I’ve dragged my heels at leaving a review for our last sitters; in fact, I’ve left it till the last day.
My ‘dilemma’ was that we got along so well the couple (had even met up with them months earlier (their suggestion) for drinks one evening when we happened to be holidaying in their city!) that I was torn about mentioning a couple of pet care issues.
Two things niggled me, and this is what I ended up writing about them:
Overall, x and x appeared to have looked after the cats well, although a couple of things seemed to have been overlooked. On our return, it looked as if the cat litter box in the downstairs bathroom hadn’t been done for quite some time, even though I had mentioned that this was the box that was used most often and should therefore be checked every day. We also mentioned that the water fountain would need to be cleaned once during the sit, but this didn’t appear to have been done.
Because of writing the above I felt I had no option but to drop a star on ‘pet care’, although I left them an overall five star review.
After submitting the review and seeing the glowing review that they left me, I’m now wondering whether I should have mentioned the above, or not… But I felt as if I owed it to other pet parents to leave a completely honest review. Thoughts would be appreciated.
In your place, I would not only have mentioned those issues, I would have knocked them down to three stars, because clean litter and water are among the basics of cat care. And I say this as a sitter.
I think you handled this well. If something was specifically discussed beforehand and you genuinely felt it had been overlooked, I think it’s fair to mention it in the review.
For me, the important distinction is between being honest and being punitive. Your wording is factual, specific and gives context, rather than turning two oversights into a judgement about the sitters generally.
And I think the five-star overall review is perfectly consistent with mentioning a couple of things that could have been done better. A five-star sit doesn’t necessarily mean absolutely everything was flawless.
I’d much rather read an honest review that says, “Overall, they did a great job, but these two things were missed,” than have people feel they have to give five stars without qualification.
It sounds as though you’ve been fair to the sitters while also giving future pet parents useful information. That seems exactly what reviews are there for.
The cats do have two other litter boxes, as well as toileting outside (they have a fenced outdoor area). They also have two bowls upstairs that we fill with water and it’s because of this that I felt it was a difficult review to write.
The fact that the fountain is their principal water source and the litter box mentioned is the one they use most, is what made me decide to go ahead.
I’m a sitter and it sounds like you did the right thing and scored the way you thought best. If it were my pets I wouldn’t have been so generous, but like you said, you met for drinks etc, so only you know best given the circumstances.
Those two tasks are common tasks for sitters looking after cats. You have been fair in your comment and docking a star. They have still received a 5* review. Well done on your decision.
As a sitter, I completely agree with others that litter is a basic that every sitter should pay attention to. Honest reviews help everyone to make better matches and give the people receiving the review a chance to improve.
I agree with your star rating based on the info! We must be honest in this community. As a sitter though, I would’ve appreciated if you’d connect with me to hear my side of things. Then review.
Thank you for writing an honest review. Even if they “forgot” to check the litter box during the sit, wouldn’t they have noticed it when getting ready to leave? Did they have to clean your home? During the last day or two, I always wander the entire house, surveying for issues.
In order to prevent this in the future, I would make a bullet point or numbered list of the litter boxes (1, 2, 3) and the water bowls (1, 2, 3) with very simple instructions. “Please clean the water bowls and fountain once weekly” or whatever. “Please check all 3 of the litter boxes daily.”
That’s why I don’t agree with getting chummy before a sit. Once the sit is over and you want to maintain a relationship , that is different. I would have given them at lest a three stars if not less. A cat’s care is so basic. Check the litter box daily, access to clean water and food. Hopefully the sitter plays with the cat and gives lots of chin scratches. They didn’t even do the basic, clean litter box.
@catwoman4369 thank you for leaving an honest review .
This review will help inform future hosts and if the sitters take the feedback on board, it should also help them going forward as sitters.
I assume they didn’t use this particular bathroom, and that you have multiple litter trays in other locations- so they may not have noticed the issue. However, they should have paid closer attention to the information you provided so that something like this wasn’t missed.
Do you also have this information written down in your welcome guide? There’s a lot of information to take in during a handover, so as a sitter, I find it really useful to have everything written down as well, so it can be referred back to during the sit.
For the water fountain, perhaps you could make a short video showing future sitters how to clean it and WhatsApp it to them. It might be very obvious to you, but sitters can sometimes be a little wary of taking things apart incase they breaking things they’re unfamiliar with.
Of course, they can always look things up on the internet (we’ve done this ourselves many times!), but having a quick video to refer to would make things much easier and give them a bit more confidence and would be a reminder that this needs to be done .
Anything you can do to make things easier for the sitter will help create the best experience for everyone — you, the sitter and, of course, your lovely pets!
It’s not only other pet owners who deserve your honesty, it’s other pet sitters who DO do everything that’s asked of them and warrant the 5*. You did the right thing.
Thank you so much for your feedback. You have made some valid points which I hadn’t considered - a video of how to clean the water fountain is a great idea.
I am going to make some additions to our Welcome Guide now, too. Would it be helpful, do you think, if we printed the Welcome Guide for each sit?
The litter boxes are mentioned in the Welcome Guide, but I’m wondering whether these sitters read through it all. Do other home owners print off the Guides for their sitters to refer to? I’m wondering whether it would be better to do this in the future, as some instructions can obviously be forgotten if there’s a lot to take in.
