Hello 
Just a quick reminder out of respect to the OP and so that they get the help they need for their questions to keep this thread on the topic āNo Review Bluesā. Feel free to join the 5 Pausing thread or the New Review thread to continue these conversations. Thank you
HI Wendy
So sorry to hear of your experience its interesting to consider how the fact of a missing review might land with a homeowner .I would say if this person never leaves reviews for anyone at last youāll know not to take it too personally and she may still come though for youā:hugs:.In my case I contacted the Home Owner in question and asked him to go the distance in leaving what he wrote as a text a a proper review and offered to leave a review for him which I had originally planned to do all along so lets see what happens ?
II do have plenty of lovely reviews but if a review is not forthcoming I feel was deserved I can at least reflect on the positives I enjoyed eg the new adventure of being somewhere different to discover and explore and and I acknowledge the value I brought to the exchange eg the lovely connection and solicitous care and fun times I had with the pets ,and I remember how clean and shiny the house looked when I left and I pat myself on the back and say Mary Poppins has done it agian ā¦Job well done
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Thanks Wendy. I hope they will agree to be clear and up front about the magnitude of the petās habit of peeing and pooping in the home daily, despite being taken out on many walks. If not, I hope THS will consider forcing the issue. Even though the dog is very small, itās not fun to have to clean up messes multiple times every day. Had this been clearly disclosed in the sit responsibilities, we would never have applied. I suspect this is why the homeowner has chosen to hide this information until itās too late.
I started this thread of NO review BLues when an owner texted me a nice review but baulked at lodging a public review As some follks have asked me for a follow up
I did end up contacting the owner to ask if he would post a review for me something in line with the text he wrote and this is how it all went . Brace yourselves for an interesting outcome I am still scratching my head over this one
The Home Owner wrote
" So nice to come home to a neat and tidy home, with Spooky the cat waiting contentedly on the lounge. Thank you so much for looking after him and our home, we really appreciate what you have done. All the best to you."
Best skills:
Pets well cared for, Followed instructions, Home neat and clean, Maintained garden, Punctual, Resourceful
However wait for the clincher despite this glowing praise He gave me only 4 stars and to I have to be honest in wondering what I did to lose a star ? Iām now wondering what the unspoken subtext to his text was really all about Probably I lost a star for writing to ask him to lodge a review
When I think about how hard I worked on this particular sit and what was billed as watering a few plants and combined with pool maintenance could run to a good hour every day and had to be kept up daily preserving and keeping a huge expanse of full english garden of pansies poppies snap dragons etc in full bore Aussie sun
I decided upon consideration to reply with my own 4 star review as although it was a beautiful home there were considerations that downgraded the sit for me which was a cat which began wailing at 3.00 in the morning to go outside even though I had been explicitly instructed to keep him in til 6.am which meant sleepless nights for me until I got a communication from the owner to lock him in the garage and also the inordinate amount of daily watering required which I was happy to do but was not properly explained in the post and the communication from the owners was not the best I have ever experienced as well so 4 stars it was for them. I would much rather give 5 stars but one has to be in integrity also as far as possible
Its a bt of a blow Now I have plenty of lovely 5 star reviews and this is my first ever 4 star review and in consideration of the work I put in it does feel like a bit of a low blow but the moral of the story I guess is you cant win em all and the world is full of different folks and we all have the prerogative to rate a service as we see fit.Its called free will choice .
In retrospect maybe I shouldve just let it be and leave the HO with where where he is at
Maybe constantly striving for 5 star reviews is a bit idealisic and unrealistic do you think ? Interested to hear poeples thoughts
Edited to remove names as per Forum guidelines
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I know it stings but I wouldnāt worry too much about it, especially since you have lots of other good reviews. I think there is a good learning experience here. The fact he didnāt want to give a review struck me as strange, and if dealing with anyone āstrangeā in any sense, I would probably prefer they didnāt leave a review. and would have left it alone.
If you were to reflect on the experience, you probably had an intuitive sense somewhere to do just that and that intuition serves house sitters well in many regards, from what listings to apply for to how to deal with homeownerās various personalities.
Was it 4* overall @wendywindow? What were the individual categories rated at? Where owners now give the overall rating first before completing the other categories, Iām seeing discrepancies in reviews because of this.
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You are absolutely right @KC1102 Yes indeed trusting ones intuition and listening to your gut is really important when choosing to apply for a sit when you are to some degree walking in trust and flying blind into sits and dealing with all sorts of dfferent personalities and lifestyles and one may want to think the best of everyone but life is such that some people are playing by very different rules .
Any way you live and you learn Thanks for your feedback and good advice .
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Yes, It seems people are getting a bit lax with reviews. My last two sitters did not leave reviews. When I asked if there was any problem they said no, everything was great. I know it is currently hurting me from getting a sitter right now.
