Sorry you received this star rating @ElsieDownie as you certainly don’t deserve it. Her review of you makes no mention of anything important re her home and dog at all!!!
I have occasionally offered to iron my husband’s boxer shorts (while he is still in them) 
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It’s just annoying. I’m not over anxious about it as it doesn’t really matter in the huge scheme of things. However, I can see how a “beginner” would stress over it. It’s hard when first starting. Everything has to be perfect.
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Oooooooo. I’m not going to ask the obvious question……
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Thanks @Twitcher I’ve amended my post to reflect this.
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Ironing bed linen? Ridiculous!!
My response would be ‘Thanks ______ for clarifying that I would need to iron the sheets to get that 5th star! Learning every day.’
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+1
We never do.
How on earth can any pet parent rate for cleanliness in respect of a split-sit? It’s impossible for them to know how the first sitter left things, so only the second can be effectively rated. As for not ironing bedlinen, how utterly ridiculous a complaint! Was that task actually specified, in the listing or the welcome guide?
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With Airbnb you can give personal feedback as an improvement suggestion without having to impact future decision makers.
A 4* review is imo not that bad, but it depends how this person is rating. Do they never rate more than 4 * ? Than it is okay. Are you the only one with 4* and the rest is 5*? I will consider this as a clear message to ‘let go and wishing them all the best ‘.
And what maybe not everyone realises is that the one who gives ratings is also being reviewed by how they rate…
Many critical ratings is for me a huge ted flag.
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This post as well as some of the responses was very frustrating to read because sitters are not being honest and truthful in the reviews they write. I don’t understand why sitters don’t leave honest reviews when the truth needs to be said.
If I, a sitter must scrub a bathroom, clean a dirty kitchen, leave the home to work because the “high speed WIFI” was too slow, be expected to water flowers and clean while workers are making a mess AND have an anxious pet barking all the time…I would leave all of that information in my review for all to read. And if none of this was mentioned to me, I would leave a 2 or 3 star review. This OP had a terrible sit and it is a shame they did not mention how terrible it was…on paper, it was just another great 5 star sit! That…is a lie.
After such review, I would privately write the HO reasons why I docked them…on the THS platform, not in a text or email.
Sitters nor HO should never write reviews that are vague and leave it open to interpretation…some people can’t nor will read between the lines.
To the writing that implied it is impossible to rate or dock someone for cleanliness while doing a switch sit, I fully disagree. I did a sit where the sit had to be split. I documented, via video a walkthrough of the immaculate home. On the day of the switch, I did a Video Call with the HO and also recorded my FaceTime (which HO agreed to) as well as the video walk through. They KNEW I left the home just as immaculate for the next sitter as they left it for me. They were very thankful.
It is too simple to not document things, so why not document everything? It is also for liability…he said/she said is eliminated when one has video evidence. In the case of a courthouse…it doesn’t matter what anyone says if a video is involved.
For the sake of good sits…PLEASE don’t make so many mistakes mentioned in this forum…this is a very good example of things NOT to do…
My apology for sounding harsh, my honesty is not directed at any one person here and hopefully, my writing comes off as genuine and more helpful.
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We all rely on our fellow sitters being honest and factual. Yes a sitter might get a torrent of abuse via WhatsApp but that’s why blocking was invented 
Three victims in this forum.
- The OP for being left in the situation that was setup to fail.
- The next sitter on the sit the OP was in because they have no idea what they are walking into.
- Every single sitter that is walking into a 5 star sit when it should have been 1-3 stars by the previous sitters!
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Unbelievable!
If you will ever sit for us, you will get 5 stars for not ironing the bed linen!
I never do it myself - I occasionally iron the pillow cases - and I would be stunned if a house sitter felt compelled to do it. I like to think sitters enjoying our place and its surroundings, specify in my posts that I don’t expect to find anything cleaner than we left it, and that pet sitters shouldn’t clean any part of the house that they don’t use.
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On one of my early sits, the house holder had forgotten that we needed two bedrooms. I helped her change the bedding quickly. On that sit, I washed and ironed three lots of bedding.
Now I take my own duvet and cover and pillow cases with me. I only ask for a bottom sheet, which I will wash but not iron.
