I know tone is lost online, but it comes across as sarcastic, insincere, and very passive-aggressive.
^ this
As @Felinelover said, I wouldn’t blink about a good review with one dropped star. I care far more about how someone responds. I think your response will hurt far more than the dropped star.
If you want to reply to add the info about what was not self sufficient so that future homeowners know , I would keep it short.
“I unfortunately locked myself out of the home at one point. I’ll take extra measures to prevent it from happening again on future sits”
From an HO perspective, this is the best response possible. It’s relatable (I locked myself out of my apartment right after moving in!), and it’s the kind of thing that one does tend to really learn from.
I don’t understand your comment ‘this forum is brutal’.?
@belluca Maybe you are right. Some prefer not mentioning it.
I mean, not mentioning it might be best, but if OP feels strongly about responding, this is the best option (IMHO, of course)
@BonnyinBrighton Love your response, absolutely fab!
You can reply to their review, if need be.
@EmilyDickinson this comment was not for you. Your response is brilliant! It was for the person who had a rude ending to her comment. I tried to correct this but the system kept messing it up.
My comment back was for @Felinelover not @EmilyDickinson I don’t know why it quoted @EmilyDickinson when I tried to reply at the person who made a rude comment. Mods, how does one reply directly under the comment instead of making a list at the bottom of the thread. It’s confusing.
Docking 1 star was fair, it won’t hurt you but I have seen where people who have a negative review make things worse with their reply, don’t do that!
I feel you’re reading too much into this, @tortimom , and any response will simply highlight the dropped star. Time to let it go, IMHO.
I’ve pretty much decided to. I think I’ll update my post.
@tortimim Oooh, I understand. What helps is starting your reply with ‘@’. You’ll then see the names of people in the thread pop up, and you can click on the name of the person you’re replying to. It’s not done automatically, but I’d guess it’s on the (long) wish list of many users of this platform.
It took me a while to figure this out at the start 
, and to be honest, I use it this way myself, though I’m not entirely sure it’s how it’s meant to be used, since one person can post multiple comments and, as far as I know, it isn’t possible to reply to a specific comment.
Not a Mod, but if you click the “reply” in the post you want to respond to, it should connect the correct comment to your post. If you click “reply” to the last post in the thread it will connect to that one.
this doesn’t seem to be the case.
It works for me using the web, are you using the app?
Wise decision.
@EmilyDickinson, although I agree with you that it’s very important to
when writing a review, it is not always clear that replies to reviews can be helpful.
In this particular case, IMHO, replying will help no one and it can backfire on the OP, unless they follow @MaggieUU suggestion.
You say you
I think we all do but only the host can explain why, not the sitter.
The sitter had their opportunity to explain what happened in their review but they chose not to.
Thank you for sharing your opinion on this platform.
I think the majority of the community would agree with your point of view.
You use the term ‘backfire’. I assume you mean that a sitter might not be chosen if they post a respectful clarification about a negative part of a review.
That may indeed happen.
And sometimes that is actually a good thing. The goal is to find a good match. You don’t want a situation where one party feels they have to walk on eggshells.
The reason I mentioned that reviews are also informative for pet sitters is that the OP only asked what hosts would think.
I simply wanted to point out that reviews serve both hosts and sitters. The goal is not to receive a ‘yes’ every time you apply. Sometimes not matching is the better outcome.
As for time: there are plenty of wonderful sits and great matches, especially if you’re willing to look beyond the beaten track and consider sits with fewer applications.
There is probably a reason why the platform allows people to add a clarification after a review.
Fortunately, everyone has free will and it is entirely up to the OP what they choose to do.
As for me, I honestly don’t know what I would do. I am a different person.
I think in this situation I would write a respectful review, mention the incident upfront if it is relevant, and also explain how we, as host and sitter, worked together to resolve it. I think that gives the most balanced picture and up till know- we have also done house swapping before doing TH - it works best for us.
We always have great matches, making new friends all over the world, no walking on eggshells or ignoring that incidents has happened. And if people don’t choose us, sometimes because other people reacted first or maybe other reasons, i just wish them both a great time.
Absolutely!
I agree with your whole analysis regarding the general value of reviews. It’s just that I think (and it has been the general opinion of the forum members) that replies are more effective when addressing the content they are answering to, bringing up issues that the person chose not to mention in their review.
By “backfiring” I mean the OP made a mistake which they are convinced was well dealt with and that is what matters but that situation is not mentioned in the review they wrote or the review they received, they would be bringing out new stuff that would just make the readers (
HOs and sitters) more confused.
@tortimom asked for advice to see how HOs would react
HOs have said this would not help them at all. I agree with that. It would make evident they still want a perfect 5 star rating across the board when they admit they made a mistake. The rating they got is still great. Even if the general THS review culture is 5* by default, it actually means “a perfect sit in all fronts”