Also, the last sit I did, no review. It was my 12th sit and I have all 5 star reviews. I did everything the owner asked, plus sent pics everyday. It is so frustrating and I wish people would realize that not every missing review is a black mark.
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@catdad not sure if you are a sitter or pet owner ā¦ maybe you are both ?
As a sitter missing reviews donāt show on the profile that the public see ā¦gaps in feedback only show for homeowners and only on the app.
@catdad Do you just wait for reviews to be posted or do you actively ask your sitters/hosts? Life gets busy and many people need a prod!
We are sitters and we always send a review request from THS the day after the sit & follow it up with a WhatsApp message to alert them. We mention how important reviews are to us and how much weād appreciate theirs.
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I am a sitter and home owner and yes, I do prod. Maybe I never had trouble getting reviews until the last year or so. Maybe I will try the follow up with whats app. Thanks for the idea.
You are very welcome. The best way to start trusting our intuition is noting the times we may not have listened to it, and our original misgivings, reservations, etc. were correct! That feedback gives us confidence that there is something to that feeling
I totally agree with you With a housesit I did many years ago for another site I applied for a sit but when I looked at the blue carpet in the photo supplied I could see like brownish patches
and my intuition was working overtime going red light red light .Something about those brown patches didnt seem right and I was being warned I got the sit which was in a lovely coastal location with two dogs right on Christmas and I wanted to do the sit so I didnt listen to my misgivings or my intuition .When I got there to my horror I discovered the lady was allowing the dogs to use the carpet as a toilet and the brown patches were actually urine stains some wet and fresh and the smell in the house was so overpowering and disgusting I could barely stay in the house .To add to that the knife and forks were encrusted with old dried food with cockroaches scuttling around in the drawer and there were strange lifeforms growing in the refrigerator ā¦The stuff of Nightmares ā¦I /qluickly learned what those red flags were all about .and began trusting my gut more after that ā¦so now when perusing ads for sitters I feel into the ad and check the the photos closely and observe how the owners express themselves and usually get a clear yes or a no that the job will be right for me ā¦Usually if I get a good feeling that a job is right for me I notice the owners respond quite quickly tooā¦LISTEN LISTEN INTUITION !!
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@catdad. I did a wonderful sit which I thought had gone really well. Owners seemed happy on return but no review despite two WhatsApp messages so decided to leave it alone. Spent 12 months wondering if Iād done anything wrong then out of the blue a 5* review popped up. Can only assume owner forgot. I now check if owners give reviews before accepting a sit. Definitely send them a WhatsApp they may have also forgotten.
There are people (sometimes former teachers) that just donāt believe in Aās, 5 stars, etc. They believe that the highest scores imply perfection and have the point of view that it canāt be achieved. I donāt agree with this assessment but it may be the reason why the person gave you a 4.
You are obviously a very conscientious person and have fully satisfied a number of HOās. You might just have to give them a 4 for misinformation and let the rest go.
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@wendywindow when I was newer to THS this year as a sitter family, I was constantly stressed about getting every 5 Star review. We recently finished our 15th sit and as we complete more a d more, I would like to continue to get 5 
s but less stressed about it now. Iām sure I will absolutely hate it the first time we get less stars but I assume itās bound to happen. I have committed to not giving my review until mine is received going forward. I did not do that when I first started but until there is an overhaul of the current review system, thatās what I plan on doing.
Thankyou I heart animals . Yes it has been quite a process for me Im realizing it might be a bit unrealistic to keep giving and expecting 5 stars all the time
I relaized when the owner gave me 4 stars even though I believed I worked hard and covered all basis for a 5 star review and felt hurt by his actions I was then freed up to feel I didnt need to give him 5 stars in my own review of the sit in which there were shortcomings which did make it a less than 5 star sit opportunity for me so I was able to communicate honestly to other sitters by way of the the 4 star review I chose to leave Had he left me a 5 star review I might have felt to obliged to do the same and glossed over stuff I felt it was fair enough to communicate to prospective futures sitters.
I would just say it is fantastic getting 5 stars and lovely feedback and acknowledgemen when you have given of your best to a sit However getting less than 5 stars does take the pressure off so that you feel able to be really honest in your review of a sit yourself
Edited to remove personal information.
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Thankyou Shulas Mum Yes I once had a college professor who marked that way . He loved my work but always took one mark off (It could have been for dodgy punctuation but it might have been also his concept of impossible perfection ) .As I indicated in a reply I just gave to āI love animalsā when I saw the 4 stars I at least felt less pressured to reply with A 5 star review for the sit and there were factors which did make it a less than 5 star sit for me .I awarded him 4 stars for the sit and was able to communicate honestly in my review what the possible shortcomings were for the benefit of future prospective sitters. .
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