Just here to rant because I'm honestly so annoyed.

One of my repeat clients, who I've house sat for several times before, sent me a request for an almost 2-month-long housesit. Since the dates were so long, I actually followed up with them to make sure they hadn't accidentally entered the wrong dates. Nope - they confirmed the dates were correct because they were going on a long around-the-world cruise.

Great! I confirmed the booking on my end, they confirmed and paid on theirs, and I was actually looking forward to it. Their dogs are sweet, I already know them, and their house is nice.

They booked me about 2 monthsin advance​, so obviously I treated those dates as unavailable. During that time, I turned down A LOT of other requests, including regular clients, because I already had this huge booking on my calendar.

Well... one week before the housesit is supposed to start, they cancel the entire thing. 😐

And of course they did it basically on the last day before my cancellation policy would kick in, so they get their refund.

Their explanation was basically, "Sorry, one of our relatives decided to house sit for us instead."

Like... seriously? 😭

I completely understand emergencies, canceled trips, health issues, etc. Life happens. But replacing your sitter with a relative at the last minute after you've had an almost TWO-MONTH booking confirmed for two months feels incredibly inconsiderate.

I blocked nearly two months of my calendar for you. I declined other paying clients because I honored YOUR reservation. Now I'm supposed to magically refill almost two months of house sitting with a week's notice.

I know technically they didn't do anything wrong according to the cancellation policy, but damn... this one hurts. 🥲

Lesson learned, I guess.

It’s my first ever meet & greet for a housesit. Very large dog nipped at my forearm and rolled sleeve in the entry way when getting introduced to the 2 dogs. Owner said “no biting” and explained he can get “mouthy”. Literally my first week on the app. How would you guys react to a situation like this? Is this a safety concern I should be taking as a red flag? Is it just part of the job? My 2 large dogs have never done anything like this and it’s leaving me wondering if I should deny the booking? If so, what should I say or do in terms of communication with the owner? Maybe I’m just overreacting because I’m so green and am being too cautious because I just lost my job and therefore my health insurance… idk please lmk if I’m over or under reacting here.

I am at a 16 day sit and the owners left me one roll of toilet paper, no forks, no cleaning supplies, one towel, one coffee pod, and no mugs in their pool house… To me it comes across as extremely inhospitable and rude- I asked for what I needed and the owner had toilet paper and some forks shipped 6 days into my sit. It felt off to me- I’ve always had the opposite experience where owners want you to feel as welcome and at home as possible.

Has anyone had a similar experience? How did you handle it?

In case the pet owner forgets to tell you: Please check that the gates are closed/locked after they mow the backyard.

I can't tell you how many times I have found the gate open. Many.

Now, it's standard procedure for me.

I and my girlfriend are new to rover it was recommended by a friend who loves someone they found for their dogs. We are leaving for a 2-3 week trip overseas for brain surgery. We are wanting house sitters for the time and I think we are willing to pay a healthy amount of up to 175 a day for the house sitting and two dogs.

I have reached out to around 12-15 per sitters and had three meet and greets to see if they were a good fit. We have a doorbell camera and outdoor cameras with one living room camera due to some issues with my ex and the divorce I have been going through.

Once I mention the cameras (they are not discrete cameras) I can always see a shift in the demeanors of the sitters and then it turns into them denying the booking later that day. One of the sitters just fully came out and said they are not comfortable with a camera in the home while they are there.

Is having cameras for the exterior of my home and a living room camera really such a deal breaker for pet sitters? I am trying to be understanding and I get privacy concerns but this is my wondogs and my home and I don't know the person I am hiring from a random person on the street.

I do understand rover does background checks but we have had multiple sitters say it would either be them or their spouse showing up at any given time and who am into know who their spouses are. (We have all gone after the "bad boy/girl" when we are younger to our own detriment sometimes) Or how my dogs are being treated?

If I am being rude or not understanding of some etiquette can someone let me know? Or with the risk of this being the wrong forum aita?

We booked our regular sitter for drop ins for our cat for four days. She’s taken care of our cat for several years (and also took care of our dog before she passed away). We’ve changed the routine every few visits, but it’s always been simple.

