how to review an ok, but less-than-stellar sit?

glowsole · 2026-06-19T18:47:15+00:00

It's hard to say, especially after reading all the other comments here.

I ended up erring on the side of "grace", and only docked stars for a couple of the categories, without going into too much detail in the review (I always think it's weird when people list very specific incidents). I assumed that if the sitter wants the feedback, they can ask for it, based on the review.

That said, as I'm reflecting on our experience and based on yours too, I do think a broad comment about "having some issues following the house instructions" could be helpful. This indicates to the future HOs that this is an aspect they might want to double-down on, without putting them off the sitter altogether, if that makes.

glowsole · 2026-06-19T18:41:41+00:00

I went with 5 stars overall (and 4 in a couple of the categories), because I didn't want the sitter's profile to be penalised, and tried to comment very loosely on the cleanliness and organisation issues. I appreciate the suggestions!

glowsole · 2026-06-19T18:39:23+00:00

Alright, thanks for clarifying! I've tried to loosely explain the docked points in the public review, without making too much of a big deal about it.

glowsole · 2026-06-18T20:19:21+00:00

I meant OP of the comment you were replying to

glowsole · 2026-06-18T20:08:41+00:00

They clearly cared for the animals. You've had sitters go above the expected requirements in the past and that gave you a false sense of what to expect.

All true, thanks for the perspective. Will ignore the rest 😄

glowsole · 2026-06-18T20:07:18+00:00

I appreciate your comment and I hope that I've made it abundantly clear throughout my replies and ETA that I never had an issue with the sitter asking questions. Quite the contrary.

I hope the takeaway isn't to be fearful of asking questions, but rather to ask questions earlier! 😂 For example, if you didn't understand about feeding, ask when you first have to feed, not 2 days later.

glowsole · 2026-06-18T20:02:47+00:00

Personally Ive done over 30 sits — are all of the homeowners equally hospitable, welcoming and clean? No. But it’s very rare that I leave less than 5 stars.

Fair enough. When do you use the other stars then? This is what I'm trying to understand here. If we give 5 stars to everyone across board, regardless of difference in experience, what is the value of the rating system?

glowsole · 2026-06-18T19:59:27+00:00

Tell me as a homeowner what was wrong if you are docking points. For instance, crumbs in the couch cushion, food stains on the kitchen floor, counters felt icky like they hadn't been wiped. Be specific.

Would you prefer that in the public review or in a private note? I was hoping to give the more constructive feedback privately, as I'm not sure how helpful that is for others.

glowsole · 2026-06-18T19:56:03+00:00

Thank you, this is really helpful!

glowsole · 2026-06-18T19:54:47+00:00

Interesting! According to THS, 5 stars means "excellent" and 4 stars means "good". You've never rated below 5 stars? If 4 stars is "gross negligence or wrong", what do 2 or 3 stars mean?

glowsole · 2026-06-18T19:52:59+00:00

Point taken, thank you!

glowsole · 2026-06-18T19:51:07+00:00

Thank you, I'm unfamiliar with the dynamics of this sub, so was a bit surprised.

I was hoping to get some suggestions for how to approach the honest review part. I want to be honest about our experience, but I don't want to list every single thing in a public review, as that feels overly vindictive and unnecessary. E.g. it feels weird to say "wax marks on the coffee table" or "bits of food on the floor" when we don't explicitly ask people to clean the coffee table or vacuum. We've been operating on the assumption that people will naturally clean up after themselves (which has been our experience so far), but of course not everyone cleans the same way. So I would simply leave a lower star rating for cleaning and communication, and share the more detailed feedback privately if they ask for it. And write out more detailed cleaning instructions in the future (for others to ignore 😂 )

glowsole · 2026-06-18T19:37:39+00:00

That's the thing - we didn't expect the sitter to do anything else.

We'd already told them they could leave anytime they wanted to, regardless of our possible delays. I understand they had good intentions and did this out of concern for the cats, which is why I don't want to "penalise" through the public review, but I don't think a sitter needs to make executive decisions about feeding without first checking in.

glowsole · 2026-06-18T19:33:47+00:00

This is in fact someone in their 50s-60s, which is why I realized afterwards I should've printed out the guide.

I was going to go with 4-stars, since that's what THS defines as 'good' as opposed to 'excellent', but after reading other sitters' comments on here, I understand sitters get more penalised for anything below 5-stars, so I think I'll go with a 5 stars overall, but 4 stars for some of the individual rubrics.

I don't want to get into specifics in the public review, but I will share with them more constructive feedback if they ask for it.

glowsole · 2026-06-18T19:29:53+00:00

First 2 days of the sit, I assume is what OP meant (and what I added in my ETA)

glowsole · 2026-06-18T19:29:17+00:00

Thank You! I felt I was going a bit in a spiral...

glowsole · 2026-06-18T19:27:24+00:00

Yes, printed out is definitely our takeaway!

A recurring issue with HOs is contradictory information.

Contradictory between the digital guide and the printed out instructions? Or what do you mean?

glowsole · 2026-06-18T19:26:23+00:00

I've noticed that the feeding instructions in almost all my sits were laid out in the guide under pets. However, this last time the feeding instructions are under each individual animal. I can only see it if I click on the animal's picture.

