The request placed in the application should be much more specific regarding the tasks. For example, it was not mentioned that the cats should receive wet food 3 times a day, which prevents us from leaving the house for a full-day walk. In fact, during the interview I asked if I could go out for a whole day and take the dog with me, and she said yes, and only after the sitting was accepted did it appear in the welcome guide that I should feed the cats in the early afternoon.
Put a cat net on the only window in the living room, so that it can be opened and the house aired out. The door that leads to the street must always be closed so that the cats cannot get out, but the window cannot be opened either because it is not protected. This way, the living room is left without any air circulation. The dor and the windows both face the street.
Remove the cat litter box from the living room to avoid the smell in this space, where we eat, relax/work.
Find a way to wash the small patio next to the kitchen every day to avoid the bad smell in the kitchen - the kitchen is small and without Windows, has a door to the pateo and the dog urinates in this pateo (for example, a bucket or two of water with a disinfectant or instal a hose). When I asked how I could clean the space, Karen told me not to do anything until she arrived (sitting scheduled for 8 days).
Give the house a good and thorough cleaning before the sitters arrive.
Given these problems, especially the smell in the living room, the âheavyâ air due to the lack of air circulation and the lack of hygiene, I was very sorry that I was unable to complete the scheduled days. I asked _____ to come out because I was not feeling well and there was a friend who could help. I want to make it clear that I tried to stay and I was cleaning part of the house for about 2h30, but the air quality, the lack of ventilation and the smell made me fear for my own health.
I sincerely hope that these situations can be corrected so this house will have great potential for good sitting."
(Name removed to respect memberâs privacy as per the posting guidelines)
With hindsight, if going out for the day was really important to you, you could have asked for clarification as to how often they were fed when you communicated with them.
It sounds like youâve probably learned from this forum that you need to be factual, so Iâll be honest, and please take this in a helpful way so you look kind/nice, but some of the parts sound like you are writing it because you are expecting a poor review from the owner with leaving early, because youâre compiling a big amount of words/list, and some of things are quite small, for example how to clean a patio. Although I get that itâs on top of everything else.
Things like the below comments, just make you look bad, not the owner, because youâre wording it as though you are entitled to arrive early⊠when you arenât.
Also, you use the word âsincerelyâ at the end - which makes you come across as having a lack of friendliness.
So personally I would condense it a little. The main issue you seem to have is due to the lack of ventilation, air quality, and general cleanliness.
I would keep the review more fact based and wouldnât provide any suggestions as to how this can be improved .
Keep in the positives that you have about the hosts and pets at the beginning.
Some of the facts that will be useful for future sitters to know
.. The hosts declined my offer to visit them at their home prior to the sit and suggested that we meet in a coffee shop instead . (FACT)
I have rated this sit as a three overall because on arrival I found that
The House , bathrooms and fridge were dirty / unhygienic . (FACT)
The only Window in the living room had to be kept shut at all times to stop the cats from getting out . There was no other ventilation in this room . (FACT)
Overpowering unpleasant smells coming from the cat litter box which is kept in the living room . (FACT)
Kitchen has no windows and the only way to get air circulating is to open a door which opens onto the patio which smells very unpleasant because this is where dog urinates. (FACT)
Great points here and I like how you are leaning on the potential .. some of these things I would do in a WhatsApp and heads up to help the Home Owners for future sitters.. it seems they knew these problems might put you off so met on neutral ground! Am I being unfair?
I hope they are fair with you in their review. Itâs clear you tried hard to make this work.. pity the friend couldnât have given you the odd break it sounds like a prison sentence! The lack of ventilation and stench .. who needs that! Imagine a Covid scenario! Thatâs my idea of a claustrophobic cage!
What I always console myself with itâs not permanent and I will learn from this experience and not be so trusting! Ironically we can be a bit naive .. I would smell a rat if we didnât meet at the home! Thatâs a blood red flag right there!
If you decide to give feedback to host besides review I advice to wait for that until host has left their review. Unfortunately some take kind feedback as criticism and retaliate.
Have you posted the review or is it still a draft?
Youâre absolutely right, but the sitting was already agreed. I only found out about the conditions of the house after I stayed there - as it was the first time these owners had experienced it, there were no previous opinions. I felt exactly like I was in prison, in an environment that I consider to be dangerous for our health.
Iâve already written and spent almost two weeks deciding what to do: write, not write, rate with one star or not⊠I wrote a post here before reporting what happened, read all the responses and spent several days after that considering what to do. I didnât want these owners to leave the project for good or lose their chances, but I wanted to warn other sitters about what they should ask/check before accepting a sit with them. I believe this project needs real reviews to protect each other as a community.
I agree that you should respond with facts and not be suggesting what the homeowner should do to improve the sit. The homeowners will have the opportunity to respond to your review and address your concerns and facts.
Thank you for your response, as all opinions will help me to do better in the future. I think you missed the fact that I had asked before if I could leave the dog all day and they said yes, and only after the sitting was accepted did they write in the welcome guide that the cats should be given wet food in the early afternoon.
I donât think cleaning a small patio is a minor issue, as it is immediately next to the kitchen (which has no windows) and the smell of the dogâs urine goes straight into the kitchen. This with the dog urinating there for 8 days without cleaning and with temperatures over 30â°. To me it seems unhygienic and even dangerous to our health. That is exactly why I asked how I should clean it and was surprised by the answer not to clean it during the 8 days. I accept that for you it may not be a problem, but for me it certainly is.
