Me too!!! I also do it for the plant, not the owner.
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And what would you say about hosts docking stars for sitters who leave the house exactly as they found it?
I got docked a cleanliness star for leaving the place cleaner than when I arrived 
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@DianeS I guess some people are desensitized to their own mess and only notice someone else’s, even if it isn´t there. Go figure 
@DianeS we had that experience twice! The first time (only our 3rd sit)we were furious as we’d had to spend 2 hours cleaning on arrival and we even deep cleaned their cooker extractor hood as it was so greasy and everywhere was left cleaner than on arrival. The wife apologised profusely- said the husband had done the review- so she contacted THS to add the star back for cleaning and she also re-wrote the review much more appreciatively. We were very grateful & felt so much better!
The second host refused to change anything & was annoyed we even asked- she docked a star on cleaning because apparantly an icecube tray had spilled slightly and we had not defrosted the freezer!! Unbelievable!
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Reminds me of the HO who complained here that half of the ice cubes had been missing !
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Ice cube, right. And I should have run an empty dishwasher (which I didn´t even know was there) so it would smell better. Absolutely infuriating. Is it water under the bridge now, or did you take precautions to avoid dealing with such people? I am contemplating adding a disclaimer to my profile: “Please do not invite/confirm me if you expect XYZ from me, as I will not be able to deliver it.” But maybe it’s a bad idea. Don´t even know how to deal with such nonsense.
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@anon47943759 I feel for you! These type of hosts- with ridiculous expectations- should be paying for their sitters and not abusing unpaid sitters.
We wrote a private, very strong, message to those hosts on WhatsApp and as soon as we saw they’d read it we blocked them so they could not reply.
Unfortunately we had written our, very positive, review before receiving theirs (the first & last time we’ve done that) They’d been stalling on writing our review so we thought writing ours first would encourage a positive review from them despite there being an energetic mismatch between us. But they abused that good will with their review of us. When we challenged them- on the dropped star and on their wording- they replied in a highly superior and condescending manner. We were so incensed we wrote our msg above. It was important for us to have the last word. Evil people. 
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As for most people 
This is what I think hurts most: the inability to protect oneself and a complete lack of control. This is why, when your gut feeling tells you to expect some sort of retaliation, it is sometimes more satisfying not to review. By doing so, you deny them the chance to respond and gain the last word by responding to their review.
@anon47943759 Exactly. And we did do that in the past occasionally- preferring to say nothing at all rather than give a negative review and risk retaliation. That review mentioned above was an exception. If we’d received theirs first we would not have reviewed at all. That’s why we always (except that once) waited for our review first.
Now with the blind reviews that option is removed. You either write nothing and wait 14 days and then feel relieved (or regretful!) not to have written a host review or you take the opportunity to be really honest and risk a retaliatory response to your review! You can’t win either way!
We asked for an improved review system and this is what we got but I’m not sure it really is an improvement! People are very sensitive and this (housesitting) is a pretty personal & intimate exchange- not like the more business transaction of airbnb.
When a sit goes great its easy to give a rave review whatever the review system. Its when things go wrong that it gets tricky. I’m not sure what the best solution is…!
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This is really tricky, as the cleanliness and organization categories are often the ones HS get dinged in, without even realizing the expectations. It can come as quite a shock, especially when HS’s are more than lenient and understanding with the HOs and assuming a certain amount of reciprocity. There also seems to be no general standard. I personally think it’s a lot to expect a perfectly clean house after a guest has been there for many days or weeks, especially while they were taking care of themselves, your pets and their own lives, work, etc. A basic tidy up should be all that’s required, but everyone has different definitions of what that is. Some HO’s tell you that’s all that’s needed, then suddenly judge you harshly at the end because of something you didn’t realize they were expecting. I would urge HO’s to be more lenient and communicative with these things as they are ultimately the ones in the position of power. Set your HS’s up to win! Because of course they want a 4-5 star review.
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Most sitters only want a 5* review. At the very least an overall 5* if one or more categories get a * dinged. In THS circles a 4* review is looked on dubiously…
But I agree with all your other comments.
i have to agree. i’m into my third year and sometimes i’m shocked if not annoyed by what ppl expect. when the HO goes away they are 100% free to do what they want but i’ve noticed so many ppl want you to not leave the house for anymore than three hours, if at all! my daughter recently had a cancellation, late because in the final correspondence the HO said they basically didn’t want her leaving at all! i’m not complaining as such but i’ve begun to think it’s very one sided. the HO gets to holiday freely and the sitter is left to keep house and i am trying to understand the 50/50. i’ve read on here lovely HOs leaving gifts etc but i think they are far and few between as i also have two daughters on this same site. you basically have to do a full house clean before you leave which can take hours, getting up early to wash and dry sheets and remake bed, cleaning, dusting.
