The other way to handle it is mention it in the video chat, but that’s always more time consuming.
I don’t think potential sitters will think you’re slobs, most reasonable people understand dog hair (especially in multi-dog/cat homes) and if the environment is windy/dusty - then it is what it is.
That is an excellent point that I didn’t consider even though my wife and I felt that she probably meant well but was overwhelmed.
I may have to reconsider my strategy.
This. I’ve been too quick to count stars and skim read the reviews. But looking back at that sitters reviews and profile there was nothing to indicate a problem other than she was young and more of a free spirited traveler without the responsibility and experience of home ownership.
I hadn’t but I looked just now. She got two more 5 star reviews since our sit with no “read between the lines” comments, bringing her total to 17.
Bugger!
You’re completely right. I don’t know how it didn’t even occur to me.
Maybe other HOs were thinking like you which just results in a lot of dishonest reviews. So you basically gave a false review because you didn’t want future sits effected?
The review system should be double blind, I agree on that.
It kind of puts me off of using THS reading posts like this because how can I have any faith in the reviews?
Yes, by me leaving a false positive review for a 3 star sitter I am perpetuating the problem that was started by numerous hosts before me. Unless as suggested by another forum member, this sitter was great for 15 prior sits and suddenly fell apart with our sit and simply forgot to water the plants, and drop the robot vacuum in the pool once a week as clearly instructed verbally and in the welcome guide, and check for dog feces under the bed and clean up pet urine stains around the house because they weren’t let out often enough.
I still have faith in the review system although I view it with a healthy dose of skepticism. A sitter with dozens of 5 star reviews is still a better bet than a sitter with no history, odds are if a sitter was really bad it would show up somewhere in the past reviews.
So wait…you’re going to punish this person who gave you an honest-but-not-perfect rating by refusing to have them back? And you think it was overly-negative of them to dock you a single star in the Cleanliness category?
I’m sorry as this is going to sound quite harsh, but at the risk of pointing out the obvious:
You’ve literally been railing for months about how upsetting it is that people leave glowing 5-star reviews because they’re afraid of reprisal if they’re honest. You’ve described in numerous posts how you subsequently decided to start giving Sitters false 5-star reviews to retaliate against random future Hosts, because you feel unrelated past Hosts betrayed you by not docking your sitters on their previous gigs.
None of this is logical; it just seems non-sensical & petty.
(Please don’t feel the need to repeat-post your convoluted logic for choosing to be ‘part of the problem.’ It didn’t make good sense before, and it’s doubly un-credible given your reaction to this honest-but-mild review from your most recent sitter.)
I wouldn’t refuse to have them back, I would just prefer other sitters who don’t feel the need to ding me a star because they felt our house wasn’t up to their standards of cleanliness. In fact my wife invited them to a future sit later this year and I wasn’t opposed to it, but I was glad when they said they’d get back to us. I jumped on THS, listed the dates and found a sitter.
They are staying at an island in Greece and during the sit we made plans to meet up but I’m not really into it anymore as a result of their review.
I’ve been railing for months about the dishonesty of the THS membership base when it comes to reviews, and this situation reflects this same level of dishonesty. The sitters told us how happy they were with us and the sit, saying nothing to me directly about the cleanliness issue, yet they were quick to dock me a star which doesn’t help me at all.
I’m an honest direct person generally speaking but there are exceptions. I’m not inclined to post a deserved negative review- not out of “retaliation” against future hosts but because doing so would only hurt me by making me appear to be the unreasonable one. I’m not looking to punish future hosts, I’m simply not inclined to do them any favors by warning them about an irresponsible sitter. Even though future potential hosts didn’t do anything to deceive me personally, the ones that did, represent a cross section of the entire host membership base, many of whom I believe would do exactly the same thing to cover themselves from retaliation to a negative review they might leave for a sitter.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to further clarify my position in this matter.
I’m sitting full time for the next 6 months or so, and use multiple sites. I’ve only just joined THS and the calendar is not user friendly. But I do use tge calenders and fill them in on each site, as from the other sites I often get contact from HOs.
How do you read the reviews they give other sitters?
You tap on the reviews that the sitters gave them, and then it takes you to the sitters profile and then you just look through their reviews to find the name of the homeowner that you want to see what review they gave them
Thank you, I’ll try that!
Works both ways. Our last sitter did exactly that. We wouldn’t use them again and it’s possible other hosts may see them as difficult to satisfy and decline their applications.
You wouldn’t “use” them again @idocsteve but they most likely wouldn’t “use” your accommodation either where they didn’t find it as clean as they would have liked. Works both ways.
the 3rd sitter docked him a star for cleanliness!!! says it all
his wonderful house is not as wonderful as he portrays it
No, it is not. It is the sign of an honest sitter, and should be encouraged.
ABSOLUTELY.
Classic case of ego here, he thinks he is in control, rather than any decision on a sit being a mutual decision.
Irrelevant given that they won’t ever be invited again.