Also I just wanted say I looked at your profile and your home is lovely but your pets are just the cutest! I love greyhounds and the kitty is just dreamy 
@SharonV I do feel for you as this has not been a positive experience, especially when you were away for surgery. I do wonder whether you needed a sitter quickly and did not have much choice in your applicants. If so, hopefully, you and your next sitter have discussed this mutual exchange and each other’s expectations more clearly.
I can’t help thinking that the review you gave (not even calling your sitter by her name) will actually work against you as future sitters, especially experienced ones, will see she did not leave you a review and will check if you left her one. What they will read is a very emotionally-charged and damning review with accusations and, yes, some obvious truths.
I have now read your listing and my thoughts are these.
When I read your first part about yourselves, I thought it was about you being sitters as it was very appropriate for that! It’s often suggested on the forum that hosts include in this section a little bit about themselves (as you have) but also why would a sitter want to come to sit for you where you live.
I don’t believe your listing conveys the level of cleanliness you expect from your sitters, judging by all the comments and photos you have attached here.
“Keep the house vacuumed to reduce the pet hairs and keep it clean and tidy as you would your own home.”
You need to spell it out more clearly in your listing.
“Water the plants on Saturday. Just a small amount.” is a clear instruction yet your review of her blames her for not watering the plants soon enough and them dying/wilting.
You state it is an easy sit and that’s because your greyhound does not need walking and your cat does not need much attention. However, your greyhound is 14 and their life expectancy isn’t much more than that so there is a possibility that a sitter may face an emergency health situation in regard to your dog, making it not an “easy” sit after all.
Joining a platform like THS is no small thing where it requires a leap of faith to trust complete strangers. Members need to vet each other carefully as we are the ones who choose our sitters/hosts. There’s a lot to learn on both sides and hopefully your next experience will be much better. Do keep in mind it is an equal exchange.
I am a sitter and homeowner here. I’ve done about 21 sits and had about 17 sitters at my house. These experiences have taught me (to my surprise) that I am far cleaner than most people - hosts or sitters. Having seen how other people (homeowners) leave their home, and how sitters leave my home, I realize that my standards must be exceptionally high. Consequently, I try to be more forgiving of minor messes than I used to be. Every sitter has left something unclean - a dirty skillet put away last time, spills in my (barely used) oven the time before, etc. I’ve never mentioned them in the reviews, because apparently that is still “very clean” to most people. I am sure that my sitters did leave my house as clean as they would leave their own house! That’s just not as clean as I leave my house (and the houses I sit in).
It is hard not to be frustrated, I know, especially when there is actual damage to furniture or appliances. Hopefully you will find equally (or almost equally) fastidious sitters in future.
@SharonV As I’m a sitter who looks for homes like yours in the way of minimalism and cleanliness, my heart aches for you when I look at your photos. The one of the table damage in particular.
I totally agree with the points @temba has mentioned so I won’t repeat those. However, I am puzzled as to why you accepted a sitter with a child when you show in your listing that your pets are not ‘very child friendly’. If you perhaps are OK with children of a certain age, then clearly state that. However, if you think it’s preferable not to have children on the sit, then be clear about that.
I don’t take well to someone telling me it’s an easy sit. The responsibility alone, for pets and a home, are taken seriously by good sitters. Also you show letting your dog out early morning, lunchtime, dinner time, and before bed. That alone means being onsite for much of the time. You show pets can be left more than six hours, and yet in your text you show your dog can hold his bladder for up to six hours. Those are contradictory statements.
I’m always puzzled by owners who say to ‘keep it clean and tidy as you would your own home’. That’s a huge assumption of how the sitter lives in their own home, with this particular sit being a good example. I think owners should basically ask for the home to be returned in the condition it was handled over to the sitter.
Regarding reviewing sitter profiles for your future house sits, note that for this sitter there were only 5 actual THS reviews, the rest are references from outside the platform. You can tell because it’s says so AND there are no location and dates specified from the reviewer. So keep your eyes out for that next time.
Personally, I don’t accept families, my dog doesn’t like kids AND I feel there is too much liability there. Also, I have never used anyone under 30 years old. Maybe set some particular non negotiables for yourself and then stick to it as you review future sitter applications.
I’m sorry, but this feels quite unfair — akin to victim-blaming after the fact.
From the photos, it seems clear the sitter didn’t attempt to do even the bare minimum to leave the house in a habitable state, much less the way they found it. Even if I were ill or had an unforeseen circumstance, the proper thing you do would be to tell the host & apologize. I would certainly never skedaddle out before they came back, without communicating why things were left the way they were — even if there were a family emergency I’d text the host before leaving to let them know.
It’s just straight-up unacceptable behavior. Fortunately, it’s the exception rather than the rule.
