I’m sorry you have been marooned by many commenters. Your point about the optics of HO mentioning camera in their review is valid in the sense that I would stay away from such sit. Which of course some hosts would love. But you wrote it so that first time host is aware of this: not as a rule or a demand, but as something that a veteran users have heard of before, and something that can harm the host. Or help them find sitters that are perfect to them. Important point: they need to know in order to make educated choice.
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I enjoy your posts. I think it is because they are honest and direct, saying the things that many do but don’t want to admit to the HOs. You are maybe sassy (if you agree), but here is the important: you don’t come across as mean. You’re blunt, but you are not seeking to dominate or belittle others.
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Thanks. It’s just a weird position to be in. I wasn’t trying to scold just to help.The OP asked about being honest and what to put in a review. I saw a messy narrative about a sit that was off the rails and was trying to focus on how the host could tell what happened in a way that would make it clear to other homeowners that the sitter is neither reliable or communicative and not make it about the homeowner’s reaction to the sitter’s not being reliable and communicative which for many people will make her look like the problem.
I was offering advice as a homeowner on writing an honest review. That it got interpretted as adversarial by other homeowners is troubling.
A few months ago, my buiding finally got a new intercom system that’s wireless and has video. It only works on one of 3 doors to my buiding. If someone enters by inputting a code, I can see a record of this on the app. They can also enter using a key and there is no record. Most people use the QR by choice. I always turn off the notification on my phone when a sitter is there because I don’t want it to buzz at some weird time while I’m away. Frankly, if I read a review where a host mentioned the late time a sitter came in waking them up with a notification, that would be a red flag for me about the host, not the sitter. It reads like the person on vacation is waiting up for the sitter. As I said in another thread about pet air tags, I don’t care, but don’t make it weird.
I get that a lot of sitters have made very critical remarks about cameras, throwing some homeowners on the defensive, but I dare any homeowner to put on their listing: “I will have a ring camera and will be using it to monitor your comings and goings.” Some reviews read as though that is the subtext. As a homeowner, I want to avoid sending a message like that to sitters.
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Sounds like there were more than one person, you’re referring to a couple?
This sitter is really not “up to par” on multiple counts.
How are future pet owners going to avoid this sitter if you don’t leave an honest review? Just state the facts, try not to be judgmental about his schedule.
Many sitters would do many things much differently (better) than this sitter. In the future, ask more questions and be more selective.
It is OK to review your expectations, which are NOT ridiculous.
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I would list everything whether or not the sitter’s behavior bothers others who have answered here. There may very well be a HO who feels the same as you do and will appreciate knowing these things in advance about the sitter. Then they will also know what things they may need to be very specific about when making their expectations known to the sitter. You will continue to run into little things with each sit to learn from. Welcome!! We’ve been using THS for two years and have had great experiences each time.
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It might only be 1 in 5 in the US, but I’ve found sitting that it’s more an either your block or community has them or it doesn’t. As a sitter, I haven’t tracked this, but I think more than half the homes I’ve stayed in had either a ring camera or a ring camera and some other outdoor/backyard cameras. Not ubiquitous, but probaby enough to impact sitting.
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Interesting. It definitely hasn’t been that prevalent on my sits in the states — at least not that they’ve told me about! 
We personally refuse to install one, as I don’t approve of some of their data-use policies & procedures.
Not sure where you are exactly but definately on sits in a townhouse in Seattle and a townhouse in Portland.
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Definitely! Kittens are a lot of work! I love love love cats but never sit for cats under a year old!
As a fellow homeowner please express your concerns in the review. It doesn’t sound like he stuck to what was agreed on and some of the things you mentioned would have me not wanting him to sit for us!
For the homes I sit, it is practically 5 out of 5. Though I tend to be in higher end homes. I get texts about a package arriving etc. Doesn’t bother me since I walk dogs 4 times a day, I leave a place tidy and clean. What do I care if they see me walking in and out with the dogs. Or see that I only go for about an hour to the grocery store. I get 5 star reviews.
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I hear you. And it makes sense that it’s more prevalent in higher-end homes, and in apartment complexes.
As I noted in an earlier post, I don’t typically care about outdoor cameras either; there are valid reasons for a homeowner to want one, just as there are valid reasons for some people not liking them – and it doesn’t necessarily mark them out as being a sub-standard sitter who isn’t doing their job:
- Weak data privacy laws and questionable- or mis-use of the captured data: at least one well-known US company has been selling access to the stored data to various law-enforcement or other entities, without it being terribly clear to homeowners that they were doing so.
- Some Hosts who monitor the feeds in order to micro-manage Sitters, and/or draw incorrect conclusions about something a Sitter may be doing (we’ve seen a number of examples of this in other threads.)
So to be clear, I wasn’t arguing either for or against them. I was arguing for being transparent about all tracking and monitoring devices up-front. Ultimately, Sitters should be able to choose whether to take a sit with those conditions or not, and it doesn’t necessarily reflect poorly on them if the answer is “Not.”
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Then they should ask if there is an outdoor camera and refuse the sit. In my own opinion, which is totally based on prejudice, I think there are many young sitters, taking sits, doing what they want, not following through on responsibilities, as has been noted in the forum discussions. If you read the 4th turning, there are generational differences and they recur every 80-85 years, and the young generation today is not the most responsibile. It is cyclical. Not everyone, but the generation as a whole. It has been documented over hundreds of years.
Or. as suggested, Hosts should note it in their listing and Welcome Guide. Why not do it the easy way? Why put the onus on Sitters to ask a potentially awkward question when the Host could just proactively include it in the listing?
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Leave an honest review. I have on my sit postings that my dog doesn’t like to be left alone all night. I request sitters to be home by 11pm. I have no problem with the sitter going out to dinner and do something afterwards, but I do list a curfew. If a sitter doesn’t want to do that, then they don’t apply for my sit.
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That is exactly what I do. It’s in the listing.
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I guess one can ask if it’s a dealbreaker but I agree with @MerryPuppins
Especially because it’s compulsory to disclose them according to THS T&Cs, so it would be natural to assume that there are no cameras if they are not mentioned.
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Because it shows the sitter is concerned about their activities. I do not care if they monitor my comings and goings and have nothing to hide. If someone has something to hide, then they are concerned.
That’s an extremely disturbing conclusion on a number of fronts.
There have been multiple valid reasons listed here on why someone might object…and honestly, that kind of attitude would be one of them.
Edited to add: it should also be noted that if you simply list the cameras on the listing as suggested, those people who are concerned for whatever reason wouldn’t apply for the sit anyway, saving everyone the trouble.
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