Hi, I’m new to this forum but not to THS. I’ve been fortunate that my first 50 reviews were perfect, but now I’ve been given a 4 star one because some of the owners’ plants died during the worst UK heatwave. They gave an emotional-response review in which they didn’t mention the house or the cats, only the plants. I received 4 stars for Clean & tidy, even though the house was spotless when they came home, obviously they realised they had to give it for something otherwise giving 4 overall doesn’t make sense. I’ve pointed out to THS that the review breaks the review guidelines, most notably this section:
reviews must always:
Focus on facts, not emotion
Be respectful and polite
Be carefully considered
Relate only to the house and pet sit
THS refuse to remove the review. The customer service has been surprisingly bad on the live chat. I’ve had it escalated to the complaints dept but they just give me the same t’s and c’s blah blah blah.
Anyone have advice on a different approach to try? I’m aware I can respond to their review, but I see that as a last resort, and I’ll still have the 4 stars on my record. Thanks!
Don’t worry about it. One ding in 50 reviews counts for nothing to your future hosts. A host’s emotional review over loss of a few plants reflects on the host more than you. Your best option imo is to give yourself a couple of weeks to calm down and then post a response to their review. Maybe something like “I am very sorry about the plants I couldn’t save during the severe heatwave we recently experienced. But I am pleased that your pets, most of the plants and this sitter survived in good health and spirits.”
Haha thanks, I like that. Perhaps I’m being precious about my once-perfect record, all things come to an end. I will certainly think long and hard before writing my response.
I totally understand the frustration of feeling like you were given an unfair review. Without seeing the review, I can’t give more specific insight.
But based on what you have described here, it doesn’t sound like the specific complaints the review may have touched on would prove ‘problematic’ as far as violating the terms even if they seemed more ‘emotional’ rather than factual. Also, the plants do relate to the sit as they are part of the care of the home, and if the host chose to only include what they were unhappy with in the review, there is nothing stopping them from doing that.
One thing I will say though is a review like that would probably not be seen as very credible to future hosts. It comes off as petty.
Terms and conditions like this one are very challenging to clearly define with black and white parameters–it is more of a ‘you know it when you see it’ kind of thing, and I imagine that the types of comments that would be considered a ‘breach’ of these terms would be things more along the lines of truly maligning of someone’s character, saying something blatantly racist,etc…
I don’t think saying someone did not take good care of the plants would qualify.
THS can’t be judge and jury of who left an emotional review opposed to a factual one. Your reply to them is very important. My entire block lost beautiful landscaped plants because of the heat wave we had this year. Most have professional gardeners take care of their yard. There is a saying, “ you can’t fight Mother Nature.”
I agree it doesn’t sound like a violation of terms; the owners left a rating for something that was important to them. Sucks to have your perfect record dinged, but 50 5* reviews and the HOs’ comments will say more about you than one 4* review. Sounds like you’re a frequent sitter so it will soon be buried.
I assume you at least tried, and didn’t forget/ignore the plants, so an unemotional reply is probably your best option. “I regret that despite my best efforts I wasn’t able to keep all the plants alive during the spell of ##-degree days.”
If it’s within the 14 day period, the owners can change their review, if you can get them to… but you aren’t likely to be able to change anything, because it is their review as they see it.
I’d kick start your response to their review with the positives in the correct order (rather than the order that THS puts them in), say something like…
“Thank you for 5 stars for pet care, responsibility, organised, and self-sufficiency. I tried my hardest to keep all of the plants healthy during the scorching July temperatures, so I understand the 4 star rating within one category when some plants suffered because of the excessive heat, so sorry about that. I truly hope other owners reading this will take into account my perfect 50 x 5 star reviews up until this moment in time.”
I’d just accept responsibility, it happened during your watch, and future owners will think they are very picky and not in the normal spirit of THS to give you a lower score for something that could easily of happened to themselves. Your 50 reviews speak volumes, I’m so glad we’ve never sat for owners like that.
