Rover.com Reviews
About Rover.com
Rover.com is a site that connects travelers who have pets to pet sitters in their local area. Although dig sitting is the primary service provided by their hosts, they also offer dog walking services and pet care for other animals such as cats and birds.
Many pet owners are not comfortable letting their dogs sit in kennels while they are away. Boarding pets can be risky, as you don’t know the health of the other dogs in the facility and don’t know if your pet is being properly cared for.
Dogs can also feel anxiety when they are boarded and may lead to them acting out their frustrations when they arrive back home. They may chew on things and cause other types of mischief they may not have done prior.
The cost of hiring a sitter on Rover.com typically ranges from $20-$60 per day. There are no fees for pet owners or sitters to set up an account on Rover.com; however, they take 15% of the sitters’ earnings when processing their payments.
The cost of boarding your dog may or may not be cheaper depending on the additional services you request. Fees for additional walks, treats and extra playtime are typically required, these fees can add up quickly.
Rover.com’s registered users can locate and book sitters through the website. To find available sitters you will enter in your city of residence and the dates you will be away for. Once you have narrowed down your options, you can browse through each ones’ profiles. They will include pictures, pay rates, a description of themselves and their qualifications. While some of the sitters may have reviews from prior jobs, some of them won’t have any. Regardless, set up a time to meet with them and let them meet your pup.
The sitters on Rover.com are required to submit an application and be approved by the Rover team, to become a host. All sitters must comply with local, federal and state regulations regard the care and safety of all animals. Sitters who have proven themselves, to be trustworthy and responsible, can advance their status to become a Rover Pack member.
To be eligible for the Rover Pack program, sitters must have completed two successful jobs, they must display a great profile, and they must have a protection package. If they meet these initial requirements they may submit an application and continue forward with Rover’s extensive review process.
Rover Pack members are afforded with more sitting opportunities due to the perks they receive. They are entitled to priority on the last minute request list, they are given a profile boost and they are also rewarded with a custom URL profile.
Online reviews showed that customers were pleased with the services provided by Rover sitters. Not only did they feel comfortable leaving their dog with the sitter, but they also came back to a happy, well taken care of, doggy.
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34 ‘Rover.com’ Reviews
If I could give rover a zero or triple zero stars I would. Their a scam and just take your money I've been a pet sitter and have not gotten any business for months it's horrible and they make it seem like they would give you business. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time and money. They just want your money.
Beware of using this service. You will be dealing with people, not professionals. I set up a overnight stay months in advance of a huge party we were throwing. We didn't want our dog alone in a cage at some kennel so we met with the sitters and they seemed nice, our dogs got along, great. we set it up. 4 days before the party the girl texts me and asks if I could drop my dog off early in the morning because they had somewhere to go. I texted her back and said leaving our dog alone in a strange place is the opposite of what we agreed upon. She had the audacity to text me back and say things come up that you can't plan for and thanks for not understanding. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Obviously we canceled. When I attempted to leave this supposed 5 star rated flake a bad review I found that you can only rate someone after a stay and Rover can't/won't do anything about it.
I have been an active sitter for over 4 years with Rover. This is (was) my full time job. - I have made Rover 1,000's of Dollars in pet commission. They have now deemed my husband and I as not suitable due to a DUI - Misdemeanor Citation - that my husband received January 1, 2010.
Yes - he was an idiot and drove when he should not have. However, as we do not drive dogs around - does this truly make us unfit?
When I questioned them, - their response was "since you are a new migration sitter from Dog Vacay - we are being careful" WTF? I have never been with or even used Dog Vacay.
Do not use Rover any longer - at least until they begin having the once stellar reputation and customer service they once had.
Rude and extremely SLOW customer service. Their website had a technical issue and if you complain about it I guess their way of fixing that problem is to just delete your profile hilarious. I have never seen such unprofessional 'customer service' your customer service is a joke and apparently I'm not the only who thinks this just google it yourself LOL BYE
My daughter's friend was unavailable to sit her dog for a working trip. She hired Rover.com.
Long story short, the sitter overfed her, food and treats and also allowed our little baby girl to get people food.
My daughter came home to piles of puke and the dog (which is 6.5- to 7 pounds) spent the next 8 days in the ER vet and died because of the pancreatitis caused by the sitter.
