Nothing anyone has said here has given me pause to rethink my strategy. That much said, given that in reality, I won’t have issues finding sitters going forward as our listing is extremely popular, so I needn’t be concerned with how my reviews may be interpreted. Every time I remove another plant that died during our last holiday, or dump more chemicals in the pool to try to remove that stain, I have second thoughts about not giving that sitter a well-deserved 2 star review.
What I will do going forward is clearly point out all the transgressions of prior sitters, make it clear that the sitter is responsible for damage especially to the expensive items that were previously broken due to carelessness, that are spelled out in the Welcome Guide; and if faced with the same situation I may just go ahead and give a negative review but I’m still undecided in that regard.
For now, the only strategy I will employ is to only select sitters with tons of 5 star reviews, who respond favorably when I point out our expectations and past problems with sitters, and to cut down on my screening workload make it clear in the listing that sitters with less than, say a dozen 5 star reviews need not apply because generally speaking, reviews cannot be trusted for the reasons I’ve stated before, but in larger numbers, they can be more dependable.
And so were countless hosts who left positive reviews for bad sitters prior to the “blind review” system which was put in place because many hosts didn’t leave an honest negative review which would undoubtedly result in a retaliatory bad review, which would thus discourage future sitters.
You may not be put off by a potential host’s prior negative review of a sitter, but many are, especially if it’s one bad review among a bunch of positives. And you know that a negative review would be disputed by a sitter who would respond in such a way as to try to put the blame entirely on the host.
I can just imagine how this sitter would have responded in defense of a 2 star review. “The property is way too much work, too many animals, too many plants to water, a pool that requires high maintenance, it’s impossible to maintain animal cages to the level of cleanliness that they expect, there was no smell of dog urine and any feces they found would have been after I left, and I don’t know anything about the ripped screen door I think they’re lying!”
This problem existed long before I posted a 5 star review for a 2 star sitter, long before I joined this platform. I’m simply adjusting, adapting, and responding to the status quo.
You continue to blame your sitter’s past HOs for their inaccurate reviews @idocsteve but you have absolutely NO PROOF that this is the case. It is solely your opinion.
I sincerely hope you have forwarded all of your new expectations to your confirmed sitters so that they have time to read through them carefully. Should they find they differ considerably to what was agreed at confirmation, they are within their rights to ask to cancel the sit. At least that would give you time to find other sitters rather than present them with these changes when they arrive, and they say, “Sorry, that’s not what we agreed to. We are not staying!”
I am a sitter and homeowner. If I were considering your sit and saw the one negative review, I would be more influenced by your words in the review - and the sitter’s response - than the sitter’s review history. Also, your negative review would not strike me as unreasonable, given that your sit is vastly different to the previous sits that the sitter did.
You say that you are inundated with applications, so it is in your interest to reduce those. If a sitter thinks your review is unreasonable and doesn’t apply, it helps you by eliminating the people who don’t agree with your expectations.
You keep saying that prior homeowners caused problems by leaving misleading reviews, as if this justifies perpetuating the problem. It doesn’t.
You think I should tell pending sitters that the house needs to be as clean as we left it, not smelling of dog urine and feces left under the bed?
The Welcome Guide already outlines the rest of the responsibilities, including that plants need to be watered, the two small dogs need to be let out often enough to avoid accidents, the pool clarity needs to be monitored and auto-vacuumed and skimmed once a week or as needed, and damage to the patio umbrellas and screen doors can be avoided if simple precautions are taken.
We also cover these items during the video chat so there aren’t any surprises later on. At least, not to the sitter.
You might not be put off by a negative review written by a host to a sitter amidst a previously unmarred 5 star review history, but others certainly are. See this post, which is typical of others I’ve read (from another thread:)
It naturally follows that the sitter will respond defensively to a host’s negative review and then it’s a matter of a potential sitter having to try to determine what really happened, or just shrugging their shoulders and moving on to the next listing rather than risking an unreasonable and picky host.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to clarify. I’m not justifying my strategy nor looking for validation. I offer it up as a way to handle problem sitters and suggest why leaving a negative review may backfire.
I don’t dispute that my strategy doesn’t do the community any good as a whole, and have specifically stated that is not my primary goal here, which is to find quality sitters, not protect other hosts from bad ones.
I’m not seeing that at all. A quality sitter who might do an excellent job for us during a sit may be put off by my negative review of a prior sitter and not apply.
That’s not a win, and it doesn’t eliminate someone who doesn’t agree with my expectations which are clearly spelled out in the Welcome Guide, emphasized during the videochat and punctuated during the walk through. A negative review left for a poor sitter simply drives one or more potential sitters away who may incorrectly perceive me as being unreasonable and not fault the sitter.
