I completed my review of the housesitter too quickly and found out more information which would have downgraded the review I gave. The housesitter locked the dogs out of the room he and his girlfriend were in so the year old puppy was anxious and peed in a few places. That was one of the things they were asked to do. They complained in my review that the puppy barked and kept them up and she was peeing in the house Well duh! I can forgive the blinds that were bent because they didn’t raise them properly. I understand that they have a lower standard of cleaning, but not taking the dogs out often enough so they are uncomfortable and peeing in the house is cruel. Now I feel bad because someone else will hire this yahoo.
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So that is the reason why you want to downgrade your review now?
In the new system, that is not possible anymore.
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The straightforward answer here is that you can’t, the reviews are blind for a reason.
I do have a question here; the puppy has to be in the room with the sitter 100% of the time? Was that disclosed beforehand? It’s a very restrictive requirement, so I’m not surprised they had trouble meeting it. Also, if you didn’t know the puppy has peed indoors, then I assume the sitter did a good job of cleaning it up.
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I wouldn’t necessarily expect a year old puppy to bark in the night and pee in the house. I’m not totally clear but it sounds like the issue was maybe that you usually sleep with the pup and maybe let it out to pee at night? But that your sitter shut the dog in a different place.
Were you super clear in your advert that the dog sleeps with you and you expect the same of sitters? And the frequency of pee breaks required? Putting this info in the welcome guide is too late. We had a sit before where there were lots of quite important issues we only found out about on arrival and we did mention that in our review as a bit of a heads up to future sitters. I wouldn’t have done that if the owners were able to rewrite their review in response.
I don’t think it’s possible to change reviews after they’re written - you can respond to their review of you but be careful to keep it calm and factual. If you had been super clear on what was required then that was bad of the sitter to not follow through.
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I think that the OP wants to change the review because of the facts in the sentence before your quote - because the sitters kept the dog out of the bedroom, not because the sitters complained in their review. I’m not saying either reason (for amending the review) is or isn’t legitimate.
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Yeah, I can understand why you would think that I’m complaining now because of their review. That isn’t the case. I didn’t find out that they had made the puppy sleep by itself until after I read their review. They were informed when they took the sit that the puppy would sleep on it’s bed in the room they were sleeping in. They locked the door to their room and to the bathroom where, if they had put a pee pad, the puppy would have gone if she wasn’t taken out and had to relieve herself. We leave the dogs for 3 or 4 hours at a time without it being a problem. The dogs were not taken often enough so when I got in at 11 pm, one of the beds was soaked with urine. And no, the sitter did not clean it up. I did when I got home at 11 pm. It was super clear what was expected. What I didn’t do was read all of their reviews before I approved them. I found similar complaints when I want further back then the most recent 4 reviews. Lesson learned. Read All the reviews.
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But those are not new facts I think.
The new thing is that they read a negative review. So now they wish they had written about the blinds, the cleaning standard, the pee in the bed, etc.
I guess that HOs used to write 5-star reviews so that they would get a 5-star review in return. It does not work like that anymore, with the new double-blind system.
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Write a measured response to their review along the lines of “It saddens me that a sitter who agreed to look after a puppy as asked then didn’t & caused unnecessary stress & pain to the animal. Not recommended as sitters for puppies.” Or similar. They can’t respond and it gets the crucial part of the poor care across (without pee/blinds details which it’s too late for). Hope that helps @Lea
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@Cuttlefish happy anniversary 
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Thanks @ziggy, we are unknowingly celebrating it in appropriate style Turkish style 
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Looks fabulous @Cuttlefish , enjoy! Couldn’t you find bigger glasses? 
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As @Cuttlefish suggests, you can reply to their review. Do so in a measured, calm, facts-only manner and it won’t reflect badly on you. Avoid the perception of retaliation. I am sorry your sitter behaved this way. A reminder that we should all read reviews carefully, sitters and hosts alike.
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It might be useful to post your profile to get feedback about whether other sitters think the responsibilities are clearly laid out enough for them. This might prevent future such problems.
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No. It wasn’t about reading the negative review. It was about getting new information that changed what I would have written. It’s all about the best care for the dogs. The blinds, cleaning standards are less important than the care of the dogs but important to some. I didn’t mention it because I mistakenly thought the dogs were well taken care of.
I guess your learning here is that you shouldn’t write a review before you’ve returned home
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Absolutely. I love your thoughtful and measured response.
Lea
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