (like garbage and vacuuming). You don’t need to go into detail on things like the sitter’s sleep habits unless it really affected your pets’ care. Keeping it clear and factual will give a helpful review for future hosts
Reviews are primarily written for other homeowners. Sitters will also see your reviews and make their own judgements if you seem petty or fair. There are several categories;
Organised
Reliable
Self-sufficient
Clean and tidy
Pet care
If you can think of “what happened” and provide examples in categories and keep it objective, concise and honest that’s what’s best.
It sounds like you know how late the sitter was out because of the ring camera. That sounds a little creepy and may turn off sitters. While I get your wanting someone to be home most of the time because you just got the cats and they are young, putting a curfew on the sitters and tracking when they get home is going to turn off most sitters, so I’d let that go, but try to vet better next time.
The real issues I can see from your very long list are: Communication. That is not a specific categaroy but if you had agreed to a certain amount of check ins and didn’t get them I’d count that in “reliable.” Reliable also includes his latenesses.
The smoking thing if it was discussed is a big breach that would count in overall ratings and maybe “reliable” as well. If it wasn’t explicitly mentioned, I’d still mentioned the odor as a warning to others.
Leaving a sliding door ajar could have been a disaster and I’d mention it and take off a point for that alone.
It’s hard to judge “pet care” because you don’t really know when he fed the cats, so a lot goes back to the reliabilty and lack of communication.
One thing I do notice is there was a lot of monitoring on the ring camera and frankly this is going to turn off a lot of great sitters. Sitters are doing this in exchange for travel accomodations. Most sitters love animals and will take care of them as agreed but they aren’t doing this as a “job”. They are your guests but also expect some privacy and autonomy. If I read a review that indicated a sitter was watched throughout the sit, I’d be unlikely to apply to that sit. So I would deemphasize what you know about the sitter’s coming and goings from the ring camera and focus again on communication and the conditions you came home to.
Ring cameras and similar camera systems record a bit of video and send notifications when motion is detected. Notifications of comings and goings in the middle of the night or the recent thread where 52 notifications came in during a single day suggested issues of concern that, after review of the video, turned out to be valid and serious concerns. That is, viewing the videos was justified, useful and validated the value of those cameras. Sitters who consider cameras “creepy” are sitters who we view with suspicion. Sitters who don’t tolerate outdoor cameras will find fewer and fewer tolerable sits in the US as doorbell cameras are now nearly ubiquitous.
We list our exterior cameras and where they are. Any sitter who doesn’t like them is free to not apply but agree that Rings are pretty much everywhere now as they are too convenient for HO daily lives.
Even if a sitter disabled mine ( which would pretty much indicate a problem to me), I would just go across the street and next door and get their video. Really once you leave the house, there is a camera somewhere that will pick you up.
I would knock him down several stars. He smoked in your house, he lied about being around, he didn’t leave your home clean and tidy, taking out the garbage is standard. I am on a sit where there are cleaners every week, but I still take out the garbage. They didn’t secure the house. Who would want this sitter?
What happens when a marginal individual with anger management issues discovers they’ve been the recipient of a potentially career ending scathing negative review which they will naturally feel is not deserved?
Theoretically speaking.
(Post edited by the Forum team to comply with the Community Rules).
I am familiar with ring cameras. I understand how they work. My observation reading the OP was that it reads as though the sitter were being constantly watched. My point was that if writing a review of this, the amount of mentions of what the user knew from the video would distract from what the sitter did.
The ring camera told the host that the sitter didn’t return till late in the morning, but arguably this wasn’t the big problem. The big problem that I could see was that the sitter didn’t respond to inquiries, didn’t communicate well, came late, smoked in the home, left kind of a mess, etc. It didn’t take a ring camera to find any of this out.
I was not stating an opinion about ring cameras or disparaging their use. I was reacting to what the OP wrote. It sounded the way it was phrased like she was constantly watching tracking the sitter’s comings and goings. This turns the focus onto her anxiety about the sit rather than the sitter’s behavior.
I never stated anything about how I “feel” about ring cameras or that I find their use “creepy” in general. That wasn’t my point. My point was that as a sitter and homeowner, I’d like to read a clear review of what happened on the sit and what the issues actually were.
I have lots of HOs with ring cameras, it doesn’t turn me off because I am a responsible sitter. THS expects daily communication. And if they are kittens and need to be fed on schedule, the sitter should do that. And I think the sitter was watched because he was much later than he said he would be. He said he would be around and then was not. The exchange was that he would take care of these kittens that need more care than a cat. And he lied so he should be monitored. He was in your home. A home is a very valuable thing. He was not responsible. Hence, I think the HO was right to monitor them. I say this as a sitter. I have nothing to hide, so I don’t care if my comings and goings are monitored. They see I am not gone for more than 4 hours, usually much less, if I am gone. And they see me walk the dogs frequently.
Sorry not what I meant in the comment. I was reacting to the OP which I found hard to read because so much was going on and I was trying to imagine this as an effectively organized review. While the ring camera officially “proved” the sitter came in late, there were many issues that could be found without the camera. The review is more effective if the camera isn’t emphasized.
I have been on several sits with ring cameras and even yard cameras. I’ve had hosts contact me about packages on the porch and other things noticed outside. I would find it a little creepy if the homeowner said something like, “Oh, What happened? You got home late last night?” I stand by what I said. If the main emphasis of the review was that the sitter was out late and the homeowner knew this based on a camera, the review would be less effective.
The problem is once trust is breached, it’s breached.
I’m often amazed that sitters on this forum who opt to skip daily updates to HO because it’s too troublesome (unless the HO asked to not be bothered). A quick 30 second text that all is well goes such a long way.
Proactive communication is best in so many settings in life - business, customer service etc. How annoying is it to constantly have to follow up yourself with a customer service inquiry vs them just proactively updating you? Same with sitting, proactive updates make HO relax and not need to check cameras unless some weird notification pops up at 3 am…vs a sitter texting the HO proactively that morning (or evening) and saying hey had a great day with the kittens. They are their meals and we played. Everything’s good. There is an event later tonight I want to check out, I will leave some kibble out for the kittens but I may be gone from say 10 pm and not back till 3 am or so, just so you’re aware. I’ll definitely be sure to be awake for the morning feeding’. That at least gives some confidence.
I agree with this. Plus, even though reviews of sitters are “for” the next HOs, sitters do look at how HOs review past sitters and an emphasis on cameras could dissuade some really good sitters from applying.
I honestly don’t understand why poeple are pointing remarks at me like I’m defending the sitter. I am not. I wrote a comment offering the homeowner a way to touch on several points in a review that doesn’t lead with the sitter coming home late most nights. Personally, I have cats. I don’t care what time the sitters come home, but if I don’t get updates and come home to a dirty house that smells of cigarette smoke I am going to be freaked out. I also sit and have never had a problem with ring camera. I’ve also never had a homeowner call me out based on what they found on a ring camera.
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