Not necessarily a 5 star review but a positive one, which acknowledges sitter’s work.
If the other party had a complaint or a bad experience, they had an opportunity to say it.
Tbh they already kind of are, if people are not being honest in them and just leaving a positive review in hope they get one back.
Yeah absolutely, but addresses would need to be hidden until the sit is confirmed.
As a homeowner I totally agree with you. If someone isn’t being forthcoming about the condition of their property, their pet’s behavior, or other critical data points they should be rated for that. I also think anonymous should be an option so that people can be frank in reflecting both the pros and cons of their stay. This will make everyone happier with their stays. THC? Time to update the rating system.
You mean THS?
THC was in another post (edibles in the freezer) 
So I didn’t realize until recently no reviews left by sitters is secret handshake to “there’s a problem” “I’m not leaving a bad review”. So I now ask a homeowner about why sitters didn’t leave a review. A couple were like “oh they didn’t?”
In addition 50% of my sisters this summer have been new post Covid HO new to THS and have no idea. What they need to do for our arrival, putting together a welcome guide or how to use the app. And worse. So we are training them. And frankly I find it offensive when they say or actually post “we can’t afford or don’t want to use Rover so we’ll try this.” Another red flag. We are not cheap help! House cleaners or gardeners.
I have found THS absolutely favoring the HO. Support is slow to respond and if they receive a complaint you’re idea of taking photos is a good one. I had to take photos before they believed me about the state of the apartment.
While THS says they have a “small team” is not acceptable given the growth of the platform and new sitters and HO joining all the time. And there is no accountability for HO to “follow” the rules or guidelines should say “guidelines” hardly rules.
Yes we can walk away but that is a lose lose proposition.
Unfortunately I don’t see anything changing anytime soon. So I am very careful in my interviews. I will no longer ignore my intuition or signs or flippant comments by HOs during interviews.
Protect yourself. Your health. Your sleep.
I totally agree that far more needs to be done by THS to ensure that home owners are aware of the various requirements e.g. no family/friends being in the house, at least one overnight stay per sit, no cameras inside the property etc. It is all there if home owners choose to look but as the saying goes “you don’t know what you don’t know”. That coupled with the fact that many owners probably only use the site once or twice a year and will need reminding of the requirements. I have given up reporting sits which don’t meet the criteria and instead have suggested on a few occasions to THS that each time a new listing is made a pop-up appears on the screen with a checklist that owners have to tick e.g. please confirm your sit include at least one overnight stay, please confirm no one else will be at the property during the sit, please confirm that if you have any cameras inside the property these will be turned off during the sit, please confirm you will prepare the welcome guide to be sent to your chosen sitter before the sit begins etc etc. Yes, THS might have a small team and I understand they can’t check every single listing but the technology is there is provide better support, it just needs the will to do so.
If they don’t like your post, they will delete it and put you on probation for further investigation of your posts. I have received emails from THS telling me why I can’t say something on the site despite it being factual and informative to other members. I have been allowed the ability to post again but this may put me in “time out” again. 
Yes, I know, they are also keeping an eye on me 
But I think they relaxed their policy a bit recently. For example, it is now possible to discuss potential problems at the border. Generally I think the moderators are just trying to navigate between THS and the opinionated crowd here as best as possible.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying, particularly around the review process (as a HO this is a big problem on both sides). I only disagree with the implication that the sitter is not benefiting from the arrangement as much as the HO. You say HO can easily find someone to pay to do the same thing, so one might say sitters could just as easily pay for a hotel. I think both sides need to acknowledge and appreciate the benefits they get from these sits. That might help. I’m sorry for all the awful experiences you’ve had!
Actually, I said the implication is that the sitters are those benefitting the most hence HOs having the upper hand and being more picky and choosy when it comes to sitters.
The belief seems to be “You get free accommodation/holiday, of course HOs are going to ask for verification/references and you should be grateful and not complain”.
So my statement is that owners benefit from this arrangement too, otherwise they would have gotten a local paid sitter. And therefore both sides should be treated the same.
Here’s another, current, situation on why we should be able to rate the Owner personality, Home features and the Pet(s) behaviour/care separately.
I’ve completed the sit and the owner left me a 5 star review but docked the points for ‘self sufficiency’ and ‘happy pet’ (don’t know why and how, but whatever, I’m just glad it’s over) and now when I need to leave a review back, I’m torn because I’d love to give the pet and the house 5 stars, but owners 3 stars because they were neurotic and micromanaging.
I was so stressed out during my sit, not daring leave the house in case they panic and message me to go check up on their (supposedly independent, but anxious) outdoor pet.
The pet was behaving normally and it’s not its fault the owners insist on certain rituals and have created made up issues, and the house was comfortable, clean and in a nice area.
How do you decide on the rating in these cases?
**My gauge – If I knew what I knew now… **
5 - I would definitely do this sit!
4 - I loved most things, a few small drawbacks that would make me think about it.
3 - if it was friends or family I’d probably overlook some things, but not for TH.
2 - never again. Even family would have to pay me.
1 - SPCA, Dept of Health, and other assorted authorities should be aware of this house and pets should be collected by Animal Welfare.
Someone suggested previously that sitters could make up their own categories and ‘score’ accordingly.
