Inaccurate review; non-responsive host

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
1

Hello all, good day!

I’d like to invite responses from both sides of a sit. It is my first sit on this site, but I’m on several other sites, where I’ve scored exemplarily.

The host leaves a review that is patently inaccurate (phone records can refute), but damaging to my profile and has projected their own disorder and uncleanliness (evidenced) on my review by giving 4 stars in these departments.

They refuse to respond to my private messages asking to correct the error. Since their posting, I’ve already experienced instant cancellations on applications (never happened before). It means that I cannot use this site until this is removed/ modified (what a shame, considering the cost!)

Questions to hosts: What would be the reason(s) a host would do this? What would be your suggestions for a response/ recourse?

Question for sitters: How would you handle this? What would be your suggestions for a response/ recourse?

Thanks for your thoughts/ suggestions~

2

I am a host.

Once we booked sitters who were new to the platform. We liked their application and profile, and they had good references, just no reviews on the site. Our sitter was 5 months in the future, and they did book several sits prior to us. Of course I went back and checked how those reviews looked (they were great, all 5 stars, which is also what we gave them).

So being new to the platform, future hosts were probably scared by your first review being less then perfect.

If you can prove the inaccuracies then hopefully THS can change it. Otherwise your best option is to include a brief explanation in your applications - the prior sit had some issues with an inaccurate review but you have plentiful references from other platforms to share.

3

How did you review the host , were you accurate in reviewing ?

A few points to consider

Four Stars in a category is not a negative review - it’s a good review just short of perfection .

Reviews can’t be altered once submitted .

Moving forward - To get accepted for more sits you can focus on applying for last minute sits with low applications and build up your reviews on the platform .

Look for sits with previous reviews to see what other sitters say about cleanliness and hospitality. Look at how the host reviewed them .

4

I’m a sitter. My view is that 4 denotes good, 5 denotes perfect. I’m not sure why 5 seems to be the default score and I’m not sure why people don’t realise that 4 is still good. I do think though that reviewers should back up the reason they’ve given a particular score.

5

Thanks for your thoughts, which mirror mine (about the hosts being put out by a first review with discrepancies). I do plan on disputing it with THS, and providing the evidence. It’s a shame that one would purposefully falsify. And you’re correct, I did get more sits when I had no reviews.

6

Their discrepancies were too many to list in the review. Besides, “cleanliness and disorder” are value judgements, and it is not for me to impose my values onto someone else. I focused my review on the ‘general acceptability’ and not on my personal preferences, being a germaphobe, that would not be ‘fair.’

It is not the 4 stars that bother me, it is (1) the blatant inaccuracy of the comments, and (2) their lack of substantiative evidence (3) their lack of a response.

It means that folks can just make up things in a review without accountability, and if that is allowed to run rampant, then it would say a lot about the site, its policies, and the validity of the other reviews.

7

It is a tough break. I hope it is corrected. To be fair, as. HO I would look at that hosts other reviews, both from sitters and how they reviewed sitters. If I saw a pattern of bad behavior on the host side, I certainly wouldn’t run and cancel a sitter then.

8

Am a bit confused. It sounds as if their response is to your review, and not their review of yours as reviews are blind on THS so it can’t have been a response. Is that right? You also have the right to answer their review of you. It’s very unusual for hosts to cancel a confirmed sit based on 4 stars. As @Silversitters says, 4 is very good just not excellent. How many stars :glowing_star: did you give them? Local and last minute sits and a measured, factual response to their review will all help move forward. #4starfacts

9

Don’t compare sites, THS has expected standards that are way and above others in various areas for both sitters and owners. The best advice we received when we first started, is to leave a place as though you were never even there, as though the owners had just walked out the door. Whereas on some other sites, it’s just basically pet sitting, and less about maintaining their home in the way sitters find it.

You get chance to respond to their review of you which appears on your own profile, but please do not do it when you are naturally hyped up like right now, wait until you’ve calmed down and thinking logically again.

Your response to their review should be factual, non-personal, and non emotional about the owners, and only respond to what they said and/or how they marked you, and start and end it with something lovely about the pets if you felt they were lovely.

DO NOT list the owners failings in a tit for tat way in your response… it will backfire and make you look hugely worse. Write it with your future owners in mind, not these owners. You need to look like a nice person… which I am sure you are, because you obviously care about giving 5 stars in the sits you do, if you didn’t, you wouldn’t have posted.

Also, with it being your first review (and it’s not cheap for THS) consider that if an owner/sitter reads a less than perfect review of a owner/sitter, they could be more forgiving if it looks like the person takes an element of responsibility, or even apologises… I’m not saying you should do that, it’s up to you, I am just saying it because it’s your first review, you’ve spent a lot of money, and you’ve got good reviews elsewhere. Obviously I don’t know the circumstances, but if it were me, and I know I’m great, then I’d write something like "I only have 5 star reviews on other platforms I am with, so I felt terrible and disheartened when I read your rating of 4 stars. I loved spending time with ?pets?, they were adorable, but I was surprised to read ??? when fact, fact, fact.

Also, you need to drown out the bad score with a few good ones, then it will become a thing of the past, so type in the search box on here, how to get your first sits on THS… and do those tactics, ie sit local, and short last minute sits etc.

10

Thanks for responding.

You’re correct, the reviews are blind. This relates to their review of my sit, not a response to my review. Also, I was not clear, the applications for other sits were instantly ‘denied,’ not ‘cancelled.’

To reiterate, my question was not about the value/ interpretation of the 4 stars, it is about the inaccuracy of their review. The focus of my question is about the validity of the review’s comments, their unsubstantiated 4-star review (in the areas that mirror the discrepancies on their part), and their lack of response.

