Rover is awesome, of course! However, as pet sitters we have the answers and best suggestions to help make pet sitting through Rover a better experience. What are some things that you would like Rover to know? Whether it be adding a new feature, make booking stays easier, or even a website function! :)
While rover has been pretty good, a few things I would like are 1. Faster system to get to rover support. They can take a week to get back to me. 2. An optional health insurance plan, as that would enable me to make dog sitting a permanent career. 3. Option to charge for feeding clients dog (who don't provide food) 4. Sitter to local sitter conversations, to help us arrange alternative care for our existing clients or share advise.
Yes to #4!
Absolutely to #4!
With #3, at the M&G, you should be telling clients that they need to bring their dog's food. If you've already told them and they show up without it, then you can give them various options, all of which require payment before the dog is picked up. You can offer to go out an buy the dog's food or supply what you have on hand at X dollars per day. Then you amend the booking and get payment prior to pickup.
In regards to #3, many sitters do have disclaimers on their profiles that say they will charge owners for their dog's preferred brand of dog food if not provided at drop off. (If you change from the brand/flavor/ingredients from their usual, you run the risk of smelly poops & a weird change of food period where their body is adjusting)
For #4, ANY kind of direct messaging system would be great. I would be totally for owners being able to ask us questions before requesting a stay.
Absolutely ^^ Laura, I always feel like my search rankings will be affected if I decline a booking, even if it was only for a question.
Yeah, I've told clients to bring food, but a few of them show up without it and don't want to pay meto supply food. That's why I would like to be able to figure it in to their total stay price, saves me the trouble of nagging them or turning them away ;)
I don't know how Rover would fix this, but I frequently receive requests to sit when my calendar clearly states I am not available in those dates - or to watch dogs that are outside my parameters - I am afraid rejecting these requests will hurt my standing in searches.
Agree wholeheartedly with the latter, dogs outside my listed parameters. Occurs all the time.
Agreed! I get very frustrated when I get requests for times I have made myself unavailable, because the owners get mad when I tell them I am booked up, and won't take their dog.
I just received a request yesterday for days I was marked unavailable and had to turn down the stay. I'm wondering if people are searching without entering the correct dates. Either way it is unfortunate that this happens. Frustrating for the customer and hurts good sitters search rankings.
Omgoodness. I totally agree. I'm so tired of telling clients to please look at my calender before contacting me. It's a pain for both sitters and clients, I mean I appreciate any buisness I get. But I also appreciate not having to explain that I'm not available.
I didn't read everyone's answer so I am not sure if I am repeating myself. Sorry. But one thing that I really wish they can change is this forum. I am not too keen on sitters and pet owners using this forum. I would rather keep it between sitters. Sometimes I want to write to you guys just for support and to know how to deal with a certain situation but I am always afraid that the person I am writing about can read these messages and know we are writing about them. I guess the chances are slim but I see this more as a support group and at times I want to ask something but kind of paranoid that the owner in question might be reading my Q & A. So I guess to answer your question, perhaps a forum just for us sitters :)
So far I've had a very good experience working through Rover. Of course, there are a few minor tweaks I'd add to make the website more usable for our individual needs.
Mostly,I'd like daycare as a rate option we can list--you can filter by daycare when you search for sitters, but I have no idea how it's determining who is or isn't providing those services, since we don't have it included in our profiles. Thankfully, it's guessed correctly in my case, since it would suck to not show up in the search results for a service I provide.
I'd also like the option to edit which stay pics appear on the profile to come back, as well as having the Rover Reels accessible from our profiles again.
Finally, I want the bug fixed in this forum where if content is deleted before you can view it, the notification never goes away. I've had a red envelope for months when there are no new notifications to view.
Thanks for your input, Laura! I definitely agree with the daycare rate or at the very least a "daycare option". It almost seems like it would be better to charge per day as opposed to per night. Perhaps, adding a pickup and drop off time to the stay fees would solve this issue.
I think daycare is in the works, I know it's something a lot of people would love to see.
Let me just say, I really enjoy Rover and appreciate all they do. Some things I think might help:
Client photos do not have to be visible to the public. There is a little box to check underneath the upload button to prevent them from being viewable. I don't know if you have the same level of control with texting or the app.
I know that through messaging on the site you can choose not to show the picture, unfortunately as of the last update (which I think it was last week), the app does not have that option, and you don't get that option through text.
There is another thread right now about being able to schedule drop off and pick up times. That would be awesome! I constantly find my self either waiting or rushing for a customer. This way the customer will feel accountable for the scheduled drop/pick up time.
I am brand new to Rover and my first booking took over an hour. He didn't have his papers and quite frankly, I was surprised that he was going to just drop off his dog without meeting me. I'm a little afraid that he's not going to come back to get him.
Before commenting we would like to express of how much we appreciate that Rover has made it possible for us to be able to do what we love. After a client books a stay with us the Rover in home sitter calendar may still show additional available space. We are encouraging dog owners at our meet & greet to be open to overlaps with dogs from other households and are keeping a list. We are inquiring if it would be possible for the in home sitter calendar to be programmed with an additional denote so the sitter can update showing when overlaps can be accepted for a quick response to those last minute requests? “It’s good to be a dog at our house” Jean & Wendelin
Really great question! I second the local network idea as well as the blocking option. Also, it would be great to add a function to the overall site where we could adjust the dates of the stay to begin early instead of just extending them. I've had this happen a couple of times and have had to ask the owner to add another booking.
I get that a lot too.
Most definitely Rover should add a "per visit" option in their pricing choices. I'm a pet nanny who visits clients' home during the day while they're at work. I don't do overnight stays or dog hosting. The "per night" charge for this situation is confusing to clients. I have to explain my charges in my profile which is awkward. Hope Rover builds in more flexibility on pricing, otherwise it may be better to book outside them.