Owners mistake about return date makes me double booked for overnight stays. How do I handle this?
I was booked for a client to dog/house sit for her for 11 days while she and her husband went on vacation to Tahiti. While this was my first time dog sitting for her, she is a repeat client, as she'd previously booked me to do drop-in visits for her cat a couple months ago. She was due back in town on Saturday. Meaning my last night staying at her house would have been Friday. So I booked myself for another (repeat) client that wanted an overnight for the following night, Saturday.
Several days before the client was due back from Tahiti, she called me and apologized, but she had gotten the dates wrong when she booked me, because she wasn't going to be back until Sunday. And asked if I could please stay at her house with her dog for Saturday night. Yikes. I explained to her that I was booked with another client for Saturday. But she didn't know what she could do. She was in Tahiti, with very limited cell service. The fact that she was able to communicate with me that day was not a small feat.
The client in Tahiti, and the client I was booked on Saturday for are both repeat clients, both clients I really like and get along with very well. My Saturday night client had previously booked me to dog/house sit for 9 days in October, which went very well, and I had gotten to know and love her dog very much. So I was very excited to get to dog sit for her again.
Is there a policy or something for these type of situations? I was able to make it work, thankfully. And both clients were happy. But it made me wonder if that kind of situation were to happen again... I might not be so lucky like I was this time to be able to make it work easily. What should I have done?
In this case, you can offer to hunt for a backup sitter, or contact one you already know - or communicate with both owners asking the 2nd owner for permission to divide your time accordingly or combine spaces to watch all dogs if allowed. Give the second booking priority.
It happens. Sometimes people who are busy with travel plans make mistakes, and there's no other choice but to make it work or call Rover 24-hour number. Know a couple area Rover sitters too. But ... send through a another booking request for the extra day immediately, since they may forget.