All local sits and shortish, longest is 9 days. So one a month until November.
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Its a bit nerve racking isn’t it. I consider myself super conscientious and a people pleaser so would be absolutely gutted if we got anything less than 5 stars. Sometimes you just got to go for it. I’d rather have a lesson learnt than wonder what might have happened if I’d tried something. Good luck with you sits. Lets hope neither of gets dodgy HO’s!
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@BonnyinBrighton @ChristineB
We all have to start somewhere. All the sitters with dozens of 5 
reviews started out like you with no THS reviews .
When we started out and had only external references and no reviews we confirmed 4 sits off the bat . The first and third owners were also THS newbies - they turned out to exceed our expectations -definitely 5 sits.
We have done repeat sits for all of them and one of them we will soon be sitting for a fourth time .
We had video or phone calls with all of the owners asked lots of questions about their expectations and their pets routines . As avid forum readers we know some of the issues that can come up on a sit . So with the new owners we tried to be proactive and we don’t assume that they have read the HOs checklist .
For example one was for a six week stay so we asked can you please leave us a shelf in a cupboard , fridge and freezer to put our groceries and some hanging space in the bedroom would be really useful - they hadn’t previously thought about the kitchen cupboard space but were happy to oblige . We make sure to ask for and read the welcome guide asap and if anything important is missing we ask for it to be included ( vet details / emergency contacts etc ) . We ask about how often they would want updates . We suggest keeping in touch by WhatApp .
The owners appreciated our respectful input as they were also stressing about having sitters for the first time and what was expected of them .
I think when you are sitting for someone for the first time you can do a lot proactively to make your own sit go well by good communication and set expectations for future sitters too.
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Great advice
@ChristineB when you see the logged sits with no reviews, are you sure it doesn’t say, Past Sitter at the top then under the photo, X cared for this home? This would mean the sitter is no longer a member of THS and their history has been deleted. I have a suspicion this may be the case so check those blank reviews again.
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It does say that but the sitters profile is still active - and they are still doing sits.
Thank you - very useful advice.
@ChristineB it is possible that their membership lapsed or they cancelled a fair time ago but have since rejoined.
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Good to know. I’m not overly concerned for this particular one. It’s just I’ve seen it quite frequently when reviewing other HO’s and was interested to get others experiences.
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Yes, it does show like this on many listings, I have found predominantly where the sits were done a few years back so the homeowners have been on THS for a long while hence can show this way. Personally those past sits showing like that would not concern me as I believe they are just ex sitters or sitters who lapsed and rejoined at some point a few years later. Could be wrong but that’s how I see it as it isn’t unusual to see, particularly when you can see a homeowner has given them a good review, which again usually shows but not always.
Some members, both HO and sitters, just don’t leave reviews for anyone. Personally I always check on this before applying for a sit.
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That’s good to know. I did check the HO’s reviews of their sitters before I applied. All was good both ways. Just that one missing review which based on feedback in the forum seems perfectly innocent as all others (both ways) were absolutely fine.
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@ChristineB until quite recently reviews were open indefinitely i.e reviews got posted immediately so- if things did not go perfectly well on one side or the other- there was always the risk of revenge reviews if one side dud not like what the other wrote. Therefore we always made sure to request our review before giving one. And there were times we did not reciprocate a review- for different reasons- usually because we had something negative to say (and would rather not write it publicly) or we did not feel appreciated etc .
Reviews can be very helpful- if truthful- but they are not compulsory.
Now that reviews are blind and there are categories to rate hosts we are giving reviews for every sit- after we’ve been notified the hosts have submitted their review- so we are sure we receive a review within the 14 day time frame. Its still hard to comment on negatives but the star rating can be used instead of words in some cases.
If you cross reference a previous sitter who did not leave a review, and you see they enthusiastically reviewed other sits, you can probably interpret that as a red flag.
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I agree! - l thought that too.
Until THS provided “blind reviews” (ie. both parties have confirmed a review has been created but neither is able to see the other’s until posted), I definitely left blanks for the nightmare H.O.s, particularly when I was first getting started because “retaliatory” reviews were a definite thing.
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@ChristineB to echo was @Silversitters said, every homeowner started out with no reviews at some point. We have done quite a lot of sits for new homeowners and have not yet had a bad sit. We have also done and are planning to do repeat sits for some of these homeowners where we were their first sitter.
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I am new to THS and now on my 3rd sit. All is going well but was kind of disappointed after having a great first sit with mutual 5 star reviews by HO and myself, to then find myself a bit disturbed on my 2nd sit. I wanted to be near home in my state of North Carolina to gain experience and reviews to then travel to more far off places of my interest. I love the mountains and this sit was in an area I wanted to explore. I work remotely and would be using my days off to explore the area. So I chose cat sits for my first two sits for the ease and flexibility. I checked the HO reviews which seemed fine, but in retrospect, the reviews were from the same two or three people, and most were from another home in a well appointed home in another state before they moved to NC. Being that I feel uncomfortable to leave an honest review to HO who has my phone number ( I am very non confrontational lol), I tend to just look at the brightside and leave out the bad.
But the problem was that they lied on their profile saying all cats used the litter box, when they had an elderly cat that did not. I was only told this information after calling the HO that I thought the cat was sick, and was not using the litterbox. She jokingly told me “he has a love hate relationship to the litterbox”. Meaning he would not use it. Preferred using his favorite chair and floor. So I had lots of extra cleaning.
Also worse than that was the trash situation. I was told after arriving that I would have to drive my car, with the trash to a place “down the road”, but was more like a few miles to a drop off place, where the attendant tried to scam me to pay him, until I told him I would call the HO. Then he said he would let me slide this time. He looked mentally disturbed, filthy,and homeless but worked there. Needless to say I did not go back. But left less trash in home than I found. The HO’s came back late and I stayed next day as a courtesy. Days later still no review, so I posted mine without the negatives. Like I said I am not confrontational. And the couple was very nice. Yet my review was extensive about the positives, mostly because I really bonded with the three cats, but also I thought they would be appreciative of my hard work. But their review was a very short, line about how the cats liked me. I regret not being honest, for future sitters but live and learn. My main issue is their dishonesty on the listing especially the trash, and pet behavior. I emailed support with my complaint mostly about the harassment at the trash place, hoping they would contact the HO to change the listing. Especially for single females not needing to be put in a harmful situation.
Did I do the right thing or am I overreacting to an unfortunate sit? I have gained valuable advice from this forum!
Sincerely, Celina
@Clever- how did you rate the owner on the accuracy of their listing and pet behavior ?
Whatever overall rating you decide to give the home owner, in my opinion you should rate the categories accurately for the benefit of future sitters - otherwise what is the point of a review?
I hope your current sit will be a better experience.
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Something to consider without the forum knowing the dates of reviews posted by the OP…
Some sitters might have felt compelled to not leave a review prior to THS implementing the blind reviews (14 day period). So if you see HOs without a review from a sitter prior to the new functionality being implemented then it should be a caution flag for sitters. They might have wanted to leave negative feedback but were afraid of a potential unwarranted negative review from HOs.
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I should have rated them lower but like I said, I have been texting with them on sit and can imagine them asking me why? And in some way retaliating. I guess being new here I’m not comfortable with the rating system and the HO being able to lie on their listing, gives me reason to think they may confront me, though its against t&c.