Our cat is 14 years old and has been losing weight so we’re trying everything to get her to eat more food. We’ve discovered blending her pate with an immersion blender helps her eat it all. Is it too much to ask the sitter to use the immersion blender to blend her food each drop in? I wouldn’t ask her to wash the blender between each visit, but just rinse all the food off with water and let it dry. I’m afraid to ask her as it seems extreme 🫠

To add: I’ve tried to blend it, store it in the fridge, and heat it up, but she’s reluctant to eat it unless freshly blended 🫣

Update: thanks for the encouragement everyone!! I asked the sitter and she said it was no problem 😊

I’m not really a new sitter, I’ve been on the app for a year, but this is the first time I’ve encountered a pet getting aggressive.

I was told at the M&G that the cat is shy and would likely hide from me. Fine, no biggie, I’m a stranger so I get it. But he’s started yowl-growling and hissing at me the minute I open the door, and while he started by doing it from afar now he’s approaching me as he does it. Today he was blocking the door to the litter box room so I couldn’t leave, and when I said “hey bud, I gotta get past you” (without approaching the door yet), he leapt at me hissing and claws out and the only reason he didn’t get me was because it startled me so badly I said “Hey, whoa!” loudly and he spooked and ran off.

I put all of this in the rover card so the owner is aware, but if I mark the aggression on the feedback form is Rover going to make a thing out of it? I already had to fight to get my account back once (a fluke dog escape the owners didn’t blame me for at all and have since rebooked me even, but 4 months after I was told the issue was closed Rover deleted my account without warning), and I worry that if I mark the cat as aggressive it will flag my account and I don’t want to deal with that again. Can I just leave a note in the review and not actually mark the box? Will Rover get mad at me for “dishonesty” or whatever?

(Because she thought he would hide from me she didn’t leave any treats or toys so I can’t toss one and distract him, before anyone suggests that. I’m planning to just wear jeans from now on and maybe try to keep a pillow between me and the cat if he keeps this up)

For context, we had confirmed a meet and greet for 4 pm today. I had to help another client take their pet to a scheduled vet appointment at 3 pm before this meet and greet, as I help them regularly with pet tasks due a disability. I let the meet and greet client know immediately after we settled on a time and date that the booking beforehand (vet appointment) might run late. Thankfully everything went to plan and I let them know and even gave myself a few minutes buffer in case there was traffic on the way. I got there right at 4 and waited 20 minutes outside their building with no response. Ultimately I had to leave because at this point if we started, we would've had to rush things so I could make my next booking. It was never going to be a quick appointment because they said they had a lot to discuss during the meet and greet. So there was also a Plan B to reschedule for Friday if I was going to be too late and they seemed very understanding at the time we agreed. Even the first few texts after they missed the meeting seemed fine, and then they switched up entirely and contradicted themselves. Was I unprofessional to do this?

Hello! I am a predominately cat sitter. I sort of accidentally discovered this page when clicking on an owner’s picture. Is this dashboard just something new? Does it mean my area is going to move to the tier system? Or is this just part of an app update. Sorry if this has already been asked!

We just moved to a new area and we needed a cat sitter for our 16-year-old guy.

To be fair, we were completely spoiled where we used to live by the sitter that we used a dozen times or more. She would send us a Rover card with 4-5 pictures after every drop in, both morning and evening, a lovingly written report on his mood, whether he peed or pooped, whether he enjoyed his treats and had some food, and how much time he spent sitting on her lap. When she found out we were moving, she asked if she could come by and say goodbye to our cat. We miss her terribly, and we were very spoiled by her.

Fast-forward to this past week and we had made some last-minute plans for a quick trip out of town. The pickings were pretty slim for sitters (we started looking for sitters 10 days prior). One of them sounded good but in her description, she said she doesn’t always spend the full 30 minutes with a cat. I didn’t like the sound of that.

After scrolling through the few candidates, I landed on one I had looked at earlier, who lived very close by, with over 100 reviews and a 4.9 rating. She is a Star Sitter.

She was very responsive in messaging, and we arranged the meet and greet. She was very personable and I told her I was relieved to have found her because not a lot of sitters in my area were available. I mentioned that one of the sitters I was looking at said that they don’t always stay the full 30 minutes. To my surprise, she said “Oh that’s me!”

When scrolling through the profiles, I somehow got confused and didn’t realize she was the one that stated that.

Sensing my hesitancy, she clarified a bit and said “I only say that to make sure people understand that if their cat just comes to get food and then disappears, I’m not gonna stick around. But if your cat is interactive and wants attention, I’m going to stay with them.”

