I agree we all tend to think that we do things the right way (HOs or sitters) but I do think rating is not really about the home but about being transparent and upfront, not only regarding the house, but also the pets and the tasks requested. That way, people can find their matches and there should be no disappointments. The specific content of the review is specified in categories and there is no category for “home”, there is for cleanliness, accuracy of listing and hospitality and those categories are somehow partially related to the way the sitters find the home. A humble home can be welcoming, tidy and spotless and if the sitters know what the amenities are and accept the sit, I honestly don’t think they deserve less than 5 stars.
It’s also true that we tend to compare but that can be said not only of sitters, HOs can also compare one sitter to the others and it wouldn’t be fair to rate a sitter down because the owner doesn’t make as strong a connection as they did with a previous one or because they didn’t bake a cake o leave flowers as others may have done.
Out of 40 sits I’ve only docked a star once and that was for accuracy of listing. They failed to disclose internal camera on listing and on welcome guide. It wasn’t until after i arrived and it was penciled in on the welcome guide print out. I then sent them the link with the THS policies and noted it on the review as well.
Did you know about raising the flag before you tool the sit? How utterly bizarre. I am curious, were they older folk?
I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to do that!
As yet, I have never given a less than 5 star rating.
In retrospect though there was one I wish I had given a lower rating for pet behaviour/accuracy of listing. I only realised as we sat for them twice, that the cats had problems with pooing in the house. The first time we were told one cat had diarrhea and it was unusual, which I do believe, but there was so much odour spray and cleaning stuff everywhere I felt suspicious, and we were dealing with a very fluffy stinky cat for the first 2 days!
However we also broke their cat wall bracket thing (I don’t know what you call them, things for indoor cats to run around on) by putting one of the cats on it, which I feel was a fair thing to assume it was OK to do. I apologised and offered to pay for the damage but they refused and said it wasn’t our fault, but then didn’t leave a review for us. When we went for a return sit, the other cat did a massive crap in the middle of the sofa and I realised this is obviously an ongoing problem, but because the vibe of the house was so nice and the cats were lovely, no one wanted to give bad reviews!! I didn’t leave a second review, and neither did they, and we won’t be going bsck, as lovely as the cats were.
I left a 4 star review for a HO that only put his email address in the Welcome Guide, did not provide access to enter his gated community leaving me waiting in the snow until a postal worker let me in, and had left his dirty dishes and clutter all over the house. He did not provide WiFi information and the house was dirty. He did not respond to my email about being locked out nor did he respond to my request for a WiFi and password, which I need to work remotely . Then he docked me a star saying that I wasn’t self sufficient. Oh, well.
We’ve been blessed with great pets and pet parents but I did remove a star last year because the house had stuff laying around. Kitchen with mail, eye glasses, dirty cups etc in the middle of the table. Bathroom vanity with all of their personal stuff laying around. I didn’t want to move stuff and it was hard to clean around it.
What I suggest: Get the welcome guide well ahead of the sit. If the host doesn’t give you lead time to review robust info and ask Qs, don’t do the sit.
To me, a good host preps emergency contacts, vet info, pet profiles and routines, pet- and home-care details, etc. If that’s too much effort for them, there are better partners for sitting, IMO.
My POV: Successful sits require good-faith partnership from both sides. Don’t settle for less.
As you know, I absolutely agree.
I just don’t understand why THS makes things unnecessarily difficult for sitters.
Why can’t they make the Welcome Guide mandatory before HOs are even able to put up their listing? Why isn’t the Welcome Guide automatically accessible for potential sitters? They could still give HOs control over which sitter they want to send the Welcome Guide to before confirming the sit. Why is it so hard for sitters to drop out, while HOs can cancel anytime without consequences?
I think, in many cases, HOs keep trying to convince sitters that their reasons for wanting to cancel aren’t “that bad” and that they should just go through with it. But if someone simply doesn’t want to do it, they won’t show up, period.
What is THS going to do? Drag them there by force?
It would be better for the HO to find a replacement as quickly as possible rather than wasting time trying to pressure the sitter. This is a voluntary platform, not a paid service.
So why do sitters have to jump through hoops just to be allowed to cancel a sit? This is absurd.
There should be a way for sitters to resolve cancellations directly with THS, without the HO interfering. THS already has access to the sitter’s review history and the chat history with the HO.
So why not allow sitters to submit a cancellation request directly to THS with a reason? If the reason seems legitimate, then why should the HO have any say in it?
This would be completely doable.
I think THS would have a hard time with gaining hosts’ trust if sitters could cancel without engaging them. That of course leaves sitters in risky circumstances when hosts lie or misrepresent sits.
I’d say in general that sitters would be in better shape overall if more of us were willing to cancel (by saying we won’t go or by quitting, if we find sits unreasonable because of misrepresentation or inhumane living conditions).
Not everyone can afford to do that, of course. That’s why THS works better for sitters with resources for backup plans and such. It doesn’t work anywhere as well for people who need housing and lack alternatives. They’re often stuck. But THS doesn’t exist to solve homelessness or poverty.
Personally, THS will never be able to get me to do a sit or stay if I find that the host is exploitative, abusive, etc. I’d sooner risk being booted off the platform, if it came to that.
@PawsomePetsitters, interesting question. Substantially all of our housesits have been very positive experiences. Substantially 5* all round. But on a small number of instances we have given 4*, and one 3*, on category ratings and provided brief related commentary in reviews. Causes were poor cleanliness; misrepresented pet behaviour; and one oddball communication.
I completely agree. If I’m being honest, I think part of the problem is that some people do THS out of financial necessity or because they don’t have a home, whether by choice or circumstance. When alternatives are scarce, they are much more likely to overlook red flags, simply because they don’t have the luxury of being selective. But that, in turn, creates an environment where problematic individuals can thrive. The more sitters who are willing to accept poor conditions, the more bad actors will take advantage of the system.
That said, I assume the same issue applies to homeowners in less popular locations or those with large dogs or multiple pets, even if they are otherwise great hosts. They likely cling to any available sitter, sometimes turning a blind eye to bad behavior because they can’t afford to be too picky.
Personally, I’m grateful that, despite not having a permanent residence or owning property, I can do this as a hobby, purely by choice. And of course, from that position, it’s easy to skip listings that don’t meet 100% of my criteria. That’s definitely a privileged situation.
But , THS was never meant to be an alternative housing solution for people with no other options. It is and always will be a hobby platform.
The sit was luckily only for a few days, and it actually coincided with the coronation. We found out that the homeowners had traveled from the north of England to London during our sit to wave their flags in front of Westminster Abbey.
On the day of the coronation, we decided to have a little fun with it, as we had the three dogs sit in front of the flagpole while my husband raised the flag, and I started singing God Save the King. My family absolutely loved the video and had a good laugh about it.
Oh ok, for the coronation makes more sense!
Sounds like you had fun with it which is the main thing. I genuinely don’t think I’d be able to bring myself to do it, I’d be willing to risk a bad review!
