I agree with Walt and Karen. As a matter of fact, I recall Walt's answer one or two months ago, essentially saying that sitters' concerns are not Rover's concerns, even if it had to do with personal safety, such as firearms left out in the open at eye level.

Rover Trust & Safety replied to my concerns by emphasizing my choices as an independent contractor/sitter. It sounds as though there is an investigation taking place behind the scene. The conclusions will not be shared in order to protect the owner's privacy.

I reported my concerns to Rover Trust & Safety, and dropped the owner as a client. Actually, our next booking was canceled because "neglect" took place, before I gave any kind of feedback and photos. I have learned a lot from this situation going forward, thanks to this blog!

I would like to suggest a different way to go about raising your rates for new dogs only: List your higher rates on Rover, give a discount to repeat customers and edit the rate before finalizing the booking.
This is a win/win situation!

I hope this helps.

There is a caveat with meet-and-greets in that they typically cannot give enough info about smells (among other things), something you would only find out by staying there over a period of time... I think reasons for canceling bookings ought to be taken in consideration before automatic poor rating.

I agree with Lauren M. Reject anything making you uncomfortable and try not to overthink it. It's far better than berating yourself after an unfortunate experience when you did not heed your own intuition!

Oral medication means administered by mouth. It can be in the form of pills or liquid/syrup given by syringe/dropper - similar to liquid drops for babies. One part is a rubber-like pump to draw the liquid in the plastic or glass 'syringe', then squeezed into the mouth to release the substance.

During the meet & greet with parents and their two dogs, I was first asked about a discount on the price for the second dog. We agreed on the discount, went over routines and expectations, as well as Rover's next steps for booking. Then Mrs. deferred to Mr. to explain what was next, in such a way that it implied this was all new to her. Mr. added detailed care instructions for salt water aquarium with computerized controls mimicking wind, cloud, rain, night conditions, etc. Next, Mr. took me outside to a large pond with almost 20 koi fish, and proceeded to explain pedigree, habitat and feeding procedures.

Fast forward to the actual first sitting which began yesterday. Mrs. texted me 23 times (yes, verified and logged!), most of those while I was in a meeting elsewhere / private one-on-one language instruction (and not on duty), had told her about it ahead of time, and politely reminded her she would have an update once the meeting had ended. To no avail. She kept on texting anyway. Now my duties had increased to be in charge of basement flooding remediation service, emptying the 3 dehumidifiers and coordinating with their staff, to whom Mrs. had given my personal mobile phone number without my knowledge.

Basement consists of several rooms with closed doors, so there is a strong suffocating smell upon entering, with more potent whiff this morning when staff sprayed mold retardant during my emptying-dehumidifier-bucket duty. I became wheezy and dizzy. One dog escaped through a gate left open by said staff, because they were never informed about anything by Mr. and Mrs. the day before. We tramped through muddy fields to finally get the dog back inside the secured gated area.

During my first 'visit' to the basement last evening, I had noticed two rifle-type firearms with a 'cage' covering the barrel (I am no expert at all in that domain, but I know for sure to exercise caution when doors are unlocked to give full access as needed, but not informing me). They were left willy-nilly, naked, on top of desk-height furnishings in 2 different rooms.

Mr. & Mrs. return mid-day tomorrow and are likely to question me thoroughly about the exact times I fed everyone, when the staff came and went, etc. I do know that I will cancel the already-booked one-weeklong stay in one month, but I am unsure if I should report this unsafe situation to Rover. It's not just for me, but for any other sitter. In retrospect, they did mention they were very disappointed for not being able to have repeat sitters from Rover.

To me this is a matter of ethics involving sitter safety. Does Rover have any mechanism by which potential sitters could be warned?

How can a sitter add a new sitting request to a current sitting request discussed during meet and greet?

How do I edit the request from House Sitting (Overnight) to Dog Walk (Daily) before booking?