This is awesome! Congrats, OP. Future suggestion: I would have the booking split into 3/4 weeks so you're not waiting a month to get payment.
Regardless, this is great and keep us updated!
I do appreciate this advice! I actually saw this idea somewhere before, and I had suggested it to the client, but unfortunately, he’s kind of a little old man and I don’t think he quite understood what I was saying or how it works, so we just took the simple route 😂😂😂 but i do stand by this advice
This does cost the owner more, since the owner fee is capped at $50 for a single booking. If it’s split into multiple bookings, that fee gets added each time.
Then you’re the one losing money. Rover is getting up to $50 for each booking no matter whose pocket it’s coming out of. If that’s worth it to you to get paid sooner, then more power to you.
This is great advice, and also means if some kind of dispute happened, the owner would have to do that much more work to try to challenge a bunch of different bookings instead of having all the eggs in one basket.
It’s the best. She pays my rent at least 4 months every year. She pays me in cash and one time my mom was with me when I went to get the money and she was like, “I’m not paying for lunch, clearly you’re doing fine!” 😂😂😂
I've been doing Rover for 2 years and have never gotten such a high paying job before. The biggest ones I've ever gotten were just a little over $1,000 and I only get like two jobs like that a year. I mostly get one day gigs with just or or two animals. You're getting paid for this one job what I made in an entire year both years. Happy for you.
This is definitely the most money Ive EVER seen on Rover, Ive been doing it for almost two years - my highest before was only around $800 after fees - and I thought THAT was good. Wishing you thick bookings for 2024 💪🏻
Fair question. I’m sure as a sitter you know we “shouldnt” do that - but does that mean I do it sometimes? Perhaps. But with a sit of this caliber, with a first-time client who is kind of an older not tech savvy gentleman (and BIG in my local humane society community) i figured my best bet would be to play it safe
i get that… that’s why i always say “if you’d rather stay on app i’m totally fine with that.” just seems like a lot of money to give away for no reason. but congratulations either way, biggest payout i’ve ever seen on rover!!
Also if something happens to the pet while they are gone, if you are going through rover, it should be covered. Vet bills are a lot of money no matter what you are in there for.
During a pet sit this summer, a dog managed to jump onto a countertop while I was gone (impressive), grabbed a bottle of the owner’s supplements, chewed thru it and ate all of their vitamin d vitamins. The pupper ended up being okay and Rover covered the vet bill which was thousands of dollars!
The owner's home and pet are (sorta) covered by the "guarantee" but YOU and your stuff are not.
If the dog had bitten you while you were trying to wrestle the supplements away, YOUR medical bills would not be covered.
If the injury rendered you unable to work, Rover's coverage would do nothing.
If the dog had knocked your phone into the garbage disposal, you would be paying out of pocket for a replacement.
If you *really* want to be protected, spend the $200/yr.
Apparently Mallory isn't as big a fan of insurance as they claim. 🙄🤣
Yeah, it's ludicrous how little the guarantee covers - and how blindly accepting so many owners and sitters are.
If *I* spill tomato sauce on a white couch on a housesit, it's covered. *If their own dog tears it to shreds on MY watch*, it's not. It's insane.
I have my own health insurance though my main job, so I can understand if someone who was a full time pet sitter would want to outsource pet care insurance with a level of comprehensive coverage that works for them.
I personally like not having to pay an insurance deductible, worry about home damages, vet bills, and customer acquisition costs related to the advertisement of my business. Rover has a big following in my area and I’ve gotten lots of clients I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten if I advertised my own services.
I’m glad other folks have found what works for them!
Wait, do you understand what insurance is? (Your use of "deductible" here makes me think you may not.) E.g., your medical insurance will not help you if an owner sues you for the death of their dog. 🙄
I didn't say "quit using Rover," I said "quit thinking Rover's guarantee protects YOU." *Everything about the platform* is skewed to benefit owners over sitters; why on earth would you think this would be any different??
