I know that we rate on communication, sit reflects what was presented. But I think there should also be ratings on quality of sit. As mentioned, my 2nd sit was in an RV. Not the most accomodating. Was it reflective of what was advertised, yes, but not great. I have been on sits in beautiful houses, great guest suites. Hot tubs, pools, and currently my first sit where a toddler lives. Clean but cluttered with toys, no counter space. I am south for the winter, and went swimming in the ocean, but I had to drive there a distance. So it is like staying in a extended stay america, while other stays were more hilton, or even four seasons. There isnât anything like that reflected in the ratings. And I think there should be. Like a hotel rating.
I totally disagree, if you want high end accommodation and quality, then only apply for the fancier types of sits or book a hotel.
Sitters already rate owners in 5 different categories, PLUS an overall score, so I feel that is more than enough. Plus it isnât in THSâs interest to do something that will mean those owners without fancy houses end up leaving because they get marked down for not having a stunning home with a hot tub or pool etc.
Everyoneâs idea of what makes a quality stay is totally individual so how would anyone be able to judge it? You say your RV was ânot greatâ, but weâve stayed in a caravan and a tiny one bed apartment, and we loved them. Each to their own, but I donât see why those owners who donât have fancy homes should be made to feel second class and forced away from THS, as long as they have a clean and tidy place, itâs up to you whether you apply, you can see how large or fancy a place is by their photoâs and description.
Seems to me the answer to this is to read the listing carefully, look at all the pictures with attention to the background and read the reviews from prior house sitters carefully. I donât quite see why that wouldnât answer any of the questions that are posed here.
That would be Accuracy of listing. This is an exchange of homes where people live, so that would be a rating of their everyday lives. Quite unethical in my opinion. For me, I have no interest in pools, tubs and marble floors. If I wanted Hilton I would stay in a Hilton. I often use hotels at business trips and find those quite boring. The perks of THS (as with HomeExchange which I also use) is to live like a local, in the areas locals live, with the living conditions and pets they have in that area. Iâve done extensive travel for business and pleasure during the years, and Iâve come to find that much travel which one claims is a deepdive in culture often is not that at all. One travel the routes of white, western, affluent people, stay at same hotels, eat the same food, donât talk to locals unless buying or eating something. There is somewhat of the same for THS, but still - more options to live and explore real life. I like that a lot.
But the information was there for you to make an informed choice. What else would you get from a rating category? The confirmation that it was a RV and not a mansion?
OK, not a favorite suggestion.
Well, this is something that wouldnât show up in pictures. After my shower, the whole rod and curtain fell down. And there is hot water in the shower, but not in the sinks. And reading reviews now, there is a nuance about the home. 2 out of 4. But I am going to focus on the fact that I was swimming in the ocean today.
The problem with this is that everyone has a different definition of quality. It seems your priority would be to sit in a luxurious house with amenities you find most desirable like pools and spas. As an older sitter, I once owned a 7 figure home with these amenities so this is not important to me on a sit so your rating system wouldnât work for me. A quality sit for me is first location, then to make sure the pet or pets are a good fit for me and third that the house is clean and not cluttered. I look for pet parents that do not seem to have an entitled personality and understand this is an equal exchange and I am not unpaid staff.
A life ago I would stay in 5 star hotels as a tourist. I much prefer living in a home and seeing the neighborhood and eating at non tourist restaurants. Especially when traveling outside the US which I did using another type of platform. 10 different countries that way which was so much more memorable and life changing than any fancy hotel ever gave me.
A shower rod and curtain can fall down occasionally in anyoneâs home, that happens, itâs just one of those things, but I wouldnât personally mark an owner down for it.
In the UK the shower could be likely to be electric, whereas the sinks hot water is possibly generated from the boiler, so it could take longer for the hot water to reach the sink. But it doesnât sound like there was any hot water at all from the sink, so that would comes under your âaccuracy of listingâ is you wanted to mark them down, because you expected hot water in the sink to get washed and you didnât get it.
Love love love that 
! Thatâs what lifeâs about.
When searching for a sitter - their profile shows a star rating which is based on an average of all the reviews that theyâve received.
