Rover.com | Pet SittingReviews of rover.com

I found the app annoyingly hard to use. I wasted a lot of time just trying to find my registration on the app. It was also annoying that it wouldn’t let me skip the review option to go leave a tip.

When I was looking for someone to watch my dog I didn’t realize you didn’t instantly have to book a person. I booked someone and wasn’t able to do the meet and great within your week prior. I went to the meet and great my dog was bit so I had to cancel and find someone new. You guys charged me a huge amount in my opinion when I canceled. It was only 5hours short of a weeks notice. I believe you guys kept almost $70 and when I rebooked a few days later you guys could see that. I should’ve been credited that amount. It’s not like the dog sitter would get any of that money. It’s a rip off! As far as the person who watched my dog no complaints.

I booked a sitter through Rover for my dog, Onyx, and unfortunately the experience was extremely disappointing and very concerning for her safety. Before the booking, I communicated clearly that Onyx does not do well around cats. The sitter assured me that it would not be an issue. However, once Onyx arrived, the situation was not what I was led to expect. There were cats in the home, and instead of a controlled and gradual introduction, the sitter declined my request for a meet-and-greet and told me that “with her cats, forced meetings shouldn’t happen.” That was a major red flag, but at that point I had already dropped off Onyx. During the stay, communication from the sitter was extremely limited. I received little to no updates unless I reached out first, and even then, the responses lacked basic information about Onyx’s wellbeing. When I picked Onyx up, she had been injured on her eye, something that was not communicated to me at all during the stay. I had to discover it myself at pickup. As a pet parent, this is unacceptable. If an injury occurs, I expect immediate communication, not silence. I reached out to Rover Support and filed a claim. The response was slow and, ultimately, not very helpful. The initial claim was denied without a clear explanation, and communication from Rover took days at a time. After additional follow-up from my end, Rover eventually reimbursed a small portion of the cost, but the entire process was frustrating and far below the standard I expected from a platform that advertises safety and reliability. I’m sharing this review not out of anger, but so other pet parents understand the importance of clear communication and honest expectations when booking. I rely on Rover to keep my dog safe when she is not with me, and this experience did not reflect the level of care and accountability I believed I was paying for. I do not recommend Rover long term. Find a sitter you like on the platform and then make your own contract/agreement off the platform.

Your app doesn’t work as it should. This is 2025, it should not be this difficult for a company that is in the business of connecting clients with dog sitters to develop a fully functional app that actually works. I had just downloaded the app so I know it wasn’t a problem on my end. It was 100% Rovers inability to invest in functional technology. I spent many hours trying to converse with various dog sitters for a 5 day booking only for many of them to say they were not receiving notifications until days later. One even ghosted me after agreeing to dog sit (so maybe they shouldn’t be allowed to use Rover anymore). A quick Google search shows this IS NOT an isolated incident. This has been going on for AT LEAST 2 years. I contacted customer support and their solution “have the dog sitters update their apps.” Are you serious? They’re not even getting the messages. And then Rover customer support stopped responding to my questions. Totally unprofessional. I’m so disappointed with Rover as a company in general. The only good thing is that the dog sitter I did finally find was really good with my dog. But I won’t be using Rover again. I do not trust that you will ever fix this issue. There are better companies with fully functional technology that I will go with. Do better

Multiple requests out with no response or not available on the stated dates, even though I checked calendar availability before reaching out. One meet and greet with a sitter that backed out. So far, a lot of time wasted. Will give it a little longer but inclined to shift to another platform.

River has fees in perpetuity. Charges both the sitter and the customer. I don’t mind paying for a service but this is excessive. And the fees are forever. No other finder fee lasts forever. Rover has certainly found a way to make the most money!

I think the Rover app/concept is a great idea, and I’m truly grateful that someone was willing to house my pet in my absence. The host even took time to share pictures and videos with me, which I greatly appreciated. I booked eight days of service. On the final day, I contacted the host to let her know I was on my way for pickup and arrived about an hour and a half past my expected time. To my surprise, my arrival seemed unexpected — my pet was not prepared to leave, and the host appeared unaware that I was coming. When I initially dropped off my cat, I was told he would be kept in a specific area designated for him or other cats. However, when I arrived for pickup, he was in another part of her home. The host explained that her son wanted to spend time with my cat in the main area, which I didn’t mind — but the concerning part was that the host didn’t know exactly where my pet was. My son and I were invited into the home to help look for him, and for about 15 minutes, my cat was nowhere to be found. It was a very stressful and unprofessional situation. Eventually, the host found him, and I was relieved, but this could have been easily avoided with better supervision and communication. Additionally, my cat’s appearance was less than desirable. He was clean and freshly groomed when I dropped him off, but when I picked him up, he was filthy and acted extremely hungry — so much so that we had to feed him in the car. While I’m thankful he was found and unharmed, I was very disappointed with the lack of awareness and care during his stay. Because of this experience, I would be hesitant to use Rover again and would not recommend Mona as a host.

I am only speaking about dog walkers that I have experienced going through Rover - I finally found one (out of four) from Rover that was dependable, I felt comfortable with and continued to use that person. I had complained to Rover regarding the others for the unreliability, would not walk the dogs for the amount of time they’re paid for to do and one particular was so unprofessional and insulting but those walkers continued to be on their site. I didn’t realize I could rate them elsewhere until now since they are all over the news about the awful things that have happened to many dogs when left with a sitter hired through Rover and I am very grateful I never used them for any pet sitting. They don’t do background checks and obviously don’t take complainants seriously and continue to list them on their site with no consequences. Again, I am grateful to say I’ve only had those bad experiences for dog walkers as I would never trust someone I didn’t personally know (vetted)- Never mind rely on Rover to - so glad I never did. If the dog walkers can’t be trusted, there is no way I would’ve used them for pet sitting.