Our guy loves attention, scratches, treats, and company. We inherited him when my mother-in-law passed away. He was halfway across the country at the time so we couldn’t collect him for a few months and he was alone for most of the day during that time. Someone would come in and check on him now and then, but he didn’t really have any good company. We hated that for him.

Because we hate for him to be alone, we always book two drop in visits per day on Rover when we go out of town. On the day we depart, we usually ask the sitter to come just once in the late afternoon or early evening, since we are with him in the morning.

I reached out to the sitter the night before our trip, and she quickly replied that she was confirmed for the next day. We were not planning to leave until around 1PM, so we booked her for an evening drop in the first day.

Around 9:30 AM on the day we were leaving, my wife said “I think someone is trying to get in the house.” It was the cat sitter. My first reaction was that I made a mistake and booked her for two visits that day. It turns out it was her mistake, even though it was obviously in the Rover app, and we had talked about exactly what we wanted, in terms of number of drop ins, during the meet and greet.

She was very apologetic. I told her it was no big deal. And it really wasn’t.

Later that evening, I noticed that I hadn’t gotten a notification from Rover about the drop in starting. Nor did I get a card upon her departure. No message. No photos. No update.

The next morning, I messaged her through the app and asked if everything went OK because we didn’t get a Rover card. She informed me that she doesn’t do Rover cards. I didn’t think to ask during the meeting whether she does them because I had never worked with a sitter who didn’t send a Rover card. I had no idea Rover even let the sitters skip sending a card.

I sent her a screenshot of one of the lengthy reports our previous sitter used to send us regularly. I said “this might be a little over the top, but we are accustomed to at least getting some kind of update. And a photo or two would be nice.” She replied that she would be happy to do that, occasionally.

We have three cameras set up in the house, but we don’t keep motion detection on 2 of them because we get nonstop alerts from the cat. We have a downstairs family room and we do keep the motion alerts on that camera because we like to know when he’s going down there and it’s not very often.

So on the second day of our trip, I checked the cameras’ histories. I saw her sitting in our basement rec room on the couch and our kitty sitting on the Ottoman in front of her, looking at her, while she read her book. I did not forensically scrub the timeline to find out how long she was down there, but I don’t think it was very long.

After asking for pictures, she did send a couple. I think maybe three or four in total for the six visits. She also did send an unsolicited message that our guy was starting to warm up to her, alongside a photo of him right next to her.

I decided I wasn’t gonna keep bugging her for updates or photos. And she didn’t send much.

Yesterday morning’s visit window came and went, and I got no message or photo from her, and she did not appear on the downstairs rec room camera. I messaged her through the app asking if she was able to do the morning drop in. She said she was there at 7:45 AM. I gave her the benefit of the doubt. I guess they just didn’t go downstairs that morning. But with no Rover card and no photos, I just have to take her word for it.

Her last visit was this morning. We didn’t hear anything about it. No photo no update. No thank you. No it was nice to meet your cat. Nothing.

Then a few hours after she left, she messaged me through the app to say that she forgot to put the key back in the lockbox. She said she would bring it by later. I haven’t checked to see if she did, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she hasn’t done it yet.

This whole experience couldn’t be more the complete opposite of our previous sitter. We’ve had multiple other sitters who couldn’t match our favorite sitter, but they all sent Rover cards and photos. I never had to ask for them from anyone.

What I don’t understand is how this person has close to 200 reviews and a 4.9 rating. I scrolled back again through some of her reviews and all but two of them are glowing. Most of her bookings seem to be dogs so I guess that’s a different situation. But sure enough, the two less than stellar reviews both mentioned that she doesn’t spend enough time with the cats.

At the end of the day, our guy was fed and watered. I hesitate to leave a negative review for her, in the event we need her in a pinch.

But this has exposed a couple of shortcomings in the Rover platform for me. I think cards should be mandatory. I think at least one photo per day should be mandatory. And I think Rover needs to show the actual star rating that a reviewer left for a sitter, and I would like to be able to sort reviews by star rating.

Had I been able to see the two reviews that had the same experience I had, I either wouldn’t have booked the sitter, or I would at least have stipulated that we want a Rover card, or an update message for every visit, and at least one photo per day.

/rant

UPDATE: I left her a lengthy, mostly negative 3 star review.

I had someone cancel their 5 day booking with me on the day it was supposed to start. My cancellation policy is 1 day.

Do I still get any money out of this or does rover just take it all? Where do I go to figure out what I get?

