I think this is a good change overall, but I can’t help but think for a lot of people, it will end up being a ‘be careful what you wish for’ situation! I just hope that people will be thoughtful with their feedback, and not use this format as license to nit pick and harp on the smallest ‘offenses.’
Honestly, I think with the exception of the most egregious issues on either side–which are important for people to know and this allows them to be brought to light-- people will probably review in a similar fashion.
I think for many people, not sharing certain negative aspects of the sit had nothing to do with the nature of the review system, but our human nature of not wanting to hurt people’s feelings. Also, I think certain issues are very subjective, or small and not worth mentioning–I know that is the case for some reviews I have done, and I would probably approach those issues in a similar way with this new system.
If one or both parties haven’t left a review and it’s getting close to the 14 day cut off, will they get a reminder to leave a review, including how important it is?
It does concern me that there is no carrot/stick for encouraging parties to leave reviews or penalising them if they don’t.
I’d like to see the whole star system for both parties thrown out and just have comments with either a thumbs or much like performance ratings where the person is either competent or not competent.
Yes I’d be interested in what happens to the currently missing reviews. I’ve got a couple where I forgot to request initially and now it feels like it’s too long ago to ask so if as part of this change there was some clean up that might be useful.
@mars I have to emphatically disagree with you here. I think it really breaks trust in the platform to create fake reviews. I responded in that thread as well (link).
An empty review is still information in its own way, so I also would push back on your suggestion, @B1anca. You’re probably fine with a couple missing reviews here and there, but a large percentage of empty reviews can be a red flag. There’s some discussion in this thread.
Btw if you’re a sitter you have nothing to worry about regarding empty reviews! Empty reviews only show up on a HO’s profile, and only in the phone app. A sitter can see empty reviews on their own profile in the app but anyone else looking at their profile will not see the empty review.
Like @systaran and other members, am really hoping this has been addressed @Carla - if the rest of the review system is now more balanced and fair then the ratings on categories should be the same. Please tell us this is included! Not mentioned in the blog…
Cautiously optimistic about the good news this morning @Carla
The bombardment of questions on the technicalities suggests that a more comprehensive Product News & Updates article than that written by Danielle Petch yesterday is called for.
Still, it’s good to see that the membership has been heard on this issue.
I’d still like to see stars for both parties @Crookie because it identifies the area which was a concern. Otherwise, we could give 3* and write nothing about what the issues were thereby not helping our fellow members to improve in that area or warning other sitters. Reviews could become short and general with no full explanation, like many on Airbnb.
@adelia , I made the suggestion because if THS followed the AirBnb model there might no longer be any empty reviews. The sits would not even show that they took place. I suggested a “canned” positive review could appear so at least it would show that the sit happened. Actually, it wouldn’t even have to be a positive review, it could say something like, “Sitter/HO did not submit a review during the allotted 14 day period.”
This may already have been figured out by the THS team (which I’m hoping).
I would very much like to see categories for rating HOs like there are for sitters. E g If its been a good sit in general I’ve never yet had the heart to mention the deep cleaning we may have had to do on arrival, we tend to focus on the positives of the sit. But if there was a category for clean & tidy I would just knock a star off in that category and leave it at that…
I’m intrigued to see if the new blind review system will actually make a difference. Hopefully it does encourage more honesty especially if one side of the exchange was less than happy and wants to be able to express themselves safely. But It could also be that those who don’t review- for whatever reason- will continue not to review and then the only difference will be that one side will have to wait 14 days to see what the other side said instead of seeing it immediately.
I do think its a good idea to put a time limit on reviews as it gives a certain closure to the sit rather than leaving open ends.
Hopefully it will be a positive change- we will see!
The possible cooling off period sounds good, but and that they each come out at the same time, but I don’t think this solves fundamental problems. It’s not clear that we all agree on what 5 stars looks like on either side. The expectations aren’t nearly uniform. The purpose of the review system it seems to me is credibility. HOs want to know that the sitter did a good job on previous sits, won’t trash the house, will apply common sense if there is a problem, and is recommended by other HOs. Sitters want to know if the HO is honest about the pet responsibilities, if the conditions of the home are acceptable (although here too what is “acceptable” may vary), that there aren’t suddenly going to be extra responsibilites, that communication is civil, that they felt welcomed. It seems to me from reading the not so great reviews, that usually the problem had to do with communication and expectations. It would be great if THS could develop some kind training/modeling – videos or something to help educate both HOs and sitters on the human part of their interactions, and avoid issues.
Oh, yes definitely! I can agree with making the empty reviews more obvious and indicating that a sit really did happen. It’s not great that empty reviews are hidden on the website, and it’s absurd that they don’t appear at all on sitter profiles! My only concern was with adding a star rating to it, so I do also hope that after the 14 days, the empty review(s) appear.
Hello Thank you to everyone who is contributing to this thread and for all of the great questions I wanted to keep you all updated that I am still collecting new questions and sharing them with the Product team.
@mars according to the blog on the newsletter about the new reviews system it will be like the airbnb model i e as soon as the second review is done both will show up but if only one is done it will not show up till 14 days have passed.
I disagree because the message I read when reading this is " If everything went well, there is no need to leave a review" - defeating the purpose of the new system completely
or 
much like performance ratings where the person is either competent or not competent.
Thank you to everyone who is contributing to this thread and for all of the great questions 
I wanted to keep you all updated that I am still collecting new questions and sharing them with the Product team.