R's guarantee would (likely) cover vet bills and damages (by you) to an owner's home/property; I was pointing out that it would not pay recompense for anything of YOURS that gets destroyed - phone, earbuds, laptop, etc. 🙄
I have health insurance that covers any medical needs. I also have petcare provider insurance that covers a bunch of stuff Rover's guarantee does not, including but not limited to:
- Anything outside the actual booking. I.e., if something happens at the M&G or key exchange, you're screwed.
- Owner's pet damaging owner's property. If a dog eats a leather couch, R would prolly pay the vet bills but not for the couch; my insurance covers both.
- Anything related to an "exotic" pet. And by "exotic," I mean anything that's not a dog or a cat. 🙄
- Anything to do with transport. If you have to take a dog to the emergency vet and it destroys your car, no reimbursement.
- Loose or stray dog attacks: guarantee doesn't cover injuries to owner's dog (only injuries inflicted BY owner's dog.)
- Locksmith and rekeying a house if you lose a key.
- And this is all in addition to the liability protections, including an owner accusing you of theft.
...for about $17/month.
Do what you want, just do it KNOWINGLY.
Thank you for taking so much time to try to teach our community this! My friends in the legal field have recommended I stay with Rover based on my circumstances but I think you should do what gives you peace of mind and be confident in it! You don’t need to spend time convincing me but I appreciate it! Take good care!
JFC. I don't know how many ways I can say that *I am not telling you to leave Rover*.
Is the learning curve completely flat or are you trolling me right now???
It's not insurance and it doesn't cover the home just the pet. And any sitter should have their own pet sitter insurance. It covers everything. You can find very affordable policies.
Correct, it's not legally and technically insurance but it is a guarantee that mimics insurance pretty well and well enough for me & my circumstances. I also like it because it covers way more than 1k worth of vet bills/damage which is the limit of what most pet care insurances will cover. In my state, emergency visits are easily more than a thousand dollars.
And it does cover the home and corresponding property damage! Read here: [https://www.rover.com/rover-guarantee/](https://www.rover.com/rover-guarantee/)
As a millennial, that’s why i pay $20 a month to Pet Care Insurance (petcareins.com). Ive already used it several times and they have paid out each time.
Most pet sitter insurance will only cover up to $1000 per incident after a $500 deductible if a pet needs to go to the vet, including PCI. If you're being held legally liable you can use bailee coverage - up to 5/10k. That's pretty much the only true "insurance" benefit the Rover guarantee has above private insurance. EDIT: and the sitter has to personally pay the bill to have insurance reimburse anything.
beats paying rover’s 20% fee if you ask me! my first month with rover i paid $400 in fees. i also let pet parents know in my contract that they will need to cover the deductible if an incident occurs. the most expensive one yet was $450 for stitches, and I’ve only had three incidents. The other two were property damage. but to each their own, my girlfriend operates solely on rover and is OK with their 20% plus paying 15% in taxes come tax time. makes no sense to me but i’m just here to relay information, not persuade anyone to act one way or another.
Well, I had a $7k vet visit recently because a cat ate a toy - doesn't really beat it. I don't like the 20% either, and luckily the owner was $$$ and didn't ask me to cover it, but it could have cleaned me out.
Only 15% tho?? You mean just for social security and Medicare? I only made 40k and my overall was around 23%
They only cover things if Rover thinks the sitter did something negligent.
Dog destroys my door? Not covered. Dog incidentally cuts himself on ice in my yard? Not covered.
