Now that reviews are confidential until both reviews have been published, I am interested to hear how many Sitters are giving the HO a review that is less than 5 stars.
I did a sit last weekend were there were several issues and I don’t feel a 5 star review was warranted.
I’m interested to hear what were some of your reasons for a less than perfect review.
In our case it’s only been around pet behaviour, accuracy of listing and cleanliness. And that was on one sit. The other 20+ sits have been on point.
I wrote a very honest 3-star review for a homeowner last summer that was well-deserved, she in turn responded with some ridiculous, very lengthy quip and I have since found that perhaps just saying nothing at all might be the best way to go, that in and of itself should speak volumes about a sit. I had to hope to bury that review in record time and I thankfully did! The wife of the couple is really quite odd and she was, unfortunately, managing the whole arrangement. I’m still glad I wrote it as they were first time users and were truly atrocious hosts. All of my other sits have been great, 5-stars worthy.
Of the 68 sits I’ve completed on this site I’ve only had to give one x 4 star review for owners. I didn’t mention why in my review but the owner asked me why some time after he’d given me a 5 star review. I then had to tell him it was because the fridges were health hazards (not in those words), the dog was very strong. (Which hadn’t been mentioned but I mentioned for future sitters) and generally untidy home. He was not amused. This was way before the blind review system.
Mine was about cleaniness and tidiness. And while I was there, she was checking the outdoor camera and wrote me to bring the garbage bin in or she would get fined. Not realizing the day of garbage was a holiday and they had not come until the next day. I sent her a picture of the street and all the bins were still out. It really annoyed me. And then she leaves me a house full of clutter, leaving a garbage pail and cleaner on the living room end table and complained about conditions when she got home. I believe she thinks I left them out. I cleaned it better than she did, as well as I could around the clutter. And the bed was this cot like bunk bed with a metal ladder. I cut my foot twice getting out of bed, no light except overhead. Bled all over the floor. On the bath mat, so as I soaked it, all this dirt came out – it was grey. I washed them both before I left. I always get 5 stars on cleanliness. I tried in this place. So annoying.
I haven’t docked stars so far, as my sits have been good (but I would be comfortable doing so and I think it is my responsibility also to give a transparent impression of the sit I had), but I have mentioned things that I think it is important to others to know in order to make an informed decision.
For instance, several sitters before me had mentioned that pet needed to “warm up”, but not what form that took and how they met it. So I said the same things as previous sitters had said, but I worded it so you could actually know what was meant. In that case, the pet would growl at you, which could be very frightening for some, so for me I really can’t understand why several others would just bury that in “warm up”, and it could be hard to get the pet in a leash. I told in review how the pet would be while warming up and what I did so that we could get along. Got a nice reply from host which said that that was how it was.
I felt really good being transparent, and I truly believe I made not only other sitters a service, but also the host - so that the host will get good matches in the future.
Docking stars without stating the reason is of little value to me, really. Then I don’t know it the sitter or host in question is more picky than me or has put emphasis on something I don’t. So please say why.
Of about 40 sits, only once did we dock a star. This was long before the blind reviews. Although pretty, the house was definitely not clean, in some areas very gross. We didn’t gel with the owners, got a feeling of disrespect or ignorance. These owners never left us a review, maybe just as well.
@marshmish your review is valuable to potential sitters who might otherwise not know what the sit could be like, so thank you for leaving it. Her feedback would probably reflect more on her than you.
I am not sure I understand.
Did they leave a bad review or just their reply to your review?
When you say “saying nothing” might be better, you mean giving no review at all or knocking down stars with no explanation?
In my opinion, the best reviews are a combination of both, rating categories and factual descriptions. But the wording has more objective value than the rating.
It’s true it’s difficult to give less than 5 stars because on this platform, most people are used to that but 4 out of 5 is still quite good and means there’s room for improvement.
I mean she responded to my review of her with a very lengthy blah blah blah about how terrible the experience was from the very start for them even though I navigated 1000 obstacles to do this sit for them, and even though they were absolute rubbish hosts - house not clean, no cleaning products, atrocious bedding left for me to use even though there was nicer bedding available in the house, etc etc, didn’t tell me the dog would only poo on lead outside of the fenced garden, which left me taking that dog out for walks in their not so great neighborhood (which I didn’t find out til getting there) at 11 pm and 2 am, and SO much more. Truly one of the worst sits I’ve done in MANY years of doing this.
