At another sit, the hosts didn’t tell me till they were leaving that one of their cats would scratch and bite unpredictably. I took precautions and didn’t get hurt, but it wasn’t cool that they didn’t mention such at the outset.
Did you stay, or decline the sit?
I was unexpectedly bitten by my neighbour’s cat (NOT on a THS sit, just petting him as I’ve done hundreds of times) Later that same day the bite became infected and resulted in my spending 7 days visiting the ER for IV antibiotic treatments followed by two weeks of oral treatment.
Bites are not to be taken lightly, and in this case I’m hopeful that THS would assist you should you not be comfortable to stay in that situation having not been advised before accepting the sit.
After they warned me right before heading out the door, I stayed and took precautions. Didn’t get hurt.
I had to take the two cats out daily to a glassed studio, where they hung out and watched birds and other critters for hours, so I put on my coat and some rubberized gardening gloves and carried the cats in ways to limit chances that they could bite or scratch.
I also was careful with the iffy cat at all other times. He was unpredictable, though he wanted affection and brushing. The other cat was young, sweet and playful.
Hi, I’ve been only on two sits, with great animals, but got nicked one star for cleanliness on my second sit out of spite by the HO who was upset that I inadvertently criticized her use of plastic pads under the pellet litter box…. She claimed to be very concerned w the use of plastics, saying she only used recycled and reusable products…yet used daily plastic diaper pads under the litter box. Anyways, when she wrote her lengthy critique of my communication ( she was largely incommunicado all together during sit), she said she’d recommend me after all cuz her cat was happy. I actually gave her place a deep cleaning, cuz I was so grateful for the lovely accommodations and I had the time! I was so shocked I didn’t respond to the bold faced lie! If I hadn’t had two more sits lined up, I’d be devastated! I have learned now NEVER say anything which could be construed as critical…it isn’t needed or welcomed!
Unfortunately I have arrived at many sits where toilets were filthy, sheets dirty, toothpaste in bathroom sinks, hair in showers, kitchen with dirty pots etc. It seems to me that sitters should be regarded as guests - you make up the room, leave the place tidy. I wouldn’t pick at dusty windowsills, but I do object to having to wipe filth out of a sink before I can use it. It’s one of the downfalls I’ve found. And don’t get me wrong, I love this gig and I have never left a sit or complained to an owner. But I have not felt too comfortable in some of these homes.
I have high standards, but I deliver the same. It never occurred to me as insulting to leave a place cleaner than it was. It would be impossible not to in some cases. And either way, I fully clean up after myself. It’s “leave no trace” sitting. The house shouldn’t have a trace of me when I’m gone. I appreciate the stay.
To me, it’s a show of respect that when the host returns, they have no worries, same as while they are away they have peace of mind about their pets.
@meegansits In those sits where you found the place dirty did you drop stars and/or comment about this in your reviews? Its nice that you leave the home cleaner than found but these issues should be mentioned so that future sitters do not find themselves becoming unpaid cleaners.
In some cases I did drop stars. I try to be fairly diplomatic though, because I know not everyone has the same standards as me and I hate to make people feel bad (much like some of the commenters in this topic who don’t want to over-clean). Sometimes I just don’t review. And sometimes I avoid mentioning the house and talk around it.
Naturally I look at reviews before I agree to a sit. I’ve noticed that a lot of the time other sitters don’t ding the host for anything and I hate to be the only one and affect a host’s future sits if I’m in the minority. Same for being a first review - it makes me uncomfortable to possibly dissuade people from taking the sit if maybe they won’t mind it.
I think that TH could help sitters in some regard as well, with clear expectations put to hosts and a way to report conditions that are really bad (such as lack of hot water, filthy bathrooms) that doesn’t depend on reviews, which can be slow to make a difference. If they could speak to a host privately, outside of the public permanent reviews, like with a warning or something? Maybe that would help.
But it’s impossible for those people to know whether they ‘won’t mind it’ if they don’t know about the situation they’re getting into.
