Yes the sitters are anonymous. Is that the fault of the sitters? I Don’t think so. I’m sure they would welcome readers to hear their side of the story!
It’s all very well HO complaining but as is becoming very apparent, it’s only one side of the story. A situation that, I feel THS should address. In my view those sort of posts should not be allowed unless an enquiry establishes they are valid; and that means the views of the sitters are considered also.
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No. The sitters are anonymous and therefore there’s no need to worry about protecting their reputations. These types of posts are simply for the OP to get input into their situation — they’re not looking for you to interrogate them. And again, if you don’t find them credible, there’s not need to offer them anything.
This is really worrying , I’m a newbie and am about to book my first sitter. Is this person still active on the site ?
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Welcome @SunshineChild
This experience is not common- I recommend you choose a sitter with lots of 5star reviews for your piece of mind .
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@SunshineChild I doubt this is the worst sitter on THS. I have read worse stories.
This person informed the HO about water leakage. And did not abandon the sit before their final day.
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At the very least, when an accusation is made about poor sitters by a HO, or vice versa, then it is incumbent on THS to investigate such an accusation. Protecting reputations has nothing to do with it! Anonymity doesn’t mean the accused shouldn’t get to state their side of the argument to THS. Just why should anyone make , what could be a baseless accusation be allowed to publish it without any recourse? Personally my view is that such accusations shouldn’t be published without first finding out if they are credible, and that means hearing both sides of the story, anonymously or otherwise!!
This is a matching service. While sitters are ID checked everywhere and have a criiminal background check in the US, they aren’t really vetted. Just like HOs aren’t vetted. Therefore you have to be careful about choosing your sitters. Site reviews are a good place to start but also aren’t 100% reliable as many HOs will give 5-star reveiws rather than risk a retaliatory review or ugly rebuttal. This is why it’s important to go beyond the reviews and references, interview the sitter. Ask some “What if” questions. What is their pet experience like? Mabe even look at linkedin and/or airbnb reviews if available. Choose a sitter that you are 100% comfortable with. For instance, I would never choose a sitter who didn’t have extensive cat experience whether that involved living with a cat or a ton of sitting.
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@Maggie8K When people have their profiles linked, you can see who the sitter was. Not the case in this particular thread, but I have seen threads where you could very easily see who the poster was discussing.
Yes. I’ve seen folks ask for that to be moderated.
Hey laity
We had a a similar issue with a sitter, not a water issue but took our car put 2400 km on it parking ticket and toll road charges and basically had to put my dog down 2weeks after the fact.
Advice when you call ths to complain you need to go further than the receptionist!!! All they say is I’m so sorry. Ask for the manager and make a huge issue and call them everyday to see if they have done anything.
The problem with this company is they don’t do background checks or follow up on others complaints. So in all all ths did was give us a refund on our membership.
THS should let people recommend sitters and who you wouldn’t recommend
Good Luck
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I agree that, first of all, incidents like this should be reported to THS to avoid reading just one side of a story. Only after there has been an outcome should the experience be shared ( or not). It’s so easy for people to become partisan without access to all the facts.
As for finding sitters I’m sure the overwhelming majority are great. We have numerous good reviews but are quite happy to put HOs in touch with previous ‘clients’ to get feedback ‘from the horse’s mouth’.
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My comment was in reply to @Sunshine’s suggestion to look for 5-star sitters to avoid the kinds of issues the OP experienced. It wasn’t about taking a side here. The review system is flawed – both for sitters and homeowners. It’s a tool, but it can’t be depended on. That was the point I was making. Homeowners and sitters have to be comfortable and feel that they can communicate for this to work on both sides. I agree that forums like this are one-sided. It’s not a trial. It’s someone writing about their experience from their point of view. It would help if THS was more responsive when stuff happened, but this is isn’t always the case.
Hmmm Ziggy, that’s a bad cough… I HOPE IT CLEARS UP ONE DAY, right?? 
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@ChristieC yes it’s really bad. Started months back and no matter what, it just won’t go away. Hoping to find a cure soon and it disappears 
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I’m so sorry you’ve experienced this dreadful situation. As a responsible sitter, it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up that someone could be so uncaring and thoughtless with both your pets and your house. I can see that you’ve been advised to contact customer services - I sincerely hope that person is removed from THS forever. Please rest assured that there are plenty of good sitters out here - try not to be put off and get yourself a real goodie next time!
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Horrific. There’s no excuse other than immediate death that this sitter had to abandon your pets and treat your home this way. I hope you contacted THS to alert them.
Sitter here; appreciating all of the discourse and don’t have much to add except to say, I’ve had a couple of experiences that are related to the topic and wanted to share them.
In one case, I had a HO who met up with me on the day of the sit and then I didn’t hear from her again for 6 days until the day she was returning, despite me sending daily updates and asking repeatedly for a reply when I started to get nervous. Clearly that wasn’t the case here (seems like HO was communicating in a timely and directive manner) and I wonder why the TH wasn’t comfortable telling the HO about what was going on after a point? It does seem like they started out being responsible by identifying the leak to the HO but things sort of fell off a cliff.
In another case, I had an unexpected medical issue and had to reach out to the emergency contact who was the sister of the HO. She was wonderful and covered feeding the pet and taking care of potty business while I was being seen. In that case I notified both the HO and the emergency contact on my way to the doctor and left out extra water and food just in case there was some sort of issue with her sister coming over by dinner time. I was only gone for about 4 hours in total but I didn’t know what would happen and also made sure the house was clean and tidy in case I wasn’t able to come back. Fortunately it all turned out ok and I was able to finish the sit! But this is why emergency contacts are so important, you ever know what can happen.
I think THS as a whole does a really good job with customer service for HOs and sitters (was glad to see this mentioned) but there are limitations as to what they can do, as with all things. Sometimes you don’t know that you have to throw out the milk until it you taste it, as my grandmother would say.
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Completely agree with you!
I’ve not heard that expression, i like it!
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This is totally unacceptable. We have had two lots of sitters cancel at the very last minute. The first was the occasion of our daughter’s wedding interstate. Fortunately we found a very good sitter for our boys. The second didn’t even bother telling us - we only heard when I messaged him about the time he was coming the next day or so…TH needs to be more careful with people they allow on their books.
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