As other members have stated, reviews are blind so the owners will not see your honest, factual review until a) they complete yours within the 14 days after sit has finished or b) when the 14 days are over if they did not review you.
@Silversitters has provided you with details of raising a dispute which you could do after reviews are published. You have photos of internal cameras which is your evidence.
I’m sure I saw this warning about cameras when I posted my first listing but since I don’t have any in my home I didn’t really absorb it. This morning I spent 15 minutes going through the site to find any mention of cameras that a sitter could point a HO to but found nothing. There should be a FAQ at the top level menu where points that are buried or missing from the ToS can be displayed in plain English. Such as, “Are indoor cameras allowed during sits?” “What happens if I need to cancel?” “Can I come back to my home for a day or two while the sitter is there?” “Who pays any vet bills?” The site has loads of information but the issues that come up again and again here should be included in a “Frequently Asked Questions”. I’m sure the Community Managers could provide a long list!
I agree that these topics could/ should be better signposted on the main web page.
The majority of THS members aren’t on the forum but will have the same questions and issues that are discussed here .
This is From the Help section - if you "cameras“ this comes up
According to THS the sitter pays upfront !! But most sitters make it clear to hosts before a sit is confirmed that they do not agree to this term .
To me it seems pretty crazy. If you don’t trust the housesitters – paid or unpaid, do something else. But I’d imagine this same mindset feels that kennels are terrible. People who flagrantly violate the terms of conduct whether hosts or sitters need to be booted off.
I can’t imagine being in a situation where I am going through someone else’s stuff like a crazy person. What if you had it wrong?
I don’t like being watched indoors OR outdoors and personally would never get a security camera for my home. I’ve sat a few homes that had Ring cameras at the door, which I detest but know is allowed by THS. I’m horrified to learn on this thread that some Amazon products like Alexa (assuming that’s an Amazon product - I know nothing about these things) are recording audio. My question is do Ring doorbell cameras record audio? Sometimes I have phone conversations while sitting on a front porch or in the yard and certainly would not appreciate homeowners listening in! If these indoor or even outdoor cameras become so ubiquitous or hard to detect it’s likely my privacy is being violated, it will be time for me to leave THS. I guess I am just disgusted with this tech trend infringing on our privacy everywhere we turn. I am not going to play detective and spend my money and time on camera-detecting gadgets.
Ring cameras can record audio and video. Of course, whether a camera is on and recording depends on the owner of the camera.
FWIW, in the U.S. at least, it’s illegal in some states to record phone calls without both parties’ consent. Some states are one-party consent. So regardless of THS rules, a host might be breaking a law by recording. And there’s federal law as well.
Just listed a sit… a nice place to insert “No indoor recording devices or cameras are allowed” can go right there above that small “read the code of conduct” which no one clicks.
No, they don’t want to make that visible because they know very well that the majority of homeowners now have cameras, and they’re afraid of getting questions about it – or even seeing a drop in sitter interest. That’s exactly why they won’t do it. Also, they simply don’t have the capacity to handle a flood of follow-up messages or inquiries.
I think it’s in the HOs interest for THS to make sure they know the cameras policies. HOs run the risk of a sitter leaving due to undisclosed cameras. If I show up to a sit and there are internal cameras, I can and will leave. Some sitters don’t want to do sits even with external cameras and they certainly have a right to make their own choices. So, even for external cameras, sitters may leave if the cameras were not disclosed in the listing (in my experience most external cameras have not been disclosed).
That’s terrible. I hope you reported them to THS and reviewed them accordingly? I took the liberty of looking at your listing yet all your reviews of sitters are glowing. Anyway back to your question. Internal cameras are against THS terms of services and if you feel the need to protect your things more I can only suggest locking important things away. From reading hundreds of posts on theft often things are mislaid but that’s not saying it didn’t happen to you.
Unfortunately it was not mislaid and I cannot lock the kitchen.
The problem with reviews if this is the case as I have seen on other people’s posts, you will get an unfair review in retaliation. I think the system does not help. I asked in detail about this and there were no good answers so like so many of us we cannot give the reviews people sometimes deserve.
We have had some absolutely amazing sitters too.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve had things stolen — that won’t mean you can have cameras indoors despite THS guidelines. And if you try to secretly record someone and get caught, you’d risk them leaving early and reviewing you to say you secretly record sitters. And that probably would keep you from getting sitters going forward.
Your best bets are to tighten up how you match with sitters, lock up items that you’ve had stolen before or are otherwise valuable.
"cameras“ this comes up
