What is the appropriate duration for dog boarding service? Say if a client wants to drop the dog off at 9am in the morning and pick up the dog at 5pm the second day, how do I charge the client? Is it only just one night dog boarding fee?
Thank you for your advice!
Woah, I've never considered it and have been using Rover for a decent amount of time. Perhaps I'm too lenient, haha. When boarding, I truly only charge for evenings. If a client drops the dog off at 9am day 1, and doesn't pick up until 10pm day 2 (which has happened), I have only received my $24 overnight rate. But, have felt burnt out and overrun. Hm, something to consider.
Definitely need to consider!
I allow at the earliest a 6:30 a.m. drop/pick up and a 6pm drop/pick up. If they can't drop/pick up between 6:30am and 6pm they MUST drop/pick up the day before or day after and pay for the extra day(s). At the meet & greet I tell my customers it's based on a 24 hour day but I am lenient with my repeat customers or if there is a flight delay/traffic for 1 to 2 hrs.
My boarding rates are based on a 24 hour duration. I.e. AM drop off to AM pick up. If the owner prefers a later pick up (ex: AM Drop off and PM Pick Up), I offer a late pick-up option of $15. My usual boarding/daycare prices are $35/$25, so the logic is that instead of charging the client the full daycare price of $25 for the 12 hours that exceed the 24 hour boarding, I give a discounted rate of $15 - or $10 less than the full daycare price.
It's entirely up to you what to charge. I go by Rover's 24-hour clock. If there is a difference in dropoff and pickup time of less than 4 hours, I don't charge extra. 4-8 hours gets a $10 charge. 8-12 gets a $15 charge. And anything over 12 hours gets another night's charge. So in your example, I would charge your regular rate plus the daycare charge.
Thank you Cari for sharing your experience!
I only charge per "night". I'm really strict about how late owners can come to pick up their dogs, though, and will charge them an additional night if they pick up after we "close". I tell them that pickup time ends at 7:30, and so far I have had people respond really well to that. They will make arrangements to just pick up their dog the next day if they are running late, and I have even had them send a friend to come pick up the dog!
Technically, the rate applies to a single 24-hour period, but I haven't developed a solid system for recording the arrival time of each pet, so I haven't bothered to enforce that.
Rover does not have a drop off/pick up policy for you as a sitter to follow. One of the great things about Rover is that you can create your own policies and fees for your Rover business., so you can create your own rules in your business in being a dog care provider.
PLEASE NOTE: Any policies you wish to add, you would need to inform the client and add the fee manually to the request. It will not automatically apply.
I would recommend entering a detailed paragraph describing your pick up/drop off policies and/or if your wanting to charge a late fee in your 'About Me' section in your profile. Be sure to talk to clients so potential clients will be aware of your policies and won’t be surprised.
You can enter your policies/fees by clicking this link to your Detail section of your profile:
https://www.rover.com/account/profile/details/ (https://www.rover.com/account/profile...)
Scroll down to 'Why should a client choose you to take care of their dog?' Here is where you would enter your descriptive information about your desired policy and fees. Be sure to click 'Save & Continue' at the bottom
Here is a link that Rover services cover:
https://support.rover.com/hc/en-us/articles/206461223-How-much-time-does-the-sitter-rate-cover- (https://support.rover.com/hc/en-us/ar...)
Also, you can edit your booking by following this link to adjust to your desired fees:
https://support.rover.com/hc/en-us/articles/202838354-How-do-I-edit-my-rates- (https://support.rover.com/hc/en-us/ar...)
I personally have a drop off/pick up policy for people to come get their pups within 4 hours. I charge $10 depending on how long the pick-up / drop-off times are apart. I discuss with clients at a meet and greet before booking. I do a cost adjustment for my policy, then book it after the new clients enter my promo code.
If the client fails to perform what they tell me, I send them an extended stay request informing them again of my policy, stating about the policies I have discussed at a meet and greet and sending a request for them to accept.
Here is a link on how to extend a stay:
https://support.rover.com/hc/en-us/articles/204144530-How-can-I-extend-a-booked-service- (https://support.rover.com/hc/en-us/ar...)