Who knows, perhaps a couple of less-than-five-star reviews (to make the blood boil) are what is required to break this old habit.
Stop hitting your head. Life is short. You can’t control other people.
Because we reviewed first and had no indication anything was wrong until the HO reviewed us!! Won’t do that again!!!
@Jigsaw70
Since the new blind review system kicked in, you’ll never know what the home host thinks of you until you’ve both submitted your reviews so it makes no difference whether you review first or second.
I know, that’s why it was such a shock!!!
@anon47943759 That’s so weird of them. I guess they’re are some people who are just unpleasant. I think it’s perfectly acceptable to send a reminder to review, especially with the 2 week cut off. To punish someone by vindictively giving 2 stars is just nasty.
@fyfie did they spell out things they were unhappy with in the text of the review? If not maybe the star was a mistake as others have said? Is there any reason they would have done this? If its just vindictive I would take it up with THS. Not sure much would come of it but it might flag up bad HOs
@Jigsaw70 Did you respond to their review? There is no time limit to do so. 1* is indeed very harsh & I personally would feel like responding on it. Even 4* for cleaning grates for me but 1*!!
In no uncertain terms!!!
Unpleasant is most definitely the word, THS are fully aware, thanks for your support!
The response has been sent.
I now have an extreme case of butterflies, which, if I had some chocolate, would Definitely quell this feeling.
Matter for me is now closed regardless of any retort or comeback.
Sitters you have been super and I much appreciate you all.
Best pet friendly wishes.
F .
They cannot post anything after your reply. So no worries then
@MaggieUU if they didn’t reply to her review of them I think they can use that space to write something. ??
@ExploreDreamDiscover but don’t you think that would look odd … them replying to her glowing review of them with an argument on their criticism of her?
@MaggieUU exactly! My hubby didn’t want us to respond to a review we thought was a little unfair- for fear the HO could retaliate with a response to our review of them. But I pointed out that our review was so positive there was nothing at all for them to critisise and it would look completely odd if they did say anything!
I just got a completely false 1 star review from people who never used the platform before and it was so full of lies I couldn’t believe it. They were incredibly rude people in person too, at least the wife was, but this was unbelievable. I submitted a complaint to support, providing the full chat log between me and the HO for the duration of the sit that blatantly proves he was making this crap up, and they said nothing is wrong. His review mentioned NOTHING about how I maintained the “cleanliness” of the home, nor the dogs. It just focused on falsifying events leading up to the destruction of the chicken coop due to really bad self construction work leading to the thing being a deathtrap. There is no room to even stand inside, and the door locks from the outside while also closing shut as soon as you let go. There is a small pulley system inside that is supposed to open the door but it broke when I went inside to check the water. It is a house in the middle of nowhere so nobody was able to hear my screaming. I had to kick open a hole in the wire mesh and crawl out. He took 3 hours to respond to my text, which I had sent as soon as I broke free. He was really apologetic and said my experience was so not okay, then writes how I didn’t follow instructions and locked myself in and completely destroyed what he built.
Then he claims I stayed at their home after they told me to leave which also didn’t happen. I left as soon as they returned. On top of that, they came home a full day before I expected them to, and only gave me 2 hours notice ETA.
They also didn’t make a welcome guide, and flat out told me they couldn’t be bothered.
Something else that struck me as odd was the dogs’ behavior around their owners. Besides one of them having missing fur that looked a lot more recent than they claimed, when they returned, the one dog did NOT greet them, instead choosing to stay next to me. Having a veterinary certificate, I was able to recognize the fear in her eyes. Also telling was the wife didn’t show any affection, she promptly said “Go outside, you’re in the way”, so I never even got to hug the dogs goodbye before leaving.
And now this review will seriously hinder my chances of getting more sits (unless they’re a newbie who doesn’t know how to check profiles)
@GAThrawn this sounds like a horrible situation.
There is a member dispute process for raising concerns about other members. If you follow this procedure THS will investigate. This process is not about getting a review changed but about raising serious concerns if you feel the a member isn’t following the T&Cs , or that safety is an issue for future sitters . Include photos of chicken coop if you have them and screenshots of your text messages with the owner as evidence for THS to investigate.
The main point is that the chicken run constructed in an unsafe way so that it locked from the outside - having become trapped inside you needed to get out - you advised the hosts of the situation as soon as the incident occurred . A sitter’s safety should be number one concern for THS.
You can also write a reply to their review of you ( factual and non- emotional is best )
@GAThrawn That sounds like an absolute horror sit. If I was in your shoes I would pursue your complaint to THS- make them investigate properly and insist the review is removed.
This happened once with us on airbnb- which is the same review model THS now uses. We got a review that was absolutely false and evil. We were shocked and upset and we immediately complained to airbnb. At first they refused to remove it but we persevered and insisted someone higher up looked at it too- & eventually they decided that one particular comment broke the t&cs so they removed the review. We were so relieved.
Don’t give up. I hope you will succeed getting it removed.
But if they refuse to help then make sure you write a (rational & non reactive) response that supports your side of the story.
Good luck.
@GAThrawn
What a nightmare.
It must have been so scary to find yourself locked in the hen coop. Seems a bit crazy to have a locking system like that, an incident waiting to happen and it did
I’m making a note to myself ,carry phone at all times when dealing with livestock and outbuildings.
You did the right thing involving support services.
It will take a little while mentally, to get over this experience but it will fade.
Take care
F
I never bothered to take photos of the coop. It wouldn’t have been clear evidence to support either one of our claims. It was 6 AM, I never thought to take my phone with me as they assured me there was nothing to worry about with the locking mechanism. Obviously without a welcome guide, I didn’t have any contact information to text somebody else for help even if I did have my phone. And he had come across as very okay and understanding that I didn’t think I needed to record any physical evidence. I even offered to pick up all the dog poop (which they said I didn’t have to) as the least I could do for ruining the chicken coop and he replied that I didn’t ruin anything, he has more than enough wiring to fix it, and he’s actually excited to have free range chickens.
Says that the ducks were stranded outside and unable to get through the hole. So how did they get out then? The chickens had no problem and some of them were bigger than one of the ducks.
They also knew before accepting me that I had never worked with chickens and ducks before.
In theory, the review should only affect sits that have birds, but so many people don’t have common sense anymore. It’s still ridiculous that they gave 1 star for happy pets (ironically a lower score than they gave me for organization and cleanliness) when the dogs were their pets and I kept updating them about their well being. They even implied that the dogs love me more than them, so maybe that’s the reason for the review.