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Do you get requests from Owners when you have no availability?

Hi all! I'm having a problem and I'm not sure if it's a Rover glitch or I set up my profile incorrectly. I only accept one overnight per night on my calendar, but have more "visits" and "walking" options available to customize to the needs of the dog and owner, and also to book more clients.

What I'm finding is that 3 times during the last 6 weeks I've gotten a request from a NEW client for an overnight that I already had a booking. I understand that my repeat clients probably aren't checking availability and just messaging me, but how or why am I coming up in search results to NEW clients when I'm not available? That's frustrating for me (I have to decline, lowering my booking rate), the Owner (who has to reach out to more people), and the other sitters in my area who are free.

Any ideas? I don't want to set myself as "unavailable" completely on those days when I could do drop in visits for another family.

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I get that sometimes. I think it is a glitch in the system. Rover needs to work on that. The owners do not want sitters to say they are not available when the calendar clearly state we are.

Marti C.

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Cari C.

I get requests all the time for periods when I'm not available, either through already having a booked client or I've marked myself as unavailable. I find that owners don't always look at the calendar, or they misread the calendar that shows up. I logged in as an owner and looked at my page, and my calendar shows all green. You have to hover over the date to see what services are available, and I'll be that not all potential clients do that. They just see green and think I'm available.

I usually just send the standard I'm not available message, but edit it to say "Unfortunately, as shown on my calendar, I'm not available' blah blah blah. Then archive the request.

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Oh, that makes so much sense! I've never logged in as an owner, so I didn't realize. Thanks for the clarification on what they are seeing! It would be nice if the calendar was a little more obvious or intuitive for owners.

Brandi M.

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Walt G.

Book a Stay
Woodbridge, VA

I get walking requests weekly even though I'm fully booked and my calendar reflects that. Not sure what to do except reply to the client that you are unavailable

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Carly H.

If an owner doesn't specify their dates when they search for sitters, your profile will always pop up as an option. When you receive requests for nights you are already booked/marked unavailable, there should be a notification from Rover at the top that says something along the lines of "This booking doesn't meet your requirements but we sent it anyway. Please respond to the owner whether or not you can watch their pet. Turning this booking down will not affect your booking score". Basically Rover is giving you every opportunity to book a stay, just in case you actually do want to. As long as your calendar is up to date, turning these requests down will not hurt your Rover profile.

As for owners that don't check your calendar before booking, I read somewhere on Rover that when they request a stay during days the sitter is booked/unavailable, they receive a notification stating such, but I've never had any owners mention it to me and have received numerous requests when I'm clearly booked/unavailable.

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Thanks! I've gotten that message before, but it was because the owner was outside my service radius. I wasn't sure if it should be saying that for dates as well. Next time it happens, I'll reach out to support before archiving it.

Brandi M.

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Do you get requests from Owners when you have no availability?

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