I think many homeowners assume that however they’d welcome a loved one into their home is fine. I wouldn’t expect my dad to clean the bathroom and then not use it again, or to buy new towels for my visit because his are old and thin, or to throw out all his leftovers before I showed up. The problem is the disconnect: we’re staying for free, just like a loved one, so they think that standard is what’s expected. But many of us are expecting AirBnB standards, and many hosts don’t realize that.
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yea, I can definitely see the disconnect.
I’m def not expecting a hotel, but even if I were in a shared Airbnb, I would expect the home to be clean…surfaces wiped down, linens clean and no issues with there being food in your fridge, but rotting food?..nah
Additionally, I wouldn’t expect this to be a paid customer coming through, but an HS is still a guest in my home and I definitely clean up for guests.
RE: bathroom, I’m not sure how many they have in that other example so maybe they’d need to share, etc. and I even get that if there’s an overlap, you may still have cleaning to do while I’m there, but once you leave the house, I would expect that you’ve handed over a place to me that’s clean and orderly and that’s what I’d give back to you. I would clear up any open stuff or my linens in my house as HO so that the space is clear for the HS who is staying and to me, that’s simply part of setting up the home and creating space for a guest who’d be staying there…
So def not a hotel, probably not an Airbnb, but as an exchange of services between mutual beneficiaries, I would not expect to be treated same level as a family member tbh…my sis or mum coming to stay and pick up where I left off is not exactly the same as what is effectively a trusted stranger who is a formal guest as opposed to an informal one.
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We’ve just arrived at a short sit- really lovely host, super sweet, very easy, dog & cosy home but…the bathroom was not cleaned for us- dirty toilet, sink area etc Gross! First thing I had to do was clean it. Took 5-10 mins. And now all OK. In this case- just a 2 day sit- we won’t dock stars or even mention it in the review because the pros far outweigh the cons. But…i really don’t understand it when people don’t do the absolute basics- like cleaning the toilet!!
I think it depends on the overall experience what, or if, its worth saying anything. 
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When I welcome a guest into my home who is looking after my house I clean for days or I hire a cleaner so it’s spotless when I leave. As a sitter I’m providing a free service that HOwould normally pay for in exchange I get “paid” with a free place to stay. When you have a guest stay they are not working. I’m working looking after pets, plants, house. I absolutely deserve a very clean space and room. In my situation there are other bathrooms that I was not told to use so yes I’m shocked when instead of using the other bathrooms and cleaning one for me they chose to keep using all their bathrooms. And in case any men are reading this I will be clear any women I know does not like pee on the toilet. We prefer the pee in the toilet. So I guess for future sits I need to spell out my expectation for clean is pee cleaned from toilet seat please.
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@Val i would prepare my home in the same way for whomever was coming to stay- friend/family or sitter. A guest- whoever they are- provides a great opportunity for a good old clean up! And those who don’t bother with that courtesy are just lazy or disrespectful -imho.
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Please be honest in your review.
We recently encountered a similar situation. We deducted a star from the overall rating and 2 stars from the cleanliness category.
In the review, we acknowledged the host’s welcome and communications, and how nice the pets were, then added:
Very sadly, we’ve felt it necessary to deduct one star from our rating of this sit. Despite ***** acknowledging receipt of the THS pre-sit checklist, we found the bath, the fridge, kitchen worktops and the one working oven in the range cooker were far from clean on our arrival. We appreciate that everyone has different ideas about cleanliness and some sitters may not be concerned by some grease and grime, but we spent several hours cleaning before we felt comfortable in using the kitchen and the bathroom and this unfortunately marred our initial enjoyment of the sit. Once this was done, we really enjoyed our time here. The good points far outweighed these issues.
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We do not do justice to the integrity of the community by not being forthright in reviews.
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@Lokstar you describe the cleanliness pf the bathroom as ‘gross’ but dont think it’s worth docking stars or mentioning in your review?
Yes. She wasn’t happy but we’d taken lots of ‘before’ and ‘after’ pics - which we forwarded to her - so there was absolutely no room for argument.
Her written response to the feedback was that they ‘hadn’t had time to clean to their usial standards but would aim for a 5 star cleanliness rating in time for their next sit.’
I don’t think they’ll leave a filthy kitchen and bathroom again, so the review helped serve a purpose, without malice.
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That was a very mature response back from them.
Impressive that you did that level of due diligence as well re: photos, etc.
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As i’ve just written in another thread:
We recently rated a pet parent 4 stars overall, deducted 2 stars from the cleanliness rating and quantified that decision in the review, using factual rather than emotive language.
This will hopefully allow other sitters to make an informed choice. If pet parents read that review, they’ll hopefully realise that it’s not okay to leave a filthy home for us. If any PPs take offence at that, they’re not the kind of hosts we want to sit for.
Honest reviews arent sabotaging sitters, but rather are providing opportunities for us to highlight the standards we value
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@bakindoki The PP calmed down remarkably quickly once she saw the pics. I’m not talking about a little bit of dust or a few cobwebs, here. It’s surely sensible to cover your back by taking pics of anything that’s really not nice on arrival.
It was tempting, once we’d cleaned, to just say nothing and let it go. But, should sitters have to clean for hours before they can safely use the fridge, oven, kitchen and bathroom?
We recognised all the good aspects of the sit, so it balanced in favour of the positives.
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@Happypets Yes- gross to me because I like pristine. But, as I said, all the other factors of this 2 day sit have already made us decide not to dock stars. We’ve done 100 sits now, so have more than enough experience to weigh up the pros & cons, and this feels like the right way for us. Sometimes when you weigh up pros & cons you reach, perhaps unexpected, decisions! If the host was unfriendly, or the pet difficult , or the sit long etc etc we would decide differently! Each sit is unique 
And most HOs do the same…prepare their home the same way for sitters as they do for loved ones. I do, too. It’s just that people get used to their own standards of cleanliness. Until and unless someone points it out to them – which many of us are loathe to do, for fear of offending – they don’t look at it from the point of view of someone who doesn’t live there.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read something in these forums and thought…huh…how long has it been since I looked critically at my silverware drawer? And then went and looked, and discovered that, yup, the containers need to be run through the dishwasher and the drawer wiped out. Or my kitchen trash bins…yup, they need to be rinsed out, hadn’t noticed there were dried-on spills until someone here mentioned how disgusting the bins were in their recent sit. I literally just replaced my guest towels because someone mentioned towels on here and I realized the ones in my guest linen closet were probably twenty years old. Still perfectly usable, I gave the old ones to my 20-something son, but I want my guest towels to feel welcoming.
Would I have noticed these things on a sit? Almost certainly, because it wasn’t my dirt. They weren’t towels I use myself every day. It’s not necessarily lazy or disrespectful. I am OCD on tidy/clean/uncluttered. But we tend to get used to the grime and wear in our own homes that has built up over time.
Reading these forums has improved my hosting both for sitters and for my own guests. 
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@Happypets I’d prefer to tell the host privately, and probably will- after the reviews are shared. I prefer not to dock stars if everything else is great- as I explained above- and it only took 10 mins to clean the bathroom. The rest of the house is fine.
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No matter how lovely the hosts, if their home was so dirty (and I’ve had 2 or 3 similar to you) I would be docking them for cleanliness and not returning. This is clearly their way of life and they’re unlikely to change. You’ve been given lots of great advice so please mark/review the hosts accordingly so future potential sitters can judge for themselves whether this is for them.
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