Late Stays Payment?
When a client wants to pick up a dog late - say 9 or 10 pm as opposed to first thing in the morning - I think it's odd there is no pay for that entire day ... is there any system in place for half days?
7 Answers
Like Karen, I am careful to mention the extra charge during the M&G. I also try to state potential additional fees in my profile [but of course, not everybody reads through it all too carefully, eh? haha].
There are the scenarios for adding fees that I have used:
DURING BOOKING If we know about it beforehand, I add it on to the initial booking as a 'Cost Adjustment.' Easy peasy!
DURING STAY If something comes up during the stay, I first message the owner to let him/her know the situation. The owner may negotiate/reason with me, and then if we agree that an additional fee is warranted, I add it to the booking via the 'Extend this stay' link. It will ask for new dates, but if you aren't actually adding days, you can just make it look like the last day [eg, 9/1 - 9/1]. And then it'll start a new thread with the owner, and you can edit the booking to just have the correct fees before asking the owner to book.
I charge a early dropoff fee (before 8AM), and separately a late pickup fee (after 9PM), each $20.00. This has to be added into the booking before the owner pays. To go back and request more money once the stay has ended is a little awkward. If the owners flight is delayed and they get in later than planned, I just try to be flexible, this is a good way to also help you get good review when you are quick to respond to them, and are flexible with unplanned situations.
Comments
The dog owner I am sitting now dropped his dog off at 8 am. & now tells me he cannot pick the dog up on the day of departure until after midnight of technically the next day. How do I bring up charging an additional fee?
For long stays, I don't worry about the difference in drop off/pick up times. Likewise, I'm not concerned about flight delays or other emergency changes in travel plans that delay the pick up times. For shorter stays, I ask (usually prior to the M&G) what their plans are for drop off and pick up, and let them know if there will be an extra charge. I ask early, since price shoppers will often be discouraged and won't want to proceed with the M&G after they find out it will cost more than just the nightly rate, while good customers are more than happy to pay a fair price.
I've never really worried about it. There have been several times when they had an evening drop off and a morning pick up and I still got paid for full days and didn't feel the need to only charge for a partial day. I figure it all comes out in the wash.
I'm also very flexible with my clients. Drop off and pick up can be as early as 7 AM and as late at 10 PM Monday through Friday. I figure if they end up with an extra half a day, it's not really that big of a deal.
When I have used a kennel that has daycare, the drop off time is after 4 pm, p/u time is before noon. If the stay varies a charge is then added for daycare $20.00. I haven't been doing this, but will start. Since close booking could lend to a situation where I have 3 dogs here. My landlord wouldn't like it. I can only do 1 dog at a time.
All stays are for a 24-hour period, starting at when the dog is dropped off. If the dog was dropped off in the morning, then it should be picked up approximately 24 hours later (give or take an hour or so). Anything more, then you are perfectly within your rights to charge partial day or day care charges, which can be done via the site.
I always find out the planned dropoff and pickup times during the M&G. If it already appears the dog's stay will exceed 24 hours, I will tell the owner that they'll incur a daycare charge as well and modify the booking accordingly. There is a mechanism in place to add to the booking. Very easy. Just make sure you go over all of this with your client. There are people here who have done the charging when the dog was picked up and the client paid via his/her phone. The mechanism is in place.
There is no system in place for partial days within Rover. What I do is I charge a daycare fee if the pickup time is later than dropoff time. For example, dropoff time is 10 a.m. on Sunday, pickup time is 7 p.m. on Thursday. I charge the daily rate for Sunday - Thursday, then add extra for the time between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday. The amount depends on the amount of time; in my example it would be 1/2 my daily rate because it's 9 hours. I discuss all this with the client at the meet and greet, then I edit the charges once they book the stay.