Seems like a good suggestion to me as we may not get the opportunity when the revamp of reviews is launched.
I don’t think nor am I saying that HO believing that is right. No matter what, everyone should be treated with respect. And maybe HO have a upper hand in terms of background check etc.(FYI- I’m fine with a background check, it’s fair) but I still don’t think that a sitter should think that they are sitting for free (I’ve known sitters who have saved several hundred to thousands of $$$ in housing because they could sit for us). I know I’m getting a lot from a sitter but that’s true the other way too. That’s why I said BOTH sides should appreciate what each is doing for the other. In fact I’ve been so grateful to sitters that I never said anything when they emptied out my pantry and drank our alcohol without prompt or ask (even tho several people have said that’s not ok), I’ve had sitter decide to leave a day before the agreed upon official end date. I have been victim to revenge reviews and last minute cancellations. It’s not true that sitters can’t cancel. Even if they can’t hit a ‘cancel’ button, I’ve had sitters back out after accepting, and one canceling one day before we were supposed to leave (we lost $5k because of that. We couldn’t cancel and get refund due to it being last minute.). Even though HO are not required a background check, and sitters cannot rate on specific criteria and cannot hit a ‘cancel’ button, sitters still have enough power to do real damage (see revenge reviews and $5k loss comments above). Again, this does not mean that people should be subject to abuse or unreasonable demands, but some of the bad behavior described above comes from a sense of entitlement cause those sitter beloved they are doing this for free. Just as HO should realize that sitters are not paid employees, some sitters should understand that they are not doing this for free. I think in the end, we are both saying the same thing
Thank you for taking the trouble to put all of your thoughts down so well. Agree with everything you say, and it’s such a pity that it won’t make any difference because nobody from the THS ‘admin team’ will take any of it on board…
Some excellent points well made. I used to housesit for THS 10 years ago and stopped in large part because I had some appalling experiences (as well as many good ones) - but felt there was no way to report/flag those negative ones in a useful/safe way. Some of your own experiences are very familiar to me!
Alas, the truth is that we have shifted ever more into a society with an ‘asset class’ and then the less fortunate. While I am clearly not suggesting that the majority of HO who use THS are exploitative by nature, there are a number who have been infected by this general mindset, and it means as HS we have to be extremely good at detecting BS before comitting to a sit.
My cast-iron rules now are:
For THS they clearly cannot bite the hand that feeds them, but trusted house sitters need trusted home owners. Airbnb do a good job holding reviews in escrow, and that to me is a no-brainer (the ‘revenge review’ becomes impossible). DBS checks, as alas the news tells us, are of limited worth; but honest feedback should at least curtail some of the worst behaviour.
I think for homeowners the idea that they are being ‘publicly judged’ is understandably uncomfortable - although in fairness the generic star system for sitters does exactly that! - and perhaps any feedback from sitters could be aggregated (there are plenty of software solutions that could automate sentiment analysis). I do think leaving a review should be mandatory for both parties and not a rather lumpen star system - again, it’s possible with software to streamline handling the resultant data.
Pet ownership exploded with Covid-19, and we need a functioning method to ensure that there is an equitable exchange between parties to allow all those animals a way of staying in their homes, being loved, affordably - and with no-one feeling abused or exploited. At the moment the THS system remains unbalanced and vulnerable to improper use by some. I look forward to seeing what changes are implemented in the near future.
Sitters are not saving thousands, how much do you think it costs to arrange travel and arrangements around sit dates? It’s all for around your preference not the sitter.
Just a reminder that it’s only the sitter doing all the work not the homeowners. Whilst you’re on holiday the sitters are doing all of the work.
@TomorrowTamara, thanks for the time you’ve put into this. These issues have been discussed before many times… and that’s why it’s good that you raise them, as nothing has changed yet nonetheless.
I think the simple answer is it’s all about stats for TH. There are more sitters than sits, so while that means sits need to be competitive (a good thing) TH don’t feel the need to treat sitters with the same respect as HOs, as they’re considered more expendable (not so good).
I recenly saw a response from TH on a thread - I don’t remember the topic - that said almost word for word: we consider (x) system is working, as the number of completed sits has increased since we introduced it. That said it all for me: it’s all about quantity, meeting targets in service of increasing turnover, above actual sitter (and HO) experience.
I love the ethos of reciprocity that exists amongst members, but I don’t like how it’s administrated. As long as the pleasure of the first outweighs the latter, I’ll remain a member - keeping an active eye, however, for any start-up sites that operate in a more equal way.
Actually I think I might be wrong about there being more sitters than sits… does anyone know the actual numbers?
We’ve been sitting for 4 years, and we have indeed saved thousands on bills over that time. We sold our house outright, otherwise we’d also be saving thousands mortgage/rent! We’ve just bought again, but continue to sit whilst renovations are happening, which is super-useful.
I think travel varies hugely. We don’t fly any more, and we have an EV which hosts are often happy for us to charge at the house, so we save in that way too.
You’re right that we do all the work while the owner is on holiday, but many do put in a lot of work beforehand to make their home lovely and comfortable, arrange things for our leisure and entertainment, etc.
It’s a success when both parties feel they’ve had a good deal, which so far is our experience most of the time.