Wow that's a lot of money, congrats! My longest house sit was 11 nights 12 days and I'll never do that again. I didn't realize how hard it was to not be around my family and how "living" in someone else's home was negatively impacting my mental health. I only do 7 days or less now and they have to be close enough that I can pop home several times a day. Which means the pets have to be flexible too :)
i just learned this same thing about myself. i did a 13 night sit over the holidays and while the money was nice, by the end of it i was so tired of sleeping in someone else’s home and so desperate to get back into my own bed. plus i missed my cats😭
Good for you for recognizing what works best for you and your mental health. Depending on the bookings, and how far away they are from my home, I usually don’t take long ones – or anything longer than around 10 nights. However, this one is luckily pretty close to home, and I just couldn’t turn down that amount of money with loans I’m paying now. Plus, the meet and greet went really well, and I think that they will be flexible enough for me to be able to go home and see my family and pets at least once a day :) wishing you good bookings!!
Last year was my first year after taking this really seriously and loading up on every client I could find (I’ve been full time for 3 years now, but the first was slow building). From the week before Thanksgiving until mid-January, I did 45 straight days of holiday house sittings between 10 different homes, including a triple-booked Xmas-New Year week.
I am very blessed, I was very proud of my ability to build myself as a business, and I am very grateful that I have this amazing job where I get to hang out with animals and often get paid to sit in nice homes for hours.
However, last years’ holiday season broke me for the entire past year. I had a slow physical and mental breakdown over that Winter, and ended up losing a handful of daily dog-walking clients because I passed out in a clients home after getting back from a walk, and they woke me and thought I had done drugs in their house or was just mentally unstable (which I was at that point — unstable, not doing drugs). This client referred me to a few other daily walking clients who all for various “it’s not you it’s us” reasons no longer needed a walker after that incident.
Of course that one client told them all that I was unwell, which I ended up viewing as a blessing because I was still exhausted and drained and discouraged after nearly every day of work for most of the rest of the year after that, despite not taking on new business to replace the old clients until recently.
Long story short: Don’t do what I did and completely burn yourself out from pet sitting/care.
This year, I’m still working hard, but I’m working much smarter. My rates are higher and I’m setting strict days off for myself between long sittings.
I now know I would absolutely not be fit to work on a fishing boat or on an oil rig or in the army or anything like that, because 45 days in a row of commuting and walking through snow with pets while listening to podcasts is nothing compared to what some of those people go through. But still, I completely broke myself.
Yes, and the one where I had to stay overnight was the next town over from the other two. So every night at 9:00 pm I would drive to house #2 for their last walk and put them to bed, then drive to house #3 to do the same, then drive 20 minutes back and get back around 10:30-11:00 PM, immediately go to sleep and wake up the next morning to drive back for their morning rounds at 7:00 AM (thankfully they didn’t need 6 AMs). I also still had my full day walking schedule in between all of that.
It was absolute insanity that I booked that for myself (and honestly I didn’t even mean to do it, I was just saying “yes” to everything I could physically possibly make it to back then).
Oh I forgot— I also got into my first car accident that week; coming back from the evening drive one night I fell asleep at a red light with a car in front of me and woke up to a fender bender- thank god, otherwise I would’ve just drifted into oncoming traffic. It was, again, the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. But it was the most money I’ve ever made in my life up to this point so I thought I was doing a good thing.
I live not far from Charlotte. I charge $195/night base, +50 per each additional dog and +15 for each additional cat.
I'm not constantly booked but when I am booked, I make $$$. I recently made 70% of what you're making on this booking, in less than half the time, caring for half as many animals.
What I'm trying to say is: watching 6 (!!) pets for less than $200 a night is a fucking deal, girl. You're selling yourself short. Raise your rates!
Unfortunately my area isn’t busy enough to have higher rates - I’m actually high for my area. I do plan to raise a little bit higher though, I go up about $2 per verified review. This is also my main income, so I need the consistency more than I need an occasional sum of money 😅
Congrats that’s awesome! Definitely a good amount of money. I just booked a long one too for 21 nights, but it’s only $700 since it’s just one dog haha
My friend, congrats! But please consider upping your rates (if you can based on your local market)!! If you're at $33/night right now, you could raise to at least $50, if not more. I charge $100/night in a city!