There is not the case for hosts. I think it would be useful time saving information if a hostâs listing also showed their overall (average) star rating at a glance .
I donât expect THS will implement this. Itâs just an observation that star ratings are shown differently on sitters profiles and hostâs listings .
So youâd essentially like there to be a luxury rating?
I think most of us can get some measure of that from reading listings and looking at the pics. I would instantly know the difference in what to expect between an RV and a mansion 
.
In such a case I would think the host would be better off disclosing this in the listing. Iâm sure this issue with hot water can be true for many RVs and similar homes, also some off grid homes. But if one hasnât experienced it one might not know what to ask for. So the host should disclose it.
Disclosing it would give you and other sitters an opportunity to consider pre-application whether this was for you or not, and the host would get applicants that didnât mind. Instead I can imagine the host would be rated down. For instance for Accuracy of listing.
I am not in an RV, I did an RV sit on my second sit. This is a house. A very cluttered house. And she had said on the chat that they had just moved, so why things looked the way they did. No, things looked like that because they looked like that.
There was a post about someone wanting to leave a sit. The dog had to go out during the night, there was no counter space. Although there was dog hair everywhere. I donât have a problem getting up in the middle of the night to let a dog out. I am a light sleeper and so I get up and let the dog out. I can sympathize not having counter space on this sit. None. Pushing things aside to make my coffee this morning. And I wanted to pour a glass of wine. No glassware. None. I am careful not to use nice stemware, donât want to break anything but there is none. Only plastic cups you give children. Maybe they put it all away but there is none. Not one glass. I had a great sit booked for 2 weeks in FL but then the dog died. I had a some time to rebook and I booked the first week, then this came up. So I am focusing on not being in snowy northern winter and the water was decent at the beach and I was swimming in the ocean. Just like on my second sit, when I only had 1 review, or maybe none when I applied. I got the RV. I was glad to be in FL during March. Glad to get second review. But moving around an RV is tight. And you expect no counter space. And it was a luxury RV with bathroom, shower, W/D. But the RV park was on the lower rating side, so there were a lot of smokers. When I went to the pool, there were so many smokers. Walking the dogs around the park, there were a lot of smokers. That doesnât show up in any interview. BUT, I believe that we donât disclose a lot of stuff. I admit, I havenât read full reviews of past sitters before I confirm. A previous sitter, from my current sit, mentioned the sleeping arrangements were not ideal. And there was no breakdown on the stars. As I said. It is clean. Just terribly cluttered. It is a pretty new build, so new floors, kitchen. When I go into the garage to get the leash it smells like dirty clothes. But that is the garage. I donât stay there. Not that I expect to stay in luxury homes all the time, but the last several sits, the beds were super comfy. Nice big islands, where I could sit and be on my computer while having my coffee, with the news on. Backyards where I sat on comfy furniture to drink my wine. I got used to it. One after the other. And I could go out and get fish tacos. Sorry, the clutter just got to me when I walked in. So how does one rate that, because it is clean. And suddenly there is hot water in the kitchen sink. But i let it run a lot last night. Maybe the tank was low? Anyway. And there is a separate place to sleep, but it is a bunk bed thing. With not great mattress. Just the comparison. And I have stayed in rustic cottages, or permanent camps (in northern Australia to see crocs) where I had to walk carefully to the common bathrooms to avoid snakes. But here is a question. I do not expect, nor eat anything of the HO, except maybe salt/pepper. Or if they left berries that will go bad. But some HO offer everything. I have HO offer their wine stock, which I donât touch, and then some HO offer nothing. How do you rate hospitality? Because they are not expected to offer anything. I even keep some TP in the car because I feel awkward if I use too much. So what constitutes a 5 for hospitality?
We have stayed in a luxury home ( swimming pool , landscaped gardens , fancy coffee machine ) that was very dusty ( as in 1 inch thick dust on velvet curtains and the on lampshade that was above the bed ) and modest smaller homes that were immaculate and everything in between .
The photos and description of the home show if they are providing the facilities, space or amenities that are important to you.
