Off topic, apologies, but @Itchyfeet sorry if my post was misconstrued. I have definitely stayed in differing types of homes in the UK from the thatched cottages to the tiny London flats to the spacious Cotswold mansions, even a castle in Scotland! I was only saying that it is different, the ones that aren’t the mansions, and that’s why I love the UK so much, because it IS different in places. My country was only discovered in 1770 so we don’t have anything like the old homes, thatched cottages and history the UK has, it’s amazing there! I’m sorry my post came across unintentionally the wrong way, I was actually meaning to extol the virtues of the homes 
1 Like
Yeah, i get all that. It is my own fault im here. I knew it was small and there was lots of stuff but honestly the puctures dont show the majority of the clutter.
I am not considering giving a poor rating (perhaps a 4 star rating) due to buyers remorse. Im considering giving a less than 5 star rating because it us a less than a 5 star sit. I want to be accurate and fair.
So lve looked back at the listing andvit says the apartment sleeps 5 people. I feel like that is a bit misleading.
The point is im not trying to be mean. That is why i came here for advice.
So how does one rate anyone if standards all all subjective?
I think im giving a pass because she is a nice person and I like to give people the benefitof the doubt. Perhaps she was too busy to make the guest room any nicer or just didnt think about where wed put our stuff or how the boxes and rolled up carpet would not be very welcoming. Im sure she loves her home. I want her to be able to get the best sitters for her dog.
I only bring it up because other people are and to point out that i feel bad for potentially giving her a less than 5 star review that could impact her availability of getting sitters. Her boyfriend doesnt live here. And yes she works at a university as an assistant professor. Of course, i have no idea what her financial situation is or how much money she makes. I can only pick up on clues. And if she really does need to use a service like THS because of money, it is a concern for me. Im not sure what im not saying to make this clearer.
Understood.
My final comment would be that if a THsitter that works from home accepts the sit with a frequent barking dog, that would not be a good sitter for the dog or a good sit for the sitter.
2 Likes
No, this wasnt in the listing. But it is in the welcome guide. In the welcome guide it says that he responds to a firm “no.” A firm “no” doesnt exactly work.
But he is a dog. I give him a pass for barking, except like i said, the place is small and i dont want to feel responsible for disturbing the neighbors.
There are more things about the dog that people probably would be unhappy with. But he’s a dog and those things arent unexpected.
To me, the fact that you accepted the sit out of need is separate from how you review. That’s because reviews are meant to help other sitters or hosts. If so, it makes sense to me to write a review that mentions things that you were unpleasantly surprised by, which weren’t mentioned or were inaccurate. They might be perfectly nice people and need THS (which we don’t know), but that doesn’t actually matter if I’m a sitter looking for a fair exchange and risk not getting that. And there are plenty of nice hosts with good sits to offer.
4 Likes
But its not a 5 star house sit. It doesnt matter what knew coming into the sit. It matters how i represent this sit to other house sitters.
Im sorry for speculating anything about the home owner. I only mentioned my speculation because i would feel bad for doing something that could cause her chances to get sitters to decrease.
Ive never given anyone a less than 5 star review so i think that furture sitters might see that i really think this is not a 5 star sit.
I think future host can read my reviews and see what kind of sitter i am.
Yes! I’m poor too! So i feel for anyone else that is.
I wouldnt say i was dedperate but panicked. Is that the sane thing? Anyway, it was silly of me to be panicked.
Im not sure why you think im judging anyone. I certainly didnt want to come off as judgy. Im being sympathetic.
Nothing wrong with needing THS because you cant afford paid sitters. Paid sitting is expensive!
Thanks you for addressing my concern.
Just curious, how did you find the listing?
If she’s never been a sitter herself, she maybe does not understand your side of it or point of view. I always tend to feel honesty is best and to just tell her you dont want to leave a bad review, but as a sitter you struggled with A, B, C…just to give her that grace. Quite honestly, someone could come into my home and have lots of issues with how my home is and I wouldnt know that unless they told me. That’s just how I roll though and not everyone is comfortable with that.
1 Like
We have considered sending her some feedback. But since we dont want to get a bad review (I dont know how open she will be to feedback), we dont want to do it until after we get our review.
1 Like
Please do an honest review (she won’t see it until she’s done her review of you) - I emailed the HO prior to what would have been a repeat sit - the first sit showed how inaccurate the listing & welcome guide were, plus the place was unpleasantly unclean, with no room in fridge or freezer or in the bedroom to put my bag. It looked like they’d forgotten I was going - but I knew they did. I gave 5 stars because I didn’t know how to justify lower.
However, when I sent the veeeery careful worded email suggesting how they could keep 5 stars, I had the previously confirmed sitting cancelled.
To be honest, I am glad of this cancellation because although the pet was lovely, I didn’t really want to be in the home environment but didn’t think I could cancel as a sitter.
But I no longer have the opportunity to warn other sitters of the pitfalls of this sit.
@Makelikeanapeman You do know that the reviews are a blind system now, right? This means each party writes their reviews and they are not published until you’ve both submitted a review OR 14 days after the sit ends.
So don’t be afraid to be honest about the barking dog. Don’t write how you felt about it, just facts like it was so frequent, etc. Use the 80-20 rule for your review: 80 percent positive, 20 percent not so positive, if applicable.
It’s important to give future sitters a heads up so they can ask about it when they apply for future sits.
And after both reviews are published, then maybe give them private feedback if you feel that’s really important to do so.
3 Likes
It doesn’t actually sound too bad to me, so it’s clean, but just no space. Maybe you sit in houses that are typically larger than we do, we’re in the UK, so we have a mix of smaller properties too.
We’ve had plenty of small places with too much stuff in them and I wouldn’t negatively judge them on that, as long as it’s clean. We also don’t expect a lot of space in the fridge but it’s a luxury when we have space, and we never get cupboard space. We have taken suitcases and ended up leaving them outside of the bedroom, where there is lack of space, but again I don’t view that as a negative, there are big places and there are small places.
So there would only be the dog barking, and I wouldn’t judge that on the neighbours, I’d judge it on whether it disturbed your stay personally, but dogs bark, so it would depend on the impact it had on you yourself.
So I wouldn’t be too harsh, and the HO sounds very sensible to me about the lights/heating.
3 Likes
Thanks for your reply. Yes, i know that the review system is blind. Which is why im in this quandary. In the past, we might not have been so honest to insure that we get a good review and not a retaliatory review.
My problem is that I’ve never left less than a 5 star review, so im finding it hard. But I want to be fair to other house sitters.
I think my problem here was not being more specific about the clutter. I would be bothered by lots of stuff on shelves, but this is stiff lining the walls, piles of stuff. That’s clutter to me. I fearvpitting anything on the floor or anywhere else fir not being able to find it again. Maybe she just moved in and doesnt have room for all her stuff. I dont know. There are more things but theyvare trivial, but they all add up to an uncomfortable stay.
If people wantbto live in clutter that is fine, but not clearing out the clutter so your guest are more comfortable is another thing.
But my iissue isnt why they like to live this way. My issue is how to leave a review that is fair to other sitters when i dont want to harm the home owners chance of getting other sitters.
1 Like
I get your wanting to warn other sitters, but it sounds like you could see the clutter from photos and knew what you were getting into, so I don’t think you the need to warn others is that urgent. You can review it without saying things that are untrue.
Honestly, wish there were a form for client feedback as I think it would be useful for the homeowners to know that they should clear out enough space to put a suitcase somewhere. I definately think a friendly note AFTER reviews are in, maybe a couple of suggestions would be helpful.
2 Likes