Full profile and reviews, but no requests yet?

Hi, Jessica. Welcome to Rover! It does take time to receive your first client. I noticed that your profile does not have a Rover 101 completion badge. I would suggest taking the Rover 101 course, as the badges help in your search ranking. Plus, once completed, you can use the code FREE100 in the Rover store to receive 100 free business cards! You can use these to hang on community bulletin boards (such as at dog parks, pet stores, or even places like Starbucks) and share them with friends/family/past non-Rover clients to hand out as a referral. You can also consider sharing your profile on sites like Facebook, Craigslist, and Nextdoor. As a new sitter, you should get a boost in the rankings initially to help you get started. Try signing out and searching in your area again to see where you find yourself. There are a lot of factors that play into getting clients, though. These include how many other sitters are in your immediate area, the demand for the services you provide, your availability, and even the timing. Right now, I believe that a lot of sitters are experiencing a lull in requests, as it is back-to-school time, so less people are traveling. I think that word of mouth is key, so if you have others that can brag about you and attest to your responsibility and ability to care for their pets, you should be able to get going from there. Once you receive your first inquiry, make sure you respond in a timely fashion. After you get your first Verified Stay with a great review, I think you will have an increase in requests. Good luck!

i joined Rover in Jan 2016, it took me 3 months to get my first booking so don't get discouraged. After my first booking and a 5 star review the requests started coming in all the time. Since April 2016 I've been booked solid with daily walks Mon-Fri. I recommend visiting your local businesses, Vets, Starbucks, dog parks with biz cards in hand, all you need is a few bookings to get the ball rolling. Welcome to Rover and good luck building your business.

Just be patient, it always takes awhile for new sitters to get their first booking. Check the listings of other sitters in your area to see what the average rate is, then price yourself $2-3 lower just to attract new clients. Once you have several stays and reviews, you can increase your rate up to where you are in the average range for your area. I waited about 6 months then raised my rates, then raised them again after another 6 months and more client stays and reviews.

This time of year is fairly slow even for established sitters because kids are going back to school so family travels come to an end. You only offer house sitting and drop in visits, so that will limit the type of person that responds to your profile. That's not a negative, I've seen many people who can't board for various reasons, and that's fine.

As others have said, advertise yourself by visiting animal-related businesses, apartment complexes since you offer walks and drop in visits. I read somewhere that pet-friendly hotels might be a good place to advertise because people like to travel with their dogs but don't want to leave them cooped up in the room when they go out. Your drop in and walking services would be ideal in that situation.