How reviews work

You may have noticed that we don't display public reviews on doggos.com.

Instead, this has been replaced by a feature we call "Transaction history" which shows a log of public transaction details that we can guarantee have happened on our platform, making them impossible to fake. You can find transaction history at the bottom of a sitter's profile page, which looks something like this:

Transaction history is unique to sitters on doggos.com

Transacation history contains useful information like the size of dog the sitter accepted in the request, the date, and the outcome. It's good to look for a sitter with a high ratio of "Paid" and "Completed" transactions, but we encourage you to take every detail into consideration when considering who to book with. For example, if it's important to you that your dog sitter only watches small dogs, look for transaction history that reflects that.

The fake review industry

Around the world, hundreds of businesses have been created solely for the purpose of faking reviews.

Google, Amazon, Facebook and other tech companies have tried for years to combat these problems, but fake reviews continue to find their way in, and with the emergence of AI image generators and natural language technology like ChatGPT, fake reviews are getting even harder to spot.

Have you ever purchased a product online that was advertised by a real person and had a lot of great reviews about its quality/effectiveness? Only to buy it yourself and realize it either didn't work at all, or was very low quality compared to how it looked? This happens because online reviews are faked in very compelling ways, including beautiful product images and video testimonials that makes the product seem amazing, even if it's not.

When it comes to something like dog sitting, we thought the possibility of having fake reviews on the platform were especially concerning, because dog owners are not just buying a product based on those reviews... they're trusting someone with their dogs life. For the average person, it's very difficult to tell the difference between real and fake reviews, so we thought it was better not to rely on them at all.

What do we do instead?

In addition to displaying a public "Transaction history" of bookings we can verifiy happened, we ask dog owners to rate their sitter after their stay is complete, as well as provide any additional feedback to us that they want.

Comparing transaction history allows dog owners to determine for themselves which sitter is best for their dog.

Do we still use reviews?

Immediately after a booking is completed, we ask dog owners to rate their stay, or request a refund.

Most ratings are 5-stars, and ratings below 3-stars are reviewed by the doggos.com team. Refund requests are taken very seriously, and, depending on the severity of the issue, can result in the original dog sitter being removed from the platform.

All review requests are optional, but crucially, can only be completed after a dog owner has booked dog sitting, and we've verified this booking was legitimate through our payment processor, Stripe.

These reviews are privately associated with your account and cannot be viewed by dog sitters (sorry!), but you can rest assured that your ratings do not impact your search rank in any way.

Why can't I see my rating?

We want dog owners to be brutally honest with their feedback, and guaranteeing their rating stays private is one of the ways we encourage that.

We are working on ways for dog sitting clients to provide more public feedback in the future, because we recognize there's a strong desire from dog sitters to show off their client pictures, pups having fun, and all the other great things that happen during a stay.

Stay tuned! We think you're going to love what we've got in store for dog sitters in 2024! 🐶 📸 ⏰

Do ratings impact my rank in search results?

No. The ratings completed by dog owners and sent directly to doggos.com do not impact your search rank, even if they're negative.

Only issued refunds, the prices & availability you set, and the filters available to everyone on the platform will impact your search rank (although, we may follow up with dog sitters directly if we recieve more than 1 negative review, whether there is a refund associated with the account or not.)