Or at least one of them : When a sitter rings a HO to ask an important question crucial to the pet’s safety and well being, many HO’s will ding a star or two from “self-sufficiency”.
In my 20+ 5* sits, the ONLY times (three) I’ve not received the full star-age across the board is when I’ve rung the HO’s for help with important concerns : cats not returning as indicated, dog being VERY territorial despite being told that he was gentle and another pet safety concern.
Kind of a catch 22 in these situations. Sometimes care and responsibility come with a cost ?
I agree @toreishi, I have all 5-star overall reviews but recently also received 4 stars in the “self-sufficiency” category. During the sit, housekeeping arrived unannounced and the woman was clearly unhappy to be “cleaning for me” instead of the homeowners. She misplaced many of the pet’s things, which had been obviously laid out for me, and pulled down the fancy, expensive mechanical blinds. I work in tech and tried everything, but eventually had to contact the HO for help to get the blinds fixed. They were super helpful but dinged me in the end, alas.
Hosts who are reasonable won’t ding sitters for asking reasonable Qs.
I routinely problem-solve and use judgment while sitting, and ask Qs, if needed. I’ve had nothing but five-star reviews, including hosts who said my asking Qs signaled that I was conscientious about their home and pets.
When I consider which sits to pursue, my No. 1 potential dealbreaker are the hosts. I try to gauge how reasonable they are and how they’d partner if things went sideways. If I don’t feel good about that, there’s no chance I’d want their sits, no matter how great the sits otherwise.
I think your code is too broad. I’d like to see some more variables factored in: country/continent, rural/suburb/city, socio-economic level, etc of the HO. I get nervous when a sitter doesn’t ring with questions because I imagine them struggling to figure something out. I thought a sitter was VERY self-sufficient when she took a picture of her finger next to a button on the washing machine, sent it and asked if that was the start button. I typed yes and boom, problem solved in 2 seconds. I tell sitters to never hesitate to message me for help with anything and I would never dock a star in that category unless they seemed exceptionally clueless – a trait I would think I’d pick up on in a video chat.
I often contact homeowners when I am not sure what they would like done and never received a ding for this. I’ve never dinged a sitter for this even when I found them a bit annoyiing. Generally, I do look through the guide or whatever was left to see if I can find the answer before contacting the homeowner.
I would only call a homeowner in the event of a true veterinary emergency. In eight years of pet sitting, I’ve only had to do that once. Everything else can be resolved through Whatsapp.
I let the hosts know upfront that if I have general questions, I will ask them during my status update time instead of randomly throughout the day. If I have an emergency, I will contact them anytime. I don’t mind asking questions instead of spinning my wheels but I do tend to be self sufficient. So far so good. It also helps that I have been partnered with kind hosts.
I suggest better than just randomly hoping for luck, because we can do better — try to screen out hosts who are entitled, petty and such. The other ones are more likely to field questions without faulting sitters. You can ask the same Qs to a jerky host and get worse results, unfortunately.
Luck is great to have, but you can’t control or replicate it.