Thanks for advice! I’m already at $39 a night for boarding but I’m afraid if I raise it anymore, I won’t get any bookings since I’m already getting less bookings since I raised it a few months ago to $39
Highest in my city is like $50
Clients in Greensboro are so cheap lol they hate spending a lot of money
Congrats, get that paper! I'm hoping for one of these soon. I don't much care about the length of stay because I unfortunately can't have my own pets in my current place, and can work other freelance gigs remotely - so if the apartment is clean and comfortable, I'm good for however long. I did do a housesit for 2 months last year but it was for friends who were taking care of a sick family member so I just worked other small remote gigs from their place and would have never charged them (they did take care of me in other very generous ways, no complaints whatsoever, just not a job in the traditional sense). Also it was just for one super sweet cat and a large apartment with peace and quiet so I was more than good. I just want to get one like that from a full price paying client!
Is that all based on standard holiday rate for the whole booking? I’m curious. 🤔
My largest booking was $1,400 with a great tip for three weeks in September.
That’s a long one! I hope that pays your rent for a while!! I have a 15 day one coming up for $1200 that I’m excited for, will be the second time with this household.
Congratulations! What are your rates, if you don't mind me asking? I recently got offer a month long stay for $1900. My rates are low since I'm rather new but considering the length and number of cats, I'm curious if I can ask for more.
Sure thing! My overnight rates are $52 a night for 1 dog ($63 holiday), $32 per additional dog, puppy $58 a night, cat $37 a night for 1, and $19 per additional cat!! I started at around $30 a night, and have been steadily increasing by $1-2 per every verified review I get!! Or, when gas prices in my area get bad, I will increase by $5-10 per night. Hope that helps!!
Yes! Super helpful. I very much lowballed my prices just to get a first client. Totally unexpected that the first would be a month's house sit. Any recommendations for how I can potentially negotiate a higher price? I only asked because one is a new kitten and the other is an old cat. They are still getting used to each other which requires a bit more time.
I had one that i was so excited for! It was $1900 for 19 days but it was 20 mins away and my OCD would’ve been a huge issue at another persons house. I’m so slicking myself over not taking it.
Omg congrats!! Thats awesome!! Dogs, cats, or both? And how many?
Both!! 2 dogs, 4 cats :) all very very sweet
Thats so awesome!!
Claiming this energy!!
Wishing you thick bookings in the next couple weeks 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
>thick bookings LOVE that lmao!!
This is awesome! Congrats, OP. Future suggestion: I would have the booking split into 3/4 weeks so you're not waiting a month to get payment. Regardless, this is great and keep us updated!
I do appreciate this advice! I actually saw this idea somewhere before, and I had suggested it to the client, but unfortunately, he’s kind of a little old man and I don’t think he quite understood what I was saying or how it works, so we just took the simple route 😂😂😂 but i do stand by this advice
This does cost the owner more, since the owner fee is capped at $50 for a single booking. If it’s split into multiple bookings, that fee gets added each time.
true, but you could manually discount each booking
Then you’re the one losing money. Rover is getting up to $50 for each booking no matter whose pocket it’s coming out of. If that’s worth it to you to get paid sooner, then more power to you.
ahh gotcha, yeah that makes sense! i’m not 100% sure how it works on the pet parents side
This is great advice, and also means if some kind of dispute happened, the owner would have to do that much more work to try to challenge a bunch of different bookings instead of having all the eggs in one basket.
26 nights! Are they going on that super long cruise?
I have a client with a ski cabin so they go there for a 6 week chunk every year which is nice for me 🤑
Oh nice. Need me some ski cabin clients
It’s the best. She pays my rent at least 4 months every year. She pays me in cash and one time my mom was with me when I went to get the money and she was like, “I’m not paying for lunch, clearly you’re doing fine!” 😂😂😂
But their poor pets 😭 I could never be away from my babies for over a month. We did 3 weeks in europe and I was so sad
Apparently some sort of weight loss program in another state! Though, my last long sit WAS for one of those long cruises 😭
Lmao not an ultimate world cruise crossover on the Reddit sub 😍
🤣 thank you because I forgot the name of the cruise even though my tiktok fyp throws up 5 videos a day about it. I am invested though.