I hear what you’re saying but, they didn’t mind making you feel bad by leaving you a dirty house, did they? A previous post by @pietkuip once challenged a sitter’s assertion that the pet parents who’d left them a filthy house were ‘lovely people’; he said that if they were lovely, they’d not have left their house like that for the sitter. It rang true to me, and has changed my take on reviews. I now believe if reviews are factual, fair and balanced, both pet parents and sitters can benefit from them; possibly the HOs didn’t realise how they should have prepared their home for sitters, and can make response to reviews along the lines of “I’ll aim to improve this for next time”. When HOs go unchallenged on issues like this, it just perpetuates the problem IMHO.
Giving a factual and honest review is a gift to both sitters and hosts, and to both parties of a sit. If for instance a host isn’t aware of the impact of the cleanliness you are doing them a favor to make them aware. Then they will be able to improve and be more attractive to apply to, they will get better matches with sitters and in both cases improve the foundation for good reviews.
Your examples are good, but I think it’s easier to talk about unexpected pet behaviors than cleanliness. For a lot of people this can feel very personal and can feel subjective or accusatory, in a way that pet behavior isn’t even if you make it about the condition and not the person. As a host, when I see people writing honestly about undisclosed pet behaviors it doesn’t put me off unless they are writing about very normal behaviors in a way that shows a lack of knowledge about the pet. But if they wrote about a home being not up to their cleanliness standards, unless they were very specific and things were very bad I might be afraid that if I forgot to do even a little thing – eg left a dish in the dishwasher or something – I’d be publicly brought to task.
As a sitter, I’ll admit to leaving some home conditions unmentioned in my reviews including clutter, dust and even the occassional stove top that needed to be addressed. I’m not saying that is good thing. I am saying it’s very difficult for me to criticize another person’s housekeeping.
I see your point, but don’t see a way around being truthful unless we enable a lack of hygiene or such. We can be diplomatic and still upset some people. But if it comes down to it, I’d rather potentially upset a host than be complicit in hiding problems for other sitters.
I think this illustrates why sitters should specify why they’ve docked stars, and that way it can surely reassure future HOs who are reading reviews, rather than make them afraid of being ‘publicly brought to task’. For example, we once encountered a really filthy fridge, cooker, kitchen worktops and floor, which necessitated several hours of serious cleaning until we felt comfortable with the level of hygiene. In detailing this in our review - written diplomatically and sandwiched between positive points - I sincerely hope that any future HOs would think twice about leaving those conditions for us, and might actually perceive us as people who don’t live in such a manner. As for the HO, she responded to the review, stating she hadn’t had time to properly prepare (ha!), that this wasn’t a reflection of their usual standards of cleanliness (I suspect it was) and that she’d do better next time (I hope she will).
I don’t think many sitters nit-pick over minor details in reviews, so making fair and balanced comment where warranted can be constructive. Sure, some HOs will get defensive and angry but then they might also take on board what you’ve mentioned, since I’m pretty sure most folk won’t want a subsequent review to mention the same problem issues.
I totally agree, that failing to mention - and subsequently challenge - problem issues simply enables HOs to continue without change (whether deliberately or not).
I understand your reluctance to break a hosts 5* ‘in all categories’ record BUT other sitters experiences are not necessarily yours. I recently dropped a star on cleanliness on a sit where the young hosts were lovely but did not really have a good eye for for cleanliness. (but everyone else gave 5*) In the old days before sitters could rate cleanliness i would have simply not mentioned the cleanliness issue in an otherwise very positive review. But now we are forced to rate I simply could not give 5* which means excellent/pristine so I gave 4* (which the question below-to help you choose- said ‘mostly happy’ which were.) So 4* was not bad in this case. If you give 5* always to everyone for everything then the stars become meaningless. In this case the house was superficially clean, and tidy, but on closer inspection we could see the bathroom & toilet had not been cleaned for us and the cutlery drawer & all contents needed a good clean out. I also felt the need to clean every bit of crockery before use. They didn’t have a dishwasher but thats not really an excuse.
Anyone reading our review would see that its very positive with just the one star dropped do it should not put them off. We decided not to explain the star because it was our value judgement overall which others might disagree with so we did not want to be too specific and offend them.