What should I do if owners lie about amount of animals I would be watching?

You need to make sure that you are scheduling Meet and Greets. The meet and Greets are so valuable in knowing exactly what is expected of you and allows you to accept or decline the job. I understand not wanting to make waves but at the same time you need to be able to be honest with the clients and voice your concerns. So okay, you didn't do a meet and greet. Then when you got to the house and the client tells you she has 4 dogs (but only booked for 3 dogs) you need to at that time, say something. Example : "oh, you have 4 dogs, on Rover it was only booked with 3 dogs but no worries I can contact Rover to add "dogs name" to the reservation. Then as you continue on with your conversation and she starts telling you about the cats and the birds. "oh, my gosh you have several pets that need care. I apologize the reservation only came through for the 3 dogs. I have no problems on top of the dogs to take care of your 13 cats , the birds, and fish But we do need to add them to your Rover profile. One we want to make sure that (god forbid) anything was to happen that they would be covered through Rovers insurance plan. And secondly we are also going to have to adjust the cost to include everyone. For the cats it will be $$$ a night, plus the fish and birds are going to be $$ a night. Let me go ahead and call Rover for us so we can get everyone into the system properly. " And turn around and contact Rover. She was either going to keep the reservation or cancel it but either way you are going to need to contact Rover to either add the extra pets or let them know that owners wants to cancel because she does not want to pay for you to watch extra pets that she did not book for.

With that being said, I don't know at what point of this stay you are at? You should get paid for the services that you provide. Nothing should be free especially when you are blind sided. It just tends to be a better outcome if you get issues like this resolved prior to the start of the stay. (preferably when you first find out)

Welcome to the Rover world of pet care. Many owners especially those new to Rover don't have complete profiles and get frustrated by how long it takes them to add all their pets, they are not necessarily lying, just lazy! As Erica posted the details of the stay should be determined at the meet and greet and adjustments made to the booking before you accept it. So lesson learned and best of luck to you in the future

This is where meet and greets are vital! I understand some people are uncomfortable meeting the client in the clients house for this but i always do, that way i can SEE what I'm getting myself into.That way you could have been like, 'Wow, what beautiful birds, will i be caring for them as well?'' this also gives you an opportunity to asses some basic behavior issues the dogs might have, and it's always nice to meet the dogs beforehand so they are able to get familiar with you. So in conclusion-- meet and greets are a sitter's best friend! I'm very sorry you were treated this way, that was not right and I hope things go better for you in the future!

I've had this happen to me as well! Client sent a request for two cats. Later, I show up to the meet and greet and there are FOUR cats. Turns out she was being sneaky because her apartment building only allowed two pets per unit. It can be weird/awkward/uncomfortable to have to talk about additional rates, but in my experience getting a fair payment for the work is more important than temporary awkwardness.

I've only had something like that happen once, which was nowhere near as insane as your situation. The cat was not added to the two dogs I was watching while staying in their home, but it was because I literally had to do nothing for the cat, which was completely fine by me. I'm so sorry that happened to you!