Can a HO see sitter’s feedback before the HO writes their review of the sitter?
My very first THS sit went well and after the sit, the HO said they would write me a review. I wrote my Feedback for the HO right away. In one category I gave them four stars out of five for Accuracy of Listing and mentioned in my glowing Feedback that it was a little more than expected with an additional large flock of meat chickens and a couple of pigs (because the 100 additional meat chickens and the pigs were not listed until I arrived and saw the additional animals). I never got my Review even though I had requested it in the app, and they had said to me before I left that they were going to write a review. I had mentioned that it was my first sit with THS and how much their review would mean for me. They assured me that they would, but then never did. It made me wonder if they got my feedback first and decided to not write me a review because they didn’t like my feedback.
IF that is the case, then it doesn’t encourage true feedback from sitters.
I hope that THS will make the process clear so everyone knows what to expect.
The reviews are blind during the first 14 days after the sit. The HO can only see your review once they post their review or once the 14-day review window has passed. After 14 days have passed, no reviews can be written, but a single response to a review can be posted with no time limit
Wow! No mention of 100 meat chickens or pigs. You had grounds to leave at that point. If you called THS and told them you were not informed of these animals they would tell you, you are in your right to give them 24 hour notice to leave. Someone who lied about the amount of animals you would care for is capable of not telling the truth about anything else including writing you a review. I would inform THS of these additional animals not listed.
How incredibly mean of them to lumber you with so many animals (I’ve never heard of ‘meat chickens’ before) and then to not write you a review when you’d explained how important is was for you.
If these meat chickens are a business ( 100+ seems a lot just for their own consumption ) then this shouldn’t be a THS sit.
“Please note that sitters are not expected to complete any tasks that are considered ‘work’. This may include helping a pet parent maintain any business they have”
Wow. Mind boggles.
Reviews are blind - neither person sees review until both have posted or until 14 days passed.
Reviews are optional - while leaving a review helps both parties then there is no obligation.
As @Silversitters noted, this appears more like employment than housesitting. Should you deem that incremental animals was an issue (i.e. inaccurate listing) then raise a member dispute. We’d have left much lower than 4* for accuracy of listing if arrived onsite and found this surprise.
No, they can’t see your review before it is posted.
Sadly, not writing a review is typical behaviour for hosts that take advantage - it is actually the one I prefer for a bad sit. Once, a person gave me a 3 star review after treating me like a servant for 2 weeks.
I would not bother with a member dispute as they rarely seem successful and involve a lot of work and emotional stress.
Once upon a time, a sitter or host could see a review posted by the other before they left their own review.
This was before I joined THS, but from what I’ve read in numerous forum posts, by established members, it was determined that numerous hosts would leave a 5 star review for sitters because if they left a negative review, the sitter would read it and retaliate with a negative review of their own, which would of course affect the host’s chances of getting future sitters.
This behavior by hosts, who were thinking of their own best interests and not the needs of the community in general, which relies on reviews when screening prospective sitters, was curtailed to some extent by making the review system “double blind” to prevent the fear of retaliation by self serving hosts to encourage false positive reviews.
To some degree it has been effective but there are still flaws in the review system which I have discussed in an unrelated thread. Suffice it to say that there is still reason for hosts to be reluctant to leave a poor review for a bad sitter, despite the double blind review system.
While the host may not have left a review because they simply don’t care, they forgot, they are extremely busy or very lazy, it’s entirely possible that the host prefers to say nothing rather than leave a low score for you, which ironically may make them look like the unreasonable party and affect their ability to attract sitters in the future.