How do we ensure we get a review from a sitter ? It’s been a month and no feedback !
Unfortunately it’s too late to get one now @Julesdaisyblue as there’s a 14 day cut off for both sitters and owners which has now passed. Did you write one for them? #nexttimearound
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On the flip side of this enquiry.
I was interested in applying for a pet sit, until that is I could see that the Home Owners had not left any reviews for their numerous past Sitters.
All the reviews left from the previous Sitters were very positive & complimentary. But when I clicked on each Sitter to view the Home Owners review, there was no review for any of them.
It’s hard to believe that all the Sitters had negative aspects that the HO did not want to review.
So, I decided not to apply.
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That’s annoying. A bit like when pet parents don’t even acknowledge receipt of a sitter’s application and just send automated decline message. But in both cases neither party is obligated to either acknowledge an application or leave a review. This just leads to the impression everything is very transactional. But maybe they forgot, why not message them and ask kindly if they wouldn’t mind reviewing the sit. If they don’t want to that’s their decision and it should be respected.
@Devina77 - the THS system sends out an automatic message when a host confirms a sitter to advise the other applicants they have not been successful. The host can choose to send a personalised message if they wish.
There is a 14 day window to review each other. Once that time has lapsed a review cannot be left by either party.
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Not ideal but you could ask the sitter to write a response to your review if you wrote one for them at least. They could use that response space provided to write their review.
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I am of the opposite camp: I wouldn’t insist in case their experience was negative
I found myself on the opposite side: a HO did not leave a review about me and months later, in a roundabout way, I learned that they were not happy with how things went, even though I have no idea why.
Have you checked to see if this particular sitter leaves other reviews for their former homeowners? Sometimes new sitters aren’t aware of how the system works.
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I am wondering about the review for this sit. It wasn’t as clean as I thought, I used the garbage disposal in the kitchen, and a pipe underneath disconnected from the vibration – cut too short and water everywhere. The fan they left me doesn’t work and I am in 90s+ temps. AC is on but low. It is on low since there is a doggie door. And they got a large puppy after I confirmed. And it is very hard walking two large dogs, one a 5 month old puppy that keeps trying to wrestle the other on the walk and always wants to play with its large mouth.
@Joanne has a point - have you seen whether the sitter usually leaves reviews or not?
I also agree with @Peonie19 . A non-review could also be an indicator that the experience wasn’t a five star experience, if the sitter otherwise usually leaves a review.
One possibility could also be to reach out to the sitter, say Thank you for the sit and ask for possible feedback as to how you can improve your hosting for the future. If you get an answer it may be clearer to you and you might also get some ideas to up your game, so to speak. But I see all feedback not as «critisism» but as a gift on how to be better and do better.
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yes I did and I’m somewhat annoyed about it as I really went above and beyond to make the stay memorable and comfortable
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In our minds, as sitters, this means that something went awry during their stay or they weren’t happy about something. Maybe something wasn’t disclosed, maybe responsibilities were more than they bargained for, etc.
Usually if we see a house sit that has 3-4 ‘no reviews’ from past sitters, (albeit after 2022), then we usually will skip applying as we have learned that is a red flag.
All parties have 14 days to respond. For future reference, you could reach out to the sitter prior to their departure, ask how things went, if anything could have been better, etc and then ask for a review.
We have actually left two no reviews in about 35+ sits. One was due to undisclosed internal cameras and the other was a sit that we ended up leaving because their was black mold in the home. Usually sitters have a reason for a no review. 
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What are your thoughts about the sitters that came before you and had not left a review?
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That is certainly frustrating, especially when you went above and beyond to make sure everything was great.
Some Sitters and Owners don’t tend to leave reviews, even when they have had a good experience. I don’t know why. It’s pretty rude. It does take some time, but with the new system for the way that Sitters write a review, it could literally be done in 5 minutes!
Just in case there was something awry, you might want to ask the Sitter for some private feedback. They might give you some information that might help you for future Sits.
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Regardless of any other issues, a sit walking two very large dogs was always going to be challenging
It may be a genuine case of life taking over and they didn’t get chance to write a review. I read an example on the forum of where a HO hadn’t left a review but on reaching out the sitter discovered they had been hospitalised on their return so reviewing a sit wasn’t a priority. It could be a genuine situation.
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For the additional puppy -
Did they tell you about the puppy before the start of the sit?
We have had this situation where an additional rescue dog was welcomed into the home after we had confirmed the sit. Life happens and it’s reasonable that things might change especially if the sit is confirmed some months ahead. In our case we thought it that the additional of a rescue dog likely would entail too much additional responsibility & time for us and kindly told the owner we wanted to withdraw from the sit. They re-listed and found another sitter and we found another sit that suited us.
Whilst I don’t think it would be fair to mark a category down for anything that was disclosed prior to the sit and that you agreed to take on; you can still provide some useful advice for future sitters to consider. For example
“At 5 months old Puppy is still being trained , has lots of playful energy and likes to chew etc etc “
For the cleaning you can deduct star(s) in that category.
They got the puppy after the sit was confirmed. And yes, I could have withdrawn, but I needed to be in the LA area and it lined up with another sit, during the time I needed to be in LA. So I kept it. And, someone else mentioned walking 2 dogs being a challenge, yes, not my favorite, but my second sit was with 2 puppies, on the larger size, 40-50 lbs, 20 lbs less than this 5 month old. It wasn’t as hard. And I took them to the dog run every day and wore them out with fetch. So walks were relatively short. These dogs need a long walk for exercise. But now that my daughter is here, getting easier with the walks.