Hi @Carla I think this statement they’ve provided you with may be incomplete. I have not received the email. My profile shows four past sits from 2015 & 2016 with the prompt to leave feedback for the member/owner. If I remember correctly, in those years there was no option to provide separate feedback to owners, other than to reply to their reviews, which I did at the time and those replies are shown below the reviews. Three of these four owners are no longer members. One of those reviews also now has an inaccurate date range (shows same start & end date - it was a 3-week sit).
My guess is we’re going to see many glitches like this. I will monitor this, to make sure those four reviews are not negatively affected. I’d like to see the one have the dates corrected, but my guess is that membership services will be inundated during the review transition so I won’t bother. Besides, I doubt many owners are reading my reviews back to 2015.
@Carla With so much confusion and miscommunication on so many important issues/changes it would be a good idea for THS to employ a Communications Manager.
Good point. I personally, as just a HO, would be happy to do whilst away although, in some ways, it could feel a bit uncomplete, if you’re not coming home to see what everything’s like including the state of mind of my pets.
I wonder if THS have thought about this element?
Can you please tell me this? I have not left a review for a negative sit I did, but now I might. When I do this, it is respectful and very measured. Would they be able to retaliate by changing the review they left me 2 years ago?
With the new review system, will sitters be notified when the HO has done a review (as per Airbnb)? I don’t usually leave a review unless the HO does one for me but if they do one then I do too.
@Snowbird That is strange as everyone who had a sit with outstanding feedback or reviews should have received an email (the product team reconfirmed that today). I would reach out to the Membership Services team as they can check your account and see if it was sent at support@trustedhousesitters.com
You are right I think there never used to be an option to leave feedback in the early days, but when the feedback for owners was launched several years ago it was applied to all previous and current sits, just in case anyone wanted to leave feedback. Please do not worry at all as under the new system those old feedback or review requests will close and everything will align with the new system when it is launched.
If any members have expired they can just disregard the emails as I am sure many will do, we just wanted all members with outstanding reviews or feedback from over a year ago to have one last chance to leave one just in case!
I completely agree
@Shannon Great idea! We do have an internal communications team within THS, but we will pass your feedback on. Is the confusion around the new review system or other launches? If you let me know any specifics then I can help guide you to the answers/information. Feel free to drop me a DM.
@tortimom THS operates a tamper-proof review and feedback system (check with Membership Services for further information) so they would not be able to amend their previous review of you but make sure you get your review of them in before the cut-off date if it’s over two years old. Thank you for asking and wanting to share a respectful and measured review.
Replying to myself as I cannot remove OR edit my own post. Contacted Member Services who fixed the issue and now all three (there was actually four) sits that didn’t go ahead have been removed from my page
@CatsAndDog That sounds like a great idea, we thought at the time it was soon, but sometimes things change and take a little longer than planned. Due to that, it can be hard to have exact timelines if anything takes a bit longer than planned. We will definitely bear that in mind for future updates!
@tortimom if they’ve already given a review they cannot change it. Only THS can change it and they will only do so in exceptional circumstances (e.g We have twice got hosts to connect with THS to edit reviews they’ve given- things like wrong stars, spelling mistakes or wrong names etc.
The only thing your host can do if they don’t like your feedback to them is that they can reply on it which stays on their page and won’t affect you at all, especially as its so long ago!
Can’t we get rid of the stars. It’s obvious, not only on THS but everywhere where people are asked to give stars, that it does not work. In a 5 start range, 4 stars should be a qualification that make you happy, but in practice less than 5 stars is seen as a negative review. So if we had a sitter that did a good job, we’re kind of forced to give 5 stars, which makes it impossible to make a difference between a good sitter and an excellent one. Instead of 5 stars just give a general conclusion: positive or negative. Then explain in words why. For me the stars system is completely useless.
For me you can tell even with the stars. If you looked through all my reviews I bet you could tell which sits were the ones where I didn’t quite click with the owner. And you can see the ones where the opposite is true.
My main problem with the stars is encountering people on the site who don’t understand how damaging losing a star can be. If a HO has taken stars off someone without a really good reason I won’t currently apply for a sit with them. That’s a shame but it’s just how it is at the moment (not just on THS).
Without having to scroll through the many comments on here, just a quick question. If I as a sitter, choose not to leave a review but the homeowner does, am I able to provide feedback on the homeowner’s review?
Hi @Globetrotter
Just to confirm … yes - you’ll still be able to leave a reply to a review received (even after the 14-day window has passed). This will then be visible on your profile.
The best option is always to leave an honest review yourself.
If you choose not to, yes you can respond to the home hosts review of you, but this will only appear on your profile, not theirs. So any problems you encounter will not be flagged for future, fellow sitters.
If I were a home host and saw a sitter defending a negative review on their profile I would immediately go to see what the sittter had said in their review of the home host.
If I saw that the sitter had not left a review my conclusion would be that there can not have been any issues and the response you are now making to a negative review about yourself can only be a case of sour grapes.
