I’m a sitter. If I’m thinking about applying for a sit, but former sitters have not left a review, can I contact those sitters directly and ask them about their experience?
I have read that many sitters leave no review if they’ve had a bad experience, but I think there might also be sitters who just don’t get around to it. I just had my first bad experience as a sitter, and now I see that former sitters did not leave a review. I’m wondering if I could have avoided accepting an assignment that was unsuitabel for me and my husband.
You can’t contact former sitters but sometimes I look at their profiles via the username and see if the HO left a review about them. It can be revealing.
I’m also suspicious of sits that do not have reviews as the one or two bad sits I had, I didn’t leave a review. I know some would say I should to warn people, tbh I just wanted to put them behind me and move on.
@CanadianLynda unfortunately you cannot contact sitters through THS. It is almost certain that the previous sitters didn’t leave a review because it was also a bad experience. It may have been because previously the reviews were not blind so people were afraid of retaliation.
Reviews are very important to sitters and they interact very frequently with the website/app so it’s very unlikely they would have forgotten to leave a review. It’s almost always intentional.
So far, I’ve avoided sits with missing reviews. Why: There simply are too many other sits that are as good or better without missing reviews, so no reason to take a risk.
If there were an extraordinary sit, I’d really scrutinize the listing, reviews, as well as the sitter’s and host’s review histories. And I’d be extra careful at chat stage and ask about why there was a missing review(s). And then I’d assess whether the risk is worthwhile. (Probably not.)
@CanadianLynda the only way to contact a former sitter would be if you have combined membership and could contact them as a homeowner or if they have included an link to an external website on their profile such a as LinkedIn or AirBnB
You can track sitters down through Linked In if you do a little detective work @CanadianLynda We’ve been contacted by sitters about potential sits they’re considering that way especially if they have extra questions or concerns. #worthatry
@CanadianLynda
Regarding your recent bad sit (sorry to hear that- we’ve probably all been there! ) if you are still within the 14 day deadline then you now have an opportunity to leave a blind review- something the previous sitters would not have had- so you have the chance to tell your truth and warn future sitters- without the risk of a retaliative review. All the hosts can do is respond on your review- if they wish- which will be seen mostly by their future sitters rather than by your future hosts. Future sitters will be grateful for the heads up!
In future avoid sits with too many missing sitter reviews. As a sitter myself -before the blind reviews- we often didn’t leave a review because of the risk of retaliation. So in general missing reviews are regarded as red flags.
I’m a HO and have had loads of good reviews. The only two missing reviews are where I gave some prompt and direct feedback to the sitter because they hadn’t left the house in the same shape / had let some easily water-able plants die in the garden. So it’s not always a red flag in reality. In one case both the sitter and I didn’t give feedback to each other, I was so upset by the plant situation - and I won’t do that again, I’ll always just give frank feedback. Main thing is that the house is still ok and the pet is well.
In the past it wasn’t as common yet on THS that both pet owners and sitters would leave each other reviews. So if an HO asked me, I was always happy to leave them a review, but if not, I wouldn’t always provide a review. Had nothing to do with it being a bad experience.
Meanwhile I’ve come to understand that it’s expected that you leave each other reviews, as no review apparently means bad review. Well, in that case… over the past 9+ years I’ve also had an HO 3 times not leaving me a review. Did something go wrong? No, not at all, but they were new to THS, didn’t really understand the importance of reviews and were too busy, so despite nudging no review arrived. Another HO was so busy that her (glowing) review for me didn’t come till like 4 months later. I think with the new review system, that review would miss the boat.
So I don’t tend to think anything negatively actually of a missing review other than…ok, they probably don’t fully understand the system yet, or they’re too busy and missed the ‘review boat’
Thank you for the advice. I did leave an honest review, listing the positives and the negatives (in our opinion). I do think some people might have liked the assignment, but it certainly wasn’t what we were expecting.
) if you are still within the 14 day deadline then you now have an opportunity to leave a blind review- something the previous sitters would not have had- so you have the chance to tell your truth and warn future sitters- without the risk of a retaliative review. All the hosts can do is respond on your review- if they wish- which will be seen mostly by their future sitters rather than by your future hosts. Future sitters will be grateful for the heads up!