I think this might have been the first experience for us both. They seemed thrown by the “welcome package”, which arrived with nothing but their address– which she acknowledged, claiming ignorance, but then failed to complete the information for me at all.
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Thanks for that info, and the good advice. Messy/dirty can be relative, but if I am seeing hair in the tub, mold and slime under pet dishes, and debris all over the floors, I have zero expectation that the sheets and pillowcases in the bed I am expected to sleep in will be any more clean. I hope that means I’m picky, and future sits such as this one will be on notice, because I am the one who actually paid to stay there ($12 is $12!)
I’m thinking they might have also broken their contract with me as a sitter. I don’t think anyone would expect someone to sleep in a motel with unwashed linens and filthy floors and furniture, and I don’t see this situation as very different.
Hi @AthenasDaughter. I am just popping back to add a few things. It is very important when docking stars for the review that you provide reasons. You have good ones.
Cleanliness: hair in tub, slime under pet dishes, dirty floors, questioning if bed linen clean, etc
Communication: no Welcome Guide, vague verbal information.
You could frame the review as a learning experience for both sides.
You may want to consider adding something to your profile about your expectations on cleanliness, provision of a Welcome Guide.
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@AthenasDaughter, welcome to the forum.
I am sorry that you’re having to experience this in your first sit.
You have already got great advice. People are not judging you, they’re just trying trying to help by warning you about the risks of not spending the night in the hosts’ house.
It is different for THS, or it used to be.
Is not as objective as sleeping in versus sleeping out. Actually living in the house is an essential part of THS and not abiding by it could get you kicked out of the platform and it you mentioned it in your review I doubt you would be able to get any more sits if owners read it.
You’re right that the owners are not following T&Cs, at least these:
5.2.7. ensure that the details of your Home Listing are accurate and up to date;
5.2.8. ensure that the details in your Welcome Guide are accurate and up to date in advance of the start of the Sit;
5.2.9. only provide Member Content that accurately reflects the quality and condition of your home and or pet(s);
Cleanliness is now addressed in the code of conduct:
I will create a clean, comfortable and secure environment for my sitter.
THS actions when terms are broken vary but, in the case of these HOs, you walked into the sit knowing there was no welcome guide. When you were shocked by the state of the house, you could have taken pictures and sent them to THS but, even in that case you are supposed to give the owners time to make alternative arrangements for the pets. So, now there isn’t much you can do about this.
I am pretty sure that staying in the house was part of T&Cs as it was a requirement that HOs listed at least one night, the base of the agreement being pet and house care in exchange for accommodation. Day care was not considered in THS.
However, I have tried to find this but I can’t. I am not sure if I am being clumsy or it’s part of the recent changes.
@Silversitters, perhaps you could shed some light here. You are always spot on with regulations.
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Um not maybe. You abandoned the pets causing one to pee inside because you were not there.
Next time vet the hosts properly (if you are 15 minutes away and they don’t want you to see the home prior to their departure that is a huge red flag right there) and if there is an issue contact THS.
You will eventually be tossed off the platform if you continue to abandon pets overnight.
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The reason I here recommended to wait until they have left a review because I suggested to confront them.
Sitter writes to host “your home has cleanliness issue, what do you think”. Well, host things that they will get a bad review, and retaliates in advance. But if they have already given their honest review, they cant.
I think it is good to speak up about issues directly with the host, but as it comes with the risk, I would do it from a safe distance.
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This might be true in everyday sense, but not it THS sense. You have done the worse thing here, in THS sense. Also in THS sense, the sitter or host are secondary, and the pet is primary. You have broken conduct in relation to the pet, while they broke it in relation to you.
Sure, the hosts, in a way, around a corner, caused this themselves by not providing livable conditions. But in THS sense, clean is subjective, leaving a pet alone is not.
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No requirement about the sitters staying. The only requirement is that the pets stay.
@AthenasDaughter You should absolutely include this in your review. That decision removed your opportunity to cancel while they were still present before departure..once it became clear that the listing did not reflect reality.
Due to the marketing language, there is a fair chance they assume sitters are hired help dispatched by THS. That mindset can lead them to overestimate their position while giving little, if any, weight to their responsibilities as hosts.
The more one’s outreach or profile reinforces that illusion, the greater the risk of a poor match. For next time, remember that surprises in the Welcome Guide (or the absence of one altogether) are, in themselves, sufficient grounds to cancel before the stay even begins.
I agree with other suggestions: give them no reason to leave a retaliatory or defamatory review. If you suspect that may already be at risk, consider submitting yours near the end of the review window. (The sit will only appear on your profile if they actually leave a review.)
And by all means do not contact MS. I made that mistake once after posting in here. MS contacted the host within the 14-day review window, resulting in a rambling, defamatory review; precisely the outcome you want to avoid as a new member.
