What if something happens to me, the sitter and I am unable to follow through with a booking, especially if a Rover dog is already in my care? Is there a community of rover sitters we could pass the dog on to? Or do you just work out a plan with your client directly?
This just happened to me, actually. My cat was sick a few days ago and I brought her to the vet and she had a fever, probably from a vaccine but they did a blood test anyway. 2 days later, I was about to go do my walkings and my vet called saying that the blood tests were abnormal and she needed to come in right away. This is my cat I've had for over half of my life and I have her alone with nobody else to help, so I had to take her and stay with her.
I explained the situation to the client and dropped off her key, and Rover directly helped her find someone to cover for that day and the future. Rover also set my profile to away (I could change it back at any time) so even though my current bookings would stay active, I wouldn't appear in search results until I was ready to take new clients again.
The best thing to do is contact Rover and give them as much information as possible. If you don't want to talk about it to the client, they can do it for you, but really it's best if you do send them a message. I didn't really want to talk about it because I was upset but messaged her anyway in hopes that she would understand.
Although I've never had to do this, I've read that if you reach out to Rover support they will be able to arrange for another sitter for the dog currently in your care, and assist with any upcoming stays that may be impacted by the emergency. They may also deal or at least help with communicating with your clients.
You should call Rover Support right away for assistance, [Edit: Rover’s contact options have changed. Visit the Rover Help Center at https://support.rover.com/ to find the phone number, help articles, or chat with the team]
In addition to the great answers above, I have found another Rover sitter in my area who I ask to cover if something comes up and vice versa. We met by chance when I watched her dogs, but it has worked out really well, especially for last minute things.