I did a sit a couple of months ago which had very desirable photos - a super bright modern apartment. When we arrived to meet with the homeowner the apartment was very different from what I saw in the listing but we agreed to the sit as I didn’t want to let the homeowner down and it was in a great location. It wasn’t the greatest sit due to the lack of light in the place and I honestly didn’t enjoy it and couldn’t wait for the sit to end. The sit has now been advertised again and has lots of applicants but once again the pics aren’t current and show what I saw when I applied but very different from the place we stayed. The pics are of the condo prior to the homeowners moving in so very different from what the place looks like. They appear to be real estate listing photos prior to the homeowners taking possession of the place. They have mentioned in their listing the pics aren’t current but I think recent pics should be posted.
I did a sit recently. The photos were lovely, nice period house, lovely furniture etc. in actuality, every room in the house was full of baby and child paraphernalia. Toys, games, baby equipment absolutely everywhere along with associated stains, spills, dried on food etc. We need accurate photos, it’s so unfair on the sitter.
For both of the above, I would PM the link to an admin and have them contact the HO. This is really misleading and unfair of the HO to do. I would also mention it in your reviews.
This is exactly the sort of thing that should be mentioned in reviews
I think in future it might be an idea to mention this to the owner, maybe on leaving, and perhaps draw attention to it in your review.
Reported yes, but more important is a review. You will never know if THS takes any action and which, but by writing a review the next sitters know not to expect the place to look like on the pictures.
I agree but there could be a problem when the owner does change the pictures to the actual state of the home and prospective sitters think they’re not accurate
Maybe that’s Murphy’s law then… Should have thought about this earlier
Thanks all for the comments. I personally don’t feel comfortable noting this in a review. It’s not like the place was dirty or anything and the sit was horrendous. The place was really gorgeous in a great location but personally I didn’t enjoy the lack of brightness but the next sitter may have no problem with this at all. There’s a sit for everyone!
It’s all subjective but the owner should have used photos of how their home is now
I don’t think it has to be a negative. More of a “Note for future sitters: the house is lovely and in a great location but the photos posted are sales photos and don’t reflect the current interior.” Then at least they know to ask for updated photos. But hopefully management will have reached out to the HOs by now and asked them to update with current pics.
ETA: since this seems to be a recurring problem and I see listings like this regularly, perhaps on the image upload page something could be added like: Note: Photos of your home should be representative of its current state. Please do not upload sales or leasing photos, which may misrepresent the current decor or condition of your home.
Good advice to contact the admin. I would be very upset if it wasnt showing reality.
This happened to me. I told the HO I felt deceived when I realized they had used the realtor’s staged photos rather than showing how the place currently was furnished.
I agreed to leave no review if they changed the photos, as I could not ethically leave a positive review. They did change the photos and I didn’t feel a need to take punitive action against them. I’m sure there are cases when negative reviews are necessary, but in some cases the HOs can own up to their dishonesty and change their ways.
There was some discussion here on the forum about how it might be considered a red flag if HOs have had sitters who did not leave reviews, and I second that!
Also: It’s usually pretty easy to tell high-quality professional realtor photos from the HO’s own amateur pics. I’ve certainly learned my lesson about that.
I don’t know how we’d know if sitters don’t leave reviews
I don’t think you can on the website, but on the mobile app you can see in “Feedbacks & sitters” whether sitters have left reviews or not.
@Smiley - You can only tell if a sitter does not leave a review if you are using the App
Thanks Colin. I don’t use the app, I’ve tried a few times but hate it. Just go into the website