Eeegads, did you know that was going to be the bed you’d be sleeping in? What kind of host presents that for someone looking after their pets and home at no cost to them?? Bonkers!
I haven’t left off stars from my overall review, but on one sit I did dock for accuracy and cleanliness, while explaining it in my review. I considered that others would well want to take a housesit there, but would be informed ahead of time. And the host was very personable and wasn’t insulted. I think this might have helped them when hosting a sitter next time.
She’s a little bit of a nutter and though I felt my review and her response to it was going to do some long-term damage that would take ages to recover from, that was not the case. My received and given reviews have been stellar before and after her sit so now it definitely reflects on them only.
What review did you actually receive from her @marshmish as her response to your review shows on her profile not yours?
She was very adult about her review of me as I give a LOT of myself in every sit I do. She gave me 4 stars overall and started the review by saying I left the house tidy and their dog was well cared for and they were grateful for that, she then followed it up by saying I was difficult to deal with, all 5 stars except for “self sufficient” for which she gave me 3. Their dog is amazing, so sweet and silly, but she is HIGH maintenance and I accommodated her in every moment.
You saw the picture. So I knew that going in. But I didn’t check that there wasn’t a lamp nearby. The dog was getting me up during the night. She said that if I didn’t want the dog sleeping with me, that was OK but leave the door open so I would be aware of the dog needing to go out. Well, at some point, the dog always jumped up. But being older, I am not as flexible as I was 20 years ago. And getting out, I hit the bottom of my foot on the metal ladder, as it was dark. Though I prefer that than sleeping in the master.
I left a 3-star review under the old review system because, quite honestly, that’s what they truly deserved. And I absolutely don’t want to be mean saying that. It’s just that the house was really dirty. On top of that, even though they knew that both of us had to work remotely on the day they were leaving, they told us to work at the dining table while they were still there, having a long and loud breakfast, making no effort at all to keep quiet while we were on calls.
The dogs (all three of them) were very sweet, but their recall was nowhere near as good as we had been told. And to top it all off, this was the sit where the homeowner expected us to raise the Union Jack in their garden every single day. That was probably the strangest experience we’ve ever had.
All of our other sits have been fantastic. I only ever deducted one star for cleanliness once, but overall it was a 5-star sit.
I’ve written reviews with facts so sitters can decide for themselves. Like hosts who didn’t reveal till walking out the door that one of their cats was a biter and scratcher. (I took precautions and avoided getting hurt.) Or a dog that scratched incessantly, because of allergies, and would wake before dawn on most days, scratching madly, while sleeping with the sitter. (I wake early and fall back asleep super easily, so this wasn’t an issue for me, but might be for others. They had declared the allergies, but not the early waking.)
To me, the star ratings aren’t useful without what specifically led to them being marked down.
We have completed over 50 sits. Two of which, we chose not to leave a review (in hind sight, probably should have). One, we gave two stars (because the house was clean and the pups were sweet). The reason we gave two stars was that at no time prior to the sit we were told of severe medical issues with the dogs. Only upon our arrival we were given an 8 page document (single spaced no less) and told that the dogs require to use the bathroom every 2 hours (which continues throughout the night). There were also other problems with the dogs and how the owner handled herself was just ungodly…so yeah, we gave two stars. She however gave us 5 (believe it or not! and we were thankful for it!) even though we had to end the sit 14 days short because we were on 4 hours of sleep in 3 days.
You win some you lose some. Our only advice, SCREEN the HO meticulously, especially on longer sits. ASK questions. If someone says, “Dogs are fine” (which is what we were told), ask about medications, ask about bathroom routine. If you are EVER told “More information will be given upon your arrival”. That is a big red flag and MOVE ON!
We’re relative newcomers to THS but have done 8 sits in the last few months. In our view, the review system has room for improvement. We appreciate that written comments on a sit can offer a detailed and helpful guide for future sitters (and for HOs to make improvements). But we feel that the 1-5 star categories are a poor guide to sits. Unless something serious is amiss, in our experience HOs expect a 5 star review across most categories. Perhaps the problem stems from the fact that HOs have one home - which they tend to think is fit for purpose! - whilst more experienced sitters will have visited more homes and have more comparisons to draw on when making their ratings. Over time, sitters will learn - we certainly have! - to ask more detailed questions about where we’re going to be living to avoid surprises.