It doesn’t let you change anything else, but yes they can change their score, as long as it’s within the 14 day period and if the owners say they hit the wrong number in error, and they meant to give 5 stars.
THS will let them change it, we’ve had it happen twice before (different sits), where an owner simply hit the wrong score by accident (it’s easily done), they knew what they’d done, in both scenarios these are places where we regularly return to sit for them, so both owners felt awful and got straight in touch with me to ask how they change it, so I told them to get in touch with THS and explain they’d simply hit the wrong button, and they amended our score from them both.
It may have changed now, but I don’t think so, I’ve heard others mention it on here.
I don’t think you can change anything else, I don’t think you can re-word or anything like that, it’s just the score, if it’s a genuine mistake.
With the review system the way it is, it is so simple to hit the wrong button and then it clicks on to the next part.
No idea, but if someone was thinking of down-grading someone after having read the other ones review, then I would have thought THS would see right through that, and know it wasn’t a genuine mistake at all. There’s a big difference in someone saying I hit the wrong the button and meant to give them 5 stars, and someone wanting to change it for the worse.
I’m also all 5-stars for dozens of sits, and I am honestly terrified of how sad I’ll be if someone knocks a star off. If I was a homeowner, I’d look for “patterns” of repeated issues in your reviews, rather than one. They were fair to knock a star off if the plants died, but they were obviously way more attached to their plants than I’d ever be. Are you still able to leave a reply? If you feel it would help your profile, perhaps “I’m so sorry about the plants, I did my best and was so challenged by that heat wave. Hope you and “fido” are doing well.” And leave it at that. Apparently only on reply is allowed, total. So it shouldn’t turn into a back and forth
In your reply to their Review definitely include ‘I did my very best to care for the plants during an extraordinary heatwave in the summer of 2026, sadly it was insufficient’.
I understand you want a perfect review score and that this is ultimately a pet-sitting service, not a plant sitter service.
That said, heat wave aside, a plant wouldn’t die if it was watered. So I can also understand the owners point of view as well, seeing as they can’t counter you on this thread.
So instead of being defensive…. alternatively:
Acknowledge that the plant died. Let her know what happened (did you water it or not?) and
Ask her if she’s willing to have you pay for a replacement plant in order to restore your 5-star rating. However, let her know your services are focused on pets and not plants.
Or simply explain the heat wave in the public response and no one will care about it or blame you.
Actually plants do die even when watered if they’re:
Watered at the wrong time of day
Watered too much and too often.
There’s a lot more to watering than just pointing a hose pipe. Some plants need watering only at night or early morning, others you need to avoid getting water on the leaves or it can lead to blight or scorching as the droplets act as mini lenses in strong sunlight…. Some plants need watering from beneath not the surface or the roots divert upwards and then dry out and die.
I could go on like this ….. but I’ve covered the main points.
Ok. Got it. I was just wishing to clarify that if watered correctly… a heat wave doesn’t kill a plant. I live in Australia where it’s super hot so it’s takes a lot to kill one.
So, that being the case, either explain the watering was done as asked and that it didn’t work despite due diligence applied and instructions were followed in the comment to the review and/ try to reason with the owner or offer to replace the plant.
I’m not trying to offend here… I just don’t automatically side with anyone based on a one-sided post. So, perhaps, there’s more to the story and to the reason for the 4 stars and why THS refuse to change it — that’s what I was attempting to ascertain.
If instructions were followed then there’s no reason for the four stars. If they weren’t then some responsibility lies with the sitter if instructions were given that they didn’t follow.
@Lovepets in a heatwave the plant requirements may change. I just did a sit in a heatwave and if I had just followed the HOs instructions most of the plants would have died. The potted plants went through water much faster than normal. Plants that she said to water every 2-3 days needed daily watering. There were a couple potted cucumber plants that I had to water 4 times a day. Fortunately, I know a lot about plants and adapted the care to the needs of the plants. But a sitter without a lot of plant experience who followed the HOs instructions would have had a lot of dead plants.