For example, their comment was, “she kept us in the loop about the goings on in the village.” And that, coupled with two 4 stars for cleanliness and organisation paints a picture of a gossipy, garrulous, unprofessional, disorderly, untidy person.

Let’s be honest, for a first (and only) review on a sitter’s profile, who here would hire them?

Phone records can easily attest that nothing of the sort happened.

Again, my question was: why would a HO deliberately post false claims?

To answer your question about how did I rate them: It appears to me that (since the reviews are blind) the HO feared that I would ruin their perfect reviews by mentioning all the discrepancies that had occurred. And the best way to refute my hypothetically negative review, would be to discredit the reviewer – Paint them as a gossipy person, whose words cannot be trusted. And this can work, because (1) there is only one review for that sitter, and (2) the sitter is new (3) the veteran HO has multiple 5-star reviews.

Again, on the surface, at first glance, who would appear more credible?

After they saw my review, which shows I neither downgraded nor mentioned the discrepancies, then the only response would be silence, which is precisely what they have done. Keep quiet and hope it goes away

Hope it is clear now, and now that there is more relevant information, I’m hoping to find suggestions for viable ways of dealing with this. Yes, I plan on contacting support.

Thanks for your patience in reading :slight_smile:

11

@Felinelover, again, we’re on the same wavelength. As a HO, I would also approach it that way. But not everyone would take the time to do so. The saying, “first impression counts” is 90% alive and kicking! Thanks for your thoughts…:melting_face:

12

I’m sorry to say, but you’re right. HO’s who receive a number of 5* applicants will most likely favor them.

I believe you need to address your less than perfect first review in your applications. Let a HO know it isn’t accurate. Otherwise, why else would a HO choose a 4* candidate over a 5*?

OR apply for low-applicant sits where a HO may welcome 4* newbie.

I hope your dispute is successful.

13

Ahhhhh, this is totally different, I know it’s worse with it being your first review on THS, but this makes it slightly lesser so, it adds a totally different light of it. Sitters aren’t naive and neither are owners. We can all tell when someone is covering their own backside ‘just in case’.

So personally, I’d stick to applying to owners that have had multiple sitters already so you stand a better chance, because they are more likely to know they need to read both sides of the story… to see the full picture, and realise the owners are simply covering themselves in preparation.

14

Absolutely. I think the star system should be completely eliminated and that sitters and hosts should have to post reviews addressing all of the components of a sit.

15

Then I think the old saying of less is more & be brief and factual, or take the moral high ground and say nothing will speak volumes. As @HappyDeb says, the added info that they thought you’d be negative so played hardball to try and get the upper hand will come through. Sadly I don’t know of many occasions when THS removes reviews altogether (much like Airbnb). #bestofluck

16

Reviews cannot be changed except in the case of a privacy violation or obvious mistake, not because someone is coerced or otherwise manipulated into changing their opinion that was expressed the first time.

That won’t make any difference as far as changing the review goes it won’t happen.

There were so many discrepancies you couldn’t list them in the review so you gave them a 5 star review and didn’t mention even one discrepancy? I don’t understand why you would do this. Especially because the host was clearly aware that they messed up and they expected a negative review which is why they preempted yours by throwing you under the bus.

Saying you kept them in the loop about the goings on in the village is not a bad thing to say about you, it is rather concerning that you interpret this in such a manner.

That’s exactly right. And that is why as a sitter, by not honestly reviewing the host and docking a star or two and explaining why, you not only hurt other sitters but you may hurt yourself too because you look like the wrong party having made the host look like they were perfect.

17

Thanks for the suggestion and best wishes @Cat-ophile :melting_face:

18

Thanks for the insight and positive thoughts @Cuttlefish

19

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions @HappyDeb

20

Hello

Sorry to hear that. I know it must feel very frustrating to receive a review that is inaccurate.

If they have not responded to your request to alter the review, I am afraid there is not much you can do if they do not respond.

Also, you probably can’t expect much from THS either if you were thinking of escalating. They have a strict policy of only editing/removing reviews if there has been some egregious breach of their terms. It is pretty vaguely defined, but it really seems like it applies to blatantly harmful statements, serious accusations,etc… I feel like it is a ‘you know it when you see it’ type of situation.

For example, if a host simply said they thought a sitter did not leave the house clean enough, THS is unlikely to change that, even with ‘proof’

Now if they said the sitter was a brain-dead moron who couldn’t clean a house to save their life, then that is a different story.

I am sure that this less than perfect rating will not harm you as much as you believe. You can’t know for sure that this is why your applications were declined. And while it may not be ideal that your first review on the site is less than perfect across the board, if you keep on applying for sits, you will find people who are willing to give you a chance.

Also, 4 stars is not going to be as big a hurdle to overcome. It would be different if that first review was truly bad, and suggested high levels of incompetence ,etc… While not perfect, it does not sound like this was the case for yours.

So accept that perhaps you may receive some declines, with being newer to the site, but keep going. Even highly experienced sitters still get declines sometimes–it often has nothing to do with the sitter personally and it is more a matter of another applicant being a better fit for countless reasons.

You say you have done sits on other sites–as far as I know, no other one has even a fraction of the membership of this one so there can be more competition for any given sit. And this means that sitters with fewer reviews may get ‘rejected’ more at the start.

I have seen several sitters on THS who have a 4 star rating with anywhere from one dozen to over 3 dozen sits on their profile. To average 4 stars with that many sits means they have had a lot where they did not receive perfect reviews, and it really has not seemed to stop them.

Like others said, you have a chance to reply to their review. You must tread carefully though…the responses can do more damage than the review. Keep it brief, factual and free of emotional language. Lots of the latter makes the response seem less credible and the actual review even more credible.

Remember the true audience you are writing for–it is not the person for whom you did the sit, but hosts in the future who will be reading your profile.

Good luck!