r/RoverPetSitting

Hi all, I’ve been doing rover for a while now. I’ve been looking at how much fuel I’ve used for just meet and greets and wondering how other people handle this?

Do you charge for a meet and greet or add a travel expense on?

Not sure if it’s something I can do but fuel is so expensive now and where I live is very rural so most of the time it is 30 minute drive to anywhere.

Normally it is for drop ins/house sitting so I would like to see where I’m staying and see how the animals respond to me being there.

Hi everyone - I'm sending this message out into the Reddit void because it hurts my heart. I just finished pet sitting for a very old pup that is clearly suffering. Throws up regularly in the morning due to nausea. Arthritic to the point where sitting down takes several seconds and looks difficult, unsteady on feet, medicated for pain to the point where they can't support their body weight due to being so out of it.

They still have their appetite and regular potty breaks thank goodness.

All I was able to do was watch them like a hawk during my stay and report on their behavior.

If this were a larger breed, an important conversation would surely be had with the vet because it would visually be so alarming to see an animal struggling that much. But for some reason, I've found with the small breeds, owners keep them alive beyond what is kind. As if being smaller means they don't suffer as much? I just can't understand.

hi! this is my first time using rover so i'm not really sure what's normal or what to expect. yesterday was the second time i dropped my dog off with her sitter, when we picked her up everything seemed completely normal aside from the fact that she was kind of dirty but it wasn't nothing a bath couldn't solve so i didn't give it much thought. the thing is, at night i noticed the hair around her muzzle was shorter, which kinda threw me off at first because our sitter didn't ask us nor let us know about this. my dog's hair is a bit longer than usual but nothing too extreme (she's a maltese so her hair does get a bit long, but next week is her grooming appointment anyway) so i can't think of a reasonable reason why she would feel the need to cut it.

next time i see my dog's sitter i might bring up this topic but i wanted to ask for opinions. next month i'm gonna leave my dog with her for a full day so i wanna make sure she's someone i can trust. there aren't many dog sitters near my area and i have to leave in two weeks, so i don't really have much time to change sitters or for my dog to get used to them prior to that day.

let me know what you guys think/what you guys would do. perhaps i'm just thinking too much of it.

Hi all. Just moved to rover with the cat in a flat merger so this is my first time using it. My first visit is set for tonight at 6pm. It’s now 6am and I went on the app to double check the timing for tonight and accidentally opened a drop-in card, and the timer has been running. It’s not giving me the option to cancel this. Should I just keep it running and fill it in with photos etc at 6pm even tho it will say 12 hour visit? I have messaged the cat owner about it and she’s so chill anyway so I’m not worried about her. I’m worried about rover.

Anyone else ever have a potential client try to add an exotic pet to their booking at the meet and greet?

I got a request for drop ins for a dog twice a day for 3 days. Everything seemed great when messaging but when I went for the meet and greet, I found out they have several snakes, a few spiders, and a chinchilla. We went through all of the care for the pup, chatted for a bit and then right before I was going to head out, the husband just said “oh wait, there’s one more thing we need you to do” and then proceeded to walk into a massive room that was closed off before and started showing me everything. I am not comfortable with snakes and spiders AT ALL. I can handle literally anything else but those 2 things. I told them “I’m sorry but I am not comfortable being around and caring for these pets besides the chinchilla and dog” and he then tried to downplay it saying it’s not that bad. He pulled one of the snakes out and I froze because I was scared. Thankfully he didn’t try to hand it to me because I probably would’ve panicked lol.

But he went through the whole routine with me just standing there frozen and in the end, I told them that if we were to proceed, I would have to call in my husband to help with the snakes and spiders as I could not do it myself and then went over costs for the extra pets. They didn’t like this and started saying that it wasn’t much extra work and it shouldn’t cost more.

Ended the meet and greet on good terms wishing them the best and sending a recommendation for someone I know that does care for those animals but is quite a bit more expensive for those pets. Once I got home I archived the request and thought about blocking them but didn’t.

Has this happened to anyone else? I’ve always had people be upfront about it over message. Not bring it up last minute at the m&g lol.

I’m dogsitting a dog that I‘ve dogsat before and this time his Mom made him human food like chicken that she froze and had me dethaw each day for the dog. This dog is an extremely anxious dog as it is and is always having anxiety. It is very normal for him not to eat when he shows up at my house. This time he did eat the chicken his mom made eventually (and most begrudgingly). However, within 8 hours, he started having diarrhea every hour. He is drinking water and acting his usual self. I’ve contacted the owner and she said it’s just stress since the food is the same one he always eats. Now this dog barely wants to eat his own food in general and I’ve never seen him excited by food or anything so the only thing that can cause the diarrhea is the food itself or stress. However, I’ve never seen it this bad. It’s so bad my dog keeps running away from the room.

Also he‘s been here before and I’ve never seen him diarrhea. He use to eat kibble and was not an issue with poop.

