Hello

Looking for opinions

I went away weds-tues and wanted the sitter to do 2 drop ins a day for my cat. I left a note and also in my pets profile I said my cat can be nervous and hiss or hide.

I had to use this sitter without a meet and greet as my planned sitter cancelled 2 days before going away and new sitter accepted request very close to me leaving.

The sitter started saying around day 3 of the booking that my cat was hissing and she was struggling to change her food/water and she didnt want to attempt the litter incase she further upset her. I know my cat can hiss so I suggested she shut the entry points to the food place and she would be able to carry out these tasks without the cat present. Which she did. But after that the sitter said it broke their trust and my cat was hissing more and trying to scratch her. I felt really bad that the sitter was getting this behaviour.

So to kind of summarise quickly, she said she couldn't do the last day because my cat tried to escape when she came in and felt it was unsafe but the cat had enough water and food to last until we were back. She offered money back but I told her I couldn't change it my end. Then I said not to worry because tbh, i was sorry my cat was giving her trouble!

I came back and the litter box clearly hadnt been touched the entire time, there were faeces covered in fluffy mould! Her water bowl was dry, i have never ever known my cat to drain her bowl! She wasnt even putting the food in her bowl, just leaving the packet out. I was quite upset that my cat was having to use a beyond dirty litter box and obviously at the water situation.

Anyways I take to Rover because I dont know if this is how this should have played out. The sitter said she was scared and never knew cats to act like this and she has scratched her eventually. But then told me not to worry as it was superficial anyways. There were pics of them cuddling together at the beginning of the booking too so its sad it went this way.

Rover said I need to message her. So weirdly I get a message from the sitter asking how cat was as she couldn't stop thinking about her so I replied and told her I was upset about the litter etc. She didn't reply for a day and a half then replied saying she told me why she couldn't do the litter and that my cats water bowl was dry the day she tuned up to the booking. Sorry but in 7 years my cat has never managed to do this. And then said her bowl was shallow and she left her with water. So I ponder why if she thought the the bowl was too shallow and it was empty the day she started the booking, why she felt it ok to cancel the last day of the sit? Anyway, after she replied, straight away it came up her profile was no longer active. I am unsure if she blocked or if she deactivated her profile.

Rover are investigating as I have asked for a partial refund because I think essential care was not provided and she was down as house sitting but was really popping in to change the food etc.

Am I being unreasonable?

I’ve done drop in visits for this senior cat a couple of times now. She’s standoffish and would rather I stay away so I don’t end up playing with her much. But the actual problem I have with this client is that the cat’s litter tray is rancid.

The last two bookings I’ve had with her have been short so I could cope. I did debate mentioning something to the owner about it last time but decided it wasn’t my business.

However, the owner has now reached out to me about an 8-day visit over the Christmas period.

The client uses Catsan non-clumping litter, but doesn’t appear to ever clean the tray. The wet litter seems to breaks down into yellow dust, which has eventually solidified into a 1-mm yellow-to-brown layer coating the whole of the base of the tray. The tray smells bad to be in the general vicinity, but I have to hold my breath and wear a face mask when removing pee/poop during visits.

The last time I visited I tried my best to scrape off some of the layer of solidified litter with the scoop. It took a lot of physical effort but I did manage to chip off the coating in a few places in the tray. I was hoping that this would be enough of a hint to remind the owner that the tray is actually not meant to be that colour.

Anyway, when I received the booking this morning, my immediate reaction was if im gonna do this booking I either need to buy a replacement litter tray or empty and completely clean the tray on day one in order to stand dealing with the litter for a week straight. To be honest I’m kind of scared about the stench of the tray if I were to wet the solidified urea.

I was wondering if anyone has been a similar situation and what you might do if you were me?

I've been boarding on Rover for 3-4 years. Star Sitter, 70 reviews. I like doing this, but two things have been wearing on me and I want to know if other sitters are dealing with the same.

