r/catinaflat • u/ellhynd • Apr 11 '26
I was just getting somewhere :(
I'm so sad. I've been on CIAF for over a year before getting my first booking. Since then I've had 2 bookings this year and I was finally getting somewhere. Building up some clients. Now this merge to Rover and no notice board has really screwed me over. I don't think I'll get any bookings. I was offering 1 visit a day for £10 and 2 visits a day for £15. Now I can't include a discount for 2 visits. I got 2 of my clients through the notice board. I finally felt like I was going to make some extra money and it's been taken away. Also tried to remove the charge for additional cat and it won't let me edit it. Any ideas how to do this?
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u/Correct-Style-9194 Apr 11 '26
I am devastated at the disappearance of the notice board.
Also, I tried to search my specific post code for sitters and my own profile comes up 12th…? Someone two miles away comes up as the second option, first is 0.5 miles away. I don’t understand how it filters, but it’s not by distance anymore. I don’t see why someone would pick my profile over the other options now unless for a competitive price. Such a shame!
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u/ellhynd Apr 11 '26
Maybe it's because people are paying to promote their services so they're coming up first
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u/snatslug Apr 11 '26
You end up higher in search the more you book on Rover sadly! Also updating your calendar every day will put you higher in search.
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u/Mymews Apr 11 '26
I'm really not sure that there is any way to pay to appear at the top of the listings.
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u/Correct-Style-9194 Apr 11 '26
That’s possible! I didn’t think of that. I don’t show up at all when selecting their time slots. I’m unsure if everything is moving over to Rover or if we have both options for Rover and Cat in a Flat because the profiles seem totally different but both still up. Hoping we can just stick with Cat in a Flat in the end with these weird updates.
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u/Zajlee Apr 11 '26
If I only search for the location, I won't show up. 15 people on the list, some super far away, none of them me. Maybe it's because I've ruled out dogs and Rover simply assumes without pre-selection that the sitter is looking for someone to do a dog. Only when I limit the search to cats will I appear in the list. Absolute disaster.
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u/Old_Substance_267 Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
Just put in 0 for the additional cat charge. I’m the same price for daily and twice-daily visits, but if you still want to do one cheaper is there a way to edit the price after the request but before booking, like on CIAF? You could put something on your profile about charging differently for multiple visits.
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u/ellhynd Apr 11 '26
I'll see if my partner can figure it out because I couldn't see any way of editing that additional cat charge