I found several other topics about been honest with reviewing Home Owners, if it’s better to not give a bad review just leaving it empty and etc.
My opinion is… or best interest would be, that we need to make the platform better, and help each other out. There’re things that could bother us, but we can manage to find if it’s something that would just bother us, or anyone else. Today we have 5 topics when we give a review:
Communication, Hospitality, Cleanliness, Pet Behaviour, Accuracy of Listing.
How about everyone start to give reviews with at least speaking about each paragraph when we had any kind of problem?
When in doubt of if it’s a real problem or not, you have friends to ask, could be posted on the Forum to check too, that way you could have 100% sureness about how to approach that specific problem!
But the thing is, even if it’s your first sitting, please. be honest at the review. It’s really important for EVERYONE that we get real honest opinions on how it was.
easier said than done, but you forget two things.
first if you leave bad reviews, or even just average reviews, people won’t want you, as they’ll worry you will ruin their record.
second, you’re making it harder for people to get sitters/sits in your wake while everyone else is leaving better reviews.
the website could make some info/feedback/critical feedback between the sitter and home owner private so things can be communicated in private without ruining everyone’s journey on here.
unless something is particularly wrong usually let it slide.
I strongly disagree with your allegations. I’m a homeowner, and would not decline a sitter just because they had left bad reviews before. If their complaints seemed reasonable and fair, I would respect them for being honest and for having boundaries.
As a sitter and homeowner, I have left less than four stars for some of my sits/sitters. I have been able to get sits and sitters since then, so the idea that it will jeopardize my success on THS is wrong. I will never know whether some people rejected me because of those previous reviews, but I haven’t noticed a difference.
Honest reviews are critical to the success of everyone on this platform. Encouraging dishonesty does a disservice to all of us
you make a lot of assumptions. And you think the way you are willing to look at things is the general way everyone will look at things, the fact is, your 3-4 star reviews (assuming they are harsher than what others would give) have lost the sitters a few good sits.
That said i didn’t say I’m encouraging dishonest reviews at all, what i’m encouraging is leniency on account of them providing you with free labor and saving you thousands. If you want harsher standards, there are paid services for that.
As an example I had a home owner give me a B on cleanliness because i didn’t take her sheets to the laundromat after the sit at my own expense (though i stripped and changed the sheets before I left). Obv I wouldn’t go back there.
sorry if looked like I was angry or anything like that. Is just that sometimes we see bad reviews around or people ignoring when giving reviews. And would love to see more honest reviews around
Now who is making assumptions? I never said that, so please don’t assume how I think.
I expect honest reviews, whether I am the sitter or homeowner. In your example, it seems that the HO was unfair and I hope you addressed it in your reply to the review. If I read the review, and a measured response from you, it wouldn’t deter me from choosing you.
If a HO gave me a negative review as a sitter, and it was a fair complaint, I wouldn’t blame the HO for causing me to lose sits. It would be my fault for being somehow deficient, not the HOs fault.
“so please don’t assume how I think.”: you said what you think:
“I strongly disagree with your allegations. I’m a homeowner, and would not decline a sitter just because they had left bad reviews before. If their complaints seemed reasonable and fair, I would respect them for being honest and for having boundaries”:
you’re using yourself as an example to disagree about what i said about homeowners in general picking a sitter: that is a very broad and subjective assumption: when people are looking at reviews, and they see less then 5* they will assume something was wrong. both times i had a 4/5 on cleanliness, it was something completely stupid (didn’t pay to wash sheets at laundromat, and left half a cheesecake in their fridge because they specifically said not to throw food in the trash because of rats). You may think you are being fair, but all others looking at the reviews will think is: something’s wrong with that person’s performance.
I’m not saying i’m not expecting honest reviews: what i’m saying is for every demerit there must be something wrong, not something not to your liking or standards, and probably it should be stated, most people will leave a B rating on something but won’t say what’s wrong, so it becomes a guessing game, and then people will err on the side of caution and assume something bad. and one must consider what this will look like on that person’s record going forward.
It’s that ‘reasonable and fair’ thing that’s always the tricky part. I’d look at the review the HO left for the sitter, for sure. And reviews left for that HO by other sitters. And reviews that sitter left for other HOs. I’d look for patterns.
I said what I, individually, think. I did not say what other people think which is what you accused me of doing. Everything in my post relates to how I, personally, feel. However, you are suggesting that I am generalizing about all, or most, THS members.
Exactly. I am only able to describe my feelings. I don’t know how others think.
I agree that any complaint should be explained in the review. I have said that often on this forum. It is unfair to ask the readers to guess what went wrong.
Being honest is simple and efficient. Good or bad, being honest in reviews (such as @Lassie)…is jut too simple.
I am a sitter. I look at reviews of both the HO AND the reviews they left their sitters before I deicide to apply, as well as engage with a HO that found me. If I get the impression I have to “read between the lines” it is an automatic NEXT or Decline.
Some HO have bad reviews (including a 1 star) yet I still went through with it. We focus too much on stars…at the end of the day, if most experiences are 4 or 5 stars, it really doesn’t matter.
Maybe a good idea to do a scan of the review before posting. I just saw a HO review that stated ‘I highly recommend [pet sitters name] …’
I wish I was kidding.
Honest reviews are important to improve the system. Home owners and sitters both have a chance to reply to reviews left about them. Thos rely often says more about the sitter or jone owner than the review. If they respond to criticisms well or seem to learn from experience, they would go up a notch for me. But if they act petty and angry I’d avoid them - no need to look at them further.
Lenient people are going to give lenient reviews. And there is nothing wrong with being lenient but honesty is paramount for this type of exchange to work.