I knocked on a review, got 4 stars because I left early and cleaned too well. Said her cat got sick walking on swiffered floor. It did not hurt me as I got stellar reviews before and after. And have great sits booked through mid March in beautiful homes, one by the ocean for Christmas. So don’t worry about it. I had a cat sit and had problems with the first day trying to get them in, usually don’t have cat sits where they can go out. I let them out after breakfast and then when they came in for dinner, they didn’t go out again.
Oh my gosh, they are so cute. Where is your sit?
We went to greece and Cyprus last year and honestly the entire holidays unexpectedly revolved around the strays!
Our home (and sit) is in the Pelloponese region of Greece, on a mountain overlooking the Saronic Gulf, about 1.5 hours SE of Athens.
Here’s another pic, this one of our adopted Greek Shepard who has come to be known as the “King of the cats”. This is just one of many similar photos. He never got the message that cats and dogs don’t typically get along so well.
Generally, AI answers have to be grounded in data and depending what you are using it might show you the sources. AI can also be fooled by inference and sometimes uses sources that are people’s opinions like forums, so the information can often be wrong or a little scrambled. I wouldn’t trust the AI answer on this unless I saw the sources.
Most peple looking up information that they already know on AI such as information about a television series or something will see that often information is scrambled a little or there are obvious errors.
I know it’s very upsetting when a HO doesn’t appreciate you as they should and deducts stars and/or writes a less than positive review.
I had a situation last summer on a local sit where I looked after an elderly cat that was incontinent. This wasn’t disclosed prior to the sit and involved me spending hours cleaning, mopping and drying the rather expensive solid oak floors during the week sit. However the HO claimed their floor was ruined as I failed to moved an expensive piece of furniture they requested I didn’t touch and according to them had cat urine under it.
They stated I wasn’t a clean person and docked me some stars. I was gutted after 23 perfect 5 star reviews.
My next sit a HO penalized me as their cat wasn’t eating and drinking for 72 hours so after chatting with the THS vet line I contacted the HO to advise a vet visit was a matter of urgency but the HO declined. Left me in a difficult situation. Fortunately the cat started eating again soon after. But the HO docked me a star and left a review saying I was needy for contacting them!
After these 2 I did a repeat sit where the HO left me a glowing review and helped balance everything out.
So annoying yes but move on and look forward to better sits with great HO’s
Any sourceless statement can be questionable. That is a fundamental principle of data integrity and academic citation
To quote a source requires published data. In the absence of such data, or when the data is not fully broken down (as in this case), information provided by alternative sources can be presented, which may or may not be accurate.
Let’s hope the THS representative will clarify this question
You sound like you’re channeling Mr. Spock.
We don’t usually sit dogs but a dog who thinks he is a cat would work fine for us!
I was actually looking at booking a place called stoupa for our last holiday but we ended up in zakynthos which was fine because it was out of season. No way we would cope with the heat and hordes of tourists at peak time!
Oh he acts like a dog alright. He just bonds with many of the cats, mainly the ones who aren’t afraid to approach him.
Yes, Greece has it’s fair share of tourists and hot weather during the peak summer months, but we’re in a rather remote location and we get the breeze off the water so it’s not so bad. Although the beaches which are usually empty do fill up for a month or two as do the nearby towns which take on an entirely different vibe.
If the source is cited, it can be evaluated. Lots of sources I bother to evaluate are questionable. I think @anon9376833 was pointing out the risk with AI is that unsourced data is sometimes made up or weakly interpolated. Of course, THS marketing material is a source I’d evaluate as very questionable whether cited by AI, a human or my cat.
My point wasn’t about principles of research in general, but about AI standards and how AI (currently) answers questions. Some AI programs that try to answer questions may get facts wrong because of the data sources that they are using and how they are interpreting the data. The way THS phrases it is unclear at best. Many humans would interpret the answer as referring to pets and not people. But the AI answer may be looking at people’s interpretation of the answer not on other actual data such as other statements that THS has made at other times, or other public data about the company. Unless the AI can “show you the work” the answer may not be valid.
