DogVacayReviews of dogvacay.com

I eventually made a reservation and had a successful experience. BUT not before being assured I had successfuly secured a reservation only to find out after directly contacting the individual that they werent even in town!!! In addition, I was further inconvenienced by the inaccuaracy of the calendar availability indicated available space or open slots where it turns out there was none. Your system needs a great deal of improvement as it cannot be relied upon.

owner had a job and just left my dog at home with other dogs, she is only 5 lbs and there were safety issues. I could have just left my dog at my apt when I worked and she would have probably been safer.

The only reason why I'm still using DogVacay is because of the superb dog sitter I found on here but the cat sitter I hired for home visits for the 2 weeks I was gone had a man over--this I know because she was a young woman and I'm a single female who lives alone yet when I returned home, the toilet seat was left up and there was urine all over the toilet rim! When I contacted DogVacay to make them aware that this sitter had let a stranger in my home without my permission, the rep who replied obviously did not take the time to read my message as she referred my dog sitter in her apology and simply gave me a voucher. I ofcourse replied back, irritated, and the response I got the second time was apologetic with promises that the sitter would for sure be dealt with accordingly but I'm confident this did not happen. I wasn't looking to have her fired but reprimanded for her actions. I searched DogVacay's website to see if there was a policy to protect pet owners from hosts letting strangers enter their home without permission but didn't find a thing so I don't believe that there is anything in place at the moment. It's difficult enough to entrust my pets' care to a stranger but to also trust that person with my home and not knowing who was here or what she did here makes me feel uneasy. I'd definitely feel more comfortable if DogVacay implemented a 3-strikes-out policy (for both pet owners and sitters) but I doubt I'll be seeing this day anytime soon so until then I will only use their service if desperate.

I made an instant book reservation with host in Milwaukie. Dog Vacay had my credit card number, my reservation was confirmed. Due to a busy work week I did not telephone confirm the reservation with the host--saw no need: I had booked with a credit card. Hours before I was to deliver my dog I got an email saying my reservation had never been confirmed by a phone call and had been dropped (and filled with another) and that they had not been able to reach me by phone. BS. My phone worked just fine. Fortunately Dog Vacay staff sent me another list of instant book hosts and one was found. She was lovely and all was well. But this was SPRING BREAK WEEK and I could have been screwed. If I instant book and there is a credit card on record and I have been a Dog Vacay client before, ASSUME I MEAN IT. Don't do this double-confirmation thing about which there is NOTHING on the website. I will use Dog Vacay in the future but will never assume instant reservations means they are confirmed (which they should!).

Finding a dog sitter that is available when we need them is a lot more work than it should be. I've wasted a lot of time contacting sitters that are not available. In every case they are shown as available on the website. This is probably problem with the sitters not updating their status. Maybe it's hard for a sitter to keep their status up to date or maybe they are all lazy. It makes no difference to me. It makes it less likely that I will use the site in the future since it's so much work for so little return. I had the same problem with Rover.com. I contacted 10 to 12 available sitters last time and only found 2 that were actually available. On the plus side we have found 2 sitters that we know we can trust but of course one of them was not available the last time we contacted her even though it looked like they were available on the website.

Guest basically lied about dog's training (including pooping in the house) and their ability to be with other dogs (was stress-induced aggressive) Thats not the issue, I went through the proper process to deal with it. Or TRIED to. Let me be clear this is on top of having the stress of contacting the family who owns the dog about what was going on when they were about to get on a plane to go out of country. I promised them the best help I could get, but I guess I promised too much. Called three times to finally get him re-homed for safety of all dogs, they told the other person the dog was too hyper for me. If the other person had not asked me for more details while we were confirming the transfer, they would have taken a dog too stressed to be around other dogs while away from home and put them with even MORE dogs. Now I have to keep him over night, I have no idea how that's going to work. Every time I move and let go of his leash (yes, I have been forced to keep him short leashed indoors and ruin my night) he flips out and goes after my own dog. The 'help' person on the call was very much rushing me and trying to convince me to keep them. I don't care if its christmas or whatever this is a safety concern and your staff doesn't seem care. You say on your site you help on holidays so get with it. They kept talking about how they were going home and thats all they could do until the morning (24 hours ring a bell? give me to somebody else who will be there.) As well she kept cutting me off and I didn't even get to tell her all of the issues the dog was giving me, obviously she was assuming things by what she told the new host. I only got a chance to tell her about the aggression she wouldn't let me get any word in otherwise, so I had to tell the next host myself about the complete lack of training. I have a lifetime of experience with dogs, up to 5 at a time (including one very muscular 130 pound mutt.) I actively volunteer at the SPCA as well handling dogs. I can handle energetic. This is unacceptable. I was begrudgingly accepting the 15-20 PERCENT service fee (making my income nonexistent) because I assumed it went to hiring the 24/7 help line and providing quality assistance. Now that has been proven inaccurate, I highly suggest people either go on without using the service or find another one.

I am a host of over 2 years, and it has been amazing and I am grateful to have found DogVacay as it was so needed. However, lately there has been friction, and it's not going well. Business is down lower than it has ever been, even as we near the holidays. THIS SHOULD BE THE BUSY SEASON. This past year we as hosts have been plagued with many irritating practices, miscommunication/no communication, policy changes NOT in anyone's favor (save for the top) at the expense of our hard work. We are your customers-WE PAY YOU. I have never felt more disrespected by any business before now. Every time something is altered, we are in the dark about it. This includes charging variable fees to owners, which are angry at hosts when we had no clue of its inception, nor any explanation or education about it. And you say it's not affecting our business?? Yes, let's add an arbitrary mandatory tipping system, people LOVE that. I'm NOT the only one who has felt the vast drop in business the last few months. Also, you have massively screwed up the searching for quality hosts, and plagued every market with inadequate, poorly screened (if at all), potentially unsafe hosts by the masses. In my area, there have been at least 20 new additions in the past 2 weeks that were not present before, burying established hosts like myself to page 4+. Think of the last time you used Google to search for goods or services to purchase. Did you go past page 1-2? Very doubtful. I've even had a few customers book with another host for Christmas, who may even have charged more per day, because they DID NOT THINK I HOSTED ANYMORE due to not finding my listing. I'm NOT the only one who has felt the vast drop in business the last few months. And the answer to our plight about fees and screwing up the search? "Well, it's never a good time to introduce fees", and "We are working on it-It should be better in 2-3 months". This is unacceptable. I AM NOT HAPPY.

I love being a host for dogvacay and when I have had to call the concierge service I receive prompt professional service. The company use to send thank you notes and gifts when I first started and this made me feel like I was a part of a team, however I don't feel that way anymore. The recent changes in the webpage and app have caused some problems and I hate getting text messages alerts in the middle of the night.