They’ve served me well!
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Perhaps to experience the “Good Life” in real life?
I have had much better good life in real life.
I will walk a dog 4 times or more a day, even if not required. I enjoy it and the dog usually doesn’t like pooping where they play. I always walked my own dog at least 4 times a day. So that works for me. There was a listing where you had to cook the dog’s food every day. And it needed an help me up harness – which I had for my own dog at end of life. I had applied for an easy sit, with same dates and took that one. I would have down that since I wanted to be in FL in Feb and it was on the ocean, but sometimes you want the easy sit.
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I finished up my sit yesterday. And one of the cats had a vet appointment so I was not allowed to feed it. So usually cats get fed when I wake up. And I think the male cat ate her food the night before, because she was acting hungry. Anyway, she went out the doggie door and when the daughter came to pick up the cat, no cat. Usually the cat comes back within an hour. The cat did not. Apparently it was found at the neighbor’s yard. Where it often goes. Maybe there was food. But I was like sick. After picking up her yard full of dog poop – they only went once on a walk. Vacuuming all the pet hair throughout the house, even rooms I never went in. And all the other stuff, I was thinking, will I get a bad review for the cat not being there for her vet appointment? I will find out. After all the bad communication, no WG until 18 hours before sit, will I end up with 4 stars for losing the cat that morning?
You have to assess the owner on accuracy of listing and communication. I don’t think those aspects were 5 stars in this sitting but it’s up to you what rating you give. About the missing cat, that’s up to the owner. It can happen to anyone, but the HO may decide to mention it in their review, they might even decide that you were not self sufficient enough to anticipate the cat might try to find food elsewhere, To be honest, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the owner mentioned that you asked to leave earlier (I don’t think you deserve it but they don’t sound very reliable) They may not write a review at all. If it took so long to send you the WG, they may miss the deadline.
Be it as it may, I think your review should be independent of their review and I don’t think you can “negotiate” one thing for the other.
Well I got full 5 stars. No blame for the cat going awol for a few hours and missing the vet.
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Congratulations on getting a 5 star review @Huronbase.
I noticed that you gave the HO 4 stars for the Communication category and 5 stars overall. However, I was disappointed that you gave no indication in the body of the review as to why you deducted that star. I am aware why the deduction was made from this and other threads about the sit but that would have been beneficial to future sitters to include it in your review of the HO.
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I was going to do 3 stars for communication, since it was stressful. Then the cat disappeared on my watch. Although she didn’t blame me, I felt like I had a gut feeling the other cat ate her dinner, she was hungry, and not feeding her in the morning due to surgery, I was not not optimal. She didn’t blame me for the outcome, but I did, Like breaking something on a sit. I feel responsible and need to replace. So net/net. etc.
@Huronbase, I don’t think you grasped my meaning. Nobody reading your THS review will know why you took off a star for the HO’s communication.
Only the forum readers know that it was because of the late WG, lack of getting a HO address, the date changes made by the HO, the need for the HO’s daughter to do the handover, etc. It would have been helpful for you to indicate WHY in your review.
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The only dog sit we did for THS involved a “tracker” for the dog which I didn’t really notice. We were staying in a scenic village less than 2 miles from the beach and did a lot of walking. There was a debrief hang out when the lovely hosts came back. They had a second rental they stayed in the last night with the dog, so we could relax and they drove us to the airport. I guess the tracker pings because they were very pleased with how much “exercise” the dog got when we there, but hoped the dog hadn’t gotten too used to it!
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I think host over reach and expectations has definitely expanded in the last 18 months. I’ve been sitting for 10 years and have 5 star ratings across a the board. Spotting these posts has become more challenging in addition to hosts surprising sitters with “additional” duties or expectations upon arrival - many knowing full well we can’t walk away at that point.
I don’t know if THS reviews posts or if there is a way for sitters to flag posts (sort of on FB when it’s spam or breaking the rules) before their posted to moderate hosts or newbies - “we have reviewed your post and ask that you review the THS guidelines and edit your post.” THS moderates this forum so would see simple enough to moderate posts where listing are out of scope of a sitter.
Oh for sure, if there’s a specific reason for cleaning or hoovering every day, I’m happy to do it. My objection was to the tone of that message telling us to clean every day rather than leave it to the end, as a general instruction, as if we were children with no idea how to keep house.
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Some hosts go overboard, like some people in work life micromanage. They’re free to do that, and personally I appreciate seeing such listings, because they’re easy to avoid. 
I saw one a while ago, where the host said they wanted sitters who made their beds daily. I make my bed daily anyway, but who needs such micromanaging from a host? Good grief, what else will they expect or have issues with?
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You’re right about tone and I agree with your example, and I’ve avoided listings that look like jobs, but I don’t think anyone in their listing should have to “specify a reason” especially about pet care. There are a lot of specific reasons and justifications for why I feed my cats different food from each other, and why they need to be fed three times a day, and I do briefly go through that in my welcome guide, and am happy to answer questions on a chat, but it’s enough that I mention it on my profile. If not giving a “reason” is enough to screen out a sitter, I’m good with that.
On the sit I mentioned with daily vacuuming, they didn’t say “One of us has allergies” or “We’re cleaning fanatics” they just said daily vacuuming, and I calculated their square footage and realized this would be a 10 minute job. (When I got there I realized based on observation that they do keep a very tidy home and one of them has allergies.)
This is a process, if a listing turns me off due to tone, I’ve made my decision. If I see responsibilities that look like too much, I’ve made my decision. I don’t need for the homeowner to give me a reason for something that I don’t want to have to do.
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I hear you. Agree that if a listing requests X, then sitters shouldn’t apply if they don’t want to do X, whatever the reason.
Most people will volunteer explanations anyway, though, because it’s natural in communications. Plus, some people probably think that sitters will be more likely to do X if they explain why.
I sat a cat who needed to be fed in staggered fashion, because of a barfing condition. If someone told me to stagger feeding, I would’ve figured something was wrong with the pet, but it also would’ve seemed odd for the hosts to not tell me why.
Another host asked me to sweep their flat daily (cat would eat dust, debris and such, which quickly accumulated with the windows normally open in a major city and the cat had health issues) and yet another asked me to vacuum the living room daily (one of the dogs shed a crapload). No biggie — I did as asked. No need for secrecy on their reasons, though.
Sorry, but that is not a universal sentiment.
There are generations of people who have never done any gardening in their entire lives and never will. 
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Norms in one area are not norms in another area. Where I live (and NOT in a wealthy area), lawn care and pool maintenance are almost always performed by a service and most homes have automatic sprinklers.
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That’s interesting! I haven’t found this to be the case in any of the sits I’ve been on or most people I know in small towns or suburbs. East coast west coast thing? Also not a lot of big lawns, but a lot of people who take great pride in their gardens and grow some veggies as well as flowers. Maybe it’s the kind of sits I go for despite my own woeful lack of skills in this area!
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Then don’t apply to a home with a garden, its logical, right?