My question is…how long do I let the diarrhea go on for before telling his parents they need to either pick him up (they are overseas) or bring him to the vet and asking them to pay the vet bills? What is everyone’s personal experience with diarrhea and boarding?

Hello,

I do dog walking and pet sitting. I have a decent amount off the app now and some still on the app. I need to raise my prices since this is my only income and things are getting spendy. How have you done this? Increase by a dollar amount or a percentage? Let's be honest, using Rover and services like it are a luxury during this time. Most of my clients can definitely afford more, but my emotions get tangled in and I worry I will lose my clients and I won't see some of my dogs anymore. Also, for the people off app that maybe don't have the same amount of excess funds, do you still raise it for them? I know that sounds weird, but I am also here to help people and I find the ones with the more average jobs tend to appreciate me in different ways (they already tend to pay me a larger tip each time). Also, how often do you revisit your prices and check if they need to be increased?

Thanks everyone!

We had a pet sitter from Rover just do a house sitting gig for us. We have 3 cats and 1 dog. The cats are super low maintenance — basic feeding and litter box care.

Our dog is older and a big dog who doesn’t do much either. We typically walk him twice a day around 8/9am and then again around 9pm, around 45 mins–1 hour each time. Before y’all come at me, I’d walk him in the afternoon too, but he is a lazy boy and prefers hanging out on our balcony with the cats, especially in this heat.

Anyways, the instructions I gave the sitter were basically:
- Dog just needs 90 mins total walking time/day
- Walk times can be flexible as long as they’re not more than 12 hrs apart
- Please don’t be away from the house for more than 10 hrs at any given point

Meet and greet went great. She was really sweet with the animals.

She did mention she had a few work shifts from 5–10pm. I told her that wasn’t a huge issue, but because of that our dog would need 3 walks instead of 2, since it wouldn’t really be fair to him to go from like 4pm until the next morning. I also specifically said the later two walks could just be quick 15 min potty breaks and he could get his longer walk in the morning. She seemed fine with that.
I didn’t think much of it because she said it was a PT job with only 2–3 shifts a week and that she wasn’t picking up other house sitting jobs. We paid her asking rate of $80/day ($800 total).

Issues started literally after the first night (sit started at 7pm).

She lost our house keys.

Thankfully our apartment door was still unlocked and we live in a building, but we didn’t have spare keys (this part is on us too). I ultimately told her to just leave the apartment unlocked when she left because at least our dog barking would scare most people away and the animals wouldn’t accidentally get locked in somewhere. Obviously not ideal.
Then a couple days later we get a text from our neighbor saying our cat is locked outside.

We let the cats onto the balcony during the day but keep the door cracked open. Sitter was told this too, along with “animals are welcome on the balcony whenever you’re home, but please bring them inside if you’re leaving.”
Turns out she forgot she had let our cat out and left to go grocery shopping.

At this point we’re kinda like wtf, but it was only day 3 and we were out of the country and didn’t want to risk her getting upset and bailing while our animals still needed care.

The rest of the sit itself honestly went okay. Our return flight ended up getting canceled and she even offered to stay another night, which I genuinely appreciated.

Then after the sit she asked if I could leave her a review on Rover and said she hoped for 5 stars.

I told her I was happy to leave a review and be honest about how much she cared for the animals, and that we’d likely still reach out again in the future, but I didn’t think I could do a full 5 stars because of the key situation and the cat situation.

She pushed back and basically said:
- The key thing ended up being fine because no harm was done
- The cat being left outside was “just a mistake”
- She walked our dog 3 times a day and was exhausted from doing it
- She feels like all the care she gave the animals should outweigh “a few mistakes”
- She feels “really unappreciated”

And now I’m feeling weird because I’m not saying she’s a terrible sitter or trying to tank her profile. I’m not even saying I wouldn’t hire her again. But losing house keys on day one and accidentally leaving my cat outside while leaving the apartment feel… kind of significant?

Like am I being unreasonable here? Is this still a 5 star situation because the pets were okay overall, or are these exactly the types of things reviews are supposed to reflect?

TLDR: Paid Rover sitter $800 for a house sit (3 cats, 1 dog). She lost our house keys on day one and later accidentally left our cat outside on the balcony while she went grocery shopping. Rest of the sit was mostly okay and she cared for the pets, but when I said I couldn’t leave a full 5-star review she said she felt unappreciated and that mistakes happen. Am I wrong for not wanting to give 5 stars?

EDIT: Major appreciation to everyone who has reassured me I’m not a Karen lol. Since it was brought up a few times, wanted to add some details:
- Cat was out in the corridor, not the balcony thankfully.
- Our balcony is screened but only up to where the railing ends. Thankfully our cats have never expressed interest at going up on the railings, but this is a big reason why I emphasized to the sitter that the cats should only be allowed on the balcony if she’s also at home.
- We were considering hiring her again as the rest of the stay went well, she did really care for the animals, and she even cleaned up before leaving. Finding a pet sitter in NY is just AWFUL (IYKYK), so we’ve had to deal with much worse.
- After the last message from her, we’ve decided to not rehire her mainly due to her not being able to see that these were indeed major mistakes.

