Website vs Mobile issue

I’m currently at a sit that will go down as one of my worst, purely due to the mess and general dirtyness of the place. (Spent 2 days cleaning solidly as I have OCD).

When I arrived I was told that the babysitter that morning was unwell and didn’t come over which was supposed to give the HO time to tidy up (however based on the lack of cleaning products in the house, I very much doubt that was true).

I really am going to be leaving bad feedback on this sit - but what I have found most annoying is that when I applied I did so via the website that showed one good sitter feedback (from 2017)…

However on the mobile app - it shows FIVE other sitters that didn’t leave feedback since that sit and since the owner had 3 children!! OMG - that speak VOLUMUES to a prospective sitter and I would never have applied if I had seen that!

This is a real bug bear of mine!

Please @TrustedHousesitters can you make sure we can see the NO REVIEWS on both platforms.

Thanks!

Also why can I click on the previous sitters profile on the website to see the review left for them from my current HO - but I can’t do that on the website with any of the past sitters (even the ones that didn’t leave reviews).

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Hi @claresitsdogs

First of all, I am very sorry to hear that you have experienced this on your sit, please know that part of our code of conduct states that owners must leave their home clean, safe and comfortable for the sitter’s arrival and I will be reaching out to you via our support email so we can investigate this further.

In regards to the ability to see previous sitters who did not leave feedback via the app.

We made a decision to remove this feature from the website and it should have been removed from the app after we received a lot of feedback from our members, I apologise for any confusion caused. I will be raising this with our tech team.

The decision to remove this was based on lots of feedback from both owners and sitters as a ‘no review’ can give an idea of a ‘negative’ experience, when in reality a member may have just forgotten to leave a review or feedback. There are also some members that feel owner feedback is less important than sitter reviews so don’t actively leave or receive owner feedback.

I will take your feedback to our team and I hope to hear from you via our support email.
Kind regards
Katie

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Katie -
I really don’t think you should remove the “no review” option as this is really important to me as a sitter (and other sitters) and I will be very disappointed -and very dubious- to apply for sits without this transparency in the future.
I think you should just make the sitters leave a review by not letting them apply for further sits until they have left a review OR have the option “sitter declined to leave a review”.
I think just removing this is a really bad move, as the fact that this HO had 5 sits that didn’t leave feedback would have made me NOT apply in the first place had I have been able to see this. I realise this doesn’t help your paid members get sits - but without it it’s putting us paid* sitters into situations we do not like either.
Regards,
Clare

*Paid as in we pay for our membership too!

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I agree with you, @claresitsdogs.

It’s a little concerning that this is being removed on purpose and it’s not just a glitch. As a sitter, if I see that 5 previous sitters looked after a property but left no review it is a little disconcerting, but I would rather see it. It may make me less likely to apply, but depending on the circumstances, it may not. Either way, transparency is important and it feels disingenuous to remove this information.

@Katie_Mc could leaving a review not be made part of the user agreement for both homeowners and sitters? Or as suggested above, an option to say that the user decided not to leave a review. Completely removing the option to see how many previous sits have happened may bring the trust level down a notch with sitters as it feels like the data is being manipulated in favour of homeowners.

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So here’s the FB I left for that particular sit (being told by TH only this morning that they are indeed removing being able to see past sitters “no reviews”)

Due to the fact that TH is removing the ability to see past sitters that have chosen not to leave reviews, I feel compelled to leave my feedback on this sit, whereas I might have just not left any either.

Also, had I have seen that 5 past sitters had not left reviews for this sit (something you can see on the website -soon to be removed- but not the app) when I applied for this sit, I would not have applied myself.

(cont’d)

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I was told on my arrival that the HO didn’t have time to tidy/clean up that morning as her baby sitter that was supposed to come, called in sick. So I spent several hours over a few days cleaning and tidying as there was sticky children’s hand prints and dried food stuck to most surfaces in the kitchen, where I would spend most of my time, and I couldn’t relax until the place was clean.

I also was left with a full compost caddy of smelly food under the sink, dirty dishes from their breakfast/lunch that needed to go in the dishwasher, food in the fridge that had mould spores on it I needed to throw out, and it wasn’t until day 3 that I discovered a load of wet washing still in the washing machine.

(cont’d)

The house was also quite cold and until I was told exactly how I needed to deal with lighting the fire by the husband (I had to go buy some odourless firestarters) I wasn’t able to light a fire, as the time I did, the house was just consumed with smoke. This all could have been mentioned in the House Guide - but despite requesting this, it was never given before I arrived.

