I’ve been sitting for over 3 years. Recently I had the most excruciating situation. The sit ended 2 weeks prior to the listed ending.
There were so many red flags I didn’t pay attention to because the homeowner seemed so nice. She refused to produce a guide. Everyday something changed with the sit. She could never remember what she said previously. It was simply awful.
I have had over 70 previous sits or more. Almost all raving 5 star reviews. Yet new applicants are telling me that two conflicting reviews cause them not to choose me. I feel they’re not reading between the lines.
I am an exceptional individual, and I chose to do this because of my plethora of gifts. I love animals, plants , gardens, travel…and that made THS perfect for me .
I just want every sitter to know it is better for you if a homeowner chooses two bad reviews over a myriad of extremely positive reviews. They probably saved you a headache and horrible experience.
Going forward I only want discerning homeowners. They must have a solid listing and a guide they will stick to. It’s okay if you forgot something you need to add it to your guide. That’s natural. We just work around it. I don’t plan on changing me. There are over 70 people who can attest to my upstanding character and numerous accolades. I’m certain there are more people like that out there.
Anyone have something similar happen to them? I would love to hear your stories.
I pay attention to red flags and am perfectly OK with missing a few good sits, rather than risk saddling myself with bad ones.
I’ve sat for a little over a year and am on my 15th one. I don’t understand why other sitters complain about not being able to get welcome guides if they want them. I just send a friendly nudge before a sit if I haven’t yet received a welcome guide, whether via THS’s template or otherwise. (I don’t care about the format.) My clear implication is, I won’t be doing the sit as planned if I don’t get the welcome guide info comfortably ahead of the sit.
I send something like: “A friendly nudge that our sit is drawing near and I’ve yet to receive your welcome guide. Unfortunately, I can’t go into a sit blind. Please send soon. I’d love to go ahead with our sit, as planned.”
That approach has never failed to get me the welcome guide info. And I didn’t need dozens of sits to figure out how to use that leverage. I just exercised my agency, which every sitter has, because neither THS nor any host can ever force a sitter to do a sit.
Is it not simply human nature to heed the bad reviews though?
For example, if looking at holiday locations, it may have 20 good reviews but you always remember that single bad review about it.
Not me. I look for patterns. If there are a bunch of great reviews and there are one or two bad ones covering the same topics, I’ll ignore them. Some people are just gripers with unrealistic expectations. Most of us have seen enough reviews across many products and services to know that. Most of us know such people in real life, too. I avoid or ignore them, LOL.
I’m a bit confused are you both a sitter and a Homeowner?
Are your difficult reviews since the new blind system?
With many red flags have you reflected on why you ignored these on this occasion (with 70 sits under your belt), I’m wondering what tripped you up? What can you learn from this?
I can hear your frustration, and I agree if future HOs ONLY focus on the more challenging recent reviews they might be recognising in themselves that they also are like the HOs that drew you into these horrible experiences.
I’m now wondering what’s drawing you to these particular listings? Are they mostly new HOs I wonder….or last minute listings and you’re trying to be helpful? Perhaps there’s no pattern at all and you’ve just been unlucky.
This brings up the question for me of:
How does a sitter or homeowner clean up after a messy/challenging review? What’s the best approach?
It’s like the old adage says. You’ll never please all the people all the time. You can trust your gut, you can do your due diligence, you can check for red flags & more. But the likelihood is that at some point we will all run into someone that is a mismatch and have a less than great experience. That’s just life. #youcanonlydowhatyoucando
Would you reach out to local HOs and do a few short sits to get back on track though? Would you include in an application what your aim is…alongside caring for their pets beautifully?
I have one bad review. And I have been declined when I was the first applicant, very quickly, before there were any other applicants, where the HO referred to my reviews as a reason why.
It does not matter. I am getting accepted for other nice sits.
@BonnyinBrighton we are, mostly, all going to eventually get a review that we don’t agree with or like. I’ve been lucky so far myself but even the best get knocked down sometimes. We can’t keep going back, we can’t always fix what is broken, there is only one direction we are headed to in this life and that’s forward.
So I believe you simply apply for sits you WANT, not sits to simply try to override a review that most homeowners never even take heed of anyway. I believe it’s only when sitters have consistently poor quality reviews that homeowners will take note of and avoid.
My suggestion? Don’t try to “prove” your worth - be yourself, people like that Most sits I have been accepted for often state the sincerity of my words, because I write as “me”. Write individually to each listing as though you understand the people, speak from your heart not what you think they want to hear. Be YOU! You write enough on the Forum that you do this anyway so do on your applications as you do on the Forum. Don’t let that OCD overtake you
I was writing theoretically as I don’t have negative reviews ‘as yet’ . And yes I’ve written a lot on the Forum… mainly due to boredom as I’ve been ill recently and now recovering stuck at home with not much to keep me occupied. Hopefully pretty soon you won’t see much of me on here as I get back to my normal life… but I’ve certainly learnt a lot reading all the threads and asking questions. I’m pretty sure most sitters/HOs aren’t aware of a lot of the stuff discussed here on the Forum.
I don’t have OCD by the way, but I am somebody who drills down into a subject until I feel I’m fully informed and aware, so I suppose I’m motivated after a long career to be risk averse and risk ready and to always have a Plan.
