when you get the review from the homeowner, it comes with a link that says, “review us too” but that link is misleading
Sitters think they are leaving a review for the people they sat for… but If you use that link, you’re not reviewing the homeowner you’re reviewing trusted house sitters.
Yes, THS need to sort that out as it seems its breaking confidentiality to me if people are leaving personal reviews on an external platform.
Hi @MissChef the email messaging has been revised and is now clear regarding leaving feedback.
Thank you
While a sitter not leaving a review could be indicative of a ‘problem’ sit, that’s not always the case. I think in some cases, they just forget , don’t know they can or think responding to an owner’s review may be visible to people. I imagine also a lot of sitters may not realize that feedback for the owners is just as important as a review for a sitter.
The other day I was looking at a sit and I noticed a few sitters hadn’t left reviews, but I saw one sitter twice–that alone showed that it must have been okay since she came back. So I looked at her profile and saw this owner had left her a really nice review and she responded to it, saying how great the sit was, how much she enjoyed the animals,etc…
So again, that alone is not really an accurate way to gauge a sit. Same goes for trying to ‘decode’ reviews.
Ultimately there is no perfect system and there is risk involved in everything. While I agree the review system could use revamping, ultimately, sitters and owners have to realize there is only so much THS can do to ensure a positive experience. I really think THS tries to go above and beyond what a typical housesitting site would offer, but at the end of the day, they are essentially a platform connecting people looking for a service with people willing to provide it. I belong to a few other sites and none of them have blind review systems either. In fact, one of them actually allows you to choose whether to publish a review submitted by the HO.
And I think because the site operates so differently in so many ways, it may unwittingly create an impression they can do things for sitters and owners they ultimately can’t. There are lots of ‘problems’ that can arise that you can bring to membership services, but at the end of the day, most of these things they can do little to nothing about, save perhaps not allowing certain people to remain on the platform.
I have been house sitting pretty much full time since 2014 and again, while there are no guarantees with anything, listening to your instinct will serve you well. It’s easy to overlook that nudge either to not to apply, or move forward after connecting with the owner, when you are really attached to a particular location, the house seems really nice, the location is really exotic or interesting, it fits well with your schedule, you are scared you won’t find a place to stay, you are trying to save as much money as possible,etc…
When I look back at some sits that were not ideal (though I have never had a truly bad experience) there was always some sense of hesitation initially that I ignored, and I realized the decision to go there was ‘tainted’ by something like the examples I mentioned above.
Recently!? Like in the past week or so? I just got one from a recent set, but I don’t even read it anymore. 
I’m on a sit right now, so I’ll report back if I’m still seeing the old message that misdirects.
@Angela_L Thank you for that update. I do hope you are correct in that THS has revised its language so that sitters do not leave feedback that ends up on Trust Pilot, even though the sitter thought it was a review for the homeowners.
I was on Trust Pilot last week, searched on THS, and indeed, there are many reviews left by sitters that (you can tell by how they are written) were meant as feedback for the homeowners, but instead they were posted on Trust Pilot and look like a 5-star “review” of THS.
But it sounds like you’re working to correct this problem, so many thanks.
No mention of leaving feedback for the homeowner?
@Twitcher We already left feedback. It was a great sit and we didn’t feel the need to withhold feedback until we received it. This way it’s also a ‘nudge’ to the HO when they receive an email to say they have received a review - we received ours shortly after.
Excellent, glad it went so well.
During my first few sits I left feedback all over the place: TrustPilot, in response to the HOs review, and as a response to their review of me!! The number of super personal reviews on TrustPilot just confuses the issue more, because if a sitter leaves a very positive review there, it looks as though they haven’t reviewed the HO at all. So potential sitters may think it’s a red flag when really it’s the exact opposite.
The language of “feeback” is also generally confusing. On AirBNB when you leave feedback it’s usually something private to the host that you wouldn’t put in a public review, like that they need to fix the leaking sink or that someone else was in the allotted parking space.
Is it confirmed/known if the HO gets an alert email directing them to their profile to read feedback a sitter left for them?