The pets themselves (chickens / hens / cat) were really lovely - so I had no issues there. Sadly there isn’t a cat flap for the cat to go in and out independently, so I left a window open (which didn’t help with the cold) for that reason. I obviously didn’t leave it open if I wasn’t in the house, that only happened on the day I had to leave and with the owners consent.

(cont’d)

After the sit I did receive, what I felt was, a slightly accusatory text of some Pink Fizz being missing from the house that was on the kitchen table. I explained that there was only one bottle of this on the kitchen table when I arrived and that the husband had moved that to the dresser before they left. It was a day later (after asking) that I was told that this ‘showed up’ in the downstairs bathroom (I did not put it there) - yet no apology was given for their obvious confusion as to where they put it.

The location of this sit was lovely and the views outstanding, but I wouldn’t return if asked.
(end)

1 Like

(1/2)
Hi @claresitsdogs and @Lindsay
I am sorry for the confusion caused. To clarify this was constant feedback that came mostly from sitters who were uncomfortable with their profile showing, for example, 6 sits, but only 3 reviews as the owners either forgot or decided not to leave a review. It caused a lot of issues for sitters and how it would be shown as ‘negative’ by not getting a review for an owner.

So we decided to only show reviews and feedback left for members to test any further reactions or feedback we received regarding this issue.

There are no plans to remove the ability to view previous sits on the app, I am sorry for the confusion caused, I meant that I would raise this with our tech team to look into further and what decision we would make moving forward.

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(2/2)
However, I completely understand your concerns and feedback raised regarding the transparency for our members (sitters and owners) and all their previous sits, regardless of feedback or reviews left.

This is incredibly important feedback that we are putting towards our research into a new review/feedback system, and we really appreciate that you have raised these concerns with us. This information will really help us find the right review/feedback system for our community.

Kind regards,
Katie

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Totally agree with you Claire.
Also its easy to sit behind a keyboard and ruin anything
That you have built up.
It leaves you with a fright that you maybe walking into a dirty
Home.
We have sits already planned on another site.
Repeat sits.
Took years to build them up.
But don’t feel we cant apply on here any more.
The owner set out to finish us.

Hi @Katie_Mc , and everyone else.
When we joined THS in 2012 leaving feedback for HO wasn’t the norm. What we would see on every listing was all the reviews for sitters they had left. I found this very useful as in some circumstances you can tell more about a person by how they write about others, than by ‘polite reviews’ left about them. This sadly was removed. If we can’t even know how many sitters a HO has had whether they have left reviews or not, you are removing our ability to our due diligence and make informed decisions.
The whole review situation seems to be the biggest area of discussion (which is sad really), surely the fairest way is the double blind Airbnb model. To get a review you have to leave a review, both published simultaneously.

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I so agree with you, especially your response to @Katie_Mc. Once again we would see a change made in favour of HOs. Time to support the sitters!

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That was the situation when I joined in 2015 and it was so useful in helping to gauge whether I would like to sit for a particular HO or not. HOs are able to read our reviews and judge us; the same should still be available for sitters to do. I hope @Katie_Mc will take notice of this too.

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Hi Temba.

Thank you for your feedback and experience regarding the review system.

To clarify this is not something specifically for an owner, this feature was removed due to suggestions from sitters who had not gotten reviews from owners and were worried that this would negatively impact their chances of being chosen for another sit.

Owner’s also can’t see via the website the number of sits a sitter has done that resulted in no reviews from the owner. Again this was removed based on numerous feedback from our sitter members and we made the change based on this, however since the discussion on the forum we have now begun to involve this option that was removed from the site into our new review update.

These discussions are extremely important and we really value everyone’s experience and opinion regarding this, we are looking at multiple options for the new review process including the double blind model that has been mentioned.

Again, we appreciate your feedback and look to have more discussions moving forward.

Kind regards,
Katie

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It’s so great to see how seriously you’re taking users feedback. Thanks @Katie_Mc!

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Thanks, Katie, for your reply which I appreciate. Great to know there are review options being discussed by THS and hopefully we’ll see a change soon.

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Hello everyone - this is such a great forum.

I have a comment about the map that appears on the right side of the website (when accessing on my computer). Is there a way to “hide” the map? I find it easier to see look at sits without the map taking up the screen space.

Apologies if there is an easy way to hide the map!

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Much of the fault here lies with the 5 sitters that chose not to review. As a service to fellow sitters we should review every time good or bad!

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