If a sitter considers that your review is “super critical or nitpicky”, to quote from the post you quoted, then they would be a bad match for you, so it is better that they self-eliminate.
I don’t think it matters what I say, however, because you have chosen your individual needs over the collective good.
Yes, it’s my home and my possessions that were damaged, I am the commonality in all 4 sits. Was there a point?
Yes, again, you’re doing the selecting, so maybe you could benefit from reconsidering how you choose sitters.
Yes, going forward I will be more picky and selective and post that sitters with less then a dozen 5 star reviews will not be considered, and I will grill them during the video chat to ascertain that they are up for the required tasks to care for our pets and property.
Hopefully those dozen or more reviews prove to be a true reflection of the sitter 
If you check previous reviews left for your last sitter, you’ll notice she’s mostly cared for single pets, and predominantly single cats, so it’s highly likely her glowing reviews are indeed valid. Since you have a multi-pet household (and various types of pet) and she apparently has no experience of caring for numerous animals, that should potentially have been your first red flag. Possibly a couple of sitters might better suit your requirements? Next, your sit includes pool maintenance, so it would have been prudent to appoint someone with experience in this respect - you could have stated this requirement in your listing - or else appoint a professional (a cleaner/gardener/pool maintenance person is a permitted third party, if mentioned in the listing). You included necessity for watering the planted areas, so it’s inexcusable if that wasn’t done. The damage to your property and condition it was left in is disgraceful, and it beggars belief that any sitter would think that is okay. It’s also appalling that your poor dogs were apparently not provided with sufficient opportunities to toilet outside (unless they have previous demonstrated tendencies to defecate inside the property, in which case this should be mentioned in your listings), and I think that’s possibly her worst failing, since dogs can be both confused and distressed by a change to their toileting habits, and it can take time and considerable energy to re-establish routines. However, you mention that one of your dogs ‘had a stomach issue’ and that the sitter enlisted the help of a neighbour to take her to the vet. I wonder whether this goes some way to explaining the poop under the beds etc (though any good sitter would have kept a close eye on your unwell dog, and immediately cleaned it up)?
I can only reiterate my sincere opinion, that no reasonable sitter would blame you - or penalise you - for highlighting such things in a review, because they are neither petty nor inconsequential issues. To put it another way: any sitter who thinks a HO who docks stars due to such things is ‘picky’ or ‘a complainer’ is not the sitter you want caring for your home and pets!
Believe me when I say that, pointing out the transgressions of previous sitters is far more off-putting to applicants than leaving a fair and balanced negative review!
If any HO ‘grilled’ us during the video chat, we’d immediately decline the sit. Which neatly brings me back to your point I previously took issue with:
You’ve based your negative bias on poor experiences with 2 THS sitters (especially the last one). We’ve now completed 50 sits (mostly via THS) and have all 5* reviews (which are genuine, not contrived or misleading) and we do indeed have expectations of mutual trust between strangers who opt to participate in this housesitting exchange. In our experience, it’s entirely achievable, so I’m sorry you feel it’s unrealistic. As I mentioned previously, we wouldn’t choose to partner with cynical or mistrustful HOs, so you might find yourself a victim of your own negative experiences when communicating with future applicants. It sounds as if you’re not going to change your views - which of course is your prerogative -but recognising how to improve your chances of identifying genuinely good sitters might be a good move.
Wishing you better luck, going forwards.
Come on. Are you sure you are not a troll?
Not sure what’s worse; People leaving dishonest reviews, or THS “tweaking” honest ones into something they’re not.
It’s perfectly possible to dodge a star or two without seeming unreasonable, just as you can come off as petty while still giving a full plate (..got a couple I’d rather be without). It all depends on the wording.
It’s the emperor’s clothes.. @idocsteve dishonesty does indeed affect other members. The next person believing such lies in reviews may end up needing help cause of them, and those lies will be used to weigh against the truth.
They’re MS’s armor for doing nothing, and fuel for gaslighting the honest side in all this. One or two such reviews are enough; the more there are, the heavier they weigh.
So, anyone writing the next glossed-over praise piece covering a dreadful experience, please don’t think it comes without consequences for others.
We’ve had exactly two sitters from THS and both were highly rated with a solid 5 star review history spanning multiple sits. One was excellent except she failed to heed the umbrella warning, one blew over and was broken and she didn’t offer to pay for it.
The other was a surprise, given her 5 star review history which I have learned not to take at face value as I figure hosts are reluctant to mar a 5 star history for a sweet young sitter who is probably trying her best or they want to avoid retaliatory comments to the negative review which may discourage future sitters from dealing with a host they view as unreasonable or sketchy.
Thank you for this. I will screen more carefully for experience with specific pets. That much being said, the rabbit/guinea pig cages and chicken coop require nothing more than topping up the food bins and washing the cages out with a hose once or twice a week, it’s maybe a 10 minute job. Eggs are collected daily and are for the use of the sitter. Water is automatically refilled. The turtles and fish require the water levels topped up and some food sprinkled on the water once per day. It’s really not all that difficult.