I am not afraid of a bad review. They decide how to review it and I can respond to the review. I donât know if you read carefully that I spent 2h30 cleaning part of the apartment to try to stay, but even so⊠I often felt like throwing upâŠ
As for the word âsincerelyâ, the idea was to reinforce my desire for them not to make any more requests before resolving these issues, for the sake of our health. But I could have written âstronglyâ. This project is an exchange and it has to be fair: we ensure the care of the animals, the house and the plants, but in exchange we have the right to receive decent living conditions. And I think that detailed opinions help future sitters to ensure that the problems have been resolved.
You probably didnât read my first topic about this sitter where I described the conditions of the house in detail.
In addition, I exchanged several emails with THS and sent many photos to prove these conditions. I did not wanted to open a dispute, althoug there is enough to do it.
I had a 5 star review on my first sitting and I am sure I will have the same here, now ( almost finishing third sitting). And the owners asked to came back. I am not the problem at all.
Once again, thank you very much for your collaboration and I wish you excellent sitters in the future.
Hello.
I did it today because they time to do it was almost up. But I gave a lot of thought: write, not write and what to write. I wanted to be useful for other sitters too.
Thank you
Something to think about is that many threads on the forum are members who have had bad experiences saying that THS should be enforcing policies and dealing with members (hosts / sitters) who donât abide by the T&Cs .
The reality is that the only way that THS will intervene and enforce standards is if a member dispute is raised .
This is because THS wonât know about any issues unless they are reported and they canât ban people from the platform unless they investigate the allegations and they canât investigate without some âevidenceâ being submitted.
I think @Silversitters provides the most useful comments. Think of it this way â your review should be honest, objective, and useful to future sitters. It should be as concise as possible. Maybe you are trying to use more words to be nice or you are trying to be helpful by providing solutions, but it just muddies the waters. Your solutions could be left as private feedback, but arenât helpful to future sitters. Regarding the cats and wet food â this should have been on your to clarify with the owners before the sit started. Many cats that get wet food 3 times a day have flexible schedules that would allow sitters to leave for many hours, and this could have been brought up much earlier by you.
Iâll have a go:
_______ and _______ are very friendly hosts. But I didnât see the home before the sit started. ________ is a great dog and easy to walk. _________ and _________ are good cats who enjoy ________________. This was their first sit, and feeding instructions could have been more precise, as the cats eat wet food and there no automatic feeders, but I could also have discussed this with them more before the sit started.
Unfortunately, I had to leave the sit early due to conditions in the home. The home was not clean upon arrival. The windows couldnât be opened because there was no netting and the cats could escape. Therefore, air circulation was poor. The litter pan was very smelly, and centered in the living room. The dog urinates on the patio and the odor goes into the kitchen. I asked about cleaning the patio to alleviate the odor, and was told not to.
As a sitter, I would avoid the sit unless the hosts replied taking responsibility and explaining how the conditions have changed. As a host, this would go a long toward explaining your early departure and possibly less than stellar review by the homeowners.
It sounds like you tried to take steps around the patio, but the only thing Iâm left to wonder is about the litter pan. Was it bad when you got there? You could add a detail â âThe litter pan was not clean when we arrived.â Did you try to clean it? Did you connect with the homeowners about it?
I donât think people missed the disclosure around the cat feeding schedule either, but
other sitters and homeowners might feel that the feeding schedules for all the pets should have been discusssed before the sit. If the homeowners werenât clear, you could have asked. You could also have discussed this during the sit if it seemed to conflict with your earlier impression. I have cats. I sit for cats. Most of the time when cats get wet food and homeowners request 3 feedings a day, those times are flexible. This might not have been spelled out but it could have been clarified.
It looks like all the sitters whoâve replied have given you similar advice â stick to the facts. Donât turn it into a lecture. The homeowners will get the point without all of your pubic suggestions. The sitters will be warned without them as well.
As for the comment you got about the patio cleaning being minor, I think that was in context of cleaning it, not the kitchen odor.
I think that the main purpose of reviews is not to give feedback for the other party, but to give information to other sitters and HOs.
When I get applications from sitters, I always read the reviews they have left on their previous sits.
If I would read a review including the quote above and suggestions for the HO about how to improve the sit, I would be afraid that the sitter would be too âhigh maintenanceâ and go with someone else.
But remember, she only said 8 days off the back of you asking how to clean it, thatâs the only reason 8 days came into the equation.
I totally understand this is just one extra thing on the top of many things you had to deal with, but if the other problems didnât exist, you would have just cleaned it daily with a bucket or bowl and detergent without necessarily asking how to clean it, you would have just sorted it with her being on holiday. So I just wouldnât go too in-depth about that bit, the 8 days only came about off the back of you asking. Thatâs all I was saying.
âI didnât have a chance to see the home before the sitâ â That gets the message across, is shorter, and doesnât imply they were trying to keep her from her home. People can make inferences.
@mbss
TBH the host asking to meet the you in a cafe, rather than at their home, would have been an immediate red flag for me.
Iâd be thinking..what are they hiding? What surprises am I going to findâŠ?