Ironing sucks 
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Yes I had something similar I did a set she gave me five stars that everything was great. Then I did another sit for her for much longer and her refrigerator fell out of it s cupboard holder I suppose you call it and it was a good thing my two children were there with me to help push the refrigerator back in its slot. All I did was open up the door all the way and my daughter started to open up the bottom freezer drawer just a little and the whole thing started to fall out. Then the dog squeeze between the bed and the wall knocking down the curtain and the rod twice and I fixed it both times and no longer allowed the dog into that room. Then I was concerned about the dogs being out in the rain and she said they’re just fine sitting out there. But then she said I left the dogs out in the rain which I never abandoned or left the dogs out in the rain. I left the place immaculate and on the back of the couch she said there might have been some dirty spots and so I scrub them clean the whole back of the couch I washed all the bedding I cleaned all the floors I vacuumed everything just did things that had been Dusty before I even got there I went above and beyond to clean things I hadn’t even touched. I weeded I swept the outside and the flower beds and picked their tomatoes so they wouldn’t go rotten and put them in their fridge watered the front and the back and even accommodated them having an appraiser come in and look at the house or should I say the basement. I can hear everything including conversations in the upstairs part of the house that I guess another tenant lived in. However the tenant said that they heard my children arguing a few times and that my kids were slamming doors which is incorrect because the doors were very sticky and hard to close so you have to lift them pull them towards the hinges and then close it really gently which requires a lot of muscle so after my kids tried it two or three times I said just don’t close the doors that I’ll do it. I had asked for the welcome guide the second time I visited because the first time I visited was such a short stint that I honestly can’t even begin to tell you all that it had in it or the security code to get into the house. But apparently they’re upstairs tenant came down a few times and locked us out so we had no way of getting into the code so my son had to crawl through the window. The homeowner was unreachable because they were out of service which is understandable. The dogs she said had full access to their kennels outside but they were outside of the gate near the entrance to the basement and when I was there and met in person she let the dogs come and go and they would open the door themselves into the house or should I say the basement. So I was unaware that I was ever supposed to close them into the secured gate in the backyard where they cannot access their kennel or the house and have no shade from the Sun or the rain which she said they could be fine left out there in the rain and I was concerned because I just don’t like leaving animals out in the rain or in the extreme heat. Anyway because she said there was a little bit of noise in her tenant didn’t like it and one evening when it started to rain I was on my way home and I didn’t get home until a little later and the dogs got wet and they barked that one time and the two times I didn’t close the other gate because she never closed it apparently that gives me a bad review. I don’t like talking bad about any homeowner because I think everybody’s just different and I am very willing to accommodate any situation because I want to do them right in every way possible they are letting us stay there and enjoy their home and the area for free so I feel like it is my duty to also clean and treat it like it’s my own place and water the plants and weed the plants if need be and it was clear she hadn’t even waited some of the goat heads I had to dig up were very deep they’ve been there a while. I know she did her best but even the walk-in closet was unusable because the shelves were crooked and not secured to the walls and so if you put even one thing on it the whole thing gave you the impression was going to fall down. Not to mention the washer and dryer the dryer wasn’t even hooked up to a vent so it’s spewed all of that hot air back into the basement where you were so we had to crack the window by the basement door so that it would try to let out some of that humid air. We made do it wasn’t perfect because it wasn’t our home I don’t expect it to be perfect I expect us all to be accommodating and understanding that everybody’s different lives different and is okay with different things I just tried to acclimate to her environment to do what was best for her and in return she didn’t send me the welcome guide after I requested it and then accuse me of mistreating her dogs by not getting home in time one day she said we were there but we were not we had left one little light on and the TV on low because it was in the evening when we left and we came back a little late so we weren’t even there but she said we were because I wanted some strange person to not go meddling in her home because that was the only night we were gone for a few hours all the other times we were there all night long. Their gate to the parking area was misaligned and put together fast before they left. So, yes it was a nightmare i felt with and parking on the alley. We either walked around the block to the front of the house , or opened the gate a tiny bit that we could abs squeeze through the opening. The dogs were amazing, loved their area, never left the property and it made perfect sense why she let them roam free leaving the fence open so they could lay on their kennels at their leisure.
So, with that being said.
I know exactly how you feel, it does feel unfair.
I have chalked it up that she’s going to say what she feels to say and there’s nothing I can do about that.
I don’t want to fight or argue about it. I’m just going to move on and make sure that I have the welcome guide before I do the sit. Also check in with whatever tenants that might be nearby and see if there’s anything in particular they know that might have been overlooked, so that I can best help the homeowner.
Unfairly rated, but overall satisfied knowing tomorrow is another day.
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Have to say, I really admire your attitude!
It does shock me that those things are considered criteria against which a rating is given. As sitters, we provide company for animals and the security of having someone in the home when owners are away. No one here claims to provide a Ritz-style experience! Did they complain about the lack of a mint on her pillow too?! I do think the expectations of some home owners are ludicrous and unrealistic.
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Petty reasons IMO to give you 4 stars. I hope you made clear what you had to do on your arrival. It’s things like this that make me get pickier and pickier as a sitter.
Expecting to iron the bed linens is over the top, and what if you damaged them while ironing? If you don’t normally iron, this can easily happen. Those HOs should have that in their listing if they feel that strongly about it.
Also, they should note that they expect the house to be returned spotless to them. Many HOs provide this detail in their listing, and it gives us sitters a heads up on expectations.
I keep hearing nightmares after hand-offs with someone other than the HO. We haven’t done one yet, and I think we’ll continue to avoid them.
Sorry to hear your 100 5-star streak has been broken. Impressive!
Great idea! If I ever agree to a split sit, I will definitely do this.
This forum has really helped me understand expectations and what to point out. We’re only about 10 sits into housesitting with THS and I’ve learned so much on this forum!
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@Kbco We never agree to a split-sit as the video walkthrough isn’t a failsafe. What if the HO gets home and finds breakages, how to prove who did it? Or, what if you’re the second sitter to arrive and the first has left the property in a mess? How can an informed review be left by the HO if they’re going to be home some weeks after you’ve already left? You have only to read the threads on here to find instances of such things. Better not to invite trouble, IMHO…
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