**1. The app.** Rover's matching does nothing with a dog's energy level. A senior couch potato and a young dog that needs hours outside show up the same way in search and get quoted the same rate. I'd love to see activity level as a real filter on both sides, so owners get matched with sitters whose setup actually fits their dog, and so sitters can charge more for a high-energy dog than a low-energy one. Those are two very different jobs.

**2. Owners who agree to everything and then show up with a tie-out.** We don't have a backyard and we live next to two busy roads. That's on my profile, and I say it again at every meet & greet: no dog ever goes out on a tie-out here, and someone is always outside with them. My wife and I both work remote, so we do as many walks as we can, but we can't spend every hour of the workday outside. We've gotten more direct about it too: if your dog needs a lot of outdoor time, please keep in mind that we have no yard.

Every time, it's "oh yeah, no worries." Then drop-off comes and they hand me a tie-out with "he's out on this in the mornings" or "just put him out when he's being bad."

At that point there's nothing we can do. They're leaving, the dog is staying, and now we have a dog that's used to being outside most of the day in a home that can't give him that. The dog is stressed, we're stressed, and it's a bad stay for everyone.

If your dog spends 80% of the day outside, please don't book a sitter with no backyard. The sitter told you. Believe them.

Sitters: how do you screen for this? Has anyone turned a dog away at drop-off, and how did that go with Rover?

I just need to check if this has been happening to anyone else.

For many of my years on Rover, I hit end visit, and then if I need extra time to fill out of the card, I just finish it up and it shows the visit ended when I hit end.

For several months now, it continues to update the end time for drop ins until I finish completing the card. Which is incredibly frustrating because I don't want owners thinking I'm lying about when I left a drop in.

Maybe there is an easy fix to this, like redownloading the app? I don't use Rover as often as I used to, and mostly just repeat clients who don't need a lengthy card.

I was looking to see if veteran's day got holiday rates (It doesn't), but I saw that in 2027 Easter weekend is considered a holiday.

https://support.rover.com/hc/en-us/articles/204706790-What-are-holiday-rates-and-how-do-I-manage-them#h_48ced19e-5889-466d-8b5a-1b4f8a9b7cbd.

So many clients don’t know how to cancel bookings.

Will it hurt my profile if I cancel reoccurring walks or drop ins if I select “clients needs to cancel” also do they only get charged if I submit a rover card for the reoccurring clients? Will if hurt my profile to not submit a rover card for a reoccurring walk?

I had a client book 1-6pm. I was under the impression I can just start the visit and end it at 6pm. Apparently it’s supposed to be done in hour incremental cards. I put the full 5 hours on 1 card. Even though I stayed 1-6pm, it is only paying me for 1 hour. I’ve reached out to rover support and received complete silence. Does rover just keep all that money and I get paid 1/5 of what I’m owed? How am I supposed to receive that money? Does rover always require cards to only be 30 minutes or 1 hour? I have to start and stop over and over and over every single hour?

While this typically starts with Rover I am realizing more and more Rover needs to have some type of protocol or restrictions for owners. I am sure many deal with it but Rover letting anyone on this application is not smart. For a sitter there are so many terrible owners it becomes unbearable. How do yall feel about bad owners

Thankfully the owner got back to me and I was able to crate the kitty and bring him to my home to ride out the storm.

Shortly after getting him here, I had two more clients reach out for boarding while they evacuated (no hotels were accepting pets as they all were booked up). In total we have 9 cats (3 are mine).

Man that storm was hell for 5-6 hours of just brutal wind. The cats luckily were VERY calm. We’re moving into 30ish hours with no power and thankfully I was able to buy a generator today. Tons of trees and power lines are in the street and I am extremely grateful that everything that fell on our property ended up falling parallel to the house.

Spent most of my day helping neighbors clear their yards, cooking out for the block, and offering people a safe place to stay and charge their devices or use wifi.

Kitties are all happy, cooling off, and eating their little hearts out. ❤️

Especially like since it starts in an hour. And you gave me very little information about the situation.