We’ve recently renovated the pool and added a chlorinator and automatic pH system and have an automatic robot vacuum to clean the bottom. Using the vacuum is as easy as a household vacuum. You plug it in, drop it in the pool, let it run for 2 hours then remove it and rinse it out. Debris is brushed to the deeper part from the shallow end and floating debris is skimmed with a net. This is less than a half hour of work total per week. The filter pressure needs to be checked once or twice per week and backwashed according to easy provided instructions perhaps twice during a 1 month sit. All of these things were ignored by the sitter, who might have vacuumed the pool once, as the cleaner and it’s cord were piled up in a mess in the corner of the pool area.
Worse yet, a few days after we returned, some neighbors (who also have a garden) told us they noticed the plants looking dry and stressed and they pointed this out to the sitter who they said responded in a totally clueless way and didn’t appear to do anything differently afterwards.
[quote=“Happypets, post:109, topic:70287”] also appalling that your poor dogs were apparently not provided with sufficient opportunities to toilet outside[/quote]
[I’ve tried to wrap this quote 3 times now, I give up! ]
The two small dogs occasionally have an accident indoors if they aren’t given the opportunity to go out (or actively encouraged to go out). This is spelled out in the Welcome Guide and reiterated during the handoff. The large dog had the stomach issue, he’s never had as much as a single accident since he was housebroken a year ago, and the poops under the bed were small, definitely from one of the two small dogs.
I get your point.. I will simply say something like "The umbrella needs to be closed when not in use, if the wind blows it over it will be damaged, it’s happened before rather than saying “the last terrible sitter didn’t follow our advice and we came back to a disaster!”
“Grilled” was a poor choice of word. How about “softly interrogate”.. lol
I’ve taken a lot of advice on board that I’ve received on this thread and another one, and have implemented some of those suggestions already. I appreciate the time and effort that other members have put into their replies, even though I don’t necessarily agree with all of them.
This last quote is really the crux of the issue, and the most controversial. I have read, and even provided a quote earlier in this thread, made by a sitter who punctuates my point of view. They carefully read negative reviews of hosts towards sitters, and read the sitters response, before considering the sit. So what happens is the host leaves a negative, the sitter naturally disputes it and attempts to paint the host in a bad light, and the sitter is left with the “he said/she said” scenario which casts doubt and may result in the sitter thinking “I’m not going to deal with this and risk a negative review because maybe the host is the unreasonable one”.
It’s the EXACT same reason that the blind review system was implemented a few years ago. Hosts doing the CYA thing and leaving either no review or a positive review to protect their credibility. I’m doing the same thing, the only difference being I’m upfront about it.
I’d like to know why the animals would be pooing and urinating in the house? I declined a sit when I found out one of the dogs preferred to poo in the house if it was raining.
If your animals make a habit of doing their business under beds or In the house surely that should be in your listing and not just in The welcome pack.
It sounds like you are expecting a lot from someone who has only ever sat for one dog with no behavioural issues.
If the two small dogs are not allowed/encouraged to go outside they may have an accident indoors. They don’t require walks, in fact they usually prefer to stay on the property. All the sitter has to do is let them outside at least twice per day and it’s all good.
This is explained in the Welcome Guide and reiterated during the handoff.
Yikes. That puts the next homeowners in a tough spot as her poor attention to your home and pets will likely continue. Please use those stars accurately so that the rest of us know not to select that person. I had a guy apply to sit in my home and what kept me from selecting him was that he had been marked down on tidiness by 3 people. That lets you know what you are and aren’t going to get. If they aren’t taking proper care of your home they are likely not taking proper care of your pets, either. I do TH both ways. I expect sitters to treat my home and pets the same way I treat others’ homes and pets.
I used to feel that way but after 4 sits 2 from here) and varying degrees of disappointment, surprise and outright shock I now hope that when we return, our pets are reasonably well taken care of and nothing is broken that cannot be fixed.
It’s sort of the reverse of the business strategy that prompts a business to “under promise and over deliver”.
Unfortunately my newly found skepticism comes at a price. I can’t leave my home and pets in the hands of a sitter without feeling a bit uneasy.
This breaks my heart. I am sorry about the house, but that poor dog 
I can’t imagine someone not caring well of someone’s beloved pets.
I’m so sorry that happened to you. That sucks. But one review does not rule them all.
As a home/pet owner, I try really hard to make our home comfortable, and our instructions simple and not too demanding. If some kind of damage occurs accidentally or due to weather or something like that, I just want to be alerted when it happens. I came home to a broken plate. The sitters told me about it and offered to pay for it. (It was a $3.00 plate, I told them to please not worry about it.) S**t happens.
I’m truly sorry this happened. As one other person said, it can go both ways. I had one sitter give me a less than perfect review because she didn’t feel my home’s cleanliness lived up to her expectations. I don’t agree with you that the owner gets more benefit from these arrangements than sitters. Yes, owners are getting free (and hopefully good and trustworthy) care for their pets and home, but sitters get a free place to stay that they would have to pay hundreds of dollars for if they rented a house or stayed in a hotel. I believe the whole point of Trusted Housesitters is to benefit both parties equally, and when it goes well, that’s what happens.
I don’t ‘need’ a place to stay as I have a perfectly clean and comfortable home of my own.
I can afford to rent a place or pay for a hotel and I wouldn’t have the responsibilities of caring for someone’s home or pets. My time would be my own to spend as I wish.
I choose to sit for a change of scenery and a love of animals.
Amen to that. I totally agree!
