u/Atlas1506

I recently hired a house sitter off of rover for an overseas trip. She was only hired for 4 nights as I had family for the rest. We had previously had an incredible experience with our last rover sitter, but she was unfortunately not able to watch our pets for this trip so we searched for someone else. I did a meet and greet and the person seemed nice enough. I told her about our pets and was honest about my dog. She’s a 2 year golden retriever and the sweetest, but she has a lot of energy. I told her that our dog should be walked for half an hour daily and she said she had no problem with that. I told her our dog sometimes pulls and she said she is fine with it.

Well the day came for her to come to the house and she sent a message an hour after arriving (I saw on my ring camera) but was essentially radio silence the rest of the time. She didn’t leave the house the entire sit, so she didn’t walk my dog once. The only update I got was when I asked for one, and even then she only sent a photo of one of my cats and my dog, not my other cat. I felt very uncomfortable saying anything while I was on the other side of the world just in case she got upset and stranded us without pet care.

Now I don’t know what to do. I am going to be honest in my review, but is it worth submitting a complaint to rover? I don’t even know if she was giving our dog her allergy meds the whole time, or if she was scooping our cat litter. I guess I will see the state of everything when I arrive home tonight, but I am incredibly disappointed. Any advice on what to do next would be appreciated.

Update: the sitter left early but didn’t message us until hours later. Her leaving early meant my pets all ate super early (around 3pm) and my dog got her meds early. The only reason I know she left early is because I saw it on my Ring camera. She was supposed to stay until 6 or 7pm so my pets could eat at their usual time and my dog had enough time to go out before she left. My flight didn’t get in until later but I tried to plan it so they weren’t home alone for super long. A bit frustrating.

We got home around 10pm. The pets and house are all okay and she did leave my house in perfect condition which I appreciate. There was a big spot of pet vomit on one of my blankets which was folded and hidden so I don’t know if she missed it or if she intentionally tried to hide it. Overall, I was aware my pets were not in danger but I still feel that the sitter did not follow care instructions appropriately and was uncommunicative throughout. I left a review just stating the honest facts, also noting that my house and pets were fine, and will not be tipping, and I’ll leave it at that. Hopefully they’ll do better in the future, and at the very least, at least other customers will know.