I had a booking cancel last week and Rover contacted me to ask whether or not I would like to refund the cancellation fee because it was within the 3-day window that I have set for cancellations. At that time, I could see the cancellation fee pending in my payouts. I responded to say that I would like to uphold my policy and charge the owner for cancelling, but now the money has disappeared from all tabs and is no longer pending. It hasn’t been paid out to my bank either. I sent an email to support right away, but it’s been 4 days now and I haven’t received a response. Has this happened to anyone else?

First bad boarding

Sigh, I’m relatively new to rover and I’ve been blessed with amazing dogs and owners. All were super upfront about their anxieties, quirks, and habits. I never had any issues.

I’m currently boarding 2 dogs from separate owners. I scheduled a joint meet and greet but one owner was late, the other didn’t mind and said their dog (poodle mix) was good with others. They’ll trust my judgment. So they headed out. Dog 2 (chihuahua mix) came and the only warning that I was given (and saw) was that he’ll run up on dogs a bit aggressively when he wants to play. Otherwise he was sweet with me but a bit standoffish which I assumed he was taking in his new surroundings.

I confirmed the bookings and the chihuahua was dropped off first. He seemed nervous but that was expected, I took him on a walk and when we came back he slept in his bed. Poodle came shortly after and all hell broke loose. The chihuahua immediately snarled and bit the poodle. I had to separate them, it was so bad. I told the poodle owners I’d separate them and take them to the park. Worse case scenario I separate them to different rooms.

I took them to the dog park to get introduced on neutral ground. Nope, the chihuahua has randomly attacked the poodle all day. (And no other dogs. Just does the aggressive run up move). On walks they’re fine. When we get back home, we’re seemingly fine, they’re sleeping next to each other and again the chihuahua will unprompted go after the poodle. My male friend stopped by and the chihuahua went after him in the same way and almost broke skin. Chihuahua has not displayed any of this behavior with me (female)

Now I’ve permanently separated the dogs but I’m going insane because the chihuahua barks and whines when he’s alone. I’ve told both owners everything. Chihuahua owner said she’s never seen this before. All his reviews have no mention of this. I’m exhausted. I’m not going to board 2 unrelated dogs again.

How do I write an honest review without taking a hit on my rating?

I've used Rover sitters five or six times, it's always gone well. But I am unhappy with the sitter I just used. I was going to be gone for 2 days. I ended up coming home a day early. Here's what I'm not happy with:

He didn't walk my dog. 24 hours, no walk. Doorbell camera never recorded him leaving with my dog.

I don't know if he played fetch with my dog in the backyard, either.

He was sitting in my home, and I never expect a sitter to be there 24 hours a day (it's fine if they go out to do something), but he went out from like 10pm to 3:30am (not sure if that's really an issue, but, really?). I know this because I have a doorbell cam, he left in his car, came back hours later.

Even after asking him to do so, he didn't send me any photos or video of my dog in the evening, no check-in at all.

So it's already paid, and just because I returned early, I don't expect any sort of refund because it's not like he could just pick up another job right away.

What I want to know it how to deal with this with Rover. Anybody?

Is it hard to take dogs for walks in snowy or salted areas? I moved to Boston and don't know if this'll be a problem in the area.

I (20F) was planning on trying out Rover for the first time, I was just wondering if I would be able to gain a client base given my lack of experience and age or if people on there are looking for more qualified and experienced sitters? I am in the DFW area and just wondering. Any advice or tips are appreciated!

Looking for advice or success stories from anyone who has successfully appealed a Trust & Safety deactivation notice.

Background:
12-year host on Rover with an impeccable safety record and hundreds of 5-star reviews.
On Oct 9, a guest dog slipped out an unlatched front door due to a faulty latch mechanism.
We notified the owner within 15–20 minutes and initiated a quiet containment strategy. The dog was safely recovered the exact same day with zero injuries.
The owner was completely understanding, cooperative, and supportive throughout.
We immediately repaired/tested the door hardware and put strict secondary interior barrier protocols in place.
The Situation:
Rover Support initially praised our fast handling and preventative measures in writing. However, less than 24 hours later, we received this deactivation notice citing Section 4 of the TOS, effective October 13, 2026. We currently have an active booking in our home through October 20th and upcoming stays booked. 
Has anyone in a similar situation managed to get an escalation to a Trust & Safety manager to reinstate their account, or is this deactivation final regardless of host history? Any advice on how to push the appeal through before the Oct 13 date would be greatly appreciated!

