@Rainaire, so sorry you had to deal with this, I’m a home owner (haven’t actually sat yet, but I signed up to) and I think having other people in the house or even in the basement is very inappropriate, it takes away from the whole experience. Tell your husband not to worry, honestly good sitters are not as easy to come by as you may think. So rest assured if you are a good sitter, you will get good reviews and people will want you to sit for them. I’ve had 4 sits and 3 of them were just beyond excellent, the 4th, I was honest in the review, but others told me I shouldn’t have left a mediocre review. I beg to differ, if someone is not honest than how are others to know? Your stay was super stressing, having dogs pee & poop on the carpet, that’s terrible, stressful, not to mention being afraid to step in it. I would have mentioned that in the review, but I understand trying to be nice, still I think THS should be MORE about transparency than hurt feelings.
Unless I am missing something …
I imagine that sitters and homeowners, more often that not, do not know the written policies and both, may need to be reminded. Otherwise, honest mistakes can be made. People can avoid “feeling” disregarded by knowing the rules and being reminded of the rules. In this case, because you never brought the Rules to the homeowners attention, you really made the right choice by not “dinging” her on the evaluation. Unless the homeowner could point out Rule violations against you, she didn’t have a leg to stand on. So, for all concerned, stick to the Rules and cite them, when appropriate. Afterall, we are ALL, people. That’s my 2 cents!
Sorry to hear about your rough experience. It’s totally understandable to feel stressed with those unexpected changes. Leaving an honest review is important for future sitters, even if it causes some tension. Your husband’s point about avoiding extra stress is valid too, but transparency helps the whole community. Hope your next sit is much smoother!
It is good to see that I’m not the only person who struggles with this issue. I had an unpleasant experience and spoke at length to THS about the situation. They encouraged me to be honest but fair. I finally gave my first negative review in 15 years of 5 star reviews for the HO and for me. The HO was very angry, denying what she had done but she will know in herself that I only spoke the truth. It was a very stressful and upsetting experince.
Its the question isn’t it. Do we warn others or avoid?
This is the million-dollar question of today. I’m also “in a situation” right now and I struggle with it. After many days of deliberation, I finally made my choice, only to discover minutes later that it was the wrong one—or rather, that there was a better path (better for me) to take. Unfortunately, it’s too late to take this path now, but I intend to choose it next time.
What I am trying to say is… take your time, embrace the struggle until you get angry for what it does to you. Forget about others, don’t be afraid of taking a “wrong” teststep, focus on yourself, and eventually, you’ll know what to do.
Tbh I personally don’t think you were honest enough in your review. Reviews are of great importance to me when choosing a house sit and I feel it is extremely important to know if an animal dirties in the house everyday and that this was not mentioned by the owner.
The fact that the owner was upset about the pretty decent review you left is actually disingenuous of her - she was completely at fault in many ways and she now has to accept the consequences of a negative review. She should have done better - I would have been mortified at the son being there and at having to look after an animal who dirties in the house and not being informed about neither.
Hello, this is my first posting on this forum, and I’m sorry to be off topic, but I just had a disconcerting event…I left a review and to the best of my knowledge I clicked what I needed to leave a Five Star review, and it’s showing up as One Star! I don’t know how to change this. Any ideas to share?
@niagarasitter
Hey there. If you go on the live chat and ask to speak to a person, you can explain the error and they will amend the review for you. You can also email support@trustedhousesitters.com. The chat option may be better though…just about an hour ago a HO made an error with one of the category ratings for my review and when she got on chat, they fixed it within a few minutes.
Thank you so much for this encouraging information.
I realize this post dates back to May but I cannot say strongly enough how much I appreciate how you did your review AND it is important that we support one another to make this platform better for both Home Owners and Sitters.
Number One for me is that both sides are equally considerate and truthful.
(1) You were KIND to leave a 5 Star review. Personally much nicer than deserved given the THREE issues that the HO did NOT disclose.
(a) change in HO travel plans
(b) presence of son in the home
(c) dog pooping/peeing on the carpet
(2) You were RIGHT to alert future sitters to those three issues. We have had several instances where travel plans changed. When a HO is forced to change travel plans because of circumstances outside their control, it’s the decent thing to be understanding, flexible. BUT we had one HO changed dates several times between first contact, agreement to sit, and ultimately two days before the official end of the sit. The changes were solely about their kids coming/going with no advance warning nor any concern about how the constant changed would affect us. It was nerve wracking and very disruptive to our plans. Inconsiderate behaviour should be warned about in reviews.
(3) IMHO your husband is in the wrong: the HO was inconsiderate, you were NOT. You were kind to the HO and FAIR to future Sitters.