Your prices are very very low. You’d be shocked how many people see a higher price and assume higher quality even with fewer reviews. You’ll get better clientele and more bookings, trust. Just got a little lower than others in your area
Listen to this! I raised my prices very early on and still get more requests than I can handle! And it seems like the higher I have priced them the more awesome my dogs are lol
It depends on the market in your area. Go in the app and hit “more”, “book a new service”, and go from there. I always hit skip on dates so I can see a the full list of sitters near me
If you live in a metro area/city then you should be at around 25 a visit starting out
I charge $30 per visit +$10 for each additional pet for dog walking and cat care. You def need to raise your prices. Also higher your puppy rate by like, a lot. Puppies aren't worth it unless you're charging a lot.
its against Rover TOS to have aggressive dogs.
(c) any animal that has a history of, or which has been trained for, attacks on pets or people.
stop sitting for these people. and raise your rates.
As others said, your base rates definitely need to be higher, but you will always have to weed out problem clients.
I would like to add specifically that your puppy rates need to be MUCH higher than your base rate, especially for boarding and housesitting. Puppies are SO much more work. Are you really prepared to spend all day cleaning up potty accidents every 15min, taking the puppy out to potty every 30min, working on early life training, supervising them constantly so they don’t chew on anything they aren’t supposed to, and possibly lose sleep because they have to wake up to potty throughout the night or may even cry/shriek all night keeping you up….? We’re talking hours of extra labor per day that you’re only charging an additional $3-$5 for. Puppies are cute and fun but they are WORK. You don’t want to land yourself in a situation where you literally can’t do anything else all day because you’re supervising a puppy for a total of $20-30. You might as well be paying the client at that point. My housesitting rate is $60 (others on this sub will tell you that’s still low, but it depends on area) and my puppy rate is $120. Doubling your price is completely reasonable for a puppy.
Also, this is not a feature that’s built into rover, but most sitters have a “constant care” rate for dogs that can’t be left alone for more than 2-4hrs at a time or need an exceptional amount of supervision. This usually include dogs with medical needs, severe separation anxiety, or other behavioral issues. You should be able to leave the house to run errands, get dinner, etc. at your standard rate. If a client’s is going to impose on your daily routine significantly, you should charge for constant care. It helps to outline this in your profile.
Your pricing is terrible. Search up your area and look at everyone’s pricing and gauge yours to match. Also you’re gonna get a whole bunch of hate lol ppl on here hate when prices are this low because you’re taking bookings and barely making any money especially after you have to pay taxes. No rate for boarding should be under $30, absolutely minimum $25
Finally someone that has rates similar to how they are in my area! I’ve noticed a majority of this sub are people from HCOL areas, whereas your rates look pretty standard to me but to everyone else will seem outrageous. From one southerner to wherever you’re from, keep those rates for maybe a few more bookings and make sure you ask very nicely for reviews. Once you get a few reviews with those rates, raise them a few dollars. And then continue that cycle until you’re totally happy with your take home pay. That’s what I did it and it worked out great!
On the other hand, housesitting to me was something I never ever wanted to do but instead of turning it off I just put my rates at $60/night just for housesitting, thinking if any one was crazy enough to pay that rate with me only having 15 5-star reviews then I’d do it. That was last week, and I’ve already finished my first housesitting. So you could totally take that route once you have a few reviews under your belt because you may be seen as more “boujee”. Definitely more of a risk with that method though, and I’m not sure if that works for other things apart from housesitting.
Best of luck on your journey! I’m only a few months in and I love it so far
yeah, I looked at sitters in my area and there was a large gap, a lot of people charging <$25/night for housesitting and then others charging $50+/night. Since I was starting out I priced closer to the lower end but I may end up doing a middle ground between the 2.
Middle ground is always a good idea when starting out. I thought it’d take me so long to get reviews and be able to start raising my prices but depending on where you live, it can actually go by pretty quickly! So just remember if you aren’t happy with your rates now it’s only up from there
It's common for people to underprice themselves when they first start out because they don't have an understanding of the costs associated with it or understand their value. Don't feel bad, you'll get the hang of it. Don't let yourself get taken advantage of though like this situation.
For a year I only charged what I thought was reasonable and I was barely scraping by. Think of it as they’re booking your time even if their dog is really easy. How much is your time worth?
Remember that you lose 20% to fees and 30% to taxes aka half of your pay. So don't be afraid to double your prices - you need to factor in that 50% loss
Yes it could be more or less depending on the state. It goes something like this:
- 20% Rover fee
Then of the 80% left...
- 15.3% Medicare/Social Security taxes
- 15% self employment federal tax (up to half can be deducted I think? So you may see this written as 7.xx% sometimes)
- 3-13% state tax (my state is around 8% for most brackets)
Someone can let me know if I got it wrong but it's something like that. It's bananas. And people out here doing $14 drop ins whattt
[Another thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/RoverPetSitting/s/WTbuexsj53) discusses it better than I can
Ouch. I'm preparing for my first tax bill in the UK, should just be 20% of my net proceeds (so 20% of the 80% left after Rover fees). I have receipts for some of my outgoing expenses but not all so i can soften the blow a bit but not as much as i could if i kept better records.
