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| answered a question | Do you charge differently for housesitting based on time requirements? I have also had issues with Rovers pet-sitting fee being described as "per night." Personally, I consider it fair to define a stay as starting no earlier then the late afternoon/early evening and ending sometime in the morning but no later than noon. When a client wants me to spent an extended amount of time at their home without leaving I like to charge per hour, and I adjust the "per night rate" accordingly. For example, I just recently completed a booking for 10+ hours in which I charged $10 an hour. The client found this to be perfectly reasonable, but I have also had people tell me that stays where the hourly rate worked out to be $2 an hour were too expensive. My best advice is to charge what YOU think is fair for your time/work. |
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| answered a question | What should I do if owners lie about amount of animals I would be watching? I've had this happen to me as well! Client sent a request for two cats. Later, I show up to the meet and greet and there are FOUR cats. Turns out she was being sneaky because her apartment building only allowed two pets per unit. It can be weird/awkward/uncomfortable to have to talk about additional rates, but in my experience getting a fair payment for the work is more important than temporary awkwardness. |
| asked a question | Has anyone had problems with pet-owners being unexpectedly home while you are providing a service? This has actually happened to me several times, all with different clients. Say I am booked for dog-walking or drop-in visits and someone is at the home without advanced warning. The worst example I have of this: one day I was at a regular clients apartment putting the dogs harness on in preparation for a walk, when two unknown males entered the apartment. As you can imagine, this was quite surprising and uncomfortable! They turned out to be the dog owner's brother and the brother's friend, but I had never met them--nor did the client tell me they would be coming. I mentioned this to the client and asked to be notified in advance the next time anyone would be at the apartment-- they responded, not by apologizing, but by cancelling my employment with them (they were a regular four walk a week client so this really hurt my income among other things). It seems like common sense to alert a dog-walker if you or anyone else will be at the home during the time of service. Does Rover have some sort of policy to prevent pet owners from doing this? Have any other dog-walkers/pet-sitters also experienced this? If so, how did you deal? Thanks! |
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