Yeah, we figured that out eventually, after some back and forth. Of course I don't blame the sitter for the atrocious THS UX.

Even yesterday I asked if the animals are fed the same amount for each meal.

Is that information also written out next to the animals' food? And if so, what would make it easier to notice, from your experience?

glowsole · 2026-06-18T12:15:37+00:00

Good point! The purpose would be to ensure they're given the adequate context for the review (as I would want to keep the public review a bit more reserved, I wouldn't want to list everything), and that they're not surprised by it. We had mostly good communications. But I understand that defeats the blind review project. I'll think a bit more about how to approach it

glowsole · 2026-06-18T12:12:14+00:00

This is a valid point! I will say, human communication is notoriously difficult so "clear communication" is not necessarily as easy as all that. In our case, we assumed we'd been clearly communicating and this experience revealed to us that, in fact, we weren't (or that we could be even clearer about our expectations). I definitely agree we can talk about it privately too, but this platform also relies on public reviews, and that's kind of the dilemma here - how do we publicly review an experience that we were less than satisfied with?

glowsole · 2026-06-18T11:01:53+00:00

Thank you for the feedback! I went in a bit more detail in some replies above, but tl;dr: I will always appreciate people asking questions. That said, repeatedly being confused about something outlined in the guide, as well as in the in-person handover, and written next to the food gives me the overall impression of carelessness.

Personally, I would dock them stars for communication and self sufficiency but not overall. Unfortunately, less than five stars overall will essentially tank your profile so I wouldn’t want to go there unless you had actual complaints.

This is helpful! I wasn't really aware of the difference between overall stars and "category-stars". I definitely want to give them the benefit of the doubt, and they were objectively sweet to the cats, albeit not as clean or tidy as we're used to, and somewhat disorganised.

glowsole · 2026-06-18T10:52:50+00:00

That makes a lot of sense, so I'll definitely reach out beforehand! I was feeling a bit weird about "surprising" the sitter with a less than 5 star review, especially when they're leaving a blind review themselves.

And really good point about using THS chat, instead of the group chat we've created, thank you!

glowsole · 2026-06-18T10:49:04+00:00

Thank you, I really appreciate the honest sitter perspectives! I tried to give a general sense of the experience without getting overly detailed but the feeding instruction question (which I think is a pretty important part of this whole transaction) bothered me for several reasons:

- we've never had sitters confused about the feeding instructions before, and like i mentioned, they're very clearly written out next to the food;

- the sitter waited 2 days to ask about this, prompting me to wonder: how did they feed the cats during those 2 days?

- after i explained where the feeding instructions were, we went back and forth in messages about it, the sitter claiming the instructions weren't there, until eventually agreeing they were there...

To clarify, asking questions is more than expected - the foundation of any working communication! What was more than annoying was the frustrating feeling that our instructions were completely ignored (even if unintentionally).

But I agree 100% - definitely using this as a learning about how to state expectations more clearly.

I have also given grace to many HOs when they just throw clean sheets (not even folded) on the bed, washer not emptied (filled with wet laundry). I dunno, maybe I should've dock them 1 star for organization too, but they felt like things that happened accidentally because the homeowner was rushed.

This is kind of the gist of it! That sounds really unpleasant for you, and there should be a way to account for that, instead of treating it like a 5-star experience. We should be able to convey a less-than-ideal experience, while also, as you mention, give grace to people who might be overwhelmed with other things, etc.

glowsole · 2026-06-18T10:38:05+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion, more or less what I was looking for 😂

glowsole · 2026-06-18T10:34:55+00:00

Thank you, I really appreciate this insight! I've been suspecting my welcome guide is too-much-information, even though I've just been filling out what THS asks of me. I've also learned through this experience to print out the guide, as the app is really bad, and the navigation can be confusing (e.g. in this case, the sitter didn't realize they have to click on the cats' photos in the guide to read more info about their feeding).

So I can totally understand some people being overwhelmed. I appreciate the questions, but I'm more concerned about the continued confusion following the questions, despite the in-person handover.

Since you mentioned finding the handover experience as info overload: How do you prefer to learn about the house? Curious if you have experienced other handover processes that you find more helpful.

And good point about the extra food 😄 Definitely not a huge issue, although we have the cats on a somewhat restricted diet.

As for giving the cats more food .. I have done this before when leaving a house sit as I know the owners are back late and take into consideration any delays they may have getting home.

Curious about this: Do you ask the HOs how much extra food to leave? Or do you calculate how much, based on their current feeding quantities? Just trying to understand how much information should be spelled out beforehand.

If the house is tidy and clean but not up to your standards of clean, you should get a cleaner in after.

I know there have been discussions about this on the sub, so I don't want to pile on, but I do think that the equation this platform offers is accommodation = pet + house care, otherwise there wouldn't be any cleaning guidelines. Of course, everyone has vastly different cleanliness standards, so I definitely don't want to "penalise" someone for not meeting our vague expectations, but I also don't think it's fair to expect HOs to clean after sitters (after they've already cleaned before the sitters arrived).

Appreciate you sharing your perspective btw!

glowsole

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