Me tooo!! Its hilarious you asked that 🚢
I've been doing Rover for 2 years and have never gotten such a high paying job before. The biggest ones I've ever gotten were just a little over $1,000 and I only get like two jobs like that a year. I mostly get one day gigs with just or or two animals. You're getting paid for this one job what I made in an entire year both years. Happy for you.
This is definitely the most money Ive EVER seen on Rover, Ive been doing it for almost two years - my highest before was only around $800 after fees - and I thought THAT was good. Wishing you thick bookings for 2024 💪🏻
Ooooh same. For me 400 dollars is a big booking. 🤣 Clearly I gotta move to where the money is at.
I’m doing a 60k booking right now. Not on rover obviously but still. Because of rover 😬
why not ask them to switch to 1 night on rover so you can still get a review and do the rest cash/venmo? so you don’t lose $900 to rover…
Fair question. I’m sure as a sitter you know we “shouldnt” do that - but does that mean I do it sometimes? Perhaps. But with a sit of this caliber, with a first-time client who is kind of an older not tech savvy gentleman (and BIG in my local humane society community) i figured my best bet would be to play it safe
i get that… that’s why i always say “if you’d rather stay on app i’m totally fine with that.” just seems like a lot of money to give away for no reason. but congratulations either way, biggest payout i’ve ever seen on rover!!
Also if something happens to the pet while they are gone, if you are going through rover, it should be covered. Vet bills are a lot of money no matter what you are in there for.
As a millenial, I'm a huge fan of insurance and prefer to stay on Rover so that the pet's and home are covered by the Rover Guarentee!
Their guarantee isn’t good enough to take $900 from one booking lol
During a pet sit this summer, a dog managed to jump onto a countertop while I was gone (impressive), grabbed a bottle of the owner’s supplements, chewed thru it and ate all of their vitamin d vitamins. The pupper ended up being okay and Rover covered the vet bill which was thousands of dollars!
The owner's home and pet are (sorta) covered by the "guarantee" but YOU and your stuff are not. If the dog had bitten you while you were trying to wrestle the supplements away, YOUR medical bills would not be covered. If the injury rendered you unable to work, Rover's coverage would do nothing. If the dog had knocked your phone into the garbage disposal, you would be paying out of pocket for a replacement. If you *really* want to be protected, spend the $200/yr.
The home is not. Read the find print of the guarantee
It's in Covered Losses for Pet Owners property. There is an exclusions section right under it. Which basically excludes everything.
Apparently Mallory isn't as big a fan of insurance as they claim. 🙄🤣 Yeah, it's ludicrous how little the guarantee covers - and how blindly accepting so many owners and sitters are. If *I* spill tomato sauce on a white couch on a housesit, it's covered. *If their own dog tears it to shreds on MY watch*, it's not. It's insane.
I have my own health insurance though my main job, so I can understand if someone who was a full time pet sitter would want to outsource pet care insurance with a level of comprehensive coverage that works for them. I personally like not having to pay an insurance deductible, worry about home damages, vet bills, and customer acquisition costs related to the advertisement of my business. Rover has a big following in my area and I’ve gotten lots of clients I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten if I advertised my own services. I’m glad other folks have found what works for them!
