According to NFPA, stovetops are among the most dangerous appliances in any household, causing 62 percent of all house fires and 87 percent of household fire deaths. The next most dangerous is ovens, which account for 16 percent of house fires and 4 percent of house fire deaths.
HOWEVER
While a house fire may be caused by leaving the oven on it is no more likely to happen if left on than through normal use
At least during normal use, someone’s around and would be more likely to notice a fire, as compared to an oven left on unattended in an unoccupied house.
After I privately contacted her about this issue I wrote the review and gave her 5 stars and didn’t mention the oven. Subsequently she wrote her review and gave us 4 stars!! I’m not sure if that’s because she anticipated I would dock her a star or what. Her complaint was that we didn’t have a couch–only recliner rockers (had she looked at the photos of the living room that would be apparent. It’s a smallish house). So she came out of this whole thing smelling like a rose.
I don’t think that a review about not having a couch / will put off future sitters - it might however put off future hosts from choosing her .
I agree. It will certainly do more harm to the sitter than the HO. It’s a ridiculous complaint and it clearly shows lack of attention and pettiness.
No good deed goes unpunished. No doubt she was doing the cya thing.
You probably should have waited to contact her about the issue until after the reviews were exchanged.
Not sure if everyone will get that vibe from her review!
Well clearly reviews can’t be trusted, so hopefully her silly complaint does you no harm. For example, you gave her five stars despite all the issues you mentioned. Leaving litter boxes chock full for days is enough to dock a star IMO. That’s a basic expectation of Petsitting and a health hazard. That and leaving the oven on suggests a lack of attention and mindfulness that I’d like to avoid in a sitter. I wish HOs and sitters would look out for each other and just be honest.
@Shafofo Well said. In spite of the very real issues about this sitter, the HO gave her 5 stars.
No wonder people don’t trust reviews.
She docked you a star for a piece of furniture? Wow! That is ridiculous.
Possibly the reason you feel like she “came out of this whole thing smelling like a rose”, is that your review is in stark contrast to your experience.
For reviews to resonate with yourself, your sitter, other HO’s and other sitters, they need to be honest - not mean or petty or nasty, just honest 
Did she express this complaint in her review of you? Or in a private communication? If the former, she did not hurt you or help herself. If the latter, I’d probably explain in my response to her review that you were disappointed to receive 4 stars so you checked back with the sitter to ask what you could have done better only to learn that the deduction was due to the recliner vs sofa furniture clearly shown in the photos on your profile.
She put it in the review and gave me 2 deductions both for my home and also for my pets because they wouldn’t sit on her lap. No small wonder as she also got my cat’s name wrong after spending 10 days with them. I didn’t (and will not) respond to her review. I’m glad I saw it before I sent her a thank you card and gift! I also clearly described my cat as “not a lap cat”. She apparently didn’t read the welcome guide or description or look at photos. This is only the 2nd time we’ve used THS and the first people we had were awesome. When she was unable to do a video call I should have suspected trouble.
We’ve had the same experience as you (although we got 5 star reviews). First sitter was excellent, the second was terrible despite a solid 5 star review history). It was clear she either didn’t read the WG or it went right through her head from one ear to the other, as did all our verbal instructions during the walk through.
So she will move on with another 5 star review on her profile that she doesn’t deserve.
I really cannot understand why hosts come to the forum to say they cannot trust reviews when they perpetuate the problem.
Please don’t take my comments personally, there are many hosts that do that.
We work really hard to earn our five star reviews and it is important that hosts are able to trust them.
That’s good only because her complaints effectively negate the credibility of the star deductions. So not responding to her review is probably okay. I just want to mention that you have plenty of time to think about that choice. There is no time limit on when you respond (unlike your review of the sitter) and your response will not trigger any back and forth with her; each party gets exactly one response to the other party’s review.
I also hope you have better luck matching up with future sitters. You probably are taking away lessons from this experience. Also, this forum has been an excellent place for us to pickup on additional lessons hard earned by others.
What’s not to understand? Hosts & sitters perpetuate the problem that was started by other hosts & sitters who don’t leave deserved negative reviews because it exposes them to the risk of retaliation. Why should a host or sitter now be the one to stick their neck out for the good of a community who didn’t offer them the same courtesy? Especially because when a member has received all 5 star reviews, a member that now leaves a negative will likely be viewed as the unreasonable one.
This applies to both parties.
No, they won’t if the wording is factual and clear. In fact, the written review is generally more useful than the number of stars.
If both the host and sitter write what appears to be a clear and factual review and they’re both blaming the other for the problems, the member reading the reviews and the replies is left wondering who is at fault (or both). It’s the old “he said, she said” scenario and neither party will come out smelling like roses.
The parties will also be viewed based on their history. A host reviewed twice, who has negative things to say about a sitter with over a dozen 5 star reviews with nothing in the description to say otherwise, will undoubtedly be viewed with skepticism. This is exactly the issue I faced with our second sitter who was terrible. Rather than getting involved in the back and forth blame game I gave a 5 star review which won’t subject me to any risk of retaliation and potential damage to my credibility as a reasonable host.
There’s another option .
if you don’t feel that you can write an accurate review for a bad experience
you could decide not to review at all . Then you are not giving a false positive review .
Interestingly this won’t show up on the sitters profile that the sit took place at all .