Having a 5 star rating is important to both HOs and sitters. There are a lot of posts expressing concerns about getting less than 5* reviews. So I started thinking, are all categories equal? I mean, I would think Pet Care is the most critical. A 4* star for Cleanliness and even Organization or Self-sufficiency, I think, are not that big of a deal.
So that the good pet care givers aren’t simply passed by because of a less than 5* average, maybe sitter profiles should show ratings for each category and not just the cumulative average?
I mean, a number of the rating categories are subjective.
I would think a less than 5* for Pet Care would be the most comcern, followed by Reliability, but that’s me.
It’s a shame when I read about people who want to leave THS because of one bad review, which may have nothing to do with pet care.
Anyway, other’s perspectives and possible recommendations?
Honestly I’d like to think I wouldn’t stress too much if I got 4 stars in a category, because we all have over inflated 5 stars. I think the words are much more important. Sometimes I write a novel in my review, I always think what would like to know about the sit for the next sitter. As a host though, you are judging on the after effects. Is your pet ok? Is your home as you left it? Did the sitter communicate adequately? Some people don’t like to write so then the stars are all you have to go on.
@Cat-ophile, suspect that may be over-thinking star ratings!
We’re not aware of any related THS guidance. Our impression is that the rating topics and star ratings are probably intended to be used as broad guidance rather than for computational data science.
The two-way confirmation by pet parents and housesitters is hopefully based on more factors than the highest weighted average star rating.
Suspect that, in terms of relative importance, review topics vary a great deal across both pet parents and housesitters. Their lives, pets and preferences differ. Some people get fired up about cleanliness, some about pet care, some about organization/communication.