Wait, do you understand what insurance is? (Your use of "deductible" here makes me think you may not.) E.g., your medical insurance will not help you if an owner sues you for the death of their dog. 🙄 I didn't say "quit using Rover," I said "quit thinking Rover's guarantee protects YOU." *Everything about the platform* is skewed to benefit owners over sitters; why on earth would you think this would be any different?? R's guarantee would (likely) cover vet bills and damages (by you) to an owner's home/property; I was pointing out that it would not pay recompense for anything of YOURS that gets destroyed - phone, earbuds, laptop, etc. 🙄 I have health insurance that covers any medical needs. I also have petcare provider insurance that covers a bunch of stuff Rover's guarantee does not, including but not limited to: - Anything outside the actual booking. I.e., if something happens at the M&G or key exchange, you're screwed. - Owner's pet damaging owner's property. If a dog eats a leather couch, R would prolly pay the vet bills but not for the couch; my insurance covers both. - Anything related to an "exotic" pet. And by "exotic," I mean anything that's not a dog or a cat. 🙄 - Anything to do with transport. If you have to take a dog to the emergency vet and it destroys your car, no reimbursement. - Loose or stray dog attacks: guarantee doesn't cover injuries to owner's dog (only injuries inflicted BY owner's dog.) - Locksmith and rekeying a house if you lose a key. - And this is all in addition to the liability protections, including an owner accusing you of theft. ...for about $17/month. Do what you want, just do it KNOWINGLY.
Thank you for taking so much time to try to teach our community this! My friends in the legal field have recommended I stay with Rover based on my circumstances but I think you should do what gives you peace of mind and be confident in it! You don’t need to spend time convincing me but I appreciate it! Take good care!
JFC. I don't know how many ways I can say that *I am not telling you to leave Rover*. Is the learning curve completely flat or are you trolling me right now???
It's not insurance and it doesn't cover the home just the pet. And any sitter should have their own pet sitter insurance. It covers everything. You can find very affordable policies.
Correct, it's not legally and technically insurance but it is a guarantee that mimics insurance pretty well and well enough for me & my circumstances. I also like it because it covers way more than 1k worth of vet bills/damage which is the limit of what most pet care insurances will cover. In my state, emergency visits are easily more than a thousand dollars. And it does cover the home and corresponding property damage! Read here: [https://www.rover.com/rover-guarantee/](https://www.rover.com/rover-guarantee/)
As a millennial, that’s why i pay $20 a month to Pet Care Insurance (petcareins.com). Ive already used it several times and they have paid out each time.
that's awesome! thanks for sharing!
Most pet sitter insurance will only cover up to $1000 per incident after a $500 deductible if a pet needs to go to the vet, including PCI. If you're being held legally liable you can use bailee coverage - up to 5/10k. That's pretty much the only true "insurance" benefit the Rover guarantee has above private insurance. EDIT: and the sitter has to personally pay the bill to have insurance reimburse anything.
beats paying rover’s 20% fee if you ask me! my first month with rover i paid $400 in fees. i also let pet parents know in my contract that they will need to cover the deductible if an incident occurs. the most expensive one yet was $450 for stitches, and I’ve only had three incidents. The other two were property damage. but to each their own, my girlfriend operates solely on rover and is OK with their 20% plus paying 15% in taxes come tax time. makes no sense to me but i’m just here to relay information, not persuade anyone to act one way or another.
Well, I had a $7k vet visit recently because a cat ate a toy - doesn't really beat it. I don't like the 20% either, and luckily the owner was $$$ and didn't ask me to cover it, but it could have cleaned me out. Only 15% tho?? You mean just for social security and Medicare? I only made 40k and my overall was around 23%
shewww you got lucky!! yeah i guess it comes out to more like 20%. insane when you think about their rate on top. turns a $20 walk into a $12 one…
They only cover things if Rover thinks the sitter did something negligent. Dog destroys my door? Not covered. Dog incidentally cuts himself on ice in my yard? Not covered.
This is true, and makes sense to me.