Rover.com offered to "cover our financial burden" but after we sent the bill they said we misread their email.
Then they claimed "pancreatitis" was covered on insurance. Well, tell me how you exclude negligence from insurance.
OUR DOG IS DEAD. THEY WILL TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY.
Hi,
I am a journalist for the journal SanJoseScoop, could you please e-mail me about this story at [email protected] ? Thank you.
Do NOT use Rover sitters. The insurance policy they use has an out for any "illness" which could frankly get them out of paying for almost anything. My dog almost died during an 8 day stay with a sitter. She was very lethargic, vomiting, dehydrated, heavy bloody discharge, thickened intestines, etc. She even lost several pounds during her visit for almost 1/3 body percentage / weight lost. My pet has never had any health issues and in fact had just visited the vet a few days before my trip for her annual visit with a clean bill of health.
Honestly, the sitter returned the fees and was more concerned than Rover.com. I am extremely disappointed with the false sense of security provided with the insurance and statements on the Rover website. I gave them several attempts to make this situation right and it still has not happened. My vet stated that if I returned even one day later, my pet could have died.
I can not stress enough - DO NOT USE ROVER!
I will never use Rover again after my recent experience with them. I booked a weekend stay at a sitter’s apartment through Rover while I went away for a wedding, and my dog had a suspected anaphylactic reaction to something on a walk with the sitter. She was taken to an emergency vet hospital and Rover put down a $1,500 deposit for any care needed there. I was on a flight and unavailable, by the time i got updated the vet hospital had already run up an insane bill in testing and interventions without my consent. My dog was kept over night and released to a new sitter because I was concerned as to what she was exposed to under the care of the sitter. Rover then said this was all my responsibility because allergies were considered a pre-existing condition. This had never happened to my dog before. Rover’s customer service was terrible to deal with, and I was left with the total vet bill, full of testing that I never would have consented for. Looking out for other conservative pet owners, DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!
Use local. This site is a bunch of programmers hosting a site to TAKE MONEY. They don't love dogs like the hosts that keep the dogs. Find a good sitter and leave Rover.
While Rover provides good services such as connecting owners with sitters, an insurance plan, and a solid payment system, there are two very important facts that users must know up front.
1) Rover takes a big chunk (15-20%) before paying the sitter. So if the sitter needs to make $100, and Rover is taking 20% of the gross, the customer must pay $125. That's a 25% markup, passed to the owner. On top of that, Rover charges the owner an additional, ambigious, 5-7% fee. So, if the sitter needs $100, the owner can pay upwards of $132 - a 32% mark-up!!
2) Once an owner meets a sitter in Rover, the owner is expected per Rover's interpretation of their terms of service to always go through Rover to use that sitter. FOREVER. This means that anybody you meet there is off the market for any future arrangements unless you intend to pay through Rover.
My recommendation is that you look at other options first (PSI, Facebook, vet suggestions, etc.). Know what you are committing to before enrolling in Rover.
i totally agree. I paid them 1,000s and they put me at the end of the list of hosts. Kept my spots open for 72 hours and then it may not be accepted so you lost out on getting anyone.
The 20% take away doesn’t effect how much the client pays. It just effects how much the sitter is given.
The 20% take away does not effect how much the client pays at all. If a service costs $100, the owner pays $100 (it is automatically transferred when they book the stay), then after the service is complete the sitter receives that payment (automatic) in their account. However, the sitter is given $80 instead of $100 because of the 20% that Rover takes
Also, you can totally use a sitter outside of Rover, if the sitter wants to do that. I have done that several times with owners so that I can make the full profit instead of losing 20%
I have never seen any random charge of 5-7% on any people I have dog sat for on Rover.
Please read the starting sentence: "So if the sitter needs to make $100,.." If that's what the sitter needs, the cost to the customer goes way up for the other charges. And "ambiguous" is not the same as "random". There is an additional fee. It was in the documentation and confirmed with Rover at the time I posted this. It was their discretion as to the actual percentage in the 5-7% range.
Also you need to know, if you met that client in Rover then sat for them outside of Rover, you have violated your agreement and they will terminate you. My potential sitter and I both got booted off Rover for DISCUSSING possible outside arrangements.