Yes @idocsteve you could tell your pending sitters the experience you have had and that you expect your home to be as clean as you leave it. Also, you have mentioned in another thread that you expect payment for any damages done to expensive items. These expectations need to be in your Listing, not just in your WG, as it is what is in the listing that a sit is confirmed on. If there is no mention of a sitter being liable for damages accidently caused in your listing, then the sitter may choose not to pay because it was not included in the original agreement.
I got some great advice on the other thread by @Trainer that I’m going to implement for the pending sit and going forward. Prior to the sit, the heavy kitchen pot goes into the utility room, the side door with the accordion screen will be latched closed and the sitter instructed not to use it, and 2 of the 3 umbrellas will be stowed, leaving only 1 umbrella which is really all a sitter needs to block the sun. I’m updating the Welcome Guide now.
If they don’t heed the wind warnings and it falls over and breaks, we’ll deal with it then, and if they refuse to pay should it fall over due to their carelessness, citing that it wasn’t in the listing, then I’ll eat the 100 euros and perhaps dock them a star on the review specifically stating the nature of the damage so it won’t be open to interpretation and speculation by a future sitter, AND perhaps discourage a careless sitter who refuses to be accountable for damage from applying to our listing in the first place.
I do hear you Steve, it is the greatest shame that THS doesn’t allow both sides to post photo’s of a situation you’ve described, in that if you’d been able to show what you found on your return home along with lower number on the individual categories then I feel sure if I’d seen your advert it wouldn’t put me off as I would check other sitters reviews on you. Hope this helps. .
Idocsteve. The negative review sit I took was only one small elderly dog and a small bungalow so hardly too much work. And it was spotless when I arrived and spotless when I left. Have a feeling it hadn’t by previous sitter. But this was a very easy sit and the dog was not a problen at all and a very eager walker. The ower did state they believed i giving honest reviews.
Anyway if you wish to give glowing reviews to bad sitters that is up to you.
We are sitters as well as HOs. Being very clear in our home listing helps potential sitters have more info to decide whether to apply, and if they do apply, they can ask much more appropriate (specific) questions about our home during the pre-confirmation video chat.
Since you’ve expressed distress about your previous four sitters, providing many more details in your listing will help you get the type of sitter you hope for?
It’s very hard allowing strangers into our homes, so it’s important to vet them according to your needs.
I don’t know what else I can possibly add to the listing. Everything that wasn’t done properly by the prior sitters is clearly spelled out in the listing, fully detailed in the Welcome Guide, and clarified yet again during the walk through.
The Welcome Guide is provided immediately following sit confirmation, and a printed copy is left at the home for reference during the sit. We are always available to answer questions. With this past sitter, it appeared everything went in one ear and out the other.
According to several responses on this topic, there is an inherent obligation of hosts and sitters to post accurate, detailed reviews for the good of the community (regardless of the possible fallout) because they pay good money to be here and the platform is based on honesty and trust.
What about the numerous hosts that refused to leave negative feedback for a bad sitter prior to the double blind review system that was put in place because so many hosts thought of themselves and the negative consequences of leaving an honest negative review (retaliatory negative feedback) and put their own needs ahead of the community?
Would you refuse to sit for those self serving dishonest hosts too? If not? Why not? It’s the same thing. The problem was so rampant it necessitated a policy change on the THS platform.
Sits in Greece are rare enough that hosts there should have their pick of sitters. Seems odd for a host there to be repeatedly getting seriously flawed sitters, especially when hearing from many hosts in places with less popular sits that they’ve had better outcomes (noted in various comments in the Facebook group, for instance). Makes me wonder whether something is wrong in how sitters are chosen with that sit.
Personally, if I were a host experiencing sitters as described in the Greece sit, I wouldn’t use THS.
We’ve had exactly 2 sitters from THS. The first was excellent, except that she was careless and despite our warnings, she left an umbrella open which fell over and was broken, and she didn’t offer to pay for it (and we didn’t ask her to). She did everything asked of her, and went above and beyond, meeting and exceeding our expectations in every way.
The second was the subject of my posts on this thread.
So that’s a pool of exactly two sitters from which you have quantified as “repeatedly getting flawed sitters”.
To say the least, I disagree with your assessment, however you are correct that ours is a very popular sit and when we do list dates, we get plenty of applicants, many from the list of those who have favorited our listing. At the moment there are 257 sitters on that list, which allows us to be choosy. Given my mistrust of the review system, going forward we will require a higher number of 5 star reviews than we did previously.