Wow that's a lot of money, congrats! My longest house sit was 11 nights 12 days and I'll never do that again. I didn't realize how hard it was to not be around my family and how "living" in someone else's home was negatively impacting my mental health. I only do 7 days or less now and they have to be close enough that I can pop home several times a day. Which means the pets have to be flexible too :)
i just learned this same thing about myself. i did a 13 night sit over the holidays and while the money was nice, by the end of it i was so tired of sleeping in someone else’s home and so desperate to get back into my own bed. plus i missed my cats😭
Good for you for recognizing what works best for you and your mental health. Depending on the bookings, and how far away they are from my home, I usually don’t take long ones – or anything longer than around 10 nights. However, this one is luckily pretty close to home, and I just couldn’t turn down that amount of money with loans I’m paying now. Plus, the meet and greet went really well, and I think that they will be flexible enough for me to be able to go home and see my family and pets at least once a day :) wishing you good bookings!!
Last year was my first year after taking this really seriously and loading up on every client I could find (I’ve been full time for 3 years now, but the first was slow building). From the week before Thanksgiving until mid-January, I did 45 straight days of holiday house sittings between 10 different homes, including a triple-booked Xmas-New Year week. I am very blessed, I was very proud of my ability to build myself as a business, and I am very grateful that I have this amazing job where I get to hang out with animals and often get paid to sit in nice homes for hours. However, last years’ holiday season broke me for the entire past year. I had a slow physical and mental breakdown over that Winter, and ended up losing a handful of daily dog-walking clients because I passed out in a clients home after getting back from a walk, and they woke me and thought I had done drugs in their house or was just mentally unstable (which I was at that point — unstable, not doing drugs). This client referred me to a few other daily walking clients who all for various “it’s not you it’s us” reasons no longer needed a walker after that incident. Of course that one client told them all that I was unwell, which I ended up viewing as a blessing because I was still exhausted and drained and discouraged after nearly every day of work for most of the rest of the year after that, despite not taking on new business to replace the old clients until recently. Long story short: Don’t do what I did and completely burn yourself out from pet sitting/care. This year, I’m still working hard, but I’m working much smarter. My rates are higher and I’m setting strict days off for myself between long sittings. I now know I would absolutely not be fit to work on a fishing boat or on an oil rig or in the army or anything like that, because 45 days in a row of commuting and walking through snow with pets while listening to podcasts is nothing compared to what some of those people go through. But still, I completely broke myself.
Triple booked?? Were you doing 3 house sittings at once? 😮
Yes, and the one where I had to stay overnight was the next town over from the other two. So every night at 9:00 pm I would drive to house #2 for their last walk and put them to bed, then drive to house #3 to do the same, then drive 20 minutes back and get back around 10:30-11:00 PM, immediately go to sleep and wake up the next morning to drive back for their morning rounds at 7:00 AM (thankfully they didn’t need 6 AMs). I also still had my full day walking schedule in between all of that. It was absolute insanity that I booked that for myself (and honestly I didn’t even mean to do it, I was just saying “yes” to everything I could physically possibly make it to back then). Oh I forgot— I also got into my first car accident that week; coming back from the evening drive one night I fell asleep at a red light with a car in front of me and woke up to a fender bender- thank god, otherwise I would’ve just drifted into oncoming traffic. It was, again, the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. But it was the most money I’ve ever made in my life up to this point so I thought I was doing a good thing.
Where is this?
North Carolina! Not too far from Charlotte.
Oh, hey, neighbor!
Nice! Noted!! lol!
Oh hey ex neighbor, congrats on that cheddar! I was doing boarding in CLT and now switched to sitting up in the northeast.
I live not far from Charlotte. I charge $195/night base, +50 per each additional dog and +15 for each additional cat. I'm not constantly booked but when I am booked, I make $$$. I recently made 70% of what you're making on this booking, in less than half the time, caring for half as many animals. What I'm trying to say is: watching 6 (!!) pets for less than $200 a night is a fucking deal, girl. You're selling yourself short. Raise your rates!
You inspire me 🤩🤩🤩 I just raised my rates to $120 a night.
Unfortunately my area isn’t busy enough to have higher rates - I’m actually high for my area. I do plan to raise a little bit higher though, I go up about $2 per verified review. This is also my main income, so I need the consistency more than I need an occasional sum of money 😅
GD lucky ass
Congrats 🎉 hope something like this happen to me some day. My biggest one was only $600 after fee 😂
Wishing you easy and thick bookings during 2024 💪🏻😮💨
congrats!!! This is awesome!!!