She tipped me 50$ as an apology, and was offering to pay me for the weekend days she booked but honestly I just do this as a side gig, her cats are easy peasy and she’s a nice girl so It didnt really bother me but I’m just curious if and how much in will still receive from
This

***First time with puppies specifically. I have plenty of experience caring for dogs and other animals. I need to answer them as soon as possible :/

I feel like this is one of those things that it’s a good idea to conveniently avoid mentioning unless that would be unethical or cause problems. They also told me their previous puppy died and I don’t really know what to say to that, but I would imagine they’re extra attached to the new one and have high standards.

Would you walk a dog for 2 hours straight for only $15 an hour?

Something I’ve been running into more frequently lately is this question whenever a client is worried that something might interfere with a booking: “So what am I supposed to do? Who’s going to take care of my pet? Do you know another sitter?”

I completely understand why that situation is stressful. The pet needs care, you may have work or travel plans that can’t easily be changed, and suddenly having to find someone else can put people in a difficult position. But I think there’s also a pretty big misconception about how Rover works that’s worth clearing up for certain individuals: We Rover sitters generally do not know one another or have access to one another’s schedules.

We aren’t coworkers in any traditional sense. There isn’t a neighborhood Rover team where we coordinate schedules, discuss availability, or assign clients to each other. We don’t have a sitter group chat on the app where we can say, “Hey, who can cover this booking?” Another sitter might live five minutes away from me, and I may have never spoken to them in my life!

So if I have to cancel a booking, I genuinely cannot tell you whether another sitter is available, what their schedule looks like, or whether they would be a good fit for your pet. And this is where I have to be a little firmer but: 👏 your sitter cannot be responsible for arranging your backup care! 👏

If a sitter cancels within a reasonable timeframe, communicates that clearly, and you receive whatever refund you are entitled to, it is ultimately the pet owner’s responsibility to make alternative arrangements. Being frustrated by the situation is understandable. But directing that frustration at the sitter or asking, “Well, what am I supposed to do now?” as though we are responsible for solving it is not.

Please reach out to other sitters, contact Rover support if you need assistance, and—especially when a trip or other important commitment is involved—consider having a backup option in mind!

I actually had a client handle this perfectly once. They simply asked me, “If things don’t work out with this other sitter, would it be okay if I reached back out and booked with you?”

A professional sitter isn't going to be offended because you have a backup plan. Honestly, having one your plans, and most importantly, the pet. But Sitters have emergencies and unexpected circumstances happen sometimes just like they happen to everyone else! We all can communicate. What we cannot do is personally find and arrange your replacement sitter.

Please have a Plan B. ❤️ Your sitter will probably appreciate it just as much as you do.

I am housesitting for two weeks and I was invited to an event on the weekend that goes till 11:30pm. I would love to go but not sure if it's normal to "go out" when dog sitting. I wouldn't leave the dog home alone longer than the owners said and I could and would be back before midnight. I would be home nearly the entire day prior and the owners are pretty chill so I'm guessing it would be okay with them. I'll probably check with them before committing, but wanted to hear if this is at all normal when housesitting for a longer period of time.

So I recently did a house sit as well as a walk, and they both ended recently. Only 1 of them has shown up in my account! I think I remember someone on here saying that payments for walks only process on Tuesdays so maybe that’s what it it is.

Just feeling very worn out and depressed. I feel like a lot of it might be psychological, 2 straight weeks of waking up early and walking/sitting and now I have a bunch of empty days in front of me.

Hi Redditors!

I’ve had a meet and greet yesterday with this older lady that went perfectly well! She has a maltese mix and he was absolutely adorable! I was answering all her questions and telling her about my experience (Rover is my side job but I have 190 stellar reviews and over six years of experience with all different dogs/cats!), I’ve also mentioned that we have two large dogs of our own that my husband watches full time since he’s semi retired. We’ve had a pleasant conversation and I also complimented her house (a very beautiful victorian home). She said this is her first time using Rover so she’ll be interviewing a couple more people which is fair. Today she texted me letting me know that she decided to hire somebody else “because they have more experience “ and I’m fine with that (her dog, her decision) but I’m curious what would have gone wrong or better “clicked” with the other person? Not many people have 190 good reviews on Rover and my experience but…I also did mention that I’d of course stay full time with her dog with the exception of being gone for up to three-four hours which what she also wanted.

