As someone who has worked with Rover.com since 2018 using all the services here are some things I wish I had known.
1. People flake. People are unreliable. People will change plans and not inform you. Best to be assertive and find out.
2. A lot of dogs have anxiety so please ask if they are okay alone or need a kennel. Owners who say their dogs are needy or love attention tend to fall into that category of not being okay left alone.
3. Keep extra food and calming treats and indestructable toys depending on which size dogs your house can accomodate. Also extra bowls, collar, leash, a bed are a good idea if they get bored or upset and destroy their own. Not a bad idea to invest in a large kennel especially with long term boarding.
4. Be aware of items in reach of dogs especially left alone or unsupervised.
5. Owners who don't book right away may never book or contact that their plans changed.
6. House sitting jobs may come with extra pets to care of that owners don't include in original booking. This might include horses, rats, or fish.
7. Owners that cancel during or post job has resulted in loss of payment so keep a log of jobs and bank account deposits. I tried contacting Rover. I received an email for the ticket but was never able to communicate with any Rover employee about my issue.
8. There are plenty of bookers who don't reply after initial request or who are talking to other sitters at the same time and I will get a response saying they went with someone else. Nothing is a guarantee
9. Do not count on this for full time income. Depending on size of dogs or puppies and sitting or boarder will effect offers. Also, as with previous notes not every request will work out or be of your interest. If it's a holiday you may recieve multiple requests and you may just want one at a time. I have done both sitting and boarding at the same time to accommodate people so I am back and forth 4x a day starting at 6am and ending at 10pm. Rover also takes a cut, the larger the amount the bigger the cut. I super hate this, I understand it, but I hate this. a 700 job may only net 500. Would almost be better for users if there was a yearly membership fee instead of taking a cut.
subject to updating as I remember items.