Sorry @BonnyinBrighton, I wasn’t meaning to sound rude, I was just having a bit of a pun from one of your previous posts, nothing else meant by it. Sometimes my dry sense of humour is just that - dry
Quote: “Has anyone noticed that I’m a : big planner, perfectionist, pedant, project control freak”
I get the boredom thing, I’m feeling the same at present and spending far too much time on social media. It’s cold, raining, I can’t do anything, no car, no public transport, no English TV, so yep! I’m bored!! Time for me to have a social media detox!
You are right, there are so many actual members of THS but only a small proportion of them are on the Forum so many are unaware of a lot of things. You keep posting girl, how do people learn if they don’t ask? We never stop learning, none of us
I don’t fully understand the part on wanting an HO who will always stick to the welcome guide. E.g. the Welcome Guides via THS usually don’t go much further then: feed the cat twice a day with X, scoop the littler box, cuddle the cat. Here’s the address of the vet.
That’s so straightforward and self-explanatory that there’s not much room for interpretation. But it also doesn’t say anything about the HO itself, how they will behave in the interactions with the sitter, or how they’ll leave the house etc etc
You’d be surprised! Some people don’t have anything on the guide except when to feed and walk. One only had dog commands! More than two dozen. That’s it.
You cannot “stick to the guide” ALWAYS. As I stated there are always “exceptions to every rule.” As adults those exceptions can be easily modified, unless they’re constantly coming at the sitter -daily and on a whim.
Yes, exactly. That’s why I don’t really understand the comment about only sitting for HOs that stick to the guide, cause often there’s isn’t that much guidance to stick to anyway…
The hosts I’ve sat for actually have produced robust welcome guides, but if they hadn’t, I’d push them on that. For instance, my current hosts have filled out every section, including emergency contacts with backup house keys; vet address, phone, account number; where the emergency shut off is for the gas line and the water main; the wifi name and passcode; the code for a lockbox with spare keys in case I get shut out; etc.
If that sort of info doesn’t matter to sitters, I’d wonder why, but they matter to me and I don’t want them forgotten or rushed.
I promise you I’m aware of all of those things. She was clever and the other was a “Karen.” I cannot change my stripes. I write personally each time. My good reviews are phenomenal as I have many disciplines, speak several languages, culturally exposed, am world traveled, and my daughter attended vet school… My degree also compliments being a sitter as a retirement lifestyle.
Also someone asked if the bad reviews came after the new layout. One came before. The other a couple of sits ago:
The red flags were subliminal. I believe intentionally masked. Neither one of them were close to the other in time period. Both were new to the platform. I tried to assist and guide them, as I do homeowners who are new to the platform. Both thought I was being bossy rather than being helpful.
I’ve had reviews from new homeowners who were overjoyed and thankful for the same displays of helpfulness.
Someone said how do you bury those. I have 46 exceptional reviews after the first negative review, and the latest one I’ve only had one other sit and I’m on the 2nd. The sit following that received great reviews. They also addressed the other homeowner as I allowed them to read the review.
I was turned down for three sits after this latest one. Two citing the bad review. One said she’d be willing to “take the chance, but my husband is concerned.”
I thanked her for her kindly consideration, withdrew my app and archived their listing. New HO tend to be the sketchiest. Primarily because some of them have a different notion of what the platform is all about.
I think both HO picked me for my reviews and my interviews. I also believe in the back of their minds they were choosing a servant rather than a sitter.
I responded to your question somewhere else. Oops! I’ve never used these threads from my own post. It was a bit confusing. I believe I responded to Ziggy.
I addressed all of your questions there. It’s quite a lengthy response, as your inquiry was lengthy as well. I will find it, attempt to screenshot it, and send it to you via email. Or you may find it yourself on the thread. Let me know if you are unable to find it.
Several things I will say here again. The red flags were very well masked. Subliminal. One was before the new layout and one was after. Both were new homeowners. I am just a sitter, and not a homeowner. Both HO had determined they control the guidelines for THS.
Thank you it was an interesting and insightful read- nothing is straightforward eh? Each sit is a complex mix of variables and we can only attempt to manage them to optimise our experience.
I had a housesitter family (friend of a friend not THS) where the wife borrowed/took x20 of my paperbacks leaving only a post it note! When I tried to get them back I discovered she’d given them away to other people in our village… in her words ‘Why would you want to re-read a paperback?’ I got a few back from the embarrassed people she’d given them to…. a few were books I needed to myself return to friends I had borrowed from. That was 20 years ago now…. I’m still shocked really…
Most sits I have been accepted for often state the sincerity of my words, because I write as “me”. Write individually to each listing as though you understand the people, speak from your heart not what you think they want to hear. Be YOU! You write enough on the Forum that you do this anyway so do on your applications as you do on the Forum. Don’t let that OCD overtake you 
. And yes I’ve written a lot on the Forum… mainly due to boredom as I’ve been ill recently and now recovering stuck at home with not much to keep me occupied. Hopefully pretty soon you won’t see much of me on here as I get back to my normal life… but I’ve certainly learnt a lot reading all the threads and asking questions. I’m pretty sure most sitters/HOs aren’t aware of a lot of the stuff discussed here on the Forum.
Time for me to have a social media detox!