I did a house sit where I noticed one of the sitters rated the owner 3 stars. I wasn’t impressed with how untidy the house was but I was desperate to get a good rating for my first sit that I tidied up after them, even putting wrappers in the bin. The 3 stars was for this homeowner. I noticed that the sitter only gave feedback about the pets.
As I only joined at the start of the year, I am learning what to do when applying for a sit and one of those requirements is to look at photos of the house and if I see tonnes of clutter like Jenga pile up on the sink, stuff on the floor etc I don’t bother, no matter how beautiful the animals of the house are.
I put that for sitters. “Would invite again.” I have had two lots of sitters who have not left my house as they found it, and not even owned up to breakages.
I also have an old house, which was built in 1840 and even if it’s been remodeled and everything is cleaned thoroughly, it doesn’t always look so. The problem is that, what I call “well lived in”, others interpret as dirty, which isn’t the case. Your term of “worn down” also doesn’t really apply, because it’s not that old and run down looking…
Most people are excited and full of praise for it, but for example the kitchen cabinets and the first floor tiles should have been exchanged years ago. Probably I only see this myself.
So sorry to hear that. I keep notes of anything controversial because on the last day of the sit, it is a busy time clearing out and leaving everything as you found it. They could have replaced what was broken or asked to pay for breakages. A possible way around these unfortunate situations is to connect with other owners or other sitters. In one of my last sits, the owners knew each other as soon as I discovered that, I was over the moon and instantly felt very comfortable with the new sit
WOW. I am a HO and I make sure my house is super clean and the guest room with pressed bedding, clean towels etc… I empty the fridge except what I am leaving for the sitter and cat trays are always cleaned. I am not patting myself on the back but I am so shocked at everything that is posted here. I cannot fathom having a sitter in under these conditions but then everyone has their own view of ‘clean’.
Yup, it’s pretty disappointing as a sitter with 5* reviews to be greeted by mould in the fridge, spills and stains on soft furnishings and dirty toilets….
A Workman is only as good as his Tools! I am finding that when the house is not clean, there also are not the proper cleaning tools available to improve the house during the sit. I am talking about broken, dirty mops, old broken down vaccuums. There may be plenty of cleaning products in the home, but no proper equipment to use them. In these cases, you can only do what you can do. Frankly, the homeowner will not even notice if you cannot properly clean the home. They are used to it.
This is also why it should be manditory for HOs to post pictures before listing. This would equalize the playing field for both. There has been a discussion about this in another thread; i.e. background checks, inaccurate listings, lack of photos.
It is. I’m a new home-owner - my listing had to include photos and be approved before it was published on the site. However, after that, the home-owner can edit to their heart’s content.
That said, if a listing doesnt meet your requirements, dont apply. There are plenty of other home-owners - choose one that does suit you.
I don’t think that THS properly checks the photos before approving a listing, however. I see too many listings with no interior photos, realtor listing photos, etc, that are brand new listings. I find it hard to believe that all of these had acceptable photos that were later removed by the HO, so I assume THS’s quality control of photos is poor.
I understand that I don’t have to apply. I have experienced rejections. But I have seen listings posted with a portrait of HOs only. No profile, nothing else. Just saying.
Beachmaiden, that is so true. The ‘dirtiest’ house we sat at (we had to do a complete clean before feeling comfortable) the vacuum was rechargeable but needed a new battery and there was no mop to be found. We went out and purchased cleaning supplies and the pets were wonderful
Unfortunately, some sitters consider this to be Sitters looking for someone to do the work for them when all it needs is a good computer system in place to ask all the bare essential questions from a health and safety standpoint.
I look at all the Photo’s in detail. If they are all just of the Pets and in random places eg “the seaside” and the property is about 3-4hours drive from the seaside then I start to question myself over the listing, if there are none of inside or you can’t see anything except a fridge door and there is little information, being honest, I skip it which is sad because it could have been a fab sit. Also if the Photo’s are of when the House was brand new or the sale photo’s that’s not really much help either. Feeling your frustration x
Your worry seem totally unfounded to me and I wish all HO’s would have your sense of cleanliness, very considerate of you! There’s a huge difference between being unclean and looking unclean because some of the furnitures are vintage Ahhh instagram era … definitely one of the most unrealistic reference
The problem is photos don’t show things up close. I have experienced more than once dust so thick on fixtures, baseboards, frames etc…I don’t know how anyone can tolerate it. I would never publicly humiliate someone but I have made comments that people with allergies may not do well in the environment. I have started asking people point blank if they keep a clean home.
Another casing point, I arrived at a new sit yesterday, place looked fine in the photos. Within an hour I had filled two vacuum cylinders worth of bits of food, hair and dust having vacuumed just two rooms (and it’s a huge house). The vacuum itself was full of crusted up cat litter inside it all, so I had to disassemble and clean that before I would even use it!
A simple rating system 1-5 for both cleanliness and a separate one for tidiness would go along way for me (and less embarrassment for the HO) as without this I will now have to mention this issue in my “honest” review.
Sadly however my suggestion above as is the norm lately will just be seen as “negativity” rather than constructive criticism.
Ahhh instagram era … definitely one of the most unrealistic reference 