Weve just had really bad long term housesit including both cat and dog
And during that time we tried to make it as good as possible to feel comfortable in the house.
There are a lot of reasons why this sit was terrible -from neglected pets to very dirty broken house.
I feel very cheated cuz the HO didn’t tell all the truth about the pets and the house and provided old good pics of the house which is not true anymore. But the HO left abroad and I felt responsible and sorry for pets and decided to make their life’s better and somehow make the house liveable and not smelly. When I discovered that the cat trows up because of unsuitable dry food and the dog has constipation I contacted the HO and they immediately reacted and for new better food for them. The communication was good, however, they replied and tried to be involved, but still I regret I took this housesit.
Now it’s time to write a review and I don’t know what to write. Too many bad issues but I don’t wanna be drama queen or make any conflicts after.
Any advice from you guys? Thank you
You have to write an honest review @Mariyka_mir otherwise how will future sitters know what to expect. The reviews are blind now so the fact you had good comms with the HO is in your favour and they can’t retaliate because of what you have written. Sorry it was such a terrible sit!
I wish I’d known these things before I accepted this sit, because I wouldn’t have done it:
(Then a bulleted list of things you were surprised by, like “I had to clean X before I felt comfortable.” Or “The photos didn’t match the state of the home.”)
There were positives that might make this a good sit for someone else, including:
Please leave a factual, unemotional, review. if you don’t leave a review, future sitters will not know that this is because you forgot, had technical problems, etc. Even if sitters assume that a missing review means a bad sit, they won’t know WHY the sit was bad. Please don’t make us guess.
I’m sorry to hear about your negative experience. When writing a review, it’s essential to provide honest feedback while maintaining a constructive tone. Use the hamburger approach, start with the positives, then list specific things that negatively impacted your sit and finally finish with some more positives. Frame your review in terms of how the overall experience could be improved for future sitters. This not only helps potential sitters but also encourages homeowners to address any shortcomings.
Now with the new review system, I would say that it is best to write. There won’t be the conflict anymore of the retaliatory review by the HO.
There is still the possibility for the HO to write a response to your review. But if they would respond angrily, that is then very visible on their own profile page so that is not a smart thing for them to do.
We had a similar situation. HO pix showed the home with open windows, everything in nice shape. When we arrived, told ALL windows had to ALWAYS be closed because HO didn’t want cats out (clearly HO had taken pix before getting the cats since there were also no pix of litter boxes.)
The dog didn’t have tags because the collar had come off when off-leash. Something we weren’t told until after the HO had left.
The dog was skittish about loud noises - in a city environment.
BOTH bathrooms were in bad shape: one had a constant leak soaking the floor & the other we were told ALSO had plumbing issues, couldn’t be used.
The kitchen equipment was horrible - just a few pieces of plastic dishware, cutlery was equally bad & sparse, ZERO condiments, etc.
Finally, there were electrical issues throughout.
I wish a previous sitter had been honest and told us how misleading the pix were. We would also never have taken the sit.
We’re seasoned sitters with THS for over 11 years with over 50 five star reviews. We just completed a sit with the cat from heck! I’ve never felt so angry on a sit and basically “used”. I’ve never given a homeowner less than a 5 star review so was in quite a quandry as to what to do. Wasn’t sure what type of a review we would receive and at the same time didn’t want to be mean in my review of the sit. I finally decided to give an honest review of the experience rating it a 3 star due to the behaviour of the cat and to warn other prospective sitters. It was odd though that all the other sitters gave great reviews. The homeowners gave us a 5 star review but it wasn’t warm and fuzzy which we didn’t care about. We were just worried about having our reputation tarnished with this one bad experience. I did email THS while on the sit asking a question about the blind reviews - never even heard back from them - so much for THS support! Oh - I had to change my comment about the cat from he11 ~ as apparently it’s a swear word and not allowed on the forum
I’m sure the homeowners will recognize me when I describe the cat. Basically, it was an outdoor cat who became increasingly difficult to get in at night. Started off by luring it with treats which worked in the beginning but stopped working after a couple of nights. It was like trying to get a newborn baby to go to sleep except a stubborn cat who refused to come in. Not sure we’d look after outdoor cats again although we have before with no problem.
My first sit with THS was with 5 outdoor / indoor cats. It was in a second floor apartment and I had to lead them down to the street and up back into the apartment. They had different rhythms and often changed their minds. Two of them often went up venturing on other floors where there were hiding places and another one (I had been warned about this) didn’t always come back for the night. The owner was very nice and told me not to worry if he didn’t come back. In spite of all that, I was happy and enjoyed the sit. I was in fact delighted, discovering the wonders of pet sitting.
Looking back, it was a lot of work. I spent a lot of time chasing cats up and down the building. I didn’t want them to bother the neighbours, which was an impossible task; if one didn’t want to come in, he might decide he wanted to come in minutes later when a neighbour opened the front door and he then would be wandering inside the building.
Once, the next door neighbour rang my bell and she was accompanied by one of the cats that was supposed to be inside; he had jumped from our balcony into the neighbour’s and gained access to the apartment. Luckily, she was a cat person and very nice.