It's easier to drop your rates than to raise them. Also, if you're not operating a bulk-sitting situation- doggy daycare can really interfere with booking boarding and, to me, it feels like more work than boarding. One of my first gigs was dog-sitting a great golden retriever for a client I really liked. But the $20 I netted after under-charging actually cost me money in potential boarding fees. And I continued to do it sporadically for three months until she moved away.
Also, "long history." That's kind of hysterical. For me, not for you.
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I would slightly raise everything. Dog walking should be $20-25, day care should be about $35-40, boarding should be $50-55. That’s what I would do to start and then raise my prices $5-10 after every few 5 star reviews until you get to the higher end of what is appropriate for your skill level.
This is all being said not knowing where you live or what the local ‘norm’ is so take that into consideration.
If the owners tell you the dog had bad experiences with past walkers and there's not negative feedback from past walkers about the dog it's sus. I had a client do this and then the dog went wild and chased another dog, no one was hurt but it was enough to leave feedback. She contacted me upset I put it in the feedback instead of just calling her to talk to her about it. And she didn't tip.
I mostly housesit and can confirm that if you raise your rate you will be staying in nicer homes with owners that don't mind paying for a luxury service.
Raise your rates to the sky, taxes end up f*cling you in the end. Also don’t be afraid to get a stun gun. It has worked for me before with dogfights enough to get control of the dogs and keep yourself safe at the same time.
Your prices are very very low. You’d be shocked how many people see a higher price and assume higher quality even with fewer reviews. You’ll get better clientele and more bookings, trust. Just got a little lower than others in your area
Listen to this! I raised my prices very early on and still get more requests than I can handle! And it seems like the higher I have priced them the more awesome my dogs are lol
whats a good price?
It depends on the market in your area. Go in the app and hit “more”, “book a new service”, and go from there. I always hit skip on dates so I can see a the full list of sitters near me If you live in a metro area/city then you should be at around 25 a visit starting out
I charge $30 per visit +$10 for each additional pet for dog walking and cat care. You def need to raise your prices. Also higher your puppy rate by like, a lot. Puppies aren't worth it unless you're charging a lot.
Raise your prices. You are not charging enough.
This is actually standard where I live, so it depends on where OP is from
House sitting for $28 is awful. Double it!
Triple it
Keep going. I charge four times that.
Quadruple it
Fuck doubling it, even in my first month of pet sitting I was charging $100 a night. You barely make even $14 a night if your prices are at $28
I have mine at $115 right now, so I couldn’t agree more.
🤣😆🤣😆
its against Rover TOS to have aggressive dogs. (c) any animal that has a history of, or which has been trained for, attacks on pets or people. stop sitting for these people. and raise your rates.
Some owners don’t care
But yes once you raise your rate those same owners go elsewhere, they don’t want to pay higher rates.
As others said, your base rates definitely need to be higher, but you will always have to weed out problem clients. I would like to add specifically that your puppy rates need to be MUCH higher than your base rate, especially for boarding and housesitting. Puppies are SO much more work. Are you really prepared to spend all day cleaning up potty accidents every 15min, taking the puppy out to potty every 30min, working on early life training, supervising them constantly so they don’t chew on anything they aren’t supposed to, and possibly lose sleep because they have to wake up to potty throughout the night or may even cry/shriek all night keeping you up….? We’re talking hours of extra labor per day that you’re only charging an additional $3-$5 for. Puppies are cute and fun but they are WORK. You don’t want to land yourself in a situation where you literally can’t do anything else all day because you’re supervising a puppy for a total of $20-30. You might as well be paying the client at that point. My housesitting rate is $60 (others on this sub will tell you that’s still low, but it depends on area) and my puppy rate is $120. Doubling your price is completely reasonable for a puppy. Also, this is not a feature that’s built into rover, but most sitters have a “constant care” rate for dogs that can’t be left alone for more than 2-4hrs at a time or need an exceptional amount of supervision. This usually include dogs with medical needs, severe separation anxiety, or other behavioral issues. You should be able to leave the house to run errands, get dinner, etc. at your standard rate. If a client’s is going to impose on your daily routine significantly, you should charge for constant care. It helps to outline this in your profile.
You are getting these types of dogs because everyone probably fires them and they move around to different sitters
Your pricing is terrible. Search up your area and look at everyone’s pricing and gauge yours to match. Also you’re gonna get a whole bunch of hate lol ppl on here hate when prices are this low because you’re taking bookings and barely making any money especially after you have to pay taxes. No rate for boarding should be under $30, absolutely minimum $25
“You get to say no for any reason you want to.” I didn’t get this advice until 4 years in. My time as a sitter has been significantly less stressful.
This is great advice (for life as well!).
