I wanted to share a concern about the TrustedHousesitters review system and see if any other members have experienced something similar.
I recently discovered that while a sitter’s review of me remains publicly visible on my profile, my review of the sitter is no longer visible because their profile became inactive/inaccessible.
My concern was never about trying to remove their review. It was about the review system becoming one-sided when only one member’s feedback remains publicly available.
What was especially frustrating was that it took communication with three different support agents before my actual concern was understood. I repeatedly received standard responses explaining that reviews cannot be removed, even though I was never requesting removal of a review.
Eventually, support acknowledged that this is currently a limitation of the platform and that reviews cannot remain visible once a profile is inactive.
I understand inactive profiles may no longer be viewable, but it does seem to create an imbalance in transparency when future members can only see one side of an experience.
I’m sharing this respectfully as feedback because I think the review system is an important part of trust and balance within the platform.
I can understand your concern. You stated that you don’t expect reviews former members completed to be removed from the other party’s profile–which actually wouldn’t be good as most people probably would not be happy about losing reviews-- and that the main issue is the one-sided nature of it.
But there really isn’t anything the site can do about that it seems. Profiles linked to any sort of membership site tend to go offline if the person decides to no longer be a member. And without the person’s profile, I don’t see how else they would continue to make the review visible
Also, while some may look at how a potential host or sitter reviewed past people with whom they partnered, generally most people will probably put more weight on the reviews received rather than given, unless something really negative stands out in the reviews given. So I don’t think this missing information has a significantly negative impact on the process.
And if your specific concern is that you were negatively reviewed, and you think your review of the sitter would give more context, disprove anything they said, make you come across in a more flattering way make their feedback seem less credible,etc…it is understandable to be unhappy about losing that. But again, I don’t think there is any way to keep the reviews in tact for people who are no longer members.
Hi @shelleybean 
I can understand why this feels unbalanced. The issue doesn’t seem to be about wanting reviews removed - it’s about mutual transparency disappearing when one member’s profile becomes inactive while the other review remains publicly visible.
That creates a situation where future members may only see one side of an experience, even though both reviews were originally submitted.
It’s also interesting that support eventually clarified this is a platform limitation rather than an intentional policy decision. That distinction probably matters.
I’d personally prefer a system where paired reviews either both remain visible in archived form, or at minimum there’s some indication that a reciprocal review once existed.
Thanks for raising it respectfully as feedback.
A member has the ability to reply to a review and share their side of the story and specifically address the issues raised during the review. Perhaps it carries a bit less weight than “mutually negative reviews” but it can certainly help mitigate the damage if well written, non emotional and without being defensive.
Any negative review will leave potential hosts or sitters with questions. It’s best to try to avoid a negative review in the first place by “reading the room” so to speak. We’ve had our share of poor sitters but rather than bringing up the problems, we treat them with gratitude and respect even though we know we’d never have them back again. Until their review is posted or the review window has passed we give them no reason to believe they’re anything less than our best friend.
@shelleybean I enquired about this in the past when I noticed 3 of my reviews, that I’d previously been able to read, had vanished. The reply from THS was that when a member formally cancels their membership then all their data, including reviews given and received are removed. The other Party will see only “Former member” in place of sitter/host name. The stars do remain though so you do not lose your review count. If there was a response to the (now missing) review by a member who is still active that too will remain. I’ve see that occasionally and ofcourse it looks odd- a reply (to a now blank space)- but that is the THS policy.
If the member has simply let their account lapse, by not paying their membership fee, then everything will remain visible including all reviews given. However you cannot open their profile/listing page to read it. Anytime you try to click on a members profile, and it does not open, it usually indicates the member has let their account lapse and is currently inactive, but they have not formally cancelled their membership.
It’s annoying and disappointing to lose hard earned reviews so a good policy is to screenshot all your reviews as they come in so at least you can keep a personal record of them.
Members can cancel or let their membership lapse and their reviews can stay visible. But under consumer privacy laws such as GDPR, companies are legally required to remove if the consumer specifically asks that their data/info be deleted. The company has no choice, given potentially huge fines up to a percentage of their revenue.
If the OP is saying that there needs to be some explanation of that, that’s probably not likely.
I think this is not a big deal - and also why the ability to respond to a review on your own profile is valuable. And if there truly is no time limit on responding and you haven’t already done so, you could make a comment about this person no longer being on THS and a short explanation if you feel it is necessary.
I don’t think this is accurate. As @Maggie8K said, reviews are only erased
Some of my previous hosts are now inactive and have been for over two years and I still have their reviews visible.
Yup. I have ones who are inactive or former members whose reviews show as well.
I also have past sitters that when I click into their profile it says inactive but I can still view their profile and reviews. The one I’m talking about when I click into their name when from my cell I get a spinning heart which never goes into the profile. When I try on my computer it says: profile not available, check back later. This message has continued to come up for months. When I contacted trustedhousesitters they say the sitter is still an active member.
I haven’t had this experiene. As a homeowner I have no bad reviews from sitters. But several past sitters are no longer active and there reviews of my home are still visible. These are problem free great reviews and I don’t want to lose them.
It sounds like you want potential sitters to either not see the review at all because the member is no longer here OR still be able to see the review you wrote to get the full story. And that side by side, he said/she said is not going to happen.
If you’ve had great reviews since then, that one review is not going to be a big factor in sitters choosing your sit. Sooner or later any sitter or homeowner is going to get a less than stellar review. Most people reading reviews know there are always two sides and will dismiss an outlier. If there is more than one bad review, then that is an issue you might not need to address directly in your listing.
I understand what you’re saying, and I do agree that one bad review among many positives usually won’t matter much to reasonable sitters or homeowners. Most people can spot an outlier.
I think my issue is more with the imbalance of visibility. If one review remains public after a member leaves the platform, then ideally both sides of that exchange should remain visible for context — whether positive or negative. Otherwise people are only seeing half the conversation, and sometimes important details or explanations from the response are missing.
At the same time, I can also understand why homeowners and sitters would want to keep great reviews visible even if the other member is no longer active. So I can honestly see both sides of it. I just think the system should be consistent either way.