Hi. We’ve recently had a sitter who we have not been especially happy with.
They were only here for 4 days, but did not stick to our pets routine, tried to change their behaviour using half a kilo of treats (2 small breed dogs), arrived late for the sit, over 27 hours of not responding to communication, broke fittings on the house, left the sit early, used excessive amounts of products in the house (2 bottles of fairy liquid, half a litre of shower gel, unwrapped ribbons off the display towels in the bathroom (we did leave towels out for them to use), washed up using rinse aid, a whole bottle of Flash kitchen spray, and took a boot off a display bear in the bedroom). Now, I can get past the excessive useage, but arriving late, lack of communication, not sticking to the routine, and then leaving early is really unacceptable. However, i know if i leave the sitter a bad review she will retaliate with a bad one for us when all we did was go away for a dew days. How do i handle this?
Yes, a HO and petsitter can both respond to posted reviews but that portion isn’t rated, only the original review. However, future sitters do read these and may make a decision based on how you respond. Have you tried communicating these issues with the sitter first to clear up any misunderstanding? I am a HO and sitter but I try to first assume the best and make a judgement based on how they handle conflict. If you feel 100% sure of your point of view, focus on the main facts in your review which has to do with leaving early without informing you and not following pet care directions. The other things you’re overlooking should be, IMO, because it sounds more like preferences rather than irreversible damages.
@EmmaNew23 Neither of you can see the other’s review until you have both left a review, or until 14 days have passed after the sit finished. At this point neither party can leave a review, but they can leave a single response to the review they have received.
The response to a review appears directly below the review it applies to. The sitter’s response to your review will therefore appear on their profile, not on your listing. Similarly if you respond to their review, it will appear directly below their review on your listing, not on their sitter profile. Each party can only respond to a review once.
Sitter’s viewing your listing can click on previous sitters names to see their profile and your review of them and their response if there is one. You can do the same when looking at a sitter’s profile - you can click on a previous host’s name on their review of the sitter to see that hosts listing and the sitter’s review of them.
If you leave a factual, unemotional review concentrating on the main issues - arriving late, leaving early and not responding to communication, you should not have a problem.
Great advice given. As long as your review is factual it can absolutely be honest - it is also possible to be nice. One doesn’t have to mention everything, but can give a little direction, for instance in the line of
« Sitter looked after our pets for four days. We appreciated their effort, although sitter arrived late and left early, which affected our pets’ routine. Communication was difficult at times, with over 27 hours of no response. We could see from the use of detergents that there had been extensive cleaning in our home. Our dogs seemed to enjoy the sitters company.»
Yes, i sent a short, one line message politely requesting that they keep the dogs routine as per the guide. They launched into a full page message/attack saying i was being negative and they knew what game i was playing. They said my negativity was upsetting their children (almost adults not young children (whom i have never eluded to)) and karma would come back to me, and how I’d never do well in life. My concern is i know their response to any feedback i leave will be a long winded barrage of lies.
What I don’t understand is why sitters who do not want to tend to the pets as owners would like take the sits? So many sitters post that they don’t think the dogs need to be walked as much as owners like, thinking they can be left 8-10 hours. Why do you apply to sits that require walks every 4-6 hours? Why do you tell the HO that you will comply and then don’t? I have and am willing to walk puppies every 3-4 hours. I am willing to not leave the house for more than 6 hours. I have no problem with that. I won’t take a sit with 3 large dogs, because that is too much for me, so I don’t apply. Why are sitters applying when they will not comply with responsibilities?
@EmmaNew23 make sure you screenshot messages from these sitters just in case they delete them. If you choose to raise a dispute, you will need evidence such as this. Do indeed leave a factual, unemotional review and you could even quote from their messages what you have stated above.
wow, that escalated quickly. Don’t worry about what they say, it sounds like blind Freddy will be able to see that they’re being very unreasonable. I think the suggestion by @Garfield is excellent and I highly recommend you use his advice as your review.
Because anything crazy they write, will show clearly to hosts and your future sitters that this was not a good fit for you and not a you problem but a them problem.
Also I wanted to chime in and say, who uses that much product in 4 days? Were they syphoning it off and selling it on the black market?
Did these awful people have any reviews? What did those say? (Maybe, in hindsight there is something between the lines.)
There may also have been previous HOs that were afraid to leave a review. There is no way for owners to know that.
If you want, you could report them to THS, for example for the karma message. If I were you, I would then also demand to know if there had been previous missing reviews.
The trick here is to stay calm and collected. As a couple of people said, leave a factual review, even though the temptation to go into many details and vent might be strong— this is what we are here for . Intelligent people will see their unpleasant feedback (if it gets to that point) as a chance to smear your name and reputation.
I would write something about the excessive use of cleaning products though. Such a waste!
There is no retailation as reviews are blind. But stick to what is important and what is factual. Not how you felt about it. The sitters can reply under the review, but if you stick to facts and not feelings and complaints, than their response will have less weight.
Giving the dogs too many treats if you left specific information about how many treats the dogs could get – or it showed a lack of dog experience – is important to mention as this could endanger pets and is part of pet care.
Not communicating if you asked for daily communication or they didn’t respond to you is important.
Leaving early especially if things weren’t communicated and it wasn’t emergent is important.
I don’t think using excessive dish soap or shower gel is a big deal and they really might not have understood the concept of “display towels.” So I’d skip that altogether the same with the rinse aid etc and the boot off the bear. Mentioning of any of that could make your review overall look less credible.
Including this in the review is important because petparents need to know.
People can usually suss out a longwinded barrage of lies. A longwinded barrage of lies is “telling” on themselves not on you. But this is why it is so important that what you say is factual, not petty, and about what happened and not about your feelings.
I wouldn’t worry too much about a possible outburst in an answer or similar. The credibility goes to the party that is fact-based. Others can then decide for themselves if said fact is something that bothers them or not.
