I am new to rover and and curious, if I am house sitting for a clients dog for four nights and am making $104 dollars but am checking up on the dog multiple times a day, am I really making any money? Wouldn't that basically just be like making 5 dollars an hour? Or do you book both house-sitting and drop in visits?
With boarding or house sitting, you shouldn't look at what the effective hourly rate is--way too depressing!
As others have said, each "night" of house sitting includes up to 24 hours of pet care. You don't have to stay in the house 24/7, but you should be there a majority of the time. You can use it as a base of operations to walk or do drop-ins for other dogs. Because you have to uproot yourself and live in someone else's home, plus you may be asked to do minor household tasks (mail, plants, etc.), it should be viewed as a premium service and priced accordingly. I think many sitters either underprice the service or are providing only a curtailed version of it, like staying from 8 pm to 8 am.
House sitting consists of 24 hours of care in the clients home, do you make any money?? In my opinion, you don't, and it is a huge inconvenience for me so I stopped offering the service. However, some sitters love it! And no you shouldn't charge the client for drop ins while house sitting.
I go back and forth on how I feel about housesitting. On one hand I am able to relax a little bit and still make money, on the other hand I have a dog so am consistently juggling letting my dog out (who is very laid back and fine alone) and making sure the client dogs have a nice experience including plenty of photos to prove it. I charge almost 3x my walking fee for a housesitting gig, and put about the same amount of work in as 3 walks. That being said, I am booked almost the whole summer with house sitting gigs and this does enable me to have a roommate while rarely having to see them.
Hi Taylor, I am recently new as well, so welcome! From what I understand, house sitting is when you actually stay at the client's home overnight. That way the dog doesn't have to leave the comfort of their own home and go to a dog kennel/lodge. A drop-in visit is more like if the owner is gone for a long day of work and would like you to drop-in during the afternoon to let the dog out and play with him/her. You can adjust your house sitting rates if you prefer to make more. From what I've seen in my area, sitters charge anywhere from $40-70/per night for house sitting, so you'd actually be making quite a bit more for a four night stay. Best of luck to you!
In the details Rover asks if you will stay during the day at a client's house on weekdays. The following link states that boarding and house sitting are up to 24 hours and details are up to the sitter to work out with clients: https://support.rover.com/hc/en-us/ar...
Most Rover sitters have very low rates and I lowered mine to be competitive. My rate for dogs does include a walk, not all day care, otherwise I wouldn't make much.
Most dogs need to be let out at least every 6-8 hours. You are agreeing to live in their house and care for their dogs not just go and let them out. If you don't think you are being paid a fair wage up your fees.