I have a client who has hired me for daily walks during peak hours. She has recently been cancelling walks the morning of, leaving a gap in my schedule where I could have scheduled another walk. On top of this, Rover does not have any cancellation policy for walks so I completely lose any income for this time frame. How do I communicate the problem this creates?
I feel the same way about daycare. The cancellation policy is always flexible. I only take one dog at a time so a last minute cancellation means I lose out on the opportunity entirely.
I did contact Rover about their policy and the customer service response was that they maintain these flexible cancellation policies for the "short-term" services like walks and daycare. They recommended that I discontinue daycare if I'm not satisfied with the flexible cancellation policy.
The explanation doesn't make sense to me because daycare is not short term, and we can set our policy for drop-ins which are the same time commitment as walks.
I think a good policy is, try to resolve it, if not, get Rover involved. I would contact the client, and say something to the effect of, 'As a business owner, I appreciate your choosing me to provide Walking services for Fifi. That said, a last minute cancellation results in a loss of income for me. From this point forward, please note that if there are any more cancellations within __ of scheduled service, no further requests for walks will be accepted.'
Or something to that effect.
There is little Rover can do to assist with a client who cancels. All the walker can do is refuse future bookings
Then why suggest it in your initial comment?
I feel your pain as I am a walker too, but now we don't have the option to change the cancellation policy. Rover has been rolling out a cancellation charge for booking modifications like this I beleive it is $10 to you. You may want to call support to verify this @ [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]