When arriving at our host destination. The house was dusty, trash in all the trash cans, beds unmade, etc.
We left the home better than was rendered to us. But we got a low score on cleaning. Wtf!!!
When I asked about the rating he said “there was some dust under the beds”.
We only used the office bed. The comment made me feel like I’m a maid. (In the meantime our house keeper was cleaning our home that we left to our sitter so the comment made me even more angry.)
We took" before and after " photos but at this point we have already left a generous review. I hate seeing this happen to other sitters.
I would think it would be quite alright to direct a polite question to HO. Just factual - when we arrived we found that… - we did “this” before we left. We are therefore puzzled as to why star(-s) were deducted for cleanliness - as we see it, the home was cleaner when we left than we found it. Could you please help us with the reason(-s) for why you have another opinion?
You always know when you’ve left a place cleaner than when you arrived, so I really feel for you, that’s terrible. Did they actually say about the cleaning in their text part, or could they have made a mistake in their marking? Could they have hit the wrong button?
Stay calm when you respond to their review, stay factual, and ask them to help you understand their marking because of xyz.
Are they a couple and the one with the THS account isn’t the one that saw the house before they left?
Sounds like they expected a sitter/house cleaner. THS used to have “spring cleaning” in the guidance for HS. People pushed back. Not sure what it says now.
Always take photos of the condition of the house upon your arrival and on departure. It’s also helpful to take photos of the inside of cupboards and drawers so you can put the dishes and utensils back where you found them.
I’m a bit of a clean freak and get “ick” in dirty houses. I don’t want HOs to expect me to clean if they leave a mess but I’m going to clean to a level that makes me feel comfortable in the house. Taking photos is protection against false claims.
Honestly, I didn’t even know sitters would clean the house at the end of the sit. My house was always left in a normally-lived-in state which I find natural, but not pristinely cleaned.
Well, except for the cupboard-raiders (I ranted somewhere else, not repeating) who left me a heap of hairs in the shower and shower drain… matching their overall performance I’d say.
I’d be furious. I hope you replied to their review with the facts. I do check cleaning & washing expectations prior to sitting to try to make sure we’re all on the same page. For example, I might say I will do my usual end of sit clean of the areas we’ve used & & depending on the time we leave I can put the bedding on to wash but will not have time to dry (if that’s the case) or would you rather I just strip the bed etc etc. So far I’ve found they often will say - don’t worry about this or if you can just focus on that, that would be great.
Probably the same guy (at my house it was a couple). They were vegetarian until they obviously found meat stuffs… Vegies of opportunity or somesuch. Well, they weren’t too picky. Absolutely everything was gone except for a jar of Jalapeños.
I only had two less than stellar sitters among, I’d say around 20 in Vienna and two here.
