What are your thoughts on a profile/listing that has had a lot of sitters, but many of them didn’t leave reviews? I came across a listing in London a while back which had a crazy amount of sitters. It had a lot of blank reviews, and the sitters who did leave reviews gave them mostly 4 or 5 stars, and one person gave them a 2 because the dog had completely destroyed her bag. The owners responded with a massive, not so friendly, explanation. At this point I was just reading through the reviews out of curiosity as it was already a big no from me.
However, I’ve also come across a profile which also has had a lot of sitters, many missing reviews but all the ones that did leave a review left 5 stars and no signs of any negative feedback. I have mixed feelings about my spidey senses, to apply or not to apply?
Were you able to click on those sitters’ profiles to see if host left them a review? This would give you more of an idea as to what the hosts are like. If you are unable to click on their profile, it means they’re no longer members and may have asked for their data to be removed.
Were any of the missing reviews during Covid when sits did not take place?
If you are interested in the sit, you could write an expression of interest. If you get to video stage, you could raise the missing sitter reviews in a kind way.
For the sit with no negative feedback - have a look to see if there are repeat sitters .
A repeat sitter is a good indicator of a good sit experience but I have noticed that sometimes repeat sitters don’t review every time (which is understandable as the review could get quite repetitive after the 6th or 7th stay )
I would also be delving into the reviews that the host left those sitters that didn’t review them.
Thanks for this! This host doesn’t have any repeat sitters. Of the profiles that I could look at who didn’t leave a review (most I can’t click, so I assume they’re no longer active), he left them all positive reviews.
Yes @TrottingSitter, they are inactive members. Were their sits this year?
At least the hosts wrote positive reviews for the sitters you could access. Are you getting good vibes about the host? If so, why not make contact if you’re genuinely interested in the sit?
I think I’d be cautious about reading too much into missing reviews on their own. There can be quite innocent reasons for them, particularly with older sits or sitters who are no longer active on THS.
For me, I’d look at the overall pattern rather than the number of blank spaces. Are there repeat sitters? Are the reviews that do exist consistent? What do the hosts say about the sitters who didn’t leave a review? And, perhaps most importantly, does everything else about the listing give you confidence?
If the available reviews are all positive and there aren’t any other red flags, I wouldn’t necessarily let the missing reviews stop me applying for a sit I really liked.
You can always use the video call to ask a few questions that might help fill in the gaps. I think that gives you much more useful information than trying to interpret the blanks themselves.
I have done over 30 house sits and the only ones I didn’t review were the ones I didn’t enjoy. For me the missing reviews tell a story of unhappy experiences.
We have a couple of missing reviews, both from the same sit. It worried me at first but i hope anyone preusing our profile will see it was a repeat sit and assume all is well as why would you invite someone back if not happy?!
Both times, the ho missed the review deadline.
One or 2 missing reviews doesnt put me off sits either, unless there is a general pattern or low stars, i tend to assume its a life happened type situation.
@TrottingSitter, when faced with such a situation - and assuming attractive listing - then we click through past housesitters profiles to see if they typically do not leave reviews. What we’re trying to identify instances when a housesitter that typically leaves reviews somehow did not leave a review for this specific listing - we’d then directly ask pet parent during video call.
When reading positive reviews, I look for details, if all the reviews are pretty generic in the their praise, and I see missing reviews, those two details combined are a red flag for me. If the positive reviews go into great detail about the pet, the home, cleanliness, the host and the overall experience, a small number of missing reviews don’t concern me as much
(Your name could also be TrottingPoster…for those in the know !)
Always a good idea to listen to Spidey.
Personally, I’d also cross-reference (read sitters’ reviews or sits and HOs’ reviews of sitters) in addition to considering missing reviews. One or two of the latter is not a big concern, more (especially when the person has been with THS for a long time and/or there aren’t many reviews overall despite long term membership) is a yellow flag waving fiercely.
I am currently on a sit with all 5 star reviews, no repeat sitters, and lots of missing reviews.
Now looking at the reviews, I’m noticing that the 5 star reviews DIDN’T comment on certain categories and those are the categories that have slight issues. My guess is that these issues were a big deal for the sitters that decided not to review at all, and even though the 5-star reviewers opted not note the issues, they were aware of them, and chose not to come back. I am enjoying the sit, but would not come back.
I have 1 missing review on my profile. This was from a sitter who had sat for us before and had left a 5 star review previously. I think he just forgot the second time or thought it didn’t matter as he’d left a review after the first sit.
I had one sit where virtually all the reviews were glowing. There were two sister cats, but one had escaped and didn’t return before my sit, and the remaining cat was understandably distressed. She spent a lot of time looking for her sister, meowing and howling, including at night. It significantly disrupted my sleep and also made it difficult to work during the day. I couldn’t honestly say that my experience was 5 stars. But what really influenced my decision not to review was seeing what happened to the one previous sitter who had dared to leave 4 stars for cleanliness a year so back.The homeowners absolutely slammed that sitter in a long public response. They aggressively defended the cleanliness of their home, essentially accused the sitter of lying, and then turned it back on the sitter by claiming that the sitter hadn’t cleaned properly either. It was a very disproportionate response to someone simply giving 4 stars instead of 5 for cleanliness but still overall giving 5 stars. After reading that, I knew exactly what was likely to happen if I left an honest review mentioning the sleep disruption or gave anything less than 5 stars. I had no desire to receive a lengthy public response portraying me as horrible or insensitive because their remaining cat was distressed about her missing sister. So I chose not to leave a review at all.
The interesting part is that the two sitters after me both left glowing reviews. So today my missing review is just sitting there in the middle of a string of 5-star reviews, with no indication of why I didn’t leave one. That’s why I wouldn’t automatically dismiss missing reviews. They don’t necessarily mean the sit was terrible, but sometimes a sitter’s silence is quite deliberate. In my case, it was easier to say nothing than deal with the reaction I had already seen another sitter receive for giving an honest 4-star rating.
To me, that would’ve been a red flag to avoid sitting for those hosts in the first place.
Why: There’s always the potential for something to go wrong on any sit. So I always ask myself, would these hosts be good partners if things went sideways? If not, no need to borrow trouble.