Recently we rented an airbnb in Napa Valley. Lovely place, gracious hosts.
Except .. 2 nights before we were supposed to leave the place lost power. Utility issue, of course nothing the hosts could do. We waited awhile (and the toilets were on a system that required power, so we couldn’t use the bathroom either) but with no clear outcome on when power would be restored we opted (with the host agreement) to end the airbnb early and get a hotel for the last 2 nights.
With no power we had to ‘evacuate’ in the dark. We did the best we could but couldn’t clean fully and did ask the hosts if we could return the next day as we realized we forgot a couple of things,having to pack in a hurry and in the dark. They said sure. We came back at the crack of dawn, got our stuff, and cleaned up the place (dishes in dishwasher, ran dishwasher - power was back on! - emptied fridge and trash).
Hosts gave us glowing reviews about how clean we left the place and how reasonable we were with the whole situation. We also gave them great reviews, just docked a star for no working flashlights anywhere.
So, I guess my point is even if you leave in a rush you can still communicate something and try and make it reasonable, somewhat.
Everything is open to interpretation ChiaGrowth. I’m 70 years old and to me any female much younger than me I consider them to be a girl. Nothing racist is indicated here outside of your thoughts about it.
Nothing entitled on my part either. We simply didn’t expect a mother and child to leave at 9:00 p.m. and find somewhere to stay. As indicated in an earlier response to someone else, she indicated that prior to doing our sit they’d had to camp somewhere for a few nights because they didn’t have anywhere else to go and how cold that had been for them. I didn’t want them to have to repeat that situation. And I do feel it’s my right to expect, unless otherwise discussed, that a sitter would stay until the owner returned for the very reason I mentioned. That’s simply a demonstration of professionalism.
My review is 100% accurate. NOTHING in my review was blown out of proportion.
I kindly request that whatever is going on inside of you that you not misdirect it towards me.
@SharonV just a side note, some of her reviews are for only a night or two. Hard to make to much mess in a short time. Her leaving abruptly, it seems you were expecting to put her up for the last night as you had a late return, appears to be an effort to avoid you.
Please keep your expectations high, it’s not unreasonable to expect common sense and to not have to spell everything out in minute detail. In this case there was no reason for you to expect a complete change in a sitter’s behaviour after several good reviews a few even mentioning cleanliness. I think the key to this is the length of sits reviewing this sitter…nearly all are very short. This sitter sounds homeless and who knows what the sad story is that led to this situation. Your review registers your shock and I really hope your next experience is very good. Keep faith in the THS system but take great care in who/how you select a sitter ok. I’m assuming you had a video chat before confirming to get a sense of your sitter’s approach to sitting? This tells you a lot that can’t be gleaned from profiles and/or reviews.
Thats fair. The line between open forum discussion and someone having the space to vent is narrow. It´s good that you bring your opinion to this.
Can someone please answer this question. I see posters saying they saw the review on the sitters page that the PP left for her. How did you find this? I only know to find this if the sitter left a review and then I click on her. She did not leave a review so how do you know who the sitters is to read the review?
Click on the OP profile and her listing and you’ll see the sitter history is on there and you can view it. #insideintel
Thank you so much!!
Thank you very much but I still can’t find it. I use an IPad. I tried with clicking the app and then with google. I looked all over her profile. Then at her profile I clicked her face but nothing happened. Looked all over the profile and saw nothing that showed sitters. If you have any suggestions I really appreciate it.
You have to do it in the app and not on the website. If a sitter is reviewed but doesn’t review the sit then they don’t show up. In the app they do and you can see it there still. #appstuff
@SharonV As fellow HOs (we’re sitters, too) we understand how you feel about this. We once had a similar situation with a neglectful sitter, so do recall how upsetting it is.
Hang in there.
Thank you for pointing those things out to us. I’ve edited the listing.
Oh my goodness what a nightmare for you. The sitter and son sound absolutely horrendous. I hope your poor dog and cat were not traumatized by the experience.
To be honest, after having a look at her profile, the sits she’s done and reviews left for her, as well as her not leaving more than one review for a HO, in addition to everything you’ve said, my first thought was that she was using the platform for housing. Work exchange platforms are seeing the same activity as well, I’m not faulting anyone for their housing situation but if you are unable to treat someone’s home graciously and respectfully do not enter it at all, don’t care what your housing situation is or whose fault it is! I’m guessing her good reviews came from a generous place with those HO’s, they very likely received the same schpiel from her - that they had to camp and it was cold blah blah blah - and probably felt bad leaving an honest review. She’s done a repeat sit for one of them that ended more than a week ago and there’s no review from either side. The only time I don’t leave a review for a HO is if the sit was horrible, and that’s only been two out of more than 35 sits. She’s not leaving reviews because she’s not invested, she simply wants a free place to stay.