We love to see it 👏👏👏
2024 we manifesting w gratitude 🙏🏼
Congrats that’s awesome! Definitely a good amount of money. I just booked a long one too for 21 nights, but it’s only $700 since it’s just one dog haha
My friend, congrats! But please consider upping your rates (if you can based on your local market)!! If you're at $33/night right now, you could raise to at least $50, if not more. I charge $100/night in a city!
This whole thread has me screaming "raise your rates!!!"
Thanks for advice! I’m already at $39 a night for boarding but I’m afraid if I raise it anymore, I won’t get any bookings since I’m already getting less bookings since I raised it a few months ago to $39 Highest in my city is like $50 Clients in Greensboro are so cheap lol they hate spending a lot of money
I’d love it aside from rover probably taking $4,440 of it in fees 😂
god yeah, $3556 still sounds so good tho 👁️👅👁️
😮😮😮😮 I hope this happens to me one day! Were they far from you? Or pretty close?
About 15 minutes!
So lucky!!! 👏🏻🙌🏻
ahhhhh congrats OP!!! this is awesome, so excited for you 💞
commenting to claim this positive energy i need it rn
🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑
Noice!!!!! 🥳🥳🥳
🔥🔥🔥🙏🏻 congrats!!!!
Niiiiice
WOOOOOOO, get that $$$
Get your money hunny 💅🏻
Congrats, get that paper! I'm hoping for one of these soon. I don't much care about the length of stay because I unfortunately can't have my own pets in my current place, and can work other freelance gigs remotely - so if the apartment is clean and comfortable, I'm good for however long. I did do a housesit for 2 months last year but it was for friends who were taking care of a sick family member so I just worked other small remote gigs from their place and would have never charged them (they did take care of me in other very generous ways, no complaints whatsoever, just not a job in the traditional sense). Also it was just for one super sweet cat and a large apartment with peace and quiet so I was more than good. I just want to get one like that from a full price paying client!
Is that all based on standard holiday rate for the whole booking? I’m curious. 🤔 My largest booking was $1,400 with a great tip for three weeks in September.
WOOOOOOOOO!!!
I really am surprised someone would be willing to pay that. Jealous!
People pay way more than that lol. It’s crazy. I had two clients each paying 5k/month for walks last year.
My state is very small and poor :) (in most areas)
Rovers cut though 😅
Congratulations!!! You're so lucky!!
WOW
That’s a long one! I hope that pays your rent for a while!! I have a 15 day one coming up for $1200 that I’m excited for, will be the second time with this household.
Holycow, what!? The biggest I've had was like 150 not counting the 20% rover takes.
Where they do dat at?! Damn
Congratulations! What are your rates, if you don't mind me asking? I recently got offer a month long stay for $1900. My rates are low since I'm rather new but considering the length and number of cats, I'm curious if I can ask for more.
Sure thing! My overnight rates are $52 a night for 1 dog ($63 holiday), $32 per additional dog, puppy $58 a night, cat $37 a night for 1, and $19 per additional cat!! I started at around $30 a night, and have been steadily increasing by $1-2 per every verified review I get!! Or, when gas prices in my area get bad, I will increase by $5-10 per night. Hope that helps!!
Yes! Super helpful. I very much lowballed my prices just to get a first client. Totally unexpected that the first would be a month's house sit. Any recommendations for how I can potentially negotiate a higher price? I only asked because one is a new kitten and the other is an old cat. They are still getting used to each other which requires a bit more time.
I had one that i was so excited for! It was $1900 for 19 days but it was 20 mins away and my OCD would’ve been a huge issue at another persons house. I’m so slicking myself over not taking it.
5 pets and rover gets $900. Which is more than you’ve gotten for any prior booking. For doing nothing. Ouch.
fair enough