I am happy with the current ratings as they are . Although I think that âcommunication â needs to be added to the review of sitters as it is for hosts . As good communication by both parties is vital for a sit to go well.
Hospitality refers to the lengths hosts go to, to make you feel welcome, not to the quality of their fixtures and fittings.
Ditto!
One particularly amazing property springs to mind, where there was a fabulous indoor pool, landscaped gardens, gorgeous location etc. We were greeted by a housekeeper. The home was huge and impressive, but cluttered and grubby. The bins werenât emptied and the oven and fridges with just awful - we didnât use them and didnât clean them as it wasnât a long stay - and we werenât left so much as a drop of milk for a cuppa. We subsequently felt like a means to an end for the HO.
In contrast, we completed a sit in a modest, 3 bedroom semi, which was clean and tidy, the fridge had been cleared and cleaned for us to use there was space in the freezer, the guest room was freshly made up for our arrival and there was wardrobe and drawer space for us to use, new toiletries left out for us in the bathroom, a bottle of wine and wine glasses left out on the kitchen worktop, together with a thank-you note expressing the hostâs appreciation of our agreeing to sit and fresh flowers on the dining table. Communications were great throughout the sit, with the hosts often thanking us for helping them out. We were invited to join them for a meal, even after their return. Theyâd thought about how to prioritise out comfort and wellbeing, the other HO had not given it any thought. Thatâs the difference.
In short, hospitality has absolutely nothing to do with the size, style, age or value of the property, the location is irrelevant, as are the facilities. It has everything to do with the demeanour of the HOs and whether they make you feel welcome and appreciated.
My experience has been the opposite. The more attractive the home, it has been cleaner and the hosts more hospitable. Leaving gifts ($100 one time), saying help yourself to anything. My current sit, a more modest home. Clean enough. Cluttered with toys. I had to move the toddler step for the toilet. I cut my foot stepping on something and got blood on a bath mat. Rinsed in cold first and the dirt that came outâŚNo counter space. Barely space on the dining table for my computer. Minimal TV access, Disney+ is the only streaming. I had to sweep the deck since it was littered with acorns and leaves. Minimal seating outside compared to lovely patio furniture which was comfy to sit and drink my chardonnay in the afternoon. I enjoyed the hot tubs and pools. And the comfy beds with ensuites. Here I am on this cot like bottom bunk. And the dog is insisting on jumping up to sleep with me. A golden doodle, not a small dog. But they asked me to leave the door open in case she has to go out during the night, which happens every night. So if I went to a luxury home and it was dirty and cluttered, then no, but do I prefer the ones I have stayed in the last 2 months, clean, spacious, comfy, and hospitable hosts. This one never mentioned helping myself, which I don;t but usually is mentioned, and there are candy and snack packs strewn about on the dining table and counter. It is obvious she buys in bulk and hords crap. But she put a lot in the garage. I kind of rushed to fill in a gap in FL when my original sit dog died and it got cancelled. But now, I am going to be more careful with my sits. I do have 5 more booked. No more with toddlers, I believe. So before, if this was my 2nd sit, I would have said they were hospitable. Now, in comparison of what I have experienced, I would say 3 stars. The bed alone. I probably would go back and move some people down in hospitable for bed, but they were very hospitable about offering food and stuff. But this one, is basic accomodations for taking care of their dog. But it takes a lot of sits and reviews to get more luxury homes. And now I think I am over the hump. Because I prefer the HOs that appreciate my care of their pets, that they leave treats or gifts, and have very comfortable homes-- with hot tubs and pools or beachfront during warm weather. Why not? It is like last year, I needed to be in the LA area to help my daughter move her stuff and provide a place for her in between places, I took a sit with 2 large dogs. Sweet but a handful and tough to walk. It is much easier with small dogs. And I will screen for smaller dogs going forward. I am really good about taking care of pets, I donât sight see, so I can take them out frequently. I am alone, clean. So getting reviews that give me the option. But it takes a lot of sits to get more options.
It is clear that you have learned a lot about what you value in a sit @Huronbase
Yes, I have found I do not like sitting on smelly living room furniture.