What do I do about chronically late doggy day care pickup?

Establishing and communicating your business practices should not be viewed as "being confrontational." The client has already commended you for being flexible about pickups in her review, so she sees it as a big positive. i can understand anything up to a half hour, but she is taking advantage of your good nature at this point.

For the future you can try late fees as Paige suggested above or tell her that you have plans in the evening and she must pick up her dog by x o'clock every day because you have other commitments and will be not be home.

It all boils down to the fact that you need to talk to this woman and explain your daycare hours of operations. Because you work from home, people think it isn't a real business. But it is.

Good luck!

Remember that you are running a business, not just be her friend. Most kennels I know have strict office hours (with allowances for emergencies) and do not tolerate "late pickups." The one I used to use would close at 6 and then charge an extra night boarding if the dog was still there.

I would have one more discussion with her and tell her that you can no longer keep Fido past the agreed upon time because of other commitments and/or clients you may have. Tell her you will start charging a late fee or an overnight boarding fee and that she will have to make arrangements to pick up the dog between your regular business hours.

I have a strict drop-off time, and any owner who arrives late is charged for a night of boarding. I don't allow owners to pick up their dog at all if it's more than 30 minutes past, because I have a life to live and I enjoy actually sleeping at night rather than waiting until 10:30 pm for somebody to get their dog.

So there are three ways to handle this in my opinion:

1) Implement a late fee. You can do this on Rover by adding the previous week's late fees to the total for the following week, or "extend the stay". I think if you call Rover Support they would also help you out. I personally would do an hourly rate like $12/extra hour until you reach your daycare fee of $35. The problem with this is that psychologically if people feel like they are paying for being late or cancelling, then they are less likely to adhere to time restrictions. That is, if she thinks she is compensating you for your time, she will feel less bad about being late. It most likely won't change her behavior, but at least you will be getting paid!

2) If she is more than 15 minutes late, tell her that you will be boarding the dog overnight and charging for the service, as well as any food or other necessities. I feel like this is a bit extreme, but if you have plans after 5:15 and need to leave the house, there aren't many other options in order to maintain your quality of life.

3) Drop the client. Explain that while you love her pup, you cannot continue to work for free. I would say you understand that sometimes things come up (traffic, having to work late, etc...) but they should happen rarely.

Hope this helps!