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We will soon finish the last of our schedules sits, and have unquestionably concluded that we would rather pay for accommodations. The cleaning is ridiculous, I don’t care what anyone here says. You should be thankful to have people caring for your pets. In addition, there is no freedom, which we prefer. We might give that up if there weren’t reviews, creating pressure. We simply don’t need these things.
Some people aren’t finding sitters. Maybe ask yourself whether your expectations are part of the problem.
I’m not a house cleaner, not looking to become one, in addition to giving up any freedom to leave for the duration of the sit. Obviously that’s part of the deal (not leaving) – but we aren’t interested in also having some competition for reviews after losing so much freedom on our vacations.
And it’s too bad for the owners bc we took the work seriously, and went above and beyond.
I’m not even sure about being a HO but that’s something we are still considering. Of course, if we invite someone to watch our pets, we will not also expect them to clean. Still think that’s 100% ridiculous. We have a house cleaner and they would continue to come in our absence.
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Let’s put it this way, if you are new to THS, think carefully before you schedule particularly a longer sit. I’m actually a nice person… I’m just not interested in being someone’s servant / employee or whatever. If you have the money to pay for accommodations, and you are just thinking free sounds better, my guess is that you will not enjoy the experience.
Most of our discontent has actually come through no fault of any home owner. We simply do not like any restrictions on our time. My husband and I both felt this way (him actually more than me). That feeling might be worth tolerating if it weren’t for the many horror stories about cleaning and reviews that I’ve read in this forum. I gather those are hopefully often the exception. But we just don’t need or want that stress.
I think for younger people, sure. This would have been perfect when I was in my 20s. Then again, I’m a lot more responsible now. I would much rather have my present day self watching my pets and home, even though I have always loved animals.
So I think the site is not setup well bc of the pressure regarding anything other than taking care of pets. But it seems to work great for lots of people and that’s fine. It’s just not for us.
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Also who cares about the size or even niceness of the home if you’re essentially in prison? That is truly how both my husband and I felt. We have enough money to pay for nice enough accommodations, just about anywhere in the world, at least where we would want to go, and be FREE.
Who cares about how nice the house looks if you don’t have time to leave and go hike the trails? Or if you do – you have to worry the entire time that you might get some HO who leaves a bad review, as someone wrote recently, bc the person didn’t run a dishwasher which left a musty odor, even though she didn’t even use the dishwasher the entire time, and there were no dirty dishes. So if you put your effort into house sits and then get one person like that – pretty much ruins all of the effort you’ve put in. So what’s the solution? Work very hard to make things perfect the entire time you’re there. Are we having fun yet?
Another way of looking at it – how much would you enjoy living in a beautiful home if you were the maid and general all around task person? Because that’s what you will be.
Sincerely, for anyone new, I wish someone had warned me in these forums before we wasted lengthy time away from our lives to take care of someone else’s, especially knowing that forever on this site, where you pay to play – you will have a lot of pressure to please all kinds of people. Do you really need or want that?
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I have not done that on any of my sits.
My HOs gave me good ratings for cleaning without me doing much more than tidying up. Tidying up I also do in paid accommodation.
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On our first few sits I washed the bedding on the last day as those are the THS guidelines and that’s what we do when we house sit for friends and family.
Then I read on the forum some owners complaining about this. This surprised me .
From then on I asked the owners what they wanted us to do with the bedding and they have all said leave it we’ll do it .
So that has saved us a chore on leaving day .
We will continue to ask future owners their preferences
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We all get to decide what we accept. Screening by the house sitter is important. If there are things when you arrive that were not disclosed prior to accepting, like being with animals all the time, the pets having issues that were not disclosed, or you encounter something that is against THS rules, then you get to decide how to move forward. We should all have a plan b just in case we encounter what we hoped we would not.
Cleanliness is very important to me. I just finished a pet sit where the bathroom and kitchen were definitely not great when I arrived. I wasn’t keen to have to clean up after someone else, but I cleaned throughly for my use before I unpacked. They did have a housekeeper come in a few days later and weekly after that, which to me completely offset this. I did have to be at the property more often than many of my other pet sits, but this was disclosed in the ad before I applied. When I arrived, the property matched the ad perfectly, it was wonderful, and I was very happy to be there.
Was it perfect? No. The owner was a bit less friendly than some. They had someone “pop” over, but it was just one time because they wanted something collected. If this had continued, I would have said something. My flight was expensive and my hotels around the sit were quite pricey. But it was an amazing place, the pet was lovely, and I had an experience that I know I would not have been able to have otherwise.
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@CuriousCat
Luckily, all of our previous sits have been for ‘pet lovers’, not just pet owners.
Really grateful people who know the wellbeing of their pets is our utmost care, not things like cushions left in disarray for example, as has been previously reported in here.
These HO have been a real joy to sit for, and I’m sure there will be more of those than the ‘cushion’ type.
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