This posting is for Homeowners. I’ve seen a few sitters here complain about being taken advantage of or outright abused in their sits with the pet parent even deducting stars because of their own unrealistic expectations. We aren’t your employees and neither can we (sitters) expect you’re inviting us into a 5-star hotel. There are going to be surprises and disappointments on both sides. Be kind and flexible on everything except for the safety and love of your pet. Leaving your pet behind is stressful but so is staying in a strange home, in a strange city and possibly a country where you don’t speak the language. If I looked after your beloved pets for two weeks then I just saved you at least $1500 dollars. And lest you think I in turn saved money, well, no. When I figure the cost of hotel before and possibly after the sit and the extra plane fares then my financial gain is a wash. I saw a new place and met a new pet. That’s my gain. I’m doing this because I love animals. Keep all this in mind before writing a nasty review. Sitters with less than five stars will have a hard time getting future sits. Pet parents on the other hand will always find someone unless they’re living in Antarctica. This free service will fold without sitters. Just saying.
Category changed from Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat to Owner Questions, Advice & Chat as per OP request
I know you said you wrote this post for owners but, regardless of whether we are sitters or owners, reviews should be based on the categories they assess and how well the sit went, they are meant to help other HOs and sitters find a good match. If the house is not clean, it wouldn’t be fair to give five stars for cleanliness just because the sitter or the owner needs five stars.
@lollykaiser I genuinely feel that if you approach sits with this negative presumption, you’re looking for trouble even before you start. We’re currently on our 43rd sit and have experienced very few problem issues on our housesitting journey. Most hosts we’ve encountered genuinely are ‘kind and flexible’ and - dare I say it - appreciative of this mutually beneficial system.
It sounds as if you’ve perhaps had some negative experience, which has coloured your views? If you’d like support with that, or to investigate the views of other sitters, please do post again.
We’ve completed 30+ sits and we’ve had an amazing time, 5* reviews from fantastic hosts. You only here the bad stories on here, as it’s designed to help problem solve, but the majority of us that have had brilliant sits, with appreciative owners. If you check out Trustpilot it will give you balanced view from both owners and sitters perspective. Instead of this forum which is mainly where people come when things go wrong.
You’ve obviously received a less-than-perfect review. So brush yourself down and flood it in a few 5* star reviews, so that it becomes a thing of the past.
We received one bit of advice before we signed up… FOR SITTERS TO LEAVE NO TRACE, as though the owners just left the day prior. It’s the best bit of advice we could have received.
Ask yourself a question, did you leave no trace? If not, you know what to do different next time.
Great advice by @HappyDeb and @Happypets. If, as we’re assuming, you have received
you can respond to it (there’s no time limit) in an unemotional, factual way. It can work in your favor, especially if you acknowledge any mistakes and admit you have learned the lesson. If the tone of the owner’s review was nasty, it will also be good for you to answer in a nice tone.
If you’re finding difficult to get sits, it might be worth applying for last minute listings, as well as low application ones. Local sits where you can offer to meet the owners and pets in advance can also be good options.
When pet owners don’t disclose serious pet conditions or give false info about the house or neighborhood then leaving no trace seems moot. It’s a bad start right away. I will add to my profile however that I can’t tolerate cigarette smoke or mold contamination. It was beyond my comprehension that a homeowner would invite someone into these conditions but I’m wiser after reading these posts and experiencing contamination myself. If the effort I’ve put in so far on sits isn’t five-star then I don’t see myself having to “brush myself down.” I simply won’t continue. I have better things to do with my time and money. I have two more lined up …a 4-week and a one-week. But stellar experiences there aren’t going to change my mind. Even one abusive experience is one too many.
Yes my first two sits have been negative experiences. So 100% bad experience so far which makes me wonder why I’m paying to be abused like this. I think the only question that should be asked of Homeowners is “Would you invite this sitter into your home again?” I daresay 90 percent would say yes despite whether they left a less-than five star review. They’re getting a free service for heavens sake. Do they not know the meaning of “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” When homeowners deduct stars over trifling issues they are basically ruining the sitter because that sitter won’t get sits. There are vastly more sitters than sits at this point it seems. You’ve likely been with the service for many years but it seems like things are changing and dare I say if sitters feel like it’s not worth it then TH will be out of business or have to change their name to “Needy Pet Owners.” Am I unhappy so far…you better believe it. I stayed up for an entire night during a pet emergency cleaning vomit and diarrea inside the apartment and making emergency phone calls yet the owners had the gall to deduct stars for me being “unprepared!!!” and bothering them. The next owners deducted stars in 'cleanliness" for me moving the litter box from the front of the shower and into the hall and leaving it there after I spent hours cleaning the apartment for their return. No I don’t want to step on used cat litter when I get out of the shower. I won’t be renewing.
We put in our profile that we are both non-smokers… in the hope that we attract non-smoking owners, and deter smoking households and that has worked all the time for us.
