When I returned home after my house sitter left I found my front door open–not wide open but not fully closed. All I had to do was push the door open! That was just the beginning. The kitchen was a mess–crumbs on every countertop and the table, food left in the oven, dirty dishes on the stove, and dirty dishes and silverware–which I continue to discover. The bathroom was not cleaned, and the floors weren’t swept or vacuumed. Then I discovered a gash in the baseboard, which at the least is going to require painting and at the most replacement.
I clean my place when I leave, so the sitter isn’t coming into a messy or filthy environment.
When I Zoomed with the sitter, I asked that he leave the place tidy when he left. I suppose we have different definitions of the word “tidy.” I’ll accept that and will leave a cleaning checklist the next time.
The sitter has asked for a review twice in the two days since he left. I’m wondering what to do. Should I leave an honest review? I should I not leave a review? Should I tell him what I found when I returned home? He obviously knows what condition he left it in, but I’m sort of at a loss as to what to do. If I leave a negative review for him, will he leave a negative review for me? Open to suggestions.
Please provide a factual review with items you’ve described. Other hosts should be warned about such a sitter. Leaving your home unsecured was dangerous, for instance.
The sitter can’t read your review until they have written theirs. So you can be honest and factual. Write about what you would have like to have known about this sitter ( good and bad points ) from previous homeowners .
What do you mean by factual? I have a picture of the baseboard, but I immediately started cleaning up the messes instead of taking pictures. Is that what you mean? Thanks!
Reviews can’t include pictures. I mean if for example there were crumbs left all over the floor, then write that, instead of writing about how that made you feel. Like if the baseboard was damaged with a gash, that’s a fact, not randomly vague.
Please leave an honest review, deducting stars in the relevant categoiries. If you leave no review, future homeowners are forced to guess whether you just forgot (easy now that there is only a 14-day timeframe for review) or are not the reviewing type or had tech problems, etc.
Many sitters assume that no review is bad, but even if they make that assumption, they don’t know why the sit was bad. For the sake of us HOs, and conscientious sitters, please explain your concerns.
Just a thought, probably a wrong thought! But is it possible someone broke into your home after he left? How long between when he left and you arrived? I’m mentioning this because of the open door and kitchen mess, yet he’s eager to get a review…
While it is true people have different standards of cleanliness, it sounds like the situation is a bit beyond this. It is one thing not to do something like run the vacuum, but to just leave dirty dishes around the whole house ,as it sounds like he did based on what you said about continuing to find them…I don’t know how anyone would think that is not a problem.
The fact he left the house in that condition and has asked for a review multiple times in only a span of two days suggests someone that is a bit clueless!
But the main thing I wanted to say in my post was that if you do decide to leave a review mentioning everything that happened, it is a good idea not to broach any of this with him beforehand if he has not written his review of you yet. If he suspects he is going to get negative feedback, he may leave you a bad one as some sort of ‘revenge’ even if he intended to write a good one initially.
And like others said, something that just lays out the facts without any ‘emotion’ plugged into it, is always best. This sounds like someone who doesn’t know how to take care of a home in even the most basic ways.
Yup. Pets could’ve gotten out. Someone could’ve entered and taken the pets or belongings, or vandalized the place. Or could’ve lain in wait till the homeowner returned. Various dangerous possibilities.
@joltina Please leave a factual review. Include good things, too, and mention the negatives: a real mess that you encountered throughout your home, and the open (unsecured) front door.
I’d opted for no review. Historically, a lack of review was equivalent to a red flag. Today, a lack of review may also mean: 1. the reviewer doesn’t know about the two-week reviewing period, or 2. the reviewer missed the two-week reviewing window.
In addition, more often than not, a bad review triggers a nasty reply to which there is no way to respond
If you do not review the sitter no-one will know that the sit took place.
There are no blanks on the sitter’s profile, unlike a missing review of the HO which shows that the sit took place but no review.
Please leave a review - that is why the blind system has been introduced.
