I have a saved search for sits in the UK over Christmas 2025. One such sit looks idyllic, a great dog, gorgeous house and a wonderful location. The sit was first listed on 5th March I think. I haven’t yet applied, although I’m very interested. Surprisingly there have been no applicants so far, or perhaps there have been some and they’ve been immediately declined. One thing that’s holding back my application is the reviews from previous sitters. Out of 9 sitters 4 have posted 5 star reviews and the remaining 5 have not posted at all.
I’ve thought about the reasons for the missing reviews and while I can never know why they are absent, the fact that there are as many missing reviews as there are positives is holding me back.
I know many sitters mention gut instinct, but I have learnt that it’s not always right and some analysis is often a better guide. Two significant drawbacks with gut feeling are that it often includes unconscious biases and certainly in this case missing data.
I’d be interested in other sitter’s experiences of solely relying on gut instinct, for better or worse. Also, anyone whose made a choice and application based on a more analytical process.
I would do some investigating. Do the sitters who didn’t leave a review consistently do so for their other sits?
I have asked HOs about missing reviews during the video chat stage.
I’d check out whether the HO had left reviews for those past sitters that showed up issues there had been on sits, like unreasonable expectations etc. I find HO’s reviews of past sitters are often as revealing as sitter reviews, they give you a sense of the HO’s personality and attitude.
I rely heavily on that gut instinct when applying for sits and it has seemed to serve me very well-often times the listing may look great on paper but there is just something subtle I feel and I trust it. Of course, I also employ good old rational thinking at times too based on information presented in a listing, and if there is something about the sit that I know doesn’t gel with my preferences, I wouldn’t apply.
I have been sitting for a decade and my experience has been overwhelmingly positive so I feel operating in this way has worked for me. Sure there have been some challenges at times, some unexpected things cropping up, but that is to be expected.
But like you said, sometimes that gut instinct may be influenced by things that may make it unreliable. The thing about using it as means to avoid a situation is that in most cases you will never have it validated. If you never do the sit you will never know if it were ‘right.’
With the number of listings available, I don’t worry too much about that. Even if I may have passed on sits that I would have enjoyed very much, it really doesn’t matter since there are so many great sits available.
If you are feeling that uncertain it is probably better to pass. Christmas time is really far off, and in somewhere like the UK you will have tons of listings from which to choose so no reason to take one about which you don’t feel fully confident.
The one thing to be careful about with the thoughtful analysis is not trying to talk yourself into a sit that may not be a good fit because it is very desirable in some way and you really want to visit that locale,etc…
Don’t let a scarcity mindset influence your decisions–I think that is often a major contributor to sitters taking sits that aren’t a good fit for them. Not sure if that is relevant to you but wanted to mention it in case it was because I think it is common.
It’s a gut feeling- I’ve had a bad feeling I couldn’t put my finger on or based on something seemingly trivial…. it probably works both ways as I’m not every HOs cup of tea either.
We sat for HOs with 3 dogs who definitely didn’t want to meet/handover. It felt a little odd letting ourselves into a house with large dogs barking- but the HO knew their dogs and it was perfectly fine. When we left we stayed local at a cafe in case there was an issue with the HO returning. All was OK though.
I would also look at the dates of the sits where there are no reviews. If the HO’s have been on the platform for a while, maybe the sits were during pandemic times and the sits didn’t actually occur. I had a few sits like that and the homeowner never bothered to cancel the sit and the HO is the only one who can cancel. It doesn’t show badly on the sitter’s profile, only the HO’s, so you’d think they’d rectify that, but sometimes they don’t.
But, if it wasn’t during the pandemic, then yes, it would be a red flag, but if I really liked the sit otherwise, I would apply, and if I made it to the video chat stage, then I would certainly ask why they think the sitter didn’t leave a review (after, of course, checking as @MaggieUU suggests, whether those sitters routinely leave reviews for other homeowners and whether the HO left reviews for the sitters).
What’s strange is that on the THS website the non-reviewed sits aren’t displayed, so it appears there’s only been 5 sitters. The app tells a different story, with 9 sits in total, 5 without reviews.
The details in the sit requirements suggest to me that the HO has extremely high and some might say unreasonable expectations, especially with the care of their home. I had a recent 2 week sit where I was docked a star for cleanliness because I hadn’t dusted. An old house in the country with 2 very lively dogs that needed and got a lot of outdoor exercise, which required them to be washed down and dried every day.