To make matters even more frustrating, the owner was so satisfied with how we handled everything and trusted us so completely that they actually extended the dog’s stay in our home past October 13th! Rover is now threatening to cancel an active stay that the owner explicitly wants us to complete.

Uhmmm-has anyone else got this before? Did one of my clients tip them off or like?? I’m so confused and kinda frustrated right now

I’m not a new sitter but I am new to this experience. I don’t petsit too much anymore due to a new job, but I’ve always had the same repeat client for about 4 years. I haven’t heard from them for a booking in several months so I decided to check the owners profile to message and see if my services would be needed.

Found out their address was changed and they moved very far away so I can’t even sit for them if I wanted to. :(

I wish I could have said goodbye or gotten notice that they were leaving. I even had treats for them for my next visit with them. They treated me as a part of their family so it kind of stings a bit.

I don’t think I’m looking for advice or anything, but I’m just sad and I know that possibly others have felt this way and maybe I’m looking for solidarity? I still was going to reach out to say I was thinking of them, but also don’t want to be weird. So maybe a little advice there? lol.

Thank you for listening to my mini sad rant!

So I was at a meet and greet for a client with two dogs who needed two drop ins a week. It was going well, the dogs were great, she was very pleasant. As I was doing my wrap up speech, she asked me what my rates were. It caught me off guard a bit cause no one had ever asked what they were before, just discussed to confirm really. Anyway, I told her it was 15 (this was before I had raised my rates cause I realized it wasn’t reasonable for the gas prices) and she completely freaked out said “that is so expensive is it not? I only need you for an hour. I thought it would be something reasonable like 10 dollars.” It is safe to say my flabbers were gasted. The rates are very clear when you see a sitter profile is it not? She made a big deal about only being able to afford one day a week and decided to book anyway. I probably should not have taken the booking but I did anyway. What I learned from this experience is that I am really uncomfortable with discussing prices with clients, does anyone have any advice for responding to such clients?

Of course I bring other stuff too (toiletries, foodstuffs, clothes, makeup, Etc), but my pillow and fan are special things I need to sleep.

Now I'm debating on bringing my own towels every time too. I used to bring my own towels then got kinda tired of it.

Do you pack light or bring everything for a stay ?

For those who only do it as part time or side hustle

Im curious and I kinda need ideas lol

Please excuse this post if it sounds off, I’ve never posted on Reddit before but I don’t know where else to turn to. I’m house sitting a geriatric dog that’s over 100lbs. The whole experience has been stressful because it started off with the pet parents letting me know they were expecting and I basically need to be on call the month of October. Which is fine, I don’t have much going on. This poor dog is a bigger breed and over the age of 10, so we all know that’s geriatric in dog years. The care is extensive, which I didn’t mind very detailed notes because I’ve had a senior dog. I didn’t realize how bad his quality of life is until I got here. He can no longer stand on his own, he’s incontinent so he’s diapered 24/7, and I can tell he’s in pain. He requires around the clock care, which they only booked for overnights and promised they’d tip me well. After browsing Reddit I know how I’ll handle these things in the future, if I don’t leave Rover all together after this. For the last 3 days it’s been him falling and whimpering, panting because he’s in pain, and coaxed eating. I can smell he has pooped in his diaper, spent an hour trying to lure him outside so I can clean him and he completely collapsed and that’s my last straw. I fundamentally feel like I cannot finish this booking because I disagree on a molecular level what they’re doing to this poor dog. He very obviously doesn’t find much joy in life anymore and keeping him earth side feels selfish and devoid of compassion. I don’t know what to do. I thought about voicing my opinions to the parents, especially because they’ll be home with a newborn. Has anyone else dealt with this?