In my honest opinion, This situation definitely warrants a 3 star review. You are justified in doing so for all of the reasons you listed. Having random “swipe right” guests in your personal space when you asked for this not to happen , knocks off one star for sure . Overfeeding, also pretty deserving of being shared with other home and pet owners … the broken dish , if nothing else had happened and this was all that went wrong then that in my opinion would have been a 5 star sit….
I’m not even sure why after these clear violations you would even consider giving 5 stars. I understand you are possibly trying to be nice BUT what if one of these random visitors were harmful to your pet or even the sitter , your vacation would be no more and the problems on your hands would be monumental.
Be honest , other pet and home owners need to know and sitters need to be responsible for their actions. And this is coming from a sitter who has a sitting business on the side… NOT Good.
I was keeping an eye on this one. The HO review went up yesterday. She gave 4/5 stars overall and in each category. She very diplomatically complimented the sitter and addressed the guest situation without any swipe right reference. Interestingly the sitter didn’t review and hasn’t yet responded to the HO review.
Guilty conscience perhaps? It would be hard to defend himself. Just FYI.
The moderators might want to consider closing the post?
I understand your concerns.
I just have a question, did you tell the sitter about the camera?
I thought any kind of camera inside or even outside the home is against the rule.
You could get into issues, if you didn’t follow the rules yourself.
They cant “control” the sitter’s activities. They can only monitor them.
Some sitters are uncomfortable that this is possible, and others have no problem. I have a video doorbell but i dont monitor the sitter’s movements. I turn off notifications when i am traveling. Perhaps i would be more curious if i had a dog that needed walking, but i have a cat.
Agree. Using security cameras to monitor people and not disclose them is indeed very questionable. Even Ring has warned people about doing so. Surprising that THS doesn’t require that all cameras are disclosed so the guest can decide if this is acceptable on their end. A number of HO’s have posted on these boards, stating they go through and review footage afterwards, just to see if they can catch the guest doing something “wrong” and then will place that in the review.
I would be super upset if the sitters let someone stay in my house without asking first. Also sounds like they didn’t follow the feeding routine. I wouldn’t be bothered by a broken dish as it happens but the fact that they didn’t say anything would bug me. I’d rather they just say. I think you should speak your truth but obviously respectfully
Honestly @Lou28, I don’t recall too many forum threads where HOs admit to going through footage to look for wrongdoing, unless it’s after something questionable happening. Eg coming home to dried pee stains in the house indicating the dog wasn’t walked, evidence of third parties staying or visiting without permission, etc. Sometimes homeowners are pinged when someone comes to the door or a car pulls up. I think that monitoring – of the home, not the sitter, is pretty ingrained and I think it would be hard conversation if the sitter asked a homeowner to keep the pings off and just “trust” them. You also don’t generally know if someone had a truly horrendous past experience.
To me, noticing if a sitter is staying the night, or has been gone for 20 hours, or is using my home as notel motel is very different from a camera placed inside a home. (Disclosure: Theoretical, I live in an apartment and don’t have personal cameras outside my door.)
If there are ring cameras or cameras by the porch or driveway, sitters need to accept that homeowners might see something or might look for something if they have reason to suspect something. If this bothers a sitter that much, they shouldn’t sit in homes that have ring cameras. Personally, I would be bothered by a homeowner if I got a “Where are you? It’s lunchtime?” type message. But probably knowing there is a camera makes me more likely to send a text saying something in my morning report like: "Spot had breakfast and went for a long walk. Here’s a photo of him napping. We are going on a short hike and to run some errands. We won’t be home for his 2 pm walk, but we walked him late this morning, and I think he’s good till 3! "
The policy states that the exterior cameras need to be disclosed before the sit starts. I’m stating before the sit is agreed to. Not putting it in a listing, not mentioning it on a call, not having it disclosed until after the sitter hits confirm - so too late to cancel - is not being upfront or transparent.
You’re welcome to post a link but what @Silversitters posted, it says prior to the start only. And I have definitely had HO’s never disclose or only after confirmed. But also, again, a security camera and a monitor are two different purposes.
