How do you all approach the delicate subject of home cleanliness in reviews? Husband and I recently did a sit at a home without pet. Beautiful home in a beautiful setting in Florida full of interesting things from travels. The home is not as clean as I would like. She lives alone and does her own cleaning. In my opinion, its about a 5 on a scale of 1-10 in terms of cleanliness. Especially the kitchen. I found myself cringing when grabbing a cabinet handle they were so dirty. I cleaned them all myself. Also dust and cobwebs in some areas and an overwhelming smell of mold when walking into garage to go in house and on bottom floor of the house. It all appears clean until you live in it a day or 2. We were there 10. Realizing everyone has different standards I find it difficult to word an honest review without offending her and scaring any other sitters away. She’s really a decent person and its a beautiful place.
It sounds like you had a mixed experience, and it’s great for the THS community that you wish to be factual and honest. It will help your host improve, future sitters and will be more fair to hosts that put a lot of effort in preparing and cleaning for a sit that they get a better score than a home with grime. So thank you for that. But no need to be unpleasant being thruthful. It is all in the wording. An example:
"We had the pleasure of staying in a beautiful home in Florida, filled with fascinating items from the owner’s travels. The location is stunning, and the house itself has a lot of charm and character.
The overall appearance is tidy, there were some areas that needed more attention, particularly in the kitchen and the lower floors (people with allergy might like to know that there was a noticeable smell of mold in the garage and on the bottom floor that became more apparent after a couple of days of living in the space).
Everyone has different standards of cleanliness, and we appreciate that the owner maintains the home herself. We hope this feedback is helpful to get a good match.»
It sounds to me as though it’s pretty clean unless you go looking.
I know everyone has different standards, but remember you’re not rating a hotel here – this is someone’s lived-in home. In the same way, when the home-owner reviews you after your sit, they shouldn’t be reviewing you as a professional cleaner, but as someone who has lived in their home, maintaining it to the standard in which it was left, with the main focus being on the care that you’ve provided for their pets. As for the smell of mold, if it affected the main living area and bedroom I would mention it, but if it’s just the garage and utility area, I’d let it go.
We had a situation like this not that long ago. We didn’t say anything outright in the review other than using the words “well lived in” and “rustic” but we only left four stars for cleanliness. I’m fairly sure that got the message across to future sitters.
@Oztravels We got docked a star for cleanliness from our first 2 sitters but raves about everything else from them. We are definitely French mountain rustic. After the first sitter, for whom I had cleaned like a madwoman, we even hired someone to come and do a deep clean of the utility room. The second sitter still docked us a star. So we added a disclaimer to the end of our listing. We can’t keep spiders out, we heat with wood so there is dust and we can’t ever get it sparkling clean. The third sitter specified in her application that she was fine with spiders. So go ahead and dock a star but don’t say anything in the review unless there is something that will affect people with allergies.
I guess I just feel more comfortable with the scale system of cleanliness and other topics. Like a scale of 1 to 10.
Exactly. Don’t want to offend someone who has tried their best, but I feel an obligation to sitters also, to be honest about cleanliness. I should mention that I Always check pictures closely to see what the normal living conditions are for the homeowners.