Hello. I was house-sitting and dog-sitting for the first time. Everything went great. I received two emails asking me to write a review about the house owner and the website. I wrote both reviews. The review about the house owner will be published after she writes a review about me, and the review about the website was published immediately (that’s what the email said). A few days later, I received a new email from Trustpilot stating that my review hadn’t been published for one of several reasons (my review didn’t fit any of them) and that to prove their mistake, I needed to send some documents: “a payment receipt, a phone call history with the website name and my last name.” I find this very strange, considering I paid the website and am writing a review on the same website, and now I have to send documents to some other company.
Also, I don’t understand – will they only not publish the review about the company, or will they also not publish the review about the house owner? Because if they don’t publish the review about the company, then I won’t worry about it. A company should be interested in receiving reviews. But I definitely want to leave a good review for the owner and the pet.
Have you encountered this? What would you recommend?
Trustpilot and THS are different companies. Your THS review of your host will be processed normally. While THS probably encouraged you to review THS on Trustpilot, if your review of THS is not 5 
s, THS probably challenged your review claiming you are not a THS member or some such. THS only wants positive reviews on Trustpilot. For Trustpilot to overrule THS’s objection, you’ll have prove to Trustpilot that you are indeed a member.
Lots of people made bad reviews of this site because they were mad at the booking fees so THS worked out something with the review site and now people must prove they are members to post a review on Trustpilot. That’s not the same as a review on this site itself.
I had this same issue with a Trust Pilot review for a totally different business. I had to supply receipts to prove my connection with the business. Weird.
I’m guessing they are getting hammered by bots and trying to keep the site “respectable “. I haven’t done a trust Pilot review for a while. I will give it a go.
Your assumption is perfectly logical. But what’s surprising is that the review was 5-star. This is what puzzled me – all companies strive for reviews, trying to encourage users to leave reviews, but here it turns out you have to prove something to get your positive review published 
Thank you for the answer! What’s surprising is that the review was 5-star
Thanks for your reply! The review was 5 stars, so I don’t understand.
Thanks for your reply! My review was 5 stars, so I don’t understand.
Thanks for the reply!
Thanks everyone for your replies!
I meant well, but I won’t be writing any more reviews)
The most important thing for me is that you publish a review about the host herself on the website – she’s a very nice girl, and I was happy to look after her pet.
Because companies have been known to create false positive reviews. They can’t have it both ways.
Only the negative reviews I presume.
Following this logic, regardless of whether you leave a positive or negative review, you must prove your membership by attaching screenshots of your correspondence and payment receipts. Then, you should immediately write: please leave a review and attach the following proof.
My review was 5 stars
My suspicion is that THS is writing and planting favourable reviews, like this one.
“Such a great way to stay somewhere for free while getting to care for someone’s beloved pet.”
That looks to me like an attempt to attract more new sitters.
Yes, I have absolutely no doubt. The THS rating took a real battering with the introduction of the booking fee. It was so bad the rating was removed from their website.
Lots of 5 star reviews from 1st time contributors appeared in an attempt to raise it again.
I was asked for proof of identity when I placed my less than favourable review.
Thanks for flagging this, and I’m so glad the sit itself went well!
Your review of your host on the THS site is completely separate from Trustpilot, and isn’t affected by anything happening with your Trustpilot review.
On the Trustpilot side, the verification request you received isn’t specific to THS or to this situation. Trustpilot runs the same automated checks across every business on their platform, and asks reviewers to confirm a genuine transaction happened whenever a review gets flagged by that system, regardless of star rating. I’ve come across it myself when reviewing a company, and it can feel like an unexpected hoop to jump through, especially when it’s a positive review!
I bet the owner you sat for will be thrilled with a good review - I hope you also received one back!
Jenny