Should the Platform Do Something with Bad Reviews?

Hi, we recently searched for a old sitting that we did where we left a bad review of 2 stars, finding the next sitter lefting a 1 star review. She told that she felt like rescuing the dogs, because they were leaving a really bad life at the house and they did not deserved it.

After that it had another sitter giving a 3 starts for the clean conditions and she stayed just 1 day. And another giving a 5 stars, don’t know how.

Don’t you think the platform should go after the Owners when we find a sitting with such bad reviews that could risk the pets lifes? Like a life checking on the house or something like that? Because we hear the platform go look for everything, and several times I got disbeliefed on that. When I had to report something by myself.

Should the platform pay atention to 1 starts and check what actually happened?

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Sitters can always report an animal and ask for a welfare check from a local agency. However the standards are very low and would you want a dog taken away from its home to possibly end up in a kill pen? Not all animal welfare agency cases end with rehoming.

@Luna2000 I understand your concerns, but who would pay for this service ?
Members through an increase in membership fee.
The purpose of the review is for future sitters to read and take heed of the warnings - if they wish to .

I do think it would be useful if the owners average star rating showed prominently on their listing like it does on a sitters profile .

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We already pay for it. Like I said, the platform should be responsible for getting through with bad reviews and check why they were left there. I trully believe that they would like to make the website a place for good and honest people around, and not people that would share their houses when living in not good conditions.

I don’t mean it that everyone should have a perfect place, but when creating the account, the platform should review every new profile, and see the conditions that they are offering and if it’s real or not.

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How would they do this are you suggesting that they send people round to inspect ? That would take a lots of additional staff and a huge pay bill - which would have to be paid by someone .

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Crummy sits are essentially self-correcting, because sitters will tend to avoid them. If anyone chooses to apply for low-rated sits, they take their own chances, shrug. I don’t expect a nanny state and know I’m not paying anywhere near enough for THS to police sits as the OP suggested.

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I think you should explain your idea better, so far it’s not clear if you mean that THS should delete and ban such profiles (feasible), or if they literally should go knock on people’s doors and see how the animals live (impossible).
Hopefully the honest, low star ratings will discourage more sitters to apply. I’m actually puzzled that they still had sitters after the negative reviews.

Even if an animal agency were to go and rescue these poor pets, as @BonnyinBrighton said, they may not be able to rehome them and will have to be put down. The shelters are full of surrendered pets that people had acquired during Covid :cry:

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THS is a dating agency, not law enforcement. If the problem is reportable, report them to the relevant authorities. And review them accordingly

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THS is an introductory agent. This site introduces pet owners and potential sitters. Nothing more, nothing less. It is up to each individual party to do their due diligence, sort out introduction, meet, arrival date, departure date and anything else that needs to be agreed.
The best way to approach this is to read everything, communicate clearly and truthfully and trust your instincts. If problems arise it is up to the two individual parties to sort it out. Do not look for any help from the management of this site. Once people realise this, the site works perfectly.
Bad reviews work. Sitters don’t apply, pet owners reject the application. These people will get the message themselves and either buck up or leave.

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No. This is a listing platform. The reviews are enough.

I’m not sure that THS even read the reviews.

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Surely if a sitter or HO has bad reviews then you proceed at your own risk. Ho’s and sitters have different levels of acceptance for sits. It’s up to both parties to do due diligence before offering/accepting a sit.
I’m not sure THS can afford the man power to start regulating every bad review!

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They don’t

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