@Romana this sit was obviously traumatic for you but you did ask in your opening post what we would do.
If you feel your response was fair and balanced then you should be at peace with that.
Personally I do not leave feedback until I receive a review but all that is due to change shortly.
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Wonderful. I will view this and find the other. Do you happen to have links to great meditation videos? Iâm leading the one next week.
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@Katie , I found the other one, the dvd I have, and added the link to the end of my first post in this topic. Itâs available for purchase on vimeo for $12.95 and worth it. This is it:
I donât have any other meditation videos.
Hi @Romana - tough to process no question. Am in agreement with @Colin @mars and others that a shorter, gentler, less emotional response would do you better service but as @Twitcher says, if thatâs what you want to say then you need to be at peace with it. The rest of us can only offer opinions, itâs your decision.
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Whatâs done is done. When you realised the paint was different maybe sanding back the whole section again may have been a better solution, but itâs happened now, and checking which plug you un-plug is essential, you know that!!! But hereâs some more facts⌠YOU HAVE 30 GREAT REVIEWS! 30!!! 30!!! Remember this is just 1 bad one⌠OUT OF 30!
It sounds like you are usually amazing, and on this occasion you werenât your usual perfect self!
Personally I would take full responsibility as the fridge and the nibbling were both your own fault. If the insurance wonât pay out, personally Iâd offer to cover any costs. Itâs only 1 occasion out of 30.
Smoother that 1 negative review in another 30 amazing ones to make it a thing of the past.
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From the HO perspective, you left their home worse than before the sit and you left them to deal with that.
Whether you had great reviews before doesnât matter to them when it comes to that sit.
They didnât do anything to you except expect you to sit as agreed on and to leave their home and pets as good as you found them.
You made sacrifices to do their sits, but that doesnât change the above. And you actually had a legit reason to cancel and wouldâve been better off doing that. Instead, you asked them to cancel and they declined â donât ask people to make a choice if youâre going to resent them if they choose an option you wonât like. Better off for you to just have canceled. But it sounds like you didnât do that, bent over backwards and then resented it, which isnât good for you. Thatâs just something to keep in mind and avoid if something else comes along in the future.
It sucks that this sit has spoiled your terrific record. But it happened and you should take responsibility for it. If so, future HOs who are reasonable will take that into account. But if youâre blaming people for something that they didnât do to you, that seems unfair and other HOs probably will take that into consideration.
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Maggie, in the current system the sitter cannot cancel an agreed sit without the homeownerâs approval - it is the homeowner who must âunconfirmâ it - or am I not correctly informed? With that, when they rejected my request, I was obliged to do the sits (or wasnât I?), otherwise I could have lost my membership with THS for non-performance of agreed duties. Thatâs at least what I thought. But thatâs only on the side. I would have expected some gratitude from the home owners, especially because of the special circumstances, and they gave me just the opposite. And I did give them money and offered more if they thought the damage was higher, and they never got back to me. What I am saying is:
Of course I am taking the responsibility for the damage, and of course I understand that they were not perfectly happy, but that would have justified giving me only four stars instead of five, or borderline three, but not just one, as if I had totally failed to do the agreed tasks! Therefore this review was unfair.
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I read their review and I think your response was good. In my opinion, the bad review they left reflects more poorly on them than it does on you. I wouldnât apply for a pet sit of people who leave that kind of review (unless there were other signs indicating that the sitter was in fact bad, like a string of bad reviews from people who sound credible).
I strongly disagree with the posts suggesting that sitters must be perfect all the time and arenât allowed to make any mistake without âdeservingâ a bad review. We are all human and we all do our best. None of us get paid for this.
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Have you asked THS to delete your response to their review? Because I think that would be more of an issue for you going forward.
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As a host, when I see 30 5-star reviews and one 1-star, that one bad review would not stop me from accepting that sitter. (But I may probably ask what went wrong.) Itâs a pity you wrote such a long defense as a reply. Arguing always gives a bad impression, even if you are right. A simple âIf you read this review, please also read the other 30, all 5 star reviewsâ would have been much stronger.
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Given that weâre all seeing postings from HOs saying their sitter has canceled on them, it seems clear to me even as a relatively new sitter (since March) that sitters can cancel simply by making an excuse (which I donât condone). In your case, you had a legit reason, which THS wouldâve understood â itâs clearly not kicked out even folks whoâve made up excuses, because some HOs have mentioned that the sitter is still active. And in your case, you had a great track record that wouldâve been even more compelling for THS.
