Leaving your home and pets in someone else's care is a big decision, and finding a sitter you feel genuinely comfortable with takes time and thought. Once a confirmed sit is complete, leaving an honest review is one of the simplest and most meaningful ways to contribute to the community that helped make it possible. That transparency, whatever the experience, is what keeps our community trustworthy for everyone.
At its core, house sitting is an arrangement between strangers who are willing to extend trust to one another. Reviews are a big part of what makes that possible. When a homeowner is working through sitter profiles trying to decide who to reach out to or shortlist from their house ad applications, the feedback left by previous owners carries genuine weight. It offers something no profile description can: an honest, first-hand account of what it was actually like to have that person in their home.
Every review you write makes that process a little easier for the next homeowner, and helps your sitter grow their profile and reputation on the platform. Each review adds to a shared resource that the whole community benefits from.
A brief comment like "wonderful sitter, highly recommended" is appreciated, but it doesn't give other homeowners a great deal to work with. The reviews that actually help people make confident decisions tend to be specific.
Other homeowners want to know the details: how reliable the sitter was, how they handled the pets day to day, whether communication was easy throughout the sit, and how the home was left at the end. A review that speaks to those things gives prospective homeowners something concrete to consider when deciding whether a particular sitter is a good match for their situation.
Specific and honest beats long and vague every time. A few well-chosen sentences covering what actually mattered during your sit will be far more useful to someone reading your review than a general endorsement.
A thoughtful review does several things at once. It helps your sitter build their reputation and track record on the platform, it gives other Canadian homeowners the kind of real-world insight that a profile alone can't offer, and it's a genuine acknowledgement of the care and effort your sitter put into looking after your home and pets.
For a sitter who gave your sit their full attention, hearing that reflected in a homeowner's review genuinely matters.
Not sure where to begin? These prompts can help you structure your thoughts:
Pet care: Did the sitter stick to your pet's usual routines? Were they comfortable and confident with your animals? Did your pets seem settled and well cared for when you got home?
Communication: Did they check in as agreed before the sit started? Were they easy to reach if you needed them? Did they flag anything that needed your attention without having to be prompted?
The home: Was the property left in good shape - clean and tidy, the same or better than when they arrived? Did they respect your house rules and treat your space with care?
Reliability: Did they show up when agreed and follow through on everything you'd discussed? Did the sit match the expectations set out in your house ad?
Overall: Would you welcome them back? Would you point another homeowner in their direction?
You don't need to work through every prompt - focus on what was most relevant to your particular sit and write from your own experience. Combined with our star rating system, a review built around these points will be a genuinely useful resource for the community.
When a confirmed sit reaches the end date, a 14-day review window opens automatically and both parties are notified by email. You can also access the review page at any time by logging into your account and navigating to the Reviews page from your account’s main menu to write your review.
Our review system is blind, meaning what your sitter writes about you, and what you write about them, stays hidden until both reviews have been submitted or the 14 days are up. It's a deliberate design choice: it means both sides can write freely and honestly without being shaped by what the other has said.
One important thing to know before you start: reviews are permanent once published.
They can't be edited or deleted, so it's worth giving yours some careful thought before you hit submit. That said, once a review is live you do have the opportunity to write a response to it. This response window is open for 21 days from the date of publication, and your response will appear publicly directly beneath the review.
The review process works both ways. When your sitter writes a review for you, that feedback appears on your future house ads and on your direct contact template when you reach out to sitters privately, giving prospective sitters a much clearer picture of what sitting for you actually involves.
A house ad backed by genuine reviews from previous sitters carries more weight than one without. It tells experienced sitters that you're a homeowner worth applying to, and that tends to attract stronger applications over time. The credibility builds gradually, but it starts with that first review.
Since 2017, House Sitters Canada has grown into a community where trust is built through shared experience. Every review you write, and every one you receive, plays a part in that.
So when your sitter heads home, take a few minutes to write them a review. It's a small gesture that goes a long way: for the homeowner reading it next week, for your sitter's reputation, and for your own listings down the track.
Curious to see what a good review looks like in practice? Browse our sitter profiles and read through a few.
It's always free to look, and you'll quickly see the difference a well-written review makes when you're deciding who to trust with your home and pets.
We signed up with your site about 3 weeks ago and already have 2 bookings. I will also admit to signing up with another service thinking that 2 sites would give me more choices. Well, I have to say yours comes out ahead by a mile. A lot of thought has gone into how you run your site and it really shows. So our thanks for making it so easy to understand and use. I highly recommend your site to anyone interested in either listing as a homeowner or a sitter. Agnes & David
