How do I deal with owners who take advantage?

To me, Day Care should be defined as a stay that is 12 hours or under. Boarding should be up to 24 hours. So a 18 hours Day Care should be converted to Boarding. And any Boarding day that lasts longer than 24 should have a Day Care charge added on top. However, it is up to you to explain your expectation to the clients.

I started putting it in my profile, that helps a lot. It's all in the wording. I want to be flexible but I also have a life and have plans and others that need me.

One thing that owners tend to understand when I explain my policy is that while maybe it doesn't require that much more work to extend a few hours (although it does, assuming you walk the dog every 4 hours or so), it also can keep me from taking another client for that night that may need to drop off at 5 or 6 pm but their (I personally don't take more than 1 dog for boarding. So there's opportunity cost potentially as well.

"Why can't I drop him off at 8 am and pick him up at 9pm for the day care rate?" (she uses me once, I refuse the second day, she finds another more amenable Rover sitter)

I run an actual business. My hours are till 9pm on weekdays. the way I work it is, if you are here by that time, you get daycare rate. If not, I'm headed to bed and your rate is for an overnight.

Owner boards for two days but cannot pick him up until 10:30pm on day two. "I will pick him up tomorrow at 10am" making it a three night stay. She doesn't understand why I would charge for an additional night and instead of dealing with her cheapness I just accept the extension without payment. Insist on payment. Put it through on Rover and if she won't pay report the situation and never work with that person again. Unfortunately, this is one of the downsides to the Rover site. You can't actually put their credit card through yourself so you have to be pro-active and then follow up.

Situation 3: Holiday season: A booking through Christmas and New Years of 10 days gets cancelled after 4 because the dog needs to smell the "new baby clothes" at the owners home (meaning he probably found a cheaper sitter). Adjust your cancellation settings. especially at the holidays when you more than likely turned down other bookings. State the policy on your profile- not that any of the owners read them.

As I said, I'm an actual business outside of Rover and thus have had to come up with policies on this stuff. I suggest you do the same. You can put up an FAQ on your profile or even draw them up and give them to prospective clients at the meet n greet. Tell people things ahead of time and then stick to your guns.

Given that you are in NYC, you are probably going to run into more than your fair share of people who are either pushy or try to take advantage. Not to generalize (although I know your city well), but that's the nature of the beast.

That is why it is so important to get dropoff and pickup times established from the outset, even before it is booked so that you can adjust the bill to account for overtime situations.

(1) With daycare, I suggest you put into your profile the hours your rate covers (dropoffs no earlier than x and pickups no later than x) and that early/late fees may be assessed as required. Rover's guidelines on daycare are from 7-9am to 4-6pm. Regular daycare facilities' operating hours are very strict. Just because you operate from your home doesn't mean a dog can stay there all day. Any dog dropped off at 8 am and not picked up until late evening should be charged a full boarding rate in my opinion.

(2) For regular boarding, again, knowing dropoff and pickup times is critical for proper billing. Explain that one "nightly" charge is good for up to 24 hours of care and that you'll bill them either your daycare or some pro rata amount for the overtime.

(3) Not much you can do about cancellations. The customer gets a refund according to the policy stated in your profile.

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