The answer given by the AI if not cited may include: This forum, reddit, quora, somebody’s blog, a couple of youtube videos. It could potentially include a lot of sources that back up it’s interpretation but none of them is foolproof. This is one of the dangers on relying on AI for information.
I just asked the question about whether it was people or members and AI told me 230,00O people - both sitters and homeowners. When I did the “deeper dive” it referred me to the THS website and this sentence in particular as the source: 10 years of happy pets, 230k+ happy members.
I would interpret that, based on the comma as referring to “people” as “members.”
I did just ask Google’s Ai this question however and I thought the answer was well-sourced, “Is Trusted Housesitter’s interpretation of visa rules legit?” Fun times! 
That is what most people assume and I think what but their impact report confirms that it is pets not people .
We have done tons of sits in North America and Europe with great experiences.
BUT I will say we have learned to trust our “gut instinct” if a host strikes us wrong during the intro stages.
Trust yourself. No explanation needed, just something like, “On reflection we don’t believe this is going to be a good fit for everyone.”
If they press? A polite comment about whatever was off-putting might be nice to help them with future sitters.
(1) We have had HO change dates repeatedly during the intro process or even say they weren’t sure on dates after agreeing!
(2) Announce that actually it isn’t just their cat but also a relative’s dog…
(3) Casually mention a friend ‘might’ drop by to spend a few nights…
(4) After arriving at a Sit discover major repairs would be going on while we were there they wanted us to oversee…
In every one of these cases we felt something was “off.” Fortunately for us only 2 or 3 have happened too late for us to back out.
We’ve had HOs get angry at us for declining to go forward.
Statements like, “Well why did you apply?” rather funny - because their attitude was the problem, not their home, location, pet.
One angrily said we had “wasted their time” (we let them know less than 24 hours after a video chat …?)
In short, human nature!!!
Love the system and all the wonderful experiences we have had.
I fully agree with this ‘trust yer gut’ instinct. It helps weed out incompatible matches before you’ve had a video chat or clicked the confirm button. I don’t normally apply for sits with no reviews - however, I took a chance on one after trusting my gut. And it is still the best sit I have ever done - and for amazing HOs. I returned 3 times! 
@Silversitters so the 6 sheep, 3 cattle, 10 chooks & 2 dogs we once looked after equate to 21 members plus us (2) and the owners (2) = 25 members for one sit. That’s a very cheeky way of over inflating the THS member numbers, particularly when 21 of them are non paying members. In reality it was 2 memberships, the owners and us!
Not really @crookie because they don’t let us put the number of farm animals. It’s annoying. I know the fact we have sheep and ducks prevents some sitters from seeing or choosing us, but we only have two of each now and the care is minimal, easier than a cat. So no, when we had 14 animals I don’t think most counted as members
You are quite right to feel aggrieved. Until recently I had an unblemished 42 x straight 5 star reviews. THEN I got 1 star knocked off for RELIABILITY, which is my middle name, nothing in the body of the review to say why, I was mystified. I contacted owner privately, she said it was because I had not refilled the SQUIRREL feeders (x4) DAILY, I had refilled them twice in the week long sit, and because I had not refilled the BIRD FEEDERS , daily, I had also refilled them, once.
I was there to DOG sit.
She also knocked 2 stars off for clean and tidy, which I didn’t even ask about, as that one is subjective, (it’s reliability that irked me) but I did reply, publicly, that her dog had done toilet on kitchen floor 5 nights out of 8.
the irony of that must have been lost on her.
I think she may have been expecting a bad review from me and retaliated first. Wrong.
Unfortunately, this appears to happen quite often. If something doesn’t go well with a sit, both parties are almost forced to do the CYA thing and mention it in their negative review of the other party, so that it can be used as leverage if the other party also leaves them one.
@anon9376833 , @Lokstar , @Silversitters , @august , @idocsteve , et al.
TrustedHousesitters currently has more than 280,000 members —that’s human, not pets.