Ok, the host messed up, it appears there was a communication lapse between the two hosts. That doesn’t really change much from a practical point of view. The sitter created conflict when it wasn’t necessary. The best course of action on the part of the sitter was to be flexible and understanding of the error, accept the hotel room and move on, rather than create conflict, which came back to bite her in the form of a negative review.
The sitter states “the host shouldn’t be able to do that”. Well, the host CAN do that regardless of what the sitter thinks they can and cannot do.
The sitter asks “Am I crazy for getting upset”? Not crazy, just unreasonable, inflexible and unsympathetic to the plight of the host who did the best they could to make up for it by paying for a hotel room.
What’s the big deal about leaving a day early and spending the night in a hotel, free of pet care responsibilities anyway? It’s not the end of the world like it was made out to be.
You’re clearly not a sitter. In addition to the usual pet cares, we spend much of the day before departure packing, doing a thorough final clean, getting fresh food in so the HO has something to eat and drink when they return home, preparing a home-made soup (or similar) and generally preparing to move on. To have it sprung on us that a HO will be returning within a matter of hours and that we have to source hotel accommodation - presumably after determining a budget which is acceptable to the HO - would totally throw a spanner in the works.
Sitters don’t just pick up their bags and leave, there’s planning and organisation involved to ensure a positive return home for HOs. On the actual day of departure, we strip and re-make the beds (if spare linen is available), wash (and possibly dry) bedlinen and towels.
A hasty departure would negate all of that. Would the HOs then complain about cleanliness, or lack of organisation?
In a situation like this where the sitter is given short notice, it would be understandable if they don’t do a thorough cleanup before they leave. That could have been stated to the host when they changed the plans. “Sure thing I’ll leave early but I won’t be able to do a thorough cleaning, I hope you understand”. End of story, less work for sitter, no repercussions for the host’s mistake, happy members on both sides.
I personally would hate to leave a sit in a manner which doesn’t conform to our usual standards, and beating a very hasty retreat to some random nearby hotel which has been selected very quickly - and probably to a budget - for a single night wouldn’t be remotely relaxing, so I can understand the OP’s point of view.
We’ve had a HO return early - simply because they felt like it - without offer of alternative accommodation, but at least they gave us 24 hours notice. They didn’t get the soup!
I totally get their point as well. Due to a hosts mistake they need to change their plans, they were inconvenienced and had to do a last minute shuffling around. That much said, making an issue of it and turning it into conflict is a lose/lose. Better to be gracious and suck it up rather than trade negative reviews which helps no one.
If you work from home like I do, it is extremely disruptive to leave on an unexpected day, find a place to work from, and try to pack up your things too. Even if you don’t work from home, it is stressful, but I guess if the hosts are understanding about less than perfect cleaning, etc, it makes the situation better but not good. Communication is very important, and so is being organised and taking into consideration that there is another person bearing the consequences if I make changes at short notice.
In this situation here, I think that both hosts and sitter could have done better. Sounds like the OP is still very angry and emotional and only looking for posts that validate their feelings. Some people here have made very confrontational posts and made this thread explode with negative emotion. Welcome to the forum, which is often like that.
Hi @Ams619. I wonder if you have already done a reply to the HO’s review and/or if you mentioned their early return in your review of them.
If not, I would be tempted to reply along the lines of …
‘Thanks for the feedback ________.
I had intended to replenish the grocery stock. However, when you gave only a few hours notice that you were returning a day early, I was forced to reprioritize and do my final tidy up, pack my belongings and arrange for alternative accommodations.’
Yes, sometimes owners mix up travel times with different time zones and sometimes flights are delayed. It is just one of those things. I usually build in a buffer in case their return flight is delayed so I don’t leave dogs alone for too long. I’ve never had an owner return eatly though.
I suspect the aggressiveness of your responses may be inhibiting some of the support you’d otherwise receive. If you used a similar tone with the HOs, I can see how they might have been less than gracious in the review they left.
Was it fair? Based on your side of the story, probably not — but there’s also more than one way to handle adversity. I personally try to focus on the bigger picture, vs the outcome of a battle that’s already beyond my control.
You get it! So many nonsense reviews trying to make me ‘grateful’ that they paid for coming back a day early. I am still fighting THS support on this. That review is ALL lies. It should be removed.
According to two of my hosts, the sit dates are confusing for American homeowners to list accurately because apparently the software goes by GMT. I was lucky that when I double-checked the leaving and returning dates they both realized what had happened and updated the sit dates to fit Eastern Standard Time (in our case). Furthermore, the wife in your case may not have double-checked with her husband that you all were on the same page. Hopefully she’s learned her lesson, but it’s an honest mistake. On the other hand, informing you the day of their return when she realized they had screwed it up was incredibly rude and thoughtless. If were that HO, I would have begun with explaining the error they made and given you the option to either go to a hotel on them or stay that last night (so as not to rush you) and go to a hotel ourselves. If she threw in the criticism about your eating their food just to get back at you for balking, I would have been tempted to say “Well I was going to replace everything I ate/drank on that last night, but then you came home early.”
Re software and dates, my Google calendar was continually reminding me of events incorrectly seemingly due to crossover between home time in Australia and then being in Europe. It was irritating but mostly I knew when it was
