I have been at several sits where the homeowners were difficult, or the houses were not clean or there was mold.
And I have to say that I have been really reluctant to leave anything less than five stars because that seems to be sort of the norm on TrustedHousesitters.
I have been in several situations that were really difficult and I did leave accurate reviews for other sitters. But I am noticing that I appreciate so much when a sitter maybe reviews a sit with five stars overall, but then gives them four stars for cleanliness and that is just so appreciated. Or four stars for hospitality and they don’t even have to go into it, but it just helps me so much.
After noticing that on one of the sits, I was considering applying for. Noticing that someone gave them four stars instead of five for cleanliness. I gave the sit I just completed a little bit more accurate review and gave them four out of five for cleanliness.
Of course I don’t want to ruin anyone’s chances of getting great sitters. So I did explain a little bit why I gave the four stars in a gentle way, and also with the encouragement that it would be an easy fix. So they can change it and get great sitters.
What really helps me is a factual review because I can then decide if that’s important for me or not. I don’t really care so much about stars if there is no explanation.
That is really helpful. I hope more people start to give more accurate reviews, both hosts and sitters.
@Betterqualitysits, that’s great to hear.
We’re just finishing sixtieth housesit - where does the time go?!
We have given 5* reviews on the majority of our hosts - heck, some we’d have given more! But we have absolutely had some “learning experiences” in terms of cleanliness, pet behaviour, listing accuracy, communications, … ugh. We’ve left 4-star, and sometimes lower, ratings on one or more categories or even overall rating - with simple objective comments in review.
Cheering your efforts towards kind but fair ratings and reviews.
Interesting comments! We have had many , many fab. Sits (75+) and I do rate them differently! If a Host states upfront that the dogs do leave a lot of hair ( sorry, you Labs. out there!!), then I don’t mark down on cleanliness if there’s shedding happening or I find some escaped hair under the sofa! I think that’s petty…. likewise if there are occasional cobwebs, a freezer needing a defrost but still has room for our frozens or a garden that needs weeding. We really carefully assess the listing as to acceptable expectations for us. We do not want our Hosts going work crazy to perfect the house.before their Getaway, we want relaxation and calm and for goodness sake., we’re not moving in permanently!
There are homeowners and sitters who are more concerned about themselves than being fair, honest and responsible in their reviews.
I will fully admit that it can be challenging to write a negative review but doing so objectively, honestly, responsibly and from a place of care and helpfulness for all parties involved can only result in better sits for everyone.
Thanks so much for setting a great example and may we ALL both follow in kind and benefit !
Cleanliness is really subjective. I know I have friends with homes cleaner than mine. My floor is not spotless ever day and I don’t have pets. A bit of dust, some cobwebs, meh I don’t care. Grotty bathrooms or kitchens that’s a bit different. How grotty is too grotty? Mould sure it’s a health issue. And then you’ve got clutter which can also be a turn off. I think the more accurate and honest the reviews are the better.
You know, that is a good idea. if it got more normal to just leave less than raves and five stars and people got a little bit specific then you would know more if that was a fit for you.
For example, the sit that I just left… The vegetable drawers were super dirty, the microwave had food stains, there were dirty socks on the floor. They had just heaped all their old sheets on a chair in the bedroom. But it was clean in other ways and maybe somebody would be OK with the level of clean that they had. I’m sure people were OK.
I’m talking about more extreme things that I feel like sitters should know in advance. And that it will help them make a good decision about whether they want to move forward with a video meeting, etc. etc..
Just because I wish someone had warned me. I have been misled by very warm and friendly homeowners that turn into a different person during the sit. I’ve been told that their house is cleaned regularly to find dirt and stains and food, clinging to surfaces and in microwaves and dirty clothes, lying about and mold! Serious mold.
And yes, I have had a wonderful wonderful sits too
You know, I have to say one more thing. I work for several companies as well and so when we leave a house, we have to make sure that it is really clean.
And, living in somebody else’s dirt and grime… It’s different than living in your own. Like in my own house, I’m much more lax. But I don’t wanna go to somebody else’s house and live with their dirty laundry and they’re grimy sink and refrigerator and… I think it’s different like you wanna make it cleaner for somebody else then if it’s just you. if that makes any sense.
Be honest. Do NOT just give 5** because you feel you have too, that’s just wrong on every level. By doing this you are misrepresenting every other sitter. We had a sit where the home owners failed to tell us they lived next door to the shunting yard ( where trains go to bed) and it’s used all day other than between 1:35am & 5:40am. Did I leave a 5* review, no. I would not want other sitters to be subjected to that.
That’s so true. I’ve seen less-than-perfect reviews which might have put me off the sit, but probably wouldn’t. But a snarky, overly defensive or semi-hysterical (yup, seen those!) response from the HO makes it an absolute No.
You know what? Exactly. I just left the accurate review for the homeowner about the potential of mold and they just went off their rocker. And were very upset with me. I tried to make it as simple as possible. I didn’t mention a lot of the cleanliness difficulties, but I felt it was important to say that I felt that it seemed like mold. I gave them four stars out of five for cleanliness.
But it was because somebody had left a four out of five stars on another review and I just thought I have to be honest as well. I was going to leave no review and just talk to them about it privately, but I wasn’t sure that they would let sitters know.
Anyway, they left a really snarky response to my review and put me down in several ways. And thankfully! TrustedHousesitters came to my rescue and deleted those comments although I feel like in some ways, they could’ve stayed because like you said they do alert people to have the homeowners are. But I think people will still be alerted from their tone.
I also asked TrustedHousesitters if I could alter my review which I was going to say more accurate about the cleanliness and just refer to the strong smell rather than that it is mold but TrustedHousesitters said no you didn’t make any false claims and they’re gonna leave it as is so I really appreciate how TrustedHousesitters responded and I really appreciate what you’re saying!
Yes! I just had one of those. I go into it in more detail in my response to piet… but yes! They responded super snarky and put me down. And TrustedHousesitters removed their especially nasty responses which I really appreciate. But I think the tone is still there to alert future sitters.
Good post @Betterqualitysits.
I by default always left a 5 star glowing review even post the review system going to blind reviews. That was until I had a major issue on a sit last year and while some aspects of the sit where good a HO shouting at me needed to be mentioned. I did so and rated it as a 3 overall.
On reflection I should have also rated a sit before this less than 5 stars due to the HO not disclosing their elderly cat was incontinent and as they lived in an expensive property with solid wood floors it was a whole process to clean, disinfect and dry the floor post the cat having an accident.
Yes! I know I did too. I was always rating sits as five stars but then I stumbled into some bad ones and I wish somebody had warned me. I’m so sorry that the homeowner yelled at you that’s terrible and they should totally have mentioned that the cat was incontinent. that’s ridiculous. I just had a bad sit and left a kind, but not totally accurate. I didn’t go into all the details of how it wasn’t great for me, but I did mention an important thing and they just went ballistic and were very snarky and luckily, I wrote to TrustedHousesitters, and they completely backed me up and also deleted some of the snarky things they said on their response to my review. Which was really lovely.
But I just so appreciate people letting me know if there’s something I should be watching out for… And so I really want to do that for other people too.
I have it in my listing now that I have hairy golden retriever and anyone very sensitive to dog hair should not apply. It’s odd to have to state the obvious but no one is getting through a sit with a golden without cleaning up some dog hair periodically!
