As a sitter, I think it would be a nice feature to be able to pin 1 or 2 of our best reviews. I have all 5 star reviews but a couple that had really nice write ups. The more sits I do, the stellar reviews get pushed lower and lower and eventually end up on the second or third page. I haven’t seen a way to pin reviews so just thought I would throw it out there as a possible new feature that could be added to the web site.
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That’s a great idea! It would definitely help highlight the standout reviews and keep them visible, especially as you build a portfolio of sits. Pinning a few of your best reviews could make your profile even more appealing to potential hosts.
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I have the opposite view and would prefer to keep the most recent review at the top.
If I am looking at reviews on other sites for hotels, restaurants etc. I am interested in the most recent experience, not what it was like a year or so ago.
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agree. many algos, like Google maps, show the best on top. but if the best was from 5 years ago and the most recent are all bad, that gives a more accurate picture of the situation. I was looking for a place to eat a few months ago and was considering a place with 4.7* on Google maps. rave reviews. then I sorted by new. months and months of low ratings reviews after an ownership change.
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Is pinning aimed at hosts or sitters who don’t read all reviews? Personally, I read all. If someone had say more than 50, I might skim, but I’d still read enough to look for consistency. I’d tend to discount outlier reviews and look for patterns instead. And most sitters and hosts don’t have that many reviews.
I have 19 reviews so far and they’re consistent. I wouldn’t pin any of them, because I’d want to be considered on their totality.
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What if there was an option for both? You could select how you view reviews, just like how you can view listings in the sort by category (recommend, newest or start date). You could put reviews into a sort by category, such as ‘pinned, newest’ etc.
But seeing as they haven’t even fixed the darn sitter calendar or anything else we often ask for, the probability is unlikely 
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yeah. I can see it being put on an ideas list, but I think it should be far far far far far down the list.
another idea I thought of last night is to have a ‘reason’ choice for cancellations that is tracked and tied to the profile so if someone gets multiple cancellations for the same reasons there is some sort of flag raised automatically. ex: if multiple HOs have to cancel a sitter because they back out at the last minute, that’s flagged and some action is taken. right now I doubt there is any serious tracking being done and we all know that consequences are few and far between.
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I like this idea. I got a review a few months ago where the HO described me as “the ideal sitter” so I did a screen shot of the review and put it as one of my profile photos.
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Yes, a bunch of us have suggested that THS reflect sitters and hosts who cancel. Relatedly, if a host gets multiple cancellations, I’d wonder about them, whether there’s something about their sits that end up in ugly surprises.
Something tangential related to the interest in pinning a review: One my hosts mentioned to me that he’d never seen a sitter with so many great reviews. Well, I’ve had them since the start and part of the reason is, I look at the reviews that hosts previously wrote for other sitters. If they’re not appreciative and don’t have a track record for writing reviews expressively, then how likely are they going to?
I screen hosts holistically before deciding whether to pursue a sit. Like if they haven’t written listings that are thoughtful of sitters, that’s also a sign that they’re less likely to write appreciative reviews.
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I’ve really never looked at reviews outside of the ones they got. I’ve never looked at ones they’ve left for others. but I’ll probably start doing that going forward.
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Consistency matters a lot in human behavior. Like imagine if you could talk to their exes before you dated someone. 
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Yeah. I think the fact that I do sitting more as a personal convenience helps a lot with being less invested in some things. but given some of the new trends (i’ve barely sat in years) i’ll probably step things up a notch.
My thoughts exactly. I find that most of the reviews follow the same formula. But once in a while I get a homeowner that writes a really unique review that I would like to highlight.
I agree, I have suggested this before too. And especially if the more recent reviews are one liners albeit 5*, it really nice where a home owner has taken extra time to sing our praises in detail.
I have therefore taken a screen shot of one of my favourite reviews and added to my profile pic
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Aha. So it could be a choice that the person looking for a sitter can control by sorting. In other words, “Most Recent”, “Top Reviews”, etc I like that. I read ALL reviews when looking for a potential sitter and I notice how many people don’t leave reviews.
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