is there a service fee on top of sitter fee?
Sitter charges $30 a day. Does Rover add an additional fee to the client for each reservation?
2 Answers
Yes. It only applies to new clients and started in September of last year. It is 5%, with a maximum of $25, as described below:
Owner service fee: Beginning in September, 2015, all stays booked by new account holders are charged a service fee amounting to 5% of the stay total.
Services booked through a Rover account created prior to the date the fee was implemented will not be subject to the owner service fee. The fee cannot exceed $25/stay. It’s fully refundable should the stay be canceled by either the sitter or the owner prior to the first day of the stay, in accordance with your sitter’s cancellation policy. If the stay dates change, the fee will be updated to reflect 5% of the new total.
Wow. I realized that the CLIENT (if they created their account after September 2015) is paying a 5% service fee on top of my rates. And new SITTERS that create accounts (after March1, 2016) are paying a 20% fee towards Rover instead of the 15%.
I was on the phone with my client as she booked the stay and she asked what the $12 service fee was.
Comments
Yes, this fee is beyond ridiculous. In their initial introduction Rover explains that Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, everyone charges a service fee which is true. However NONE of these companies charge anywhere near what Rover does. On a $250 booking, they charge $17.50 plus keep $50 from the sitter.
That's close to 30% of the booking charge. Airbnb is less than 10% and that's a relatively passive activity - giving access to a home, not an active activity where a worker is caring for someone's dearly loved lived animal. Rover, please reconsider. Let's see some evidence of your costs.
And oh, by the way it's 7%, not 5% that the client pays on top of the booking fee. It was introduced as 5-7% but it's actually charged at 7%. Can you say ripoff????? Of both the clients and the sitters.
Airbnb owners have learned how to work around this and that's what Rover is asking for. I'll negotiate with my sitter to pay her cash directly and yes, Rover, I'm aware that I won't get your protection blah blah which is essentially useless if anything happens to my dog/sitter.