Rover.com | Pet SittingReviews of rover.com

I’ve had too many issues with Rover. I came from cat in a flat and for whatever reason they decided to merge with Rover which was a bad move, I’m still waiting to get paid one month later after the cat sitting I did. I love cats so much and feel so honored when cat parents choose me to look after their babies. I take it seriously and go the extra mile to make sure the kitties are okay. But rovers platform has ruined my side business, it’s too hard to use for most people, payments are always late or non existent and they don’t prioritise cats. They’re be try much a DOG PLATFORM. DONT USE IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR CATS OR ABOUT HAVING GOOD SITTERS THAT ACTUALLY CARE. I don’t like rover there’s a reason I created a profile 6 years ago and then immediately deleted it. Not easy to use, I just want to get paid for the work I did at this point and just move over to a better platform.

The sitter that came to my house wasn’t the registered and vetted sitter but it was her daughter. So lack of honesty for a start. Even the photo on the profile is the daughter so there is no checking ID. I only found out because I went to drop off the key and the mum arrived home and introduced herself then when I said you are both called “X” the both said no the daughter is “Y”. That annoyed me for a start. Then on day day 5of 7 she asked if she need not do a small task of putting a little water in the fishpond that she had agreed. Reason it was her mother’s birthday and she was busy! She was already over 2 hours later than normal. And for my money she only ever stayed 7 minutes because my cat was always out and putting his food out takes all of 30 seconds. However each day I got an email from Rover she had claimed to be there over an hour ! Every day this happened. So I don’t rate Rover highly. Maybe if Rover actually insisted that the profile photo matched the official ID it might be a start in the right direction but until they actually check they’ve got the right person it’s all a bit of a fraud and a sham. Zero stars.

UPDATE (June 7): COMPLETE TIMELINE OF EXTORTION & NEGLIGENCE Do not be fooled by Rover's generic PR replies below telling me to contact their "Trust & Safety" team. The Trust & Safety team are the exact people who handled this emergency, instructed me to pay the extortion, and abandoned me. For anyone considering using Rover, here is the documented timeline of how they handle active emergencies: May 8 (Pre-Booking): The sitter accepted the booking for my 10-to-12-week-old puppy, promising high-availability care ("I can show tons of attention"). I explicitly disclosed in writing that the puppy had a tiny bladder and was still potty training. May 22 (Drop-off): I discovered the sitter provided a fraudulent address for the stay at dropoff. It was a different house number in an alley with the sign to the right of their door: 'Warning: Trespassers will be shot, survivors shot again'. May 25 (Mid-Stay): While I was thousands of miles away, the sitter explicitly violated Terms of Service by coercing an unagreed-upon $200 off-platform fee via Venmo. May 25 (Rover's Complicity): I immediately texted and called Rover’s 24/7 Support line to report the extortion and safety concern. The phone agent actively instructed me to submit to the extortion and pay the sitter using the app's "tip" feature. May 25 - May 27 (Breach of Guarantee): Despite marketing a "Rover Guarantee" with emergency rebooking assistance, Rover completely abandoned me. They went silent for over 72 hours and offered zero help securing alternative care. May 27 at 2:43 PM (Emergency Rescue): I was forced to coordinate an emergency rescue for my dog entirely on my own. In the aftermath, the sitter admitted in writing to civilly negligent practices, stating he left the young puppy locked in a cage entirely unattended while he went to a separate job, resulting in the dog sitting in its own messes until the cage had to be "hosed down." June (Defamation & Hosting False Data): Rover allows the sitter to publish a retaliatory review on my profile containing the absolute fabrication that "the people on the line completely agree with me at Rover." amongst other lies. This is a provable lie, Rover’s internal teams confirmed his policy violations and issued a full refund for his extortion. Yet, Rover actively chooses to host this false data on my profile. June 7 (Review Manipulation): Rover is now actively allowing this sitter to manipulate public records to hide his violations. He altered his public-facing response on his own profile to falsely frame his extortion as a "miscommunication" to protect his booking rate, while intentionally preserving the aggressive, defamatory reviews on my personal profile. Rover prioritizes their commission over pet safety. I have meticulously documented every chat log and internal policy violation and am sharing this verifiable timeline with consumer watchdogs reporting on safety failures in the gig economy.

Cant keep their billing straight

POS company; my friend’s dog was murdered by one of their pet sitters. DON’T EVER USE THEM.

For months, my sitter profile has become practically invisible in search results despite maintaining high availability, frequently updating my calendar, being responsive, and previously receiving regular booking requests. I even lost my Star Sitter status simply because requests suddenly stopped coming in. I contacted support multiple times explaining that from a real client perspective, my profile is extremely difficult to find, even when using filters that perfectly match my services, location, and availability. I tested this from my own account, another person’s account, and even while logged out as a non-member. Instead of properly investigating the issue, I mostly received generic copy-paste explanations about how the algorithm and rankings work. While support claimed my profile “appears in search,” this does not reflect the real browsing experience clients actually have when trying to find sitters in my area. Another major concern is the lack of proper verification regarding legal boarding requirements. In the UK, many sitters offering boarding or house sitting services legally require licences depending on the service and council regulations. However, Rover does not appear to properly verify this. From what I can see on my local council’s public licensing records, I appear to be one of the very few Rover sitters in my area who actually holds a valid licence, while many others openly advertise these services on the platform. It feels incredibly unfair to active sitters who rely on the platform for income and put effort into maintaining their profiles properly. If visibility can suddenly collapse without any transparent explanation, it becomes very difficult to trust the platform.

Einfach nur grauenhaft. Als ehemaliger Cat in a Flat Nutzer, der durch den Aufkauf gezwungen war, zu Rover zu wechseln, bin ich einfach nur frustriert und enttäuscht. In Cat in a Flat hat Engagement und Liebe gesteckt - bei Rover merkt man den Fokus auf Profit. Viele leere Versprechungen, leere Phrasen vom Kundenservice bei Problemen, tausend Bugs, klarer Fokus auf Hundebetreuung statt auf Haustiere bzw. Katzen allgemein. Nicht zu empfehlen. Dieser Merge war abgesehen davon, dass er an Unis als Negativbeispiel dafür eingehen sollte, wie man sowas NICHT macht, ein reines Downgrade. Sehr schade.

The app is not intuitive to use not like a hotel app where you can just pick the dates it has blocks of time or something. They claimed to screen their Pet Sitter’s, but I contacted a woman to take care of my two pets and come over for a meet and greet and it was clear. She doesn’t speak English, but then became clear. She didn’t understand English, but it was too late because I needed to leave on my trip very soon and I had to give her a chance it was horrible and rover.com does not care at all. There is no help for Rover.