I recently confirmed a booking for a month-long Catsitting stay in a really nice house. When I went for the meet-and-greet, the security guard at the gate to the community tried calling the owner and couldn’t contact her, but she still let me in. Today is the first day of the stay and when I arrived at the security gate, the guy couldn’t get a hold of her and said he couldn’t let me in. I currently have all of my stuff plus food that needs to be refrigerated in my car so I’m just in a random parking lot waiting for her to call me back. This sucks because I have no idea when she’s going to respond. This seemed like a dream of a booking, but I can’t believe she didn’t add me to their system or whatever she has to do before leaving for her trip? Like I’m literally supposed to be taking care of her cats starting today. I know the answer is probably obvious - just need to sit and wait - but I guess I wanted to share this just in case anyone has any advice or has experienced something like this before, because it’s pretty frustrating.

I’ve had two boarding requests and neither of them responded to my initial message asking if they would like to do a meet and greet. I responded to both pretty quickly. One request was made yesterday and then another one around 3 hours ago. Have yet to hear back from either.

I just realized that pending requests will take me off the list of sitters for the dates they requested.

I archived both and now I’m appearing in the search results again. I’m curious, how soon do you archive a request if the client isn’t responding in a reasonable time frame?

I have done a good amount of house sits in the past couple months and I have gotten one Rover Reel out of all of them and it was April 15th. Everybody has left reviews too so I’m just confused. Is anyone else dealing with this? Did Rover get rid of the reels? I just love watching them and seeing all the cute photos of my clients with cute little music, I always save the Rover Reels in a specific folder in my email

Hi! I’m very new to using this app. I have an almost 11 month old golden retriever. I work 7-4 and would like to hire somebody to help walk him mid day, as I think it would be good for him. He’s super friendly, loves everyone, everything.

However, he pulls a LOT. We’re working on it (private training, behavioralist), but he’s so excited and rowdy that I’m struggling myself to walk him. Can I still use this app to find a dog walker if I warn them about his pulling?

Also, I just give them a copy of my apartment and building keys to keep? How reliable is this, does Rover screen walkers or do I have a high chance of being robbed?

Hi everyone! I’m new to Rover and trying to set myself up for success, I could really use some advice from experienced sitters.

1. Profile photo help
   I have severe body dysmorphia and only two photos of myself, neither of which I’m comfortable using. I know clients like to see who they’re hiring, but I’m really struggling with this part.
   How do you handle profile photos if you don’t like pictures of yourself?
   Is it okay to use pet‑focused photo until I can get something better? Which may not be for a while.

2. Advertising my services
   I want to get the word out locally but I’m autistic and not always sure how to communicate things clearly.
   How do you advertise your Rover services outside the app?

3. Meeting clients & what to wear
   What do you usually wear for meet and greets?
   Do all services require one?
   I’m in the middle of a big weight loss journey and don’t have many clothes that fit well right now, so I’m not sure what’s considered “professional enough” for pet sitting. Same with hair; I know that sounds weird but I want to make a good impression.

4. Physical limitations
   I have chronic health issues, but I can walk smaller dogs, cats, and dogs who are on a weight‑loss journey like me.
   Do any of you limit the types of dogs you accept based on physical ability?
   How do you communicate that without sounding unreliable?

5. Exotic pet sitting
   I keep exotics myself and would love to offer care for reptiles, amphibians, fish, inverts, etc.
   Since Rover doesn’t have an exotics category, how do you handle bookings for them? Do you?
   Do clients actually book exotics through the cat/dog drop‑in system?

Any advice is appreciated. I really want to do this right and make Rover work for me. Thanks

So, I have a regular client that I house sit for a couple times during any given new month. Today they requested a house sitting gig for a few hours. But, as I hit the book it button I was prompted by a Rover safety reminder that "Never bring unsolicited guests, be mindful some owners have webcams that can check logs when a door has been opened." And I had never received this before when usually hitting the "book it' button. And bearing in mind, I've been there sitter for about half the year now. Does this mean they reported or spoke to Rover about me? Or someone in GENERAL did?

I've never gotten any emails or complaints from the Rover team or themselves. So, I don't know - it feels a bit targeted to just be an innocent safety reminder.

I posted the story when it came out a week ago. This is a rover sitter. Some Einstein in the comments tried to convince everyone I was phishing for fb login info from y’all. Told him I wasn’t and he hit me with a wall of vulgarity. Turns out I wasn’t phishing after all I just happened to see it on fb. Here’s the update and I purposely clicked through from fb to link it for you so no one shits their pants this time.