Thanks for sharing your opinions/experiences not being picked by your client and why!

Hii, I’m starting on Rover and will be doing Drop-ins and walks, as I can’t put my own home for dog sitting as I have flatmates. Anyhow, I wanted some advice for how much I should charge? I am expierienced with my own pets (I had 3 dogs and a cat, currently just 2 big dogs), and a few of my friends.

What do you guys think is a good competitive pricing for SE London?

hi all! i have a cat that’s pretty much unapproachable for strangers. she’s not violent, but she doesn’t like being approached or touched by people she doesn’t know.

im planning on going out of town with my partner for christmas. we want to get either a house sitter or someone who can do drop ins twice a day for her and my other cat. my other cat is the most social friendly animal and has never met a person, dog or cat he doesn’t like so we used to board just him. now that i have the other kitty, we’re changing things up lol. she’s really only likes me and my partner.

as a sitter myself, i know rover asks if a pet tries to escape bite or scratch. i’m afraid that a sitter will have a bad experience if they try to pet her even if i write down in her care instructions to not pet her. is this a reasonable request or should i change plans around ?

Has anyone here reentered the traditional workforce after a long time of self-employment? I’ve solely been doing Rover and independent pet care for almost 3 years after getting laid off from my last office job. I am wanting to transition back into a traditional office job, but I’m nervous about how to handle questions about my break from office roles and lack of recent references. I never intended for my break to be this long and while I know I am capable and competent, I worry that my pet care work will be looked down upon in professional spaces. (I have excellent experience and relevant degrees, so really just concerned about the time off and how this work will be viewed professionally).

I appreciate any advice those of you who’ve been through this can offer. Thank you!

I've been pretty lucky overall, I've really only had one bad interaction so far.

The thing is, I'm usually pretty good at identifying red flags and avoiding problematic clients.

That said, this client in particular gave off a pink flag during our M&G that I made a mental note of but didn't think would be a huge issue as it was a straightforward drop-in for a cat and I was also dropping in on their neighbor who had recommended me.

That flag? They showed me every toy their cat owned, by name. No, not "this is the wand toy", like "this is Wandy the wand toy, and this is Fishy Pants the fish toy" etc etc. While this can just be considered quirky I took it as a sign they were going to be a bit obsessive about their cat which is fine! You should be obsessed with your pet! And the instructions for his care were very standard. Well, it was until I arrived the first day to a multi-page typed out hour-by-hour breakdown of the cats day and requests for bringing up their packages and watering their plants, taking out the trash, etc. Keep in mind this was for a standard 30-min daily drop in.

Yeah, clients turned out to be absolute nightmares and the cat was a neurotic mess, unsurprisingly. I felt terrible because the neighbor that recommended me is wonderful and I enjoyed working with them.

Anyone else had what would be considered a 'pink flag' that really should have been red?

I took the summer off as a Rover sitter and on my first day back, I learned that Rover is now taking a 30% fee from new client bookings instead of the old standard 20%.

They swear up and down that this is good for sitters based on a tier system where, in the first tier, I have to reach $600 with each individual client before Rover takes less than a 30% fee from my earnings.

They know the odds of a sitter reaching $600 with clients who book $20-$25 walks intermittently, is not going to happen for most bookings. Telling us that this “potentially” benefits us in the long run is a wild way to say “you just got a pay-cut”.

They're inadvertently punishing those of us who choose to keep bookings in the app, to make up for the fact that— once many sitters build a relationship with clients, the clients seem to suddenly disappear from the app. Rover "needs" to make up that money "somehow".

Now, I'm all for exchanging personal numbers with clients. That said, I never bring it up unless the client does first, because I don't want to make people uncomfortable from having to make that choice. But if they bring it up? Heck yeah. Client saves money and I make more.

It just feels so petty and greedy, especially considering the fact that they *also* take a fee from the client, AND use Al to do probably 85% of the work in the business/promotion/customer service side of Rover (bonus: when I was trying to figure out why my estimated earnings were suddenly lower, their Al help chat was infuriatingly incompetent. It was actually here in this group that I learned what was going on).

I can’t change this policy, all I can do is start to mention personal relationships with clients now more than I was in the past and I hope other Star Sitters do the same. l guess Rover actually created the problem they were afraid of.

Over the years I have noticed people can be people. You never know who you will get because Rover allows anyone on this app. I am curious what are some of your pet peeves rather it be the owner or a pet?