Nobody here is obliged to take advice.
@ariela the standard you walk passed, is the standard you accept. In other words by not calling out the owner behaviour in your review is you telling the world you are OK with it. That’s probably what the previous sitters did and why you now find yourself in the position you are in, not knowing about this owner’s shocking and unacceptable behaviour.
I really don’t understand why you told the host you weren’t comfortable with the cameras. Whether you were comfortable with them or not is actually irrelevant. The relevant point is that he was not adhering to the Ts & Cs of THS, something that was confirmed to you when you came here for advice.
It is OK to come to this forum and look for advice. It is just as OK to make your own decision in the end. I distance myself from everyone who is having a go at the OP.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.
It is also OK to lament the less-than-informative reviews of others.
Why do you think that not leaving a factual review of this dreadful situation will result in your receiving a positive review yourself? You could well find yourself with docked stars - you have raised the camera issue with the host already so they could already be planning on leaving you a guarded review to protect their own interests - so better to leave an honest, factual review of your experience to offset any potential claims made in retaliation for your raising this issue with the host.
You cannot do that. Reviews are now blind.
I totally agree, but the OP may not realise she is leaving herself wide open for a retaliatory review and, by staying silent in the belief that will mitigate the risk, she is in fact not protecting her own interests. It’s already been stated that she believes she can view the host’s review before submitting her own, and we know that’s not the case.
Sure, she can respond to any poor review received, but that won’t carry nearly as much weight in her defence as an honest and factual review of the disturbing issues experienced on this sit.
The OP may not be concerned with alerting future sitters to this predicament, but she possibly hasn’t fully realised the implications for her own review history.
Exactly my thoughts and what I was trying to say.
I think the point of the responses you’ve been getting is that those who’ve answered ARE putting ourselves in your shoes, and it seems that many of us are mortified. “In your shoes” I would GTFO of there ASAP.
You’ve said the cameras are “hidden in dark corners” with clear lines of sight. (“The ones you’ve found.”) So they’re not there to monitor pets with, say, an obvious thing on a table in the living room. They’re hidden. So, more likely, for the purpose of watching people in the house. Not everyone is equally observant: the previous good-review sitters might be completely unaware of the hidden cameras and have no idea that he may have nude pictures of them (which you wonder if he might have of you). This is NOT OK.
We may be tarring this HO with an unfair brush as we know nothing about him, but, it doesn’t look good, for sure.
Maybe watch an episode of “Predator Hunters”, if you can stomach a full episode, and ask yourself if you still feel so tolerant of what’s happened.
And it bears repeating, again.
I hope this sitter finished up the sit (or left) safely. She didn’t seem to appreciate that many of were concerned about her safety and spent time writing and trying to give her guidance. And she never even followed up to tell us what happened. I was concerned and kind of shocked that she didn’t at least reply with an update. And then, of course, she wasn’t planning to leave an honest review. Pretty shocking behavior all around.