Keep your review short, factual and restrained, as if reviewing any other type of private accommodation. Each party has only one reply; keep that brief as well, if you choose to respond at all.
If they react and respond emotionally (for example over dodging stars for cleanliness), it will reflect far more on their future prospects than on yours.
I think the hosts without pets would strongly disagree with that statement 
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I’m pretty sure this is the mindset of quite a few new joiners to THS. My evidence is primarily all the ‘shopping’ behaviour of new HOs (who have contacted me) and who apparently believe they’re choosing sitters from a menu of people simply waiting to be picked. It’s very odd. I’ve had to alter my profile to stop these types of HOs from choosing me! It must shock them as the penny drops….and they realise just how THS works is the opposite to how they imagined and a ‘volte face’ is required. They go from privileged paid up shoppers of sitters to having to work hard at advertising their home/pets to even persuade a sitter to read through the whole listing!
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Thanks for that feedback. I have no desire to punish the owners for anything, as neither of us didn’t know what we didn’t know, as they say, until the situation presented itself. The home was chaotic and disorganized, exactly like their response to THS, and I choose to believe it wasn’t intentional. I also think the appropriate thing to do is to review the sit honestly, with an eye to informing future sitters, and also pet owners, what a minimum expectation of a sit might be when the transaction is: I take care of your home and pets at no cost to you, while I enjoy staying at your home at no cost to me. At the end of the day, that is the transaction. I do think the key word here is “enjoy”. This is not a slave labor program, nor an obligation for anyone to stay and work in a home where it is uncomfortable to do both. I
I will update my profile to indicate that I run a clean and tidy home and appreciate maintaining that standard in those of others. I have seen posts from people talking about how they have spent up to a full day cleaning a home because they felt it was worth the time and energy to do that. I feel lucky this was just a 2-night sit for me (although they asked if I could stay another 2 days on the last day! Yikes!).
I will be gentle but honest in my review, offering up what was good about it (the pets were sweet, owner was responsive to my questions if unclear) and what could have been improved or what was challenging for both myself and the pets.
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I am not sure why you characterize my not sleeping there at night as “abandoning” the pets. The pets did not sleep in the master bedroom, the room I would have slept in. The dog did not pee inside because I was not there. The dog peed inside because the owner failed to tell me it was not properly housetrained to wait until morning to use the bathroom. In my opinion, telling the hosts I was not staying the house and they needed to come back from wherever it was they were or find someone else ASAP would have looked a lot more like abandoning pets than staying to care for them as directed and going home at night to sleep in a clean bed.
I’m not worried about being “tossed off the platform” because this will never happen again. Thank you for reminding me again the importance of properly vetting the hosts I choose.
Next time I will certainly vet the hosts much more fully, and be a lot more skeptical about the information provided solely in their profiles.
I get what you’re saying about the pet care being primary, certainly. Next time I will do everything possible to make sure beforehand that a sit will be a good fit for me, and if by chance it turns out otherwise through some sort of intentional misleading, I will simply notify THS and end the sit rather than see it through in the way I chose to do this time.
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Thank you to everyone who provided their best feedback about how to proceed. since posting this I have found numerous other similar posts from sitters and found a goldmine of history about how to avoid this situation in the future, and how to properly rate the experience at present. I appreciate the support of those who have experienced this issue, and the thoughtful responses of those who considered what they would do if they had. I feel very confident this will not happen to me again, and I appreciate your good advice guiding me forward.
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Yes, it appears to be so, will either be money down the drain or an obvious wake-up call. I don’t even think they realize that they are to be reviewed afterward… likely expect the menu of people to be rated like restaurants on Yelp.
From a financial perspective, it makes absolutely zero sense, but of course not all minds know math
Had to change my profile too, which for a period of time also cooled down the copy-paste invites. But alone this and last month, the furry helicopter “mummies” have indeed resurfaced in my inbox. However, the DMs now include “instructions” for entire farms and multiple giant dogs in the invitation itself.. (I rarely look after anything larger than one or two cats, if any at all.)
Does indeed seem to be a shopping-spree mode. Previously, they at least checked a couple of reviews/type of previous matches. This year, I honestly don’t think they give much thought to that either.
A mystery… you’d think THS encourage both sides to include something that reflects genuine interest. Clearly, it’s a one-way street, the other side is as blind as the reviews.
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Sounds like a good plan.
Are you staying for two days after the sit has officially ended?
Thank You !
That sounds like a good plan (apart from the two extra days). The negatives can be explained in very practical and subtle ways (ex. a livingroom or bedroom not suitable for people with asthma, a kitchen not sanitary for cooking etc). After all, people aren’t planning on getting sick during their holiday.
Many include a header in their listing and subtly emphasize the importance of reading the profile before a potential call. It’s rarely enough on its own, but it can help. It’s not uncommon for a video tour to be done during the call as well.