I’m so glad that we sitters now have the new star rating system. On my most recent sit when I arrived it was as if they weren’t expecting me. Filthy kitchen and bathroom (and my own standards aren’t sky high) with no space for my own towel, no room in bedroom for my belongings and I’m not sure the bedding was fresh (I take my own if I’m taking the car).
But the pet and location were lovely, and after much deliberation my review didn’t explicitly reflect this because I naively thought that all this could be fixed before my booked repeat sit.
Oh how wrong I was - I very carefully wrote an email mentioning the pre-sit email that (most) HOs get and suggesting the various ways the HO could keep their 5 star rating under the new system. The HO immediately cancelled the repeat sit (I’m grateful for the extra time this gives me at home, to be honest), saying it wasn’t the sit for me, and relisted it. I wonder how the next sitter will rate it.
@DianeS I bet you are now wishing you’d docked a star or two on cleanliness as those hosts obviously have no intention of improving standards! Perhaps the next sitters will find themselves able to be more direct & honest in their review. From experience I know its hard to be really honest if the host is really nice (it triggers uncomfortable feelings!) but your experience shows how absolutely fake people can be!
We recently had a rather challenging sit where we had to ask a lot of questions after arrival as it was a blind handover. The host had left very inadequate notes- for a complex sit- instead of the promised comprehensive Welcome Guide. As the sit ultimately went very well and we all had a good connection we wrote a great review and decided not to dock a star for communication- though it would have been entirely justified (we later gave private feedback- after the reviews were published) However in her review she docked us a star for self sufficiency!! No explanation but we assume because of the questions. She also left my husband completely out of the review and wrote it like it was just me there! Despite having met us both at the end of the sit & for a pre sit visit. We found her attitude very disrespectful & fake especially towards such highly experienced sitters as us.
The new sitter rating system hadn’t come in so while I could have included some sort of rating system in my review, I didn’t.
It will be much better now as this sit would have lost stars in every category.
@Lokstar
Ooooh, I would be very tempted to do a response to the HO’s review. I would thank them and state how it reinforced how a comprehensive Welcome Guide would eliminate the need to ask questions and improve your self-sufficiency.
It’s really important to review honestly. That can be done with tact. And if a host gets upset over that, you’re better off moving on.
Not reviewing accurately or withholding legit criticism is effectively actively hurting other sitters.
@MaggieUU we are working on what to say. We’ve decided to delay our response till we have a few more reviews following- so our response sticks out less! We have 2 reviews to come in the next days and then we do intend to respond to it! The host in question also left my husband out of the review! Wrote it like it was just me there! Despite meeting him on a pre-sit visit and at the end of the sit! Totally disrespectful. We complained to her directly about both the name ommision and missing star & she got defensive, would not explain her reasoning and is standing by her review. Some people are just fake & flaky- very disappointing.
Sounds like a good plan
I loved this reply. I just returned from a sit and was straightening up my house while unpacking and I looked at things a bit more objectively. Yeah, even though I consider myself a great housekeeper, there will be a deep clean before I invite anybody but my grandkids to visit!
It’s easy to become accustomed and not see our own uncleanliness. I’m not excusing HO, because they know someone with a seasoned eye is coming, but I’ll be more understanding of some of the minor stuff I have previously raised a critical eye at.
@Happypets Bravo!!! Every sitter needs to copy and paste what you wrote. It’s that good!!
@bakindoki with all the cleanliness issues you have described I don’t think I would be able to enjoy the sit . So I am trying to imagine what makes this sit amazing ? Is it the location ?
Location
Hospitality
The pets (friendly, easy, can be left alone all day)
Communication
@Happypets, did you receive any response from the HO after the reviews posted?
This is interesting. I started here in 2016 nearly all sits I had till 2019 were air bnb standard so no complaints. These days I feel like at least 35% are not hygienic. I have even ended up unwell. There’s a level of comfort that I been offered so below par is now uncomfortable.
My relatives cook for me give me fresh towels and clean the room and I visit relatives in between sits. So poor hygiene is not nice but then I’m sensitive to smells and dirt. A lot of my reviews mention cleanliness how I leave it.
@Val Yes, as stated in an earlier post, initial response by the PP to the review was anger and denial, so I forwarded the before and after pics we’d taken and it couldn’t then be contested. She then claimed we’d ‘arrived early’ (we arrived at exactly at the time specified) and then that she ‘hadn’t had time’.
I genuinely believe this honest review will have made the PP aware that it’s not acceptable to leave the kitchen - and appliances - and the bathroom in a dirty condition for sitters, and that she will subsequently ‘make time’ to ensure her next review is better on the cleanliness score .
With no experience with deducting stars in a category yet, can you give an overall 5 stars and also deduct stars in individual categories?. Im thing of doing this and mentioning in the review why a category doesn’t have 5 stars.
I think so @ExploreDreamDiscover its been discussed in another thread and from memory @Colin mentioned doing exactly that. 3 for say cleanliness of home but a 5 star sit overall. We just wrote a new HO review and there were 5 categories plus a general one so it makes sense. #ramblingwayofsayingyes 
@Cuttlefish I think I’ll try this approach to address a sit I really enjoyed but that has an issue that needs mentioning.
Fingers crossed 
it goes well.
Before we had our first sitter I spent several weeks lurking on the forum and it made me see our home with new eyes. I did a lot of decluttering and deep cleaned the kitchen and bathroom and bedroom. The sitter gave us 5 stars all round but 4 for cleanliness. If she’d given us 5 I would consider the star system meaningless. We’ve lived for 30 years in a remote rural place in a very old, wood-heated house with little around us paved and a dog in and out and we don’t have a cleaner*—it’s never going to be pristine. It’s unrealistic to expect airbnb levels of cleanliness from lived in houses but also unrealistic to expect to get 5 stars just because you made an effort.
*In a small community where there is at most 2 degrees of separation between people, you hire someone to clean only if you are physically unable to do it yourself.
Yes you can. They work independently at present so you can hide whatever you want and the specific ratings do not affect the general rating.
Two ways I have managed to filter out dirty households are the photos and the video call. I know those aren’t always foolproof. But I won’t consider any sits where there is clutter in the photos. That might seems harsh, especially as my own place is cluttered, but I would always make sure photos are as tidy as possible. So if HO’s photos are not, it looks like they don’t care. And that’s always been a reliable indicator for me.
I always insist on having a video call. (Or if they live close to my home or another sit, I go and visit first).
While on the video call, I ask for a tour of the house. I have been lucky so far and have been able to get enough info from the photos and video call, that tell me the house is clean.
Other indicators are what the HO expects of the sitter in the Responsibilities section. I love a long list of responsibilities, especially related to cleanliness. It’s the brief “Just feed my pets… and cuddle them” that don’t give anything away in that regard!