Rover—Dog Sitters & Walkers Software

I’ve only been using rover for about 3 weeks now as a sitter and it’s already brought in a significant amount of income for me. I’m a stay at home mom and have been searching for something I can do from home and so far rover has worked out perfectly. I take pretty much any client as long as they get along with kids and other dogs. I already have tons of booking and a few repeats clients. I’ve liked the small updates the app has had but just yesterday, all of my pending bookings are showing a “pending owners response” highlight at the top of our messages as if I sent them a booking request. Which I haven’t to any of them. I’m not sure if it’s just a glitch on my end but if it has actually send requests it may cause me to look bad and potentially lose clients and money. I almost always meet the family and dog before sending a request or accepting one so this is an issue for me. I’ve tried logging out, deleting the app and everything else I can think of but the “glitch” won’t go away. I’m hoping this issue is resolved quickly.

I have been pet sitting on Rover since September 2017, just part-time alongside a full-time job and full-time college course load. That being said, I have made over $5,500 with my Rover bookings since I started, and that is only doing it around a pre-existing 40 hour per week full-time job. I’m paying my car off early thanks to Rover, which I never thought I would say! Great customer service, you choose who you want to work with and when you want to work. Charge what you want, set a service radius and even create modified rates by pet type, client, etc. One note I will give is that the sitter perks could use some attention. Lyft drivers get branded swag and/or cash bonuses for hitting certain goals; Rover currently has nothing like that. There used to be a web store where you could purchase stuff to help promote your business but they took that away. I think some of these items (shirts, bandanas, business cards, etc) would be great to give sitters as rewards for hitting specific milestones.

I love the doggie keeping aspect....but I have found that even though I’ve had a criminal background check none of the owners are as vetted. When my prices were lower I only had one legit owner that’s awesome, now about 3....but some were scary...especially people who approached me to house sit. I’m not going to the silence of the lamb place to keep a dog. I called and asked rover to check out an owner that I felt uneasy and they said no they do not check owners. This is scary to me. I raised my prices and some of that stopped. Also I clearly state no aggressive breeds and now I find out that rover will call around for the owner and find them a sitter when they need help finding a place. They will lower your rating when you decline a stay...even when you say you clearly state that. No one reads your post! Rover doesn’t require vet paper which is bogus! I do personally or I won’t watch a dog, but come on Rover! Protect the dogs and humans! Rover needs to offer contracts for sitters in case a dog years up your stuff or bites someone. They need to help protect the sitter. I’ve not had any bad incidents to date but this should be signed by dog owners. They also need more interview questions from owners about the dogs. Owners get in a hurry and might forget to say something like the dog likes his crate in the bedroom with you or he gets anxiety...it’s the little details that help me know what your pup loves!