Ratings are subjective, so itâs not possible for us on the forum as outsiders to litigate or decide them.
Something that mightâve led the HOs to give a one, which I donât know whether is true of their circumstances:
They could do the repair work themselves, but they werenât trying to land a DIY project when they took time away. That could be hanging around their necks.
Or even when you want to hire tradespeople to do work, it can be a major pain. Thatâs because it takes time to find someone decent and often they wonât want small jobs. It often doesnât matter that you have money and are willing to pay. Many people are flakey and you end up trying to chase them down, sometimes with nothing to show for it. Or they do a bad job and/or make a mess.
So possibly what was supposed to be an enjoyable trip away has now turned into a lingering chore for the HOs. In that case, someone could arguably see the sit as a one.
Having interiors ânibbled onâ doesnât sound like something you just paint over â the damage would remain even if painted over, unless repaired. And every time they see it, the HOs mightâve built up resentment.
Separately, sometimes refrigerators smell terrible after food as been left in them without power â juices can leak into the seals. There are many such postings from RVâers for example, whoâve struggled to get rid of smells in their units, from what Iâve seen. And often in places that have gone through disasters, HOs will have the same problem.
For context: Iâve had to find reliable tradespeople and it can be a major hassle. Iâve heard this complaint from many homeowners.
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Thank you, Andrea, thatâs exactly how I see it, too!
I donât think so, Katie. The review is wrong and unfair, not my response.
Maggie, the male in this household is a learned carpenter, and the whole property is a building project - a very old house in the woods which they are fixing up. The man probably fixed the damage in 10 minutes, thatâs why they never claimed more money from me. And I cleaned and disinfected the freezer so thoroughly that it was like new.
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But all the points above are not what my post here is about. Of course, I am fully taking the responsibility for the ÂŁ30-ÂŁ50 of damage I did. But I donât think that my sit is worth 1 star. I would have gladly accepted a 4 star review. But 1 star?
1 star is, in my opinion, for someone who totally let you down and caused you damage intentionally, not by accident. Someone who left in the middle of the sit while you were on the other side of the globe, and left your pets to die. Someone who mistreated, hit and starved your animals. Someone who stole your valuables and vandalized your home. Those are cases where 1 star would be appropriate, but not my case. Thatâs why this review is utterly unfair and I asked you what to do about it.
Perhaps THS customer service should clarify the meaning of 1, 2, 3 and 4 star values to the home owners. I, as a sitter, have always given 5 stars except in one case where I gave only 4 stars - for issues that were a thousand time worse that tiny bite marks in an old wood beam. A house where you could barely breathe because of the smell of urine, just to mention one of them. But I can barely imagine a situation where less than 4 stars would be justified. Thatâs why this review is unfair.
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Iâve just received my first bad review too and it was definitely not justified. Not going to post details about it here though, because too many responses on the forum are just mean. Just wanted to say that whoever is in the same boat is not alone. There are unkind people out there who take advantage.
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Ohhhh thatâs rotten, I hope that you are okay - probably a good idea to protect your peace around here, but hope you are able to move on okay xx
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I feel with you, Andrea. I wish you the strength to overcome it - or to fight against it, whatever way you choose. Yes, there are home owners who are taking terrible advantage of us, and who hurt and harm us and who are disrespectful and ungrateful, but finally the bad karma they created will get back to them.
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@Romana I had a 4* review given once despite the fact I went literally over and above what was expected and left everything perfect. I left a short response to their review e.g. âI do hope you enjoyed the dhal I cooked for your return and also the lamingtons I baked for you. Also, I managed to remove all those black stains off your lovely white tiles, looks great now donât you think?â I left it at that, never mentioned anything they had negative to say about me (though there wasnât anything to be negative about)! I have had no trouble finding future sits and when the 4* review is ever mentioned (once) the new HOâs words were, donât worry, we can read between the lines 
So my point is, less is sometimes more, and giving an alternative POSITIVE response can be far more rewarding than a long, negative and defensive one. Just giving my opinion on my experience and Iâm sure others also. What is some of the lyrics in that song in Frozen?
âLet it go, let it go
And Iâll rise like the break of dawnâ
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@Romana
Thanks for your support, I agree with every word you wrote. I canât control their behaviour, but know that karma will take care of it.
@ERRa
Thanks for your kind words. They mean a lot.
@ziggy
Great advice I think. Especially the lines from Frozen. However, I think itâs only human to express hurt when people write bad things about you publicly. If potential future hosts see that as negative, Iâll thank them for not choosing me as their sitter.
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