@HelloOutThere Yes they also receive an email
Hello, @Twitcher here is the new copy that directs members to the profile link to leave feedback for the owner. Hope that helps 
I’ve found that most of our sit/home conditions have been true to the photos I’ve seen, and some not so much. I’ve enjoyed talking with home owners and even had FaceTime turned on the house to get a video view. If I am not comfortable with what I’ve seen from the photos, a real time FaceTime tour is an easy fix.
I too, am pretty OCD regarding cleanliness, but found that if photos are honest in showing that the house is cluttered (and because of this I assume dusty and dirty) and the location is one I would STILL like to visit, I am more comfortable just cleaning the areas we are using and leaving the rest.
I understand that all homeowners do not live up to my standards, and I do not have a problem cleaning a place and leaving it in better shape than I found it. Especially sits where children live, the owner may not have the time or inclination to clean and straighten. I get that.
My only exception was a sit where the carpet was extremely smelly, to the point where we could not be in the home without almost gagging. The photos, home and area were lovely, furniture great, space in our room was wonderful, but the home couldn’t be occupied without all windows open for the best cross breeze. I subsequently left 4* and an explanation of the smell to explain the lower number of stars. Unfortunately photos do not tell this tale. There were a few other issues I won’t go into.
I did not want other sitters to go to this sit without knowing about the odor and I deemed it necessary to explain myself.
I agree that an Airbnb-like system of reviews is necessary to allow full disclosure on both the sitters’ and owners’ parts. Trusted Housesitters could still monitor negative feedback, and we all might feel more comfortable about sits.
This post was created in April 2021. There are 375 comments, it would be great to kniow that 2 years later there might be some progress in improving the feedback/review system.
I understand it might be distracting for the developers to do continual updates but to not have one since the post in Jan 2022 stating it was in the plan for that year is a bit poor.
Hi @Suemog there have been mentions about the Review System included in previous Product updates.
The review system is in the roadmap of priority projects for 2023 which is currently in progress. The Product Team will provide any relevant updates as and when they are available.
We thank everyone for their invaluable feedback, ideas and suggestions and also for your ongoing patience.
I really hope it is not a part of THS branding to boast that all members are five-star quality, and that is why there is no update on the review system.
When I want to check the reviews for a company on Google, and it is just a bunch of 5-star reviews, I know it is something fishy going on because no one is that perfect. That these reviews aren’t from actual customers or that they’ve gotten a discount for them, so they’re not honest. And I think it gives out the same vibe here, it is not trustworthy that all users have got top reviews (or no reviews).
Also, knowing that there’s this all-or-nothing mentality stresses me out and I feel like my partner and I can’t do one small mistake by accident or set any boundaries towards a rude homeowner, because if we don’t get a five-star review as sitters we have failed. And we don’t know if the HO is going to be easygoing or petty.
I really appreciate being given 5-star reviews and I intend to do my best to keep top quality as a sitter and hopefully keep getting them. But I do believe that the community would benefit from the mentality where we are forgiving towards not everything being perfect 100% of the time. Both in terms of that it could be normal to have like 4.8 stars/thumbs on average and also that some people are really trying to give sitters/HO’s a good experience and some are not. The review system should reflect which ones are really trying and which ones are not.
That being said, in my experience most people on here are super nice and fantastic people and I hope we can keep giving top reviews to each other as long as we are trying our best.
Hi @saasmaka and I also have a theory as to why there are so many five star reviews and feedbacks on the site. Yes there are many excellent sitters and homeowners who go above and beyond what is expected and certainly deserve their ratings.
However I know for a fact a few instances where things didn’t go so well and the sitters and owners agreed to not leave reviews/feedback so it would not affect their ratings.
I checked with the owners I have previously sat for and they confirmed that was the case.
On other occasions sitters and owners will leave five stars in all categories and then mention any issues they had in the dialogue.
Any gaps in reviews and feedback can only be seen in the app and not on the website.
Agreed, I can’t believe that hasn’t been implemented yet? I find this very worrying. So as it is now, if I give an honest review, the owner sees it and can retaliate? What is the point of reviews at all then??? I thought it would work like Airbnb, so that the reviews are actually trustworthy.