I know you are feeling hurt and used right now, but you have given 5* reviews overall to two of your sits so far in The Netherlands and Ibiza. Every place is different, every owner is different. The one thing we do that is perhaps different, is we go with our gut, our heart, and our intuition about the OWNERS, in the same way pet owners ‘should’ do when picking a sitter, and we will always trust our gut over a perfect location anytime, because it’s worked brilliantly for us so far.
@lollykaiser
I am sorry to read about your first experiences being bad ones. I have been there and felt abused by people too (and some forum users would say that it was entirely my own fault for not doing this or for doing that… which is why I don’t post about any problems during sits). I really do get the feelings you describe, and please know that you are not alone and some people are just not kind.
My own experience has been I’d say 90% very positive. So it’s worth trying again, only go ahead if your gut feeling is good and you feel like you click with the owners, and perhaps ask some dealbreaker questions.
@lollykaiser
I’m a little confused.
What review stars did you leave for the two terrible sits you describe?
HappyDeb mentions that you left two 5 star reviews - if this is true, why did you choose to leave a 5 star review if your experience was not good, in fact “abusive” as you state?
Just trying to understand.
No one benefits from leaving less than honest reviews - we just help our fellow sitters and HO’s have more disappointing experiences.
Sounds like you’ve made up your mind not to continue -
If that changes, I’d suggest asking detailed questions about things like smoking and mold, explaining you have allergies.
Just read your reviews frm the homeowners. I wouldn’t call either review nasty. Actually they started out quite nice. They did go on to be a bit critical, but not mean at all.
It sounds like there was some misunderstanding, perhaps somethings you could have done better, and a bit of nitpicking.
It is hard to be reviewed. We all try to do our best! I am always nervous waiting for my review and would be sorely disappointed if i got one that i didn’t think portrayed me or my efforts accurately. But i know i can address whatever those issues are with my rrsponse, learn from the criticism, and do better.
I dont think a 4 star review necessarily means that a sitter will be unable to get more sits - especially when such nice things are said in the review.
Im sorry you have found THS disappointing. Its not for everyone.
As a new sitter I didn’t want to be blacklisted right away so I tell myself I’m not going back and give 5 stars. This is the reality for sitters. I wouldn’t go to either sit again because of the undisclosed pet condition and because of the mold issue which I didn’t mention either. I felt abused because despite my best efforts and positive response for them they still focused on the negative without a thought how that would affect my chances. This is the reality for the star system…give 5 stars and move on. Unless I am attacked then I must defend myself in the comments. I am the one at a disadvantage here because there are always sitters for even the most horrendous sit. But sitters can be sunk with even one star missing. However the sitters are the ones providing the free service! Unsustainable situation.
When homeowners get called out (in private) on posting erroneous descriptions of their pets and properties they retaliate with taking away stars and leaving damning unfair comments. Most homeowners look at the five-star reviews first and it is extremely competitive for sits with just two four-star reviews as mine. This is what I’m trying to say. Saying nice things means nothing if they aren’t going to leave a five-star review. These reviews are all subjective so why even have them? There are many reviews in TrustPilot complaining about the same thing as me. Once they have an unfair experience the sitters cancel their membership. Some after years. My disappointment just came right away. Can you not understand paying for something, doing your best and then getting criticized. Why bother? Life is too short.
Thank you for your understanding. I had to give my head a shake when I realized I was a sitting duck for unfair criticism and that I had paid for it! The response from Trusted Housesitters has been to side with the homeowner and slap me on the wrist to do better! I suppose they don’t want negative comments splashed around but mine isn’t the only one. Like AirBnB, Trusted Housesitters business model is faulty and in time it will bite them.
I did put my two cents on Trust Pilot and indeed it reflects reality. There were scores of positive reviews all from Homeowners gushing about how much money they’ve saved. Not a single one (okay maybe one) mentioned the satisfaction of giving sitters a great experience. Then there were maybe eight reviews from sitters all negative except for one. The problem was always the same, a lack of service from TH and a lack of appreciation from homeowners. Every one of them was canceling their subscription. So TH is basically a for-profit, free petsitting service with a growing dearth of reciprocal respect it seems.
@lollykaiser sorry that you have felt unappreciated by your hosts for your first two THS sits .
Our experience has been that there are still many appreciative hosts out there . We have had some great sits with in 2023 including 4x sits that were for hosts new to THS . (So we had no reviews from previous sitters to guide us ). We always have a video call before committing to a sit .
We are currently on a sit where the hosts filled up the fridge with groceries for us (they first asked us what we liked) and left us some bottles of wine, luxury biscuits and flowers .
We are very picky over which sits we apply for . Any red flags and we don’t apply as we would rather miss a good sit than find ourselves in a very bad one .
I hope your next sit goes well and that you get to fully experience what THS is all about , a mutual exchange.
