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Will Home Visits feature decrease Boarding requests?

Does anyone else worry that the newly introduced 'home visits' (where you pay a few visits to a dog client's home everyday) feature will decrease boarding requests for Rover sitters? I feel like the sum total $ of visits tends to be cheaper than the overnight boarding rate many sitters have, since you're spending less time with the dog that way...

I personally have indicated that I'm open to visiting people's homes, but I only want to do this within a small radius of my home + it's also a lot less convenient for me than boarding, where I don't need to travel constantly.

How do you all think this will impact other services, if at all?

2 Answers

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My perspective and experience is no, there is no impact, other than increasing the number of people that will go to Rover.com for all their needs, as these meet different pet and pet-parent needs. I've offered both for a while now and discussed all my services with prospective clients at the meet&greet. Usually, the people that board their dogs do not want them visited at their home or have a sitter stay over ever and vice versa. The dogs that get visits at their home is usually because it is better for the dog and/or dog-owner at addressing specific concerns and they will not board those dogs ever. In my market, the ave. rate for each visit is around $20, but most people want at least 2 visits per day (sometimes 3 or 4 if traveling) , which is about the same or more than a daily boarding rate and may be more or less than staying at their home. It's a personal choice to offer this service and both have trade offs.

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I don't think so - this has always been an option (like daycare) that just wasn't explicit previously within Rover's rate structure. Many travel sitters already offered multiple daily visits instead of or in addition to staying overnight at the client's home. The new rate options just make it easier to bill for these services conveniently.