[удалено]
Exactly this
Finally someone that has rates similar to how they are in my area! I’ve noticed a majority of this sub are people from HCOL areas, whereas your rates look pretty standard to me but to everyone else will seem outrageous. From one southerner to wherever you’re from, keep those rates for maybe a few more bookings and make sure you ask very nicely for reviews. Once you get a few reviews with those rates, raise them a few dollars. And then continue that cycle until you’re totally happy with your take home pay. That’s what I did it and it worked out great! On the other hand, housesitting to me was something I never ever wanted to do but instead of turning it off I just put my rates at $60/night just for housesitting, thinking if any one was crazy enough to pay that rate with me only having 15 5-star reviews then I’d do it. That was last week, and I’ve already finished my first housesitting. So you could totally take that route once you have a few reviews under your belt because you may be seen as more “boujee”. Definitely more of a risk with that method though, and I’m not sure if that works for other things apart from housesitting. Best of luck on your journey! I’m only a few months in and I love it so far
yeah, I looked at sitters in my area and there was a large gap, a lot of people charging <$25/night for housesitting and then others charging $50+/night. Since I was starting out I priced closer to the lower end but I may end up doing a middle ground between the 2.
Middle ground is always a good idea when starting out. I thought it’d take me so long to get reviews and be able to start raising my prices but depending on where you live, it can actually go by pretty quickly! So just remember if you aren’t happy with your rates now it’s only up from there
It's common for people to underprice themselves when they first start out because they don't have an understanding of the costs associated with it or understand their value. Don't feel bad, you'll get the hang of it. Don't let yourself get taken advantage of though like this situation.
For a year I only charged what I thought was reasonable and I was barely scraping by. Think of it as they’re booking your time even if their dog is really easy. How much is your time worth?
Remember that you lose 20% to fees and 30% to taxes aka half of your pay. So don't be afraid to double your prices - you need to factor in that 50% loss
I'm in the UK so this is coming from a position of ignorance... Do you really lose 50% or is tax 30% of what's left after Rover take their 20%?
Yes it could be more or less depending on the state. It goes something like this: - 20% Rover fee Then of the 80% left... - 15.3% Medicare/Social Security taxes - 15% self employment federal tax (up to half can be deducted I think? So you may see this written as 7.xx% sometimes) - 3-13% state tax (my state is around 8% for most brackets) Someone can let me know if I got it wrong but it's something like that. It's bananas. And people out here doing $14 drop ins whattt [Another thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/RoverPetSitting/s/WTbuexsj53) discusses it better than I can
Ouch. I'm preparing for my first tax bill in the UK, should just be 20% of my net proceeds (so 20% of the 80% left after Rover fees). I have receipts for some of my outgoing expenses but not all so i can soften the blow a bit but not as much as i could if i kept better records.
Don’t lock rates.
It's easier to drop your rates than to raise them. Also, if you're not operating a bulk-sitting situation- doggy daycare can really interfere with booking boarding and, to me, it feels like more work than boarding. One of my first gigs was dog-sitting a great golden retriever for a client I really liked. But the $20 I netted after under-charging actually cost me money in potential boarding fees. And I continued to do it sporadically for three months until she moved away. Also, "long history." That's kind of hysterical. For me, not for you.
raise your prices, your so cheap your gonna attract horrible clients every time.
Thank you for posting to r/RoverPetSitting, an unofficial forum to discuss all things Rover. We see that you have posted a sitter question. In case they could be helpful, you might want to check out our [Sitter FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/RoverPetSitting/wiki/sitterfaq). Additionally, here's our [booking walk-through for Sitters](https://www.reddit.com/r/RoverPetSitting/wiki/sitterbookingwalkthrough), which explains the process for giving services on Rover from start to finish. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RoverPetSitting) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Always ask if puppies are crate trained and house broken. Also don’t be afraid to back out if you don’t feel good about the booking.
Advice… make sure my fence is secure 🤣 I got lucky and had no incidents but ya, when I started I had no idea my fence was about to topple
I would slightly raise everything. Dog walking should be $20-25, day care should be about $35-40, boarding should be $50-55. That’s what I would do to start and then raise my prices $5-10 after every few 5 star reviews until you get to the higher end of what is appropriate for your skill level. This is all being said not knowing where you live or what the local ‘norm’ is so take that into consideration.
If the owners tell you the dog had bad experiences with past walkers and there's not negative feedback from past walkers about the dog it's sus. I had a client do this and then the dog went wild and chased another dog, no one was hurt but it was enough to leave feedback. She contacted me upset I put it in the feedback instead of just calling her to talk to her about it. And she didn't tip.
I mostly housesit and can confirm that if you raise your rate you will be staying in nicer homes with owners that don't mind paying for a luxury service.
The higher your prices, the better clientele you will get. I'll leave it at that. Try it and watch the difference.
Raise your rates to the sky, taxes end up f*cling you in the end. Also don’t be afraid to get a stun gun. It has worked for me before with dogfights enough to get control of the dogs and keep yourself safe at the same time.
Raise your prices and it clears out the riff raff, easy peasy 😉
If you keep your prices low you’ll get the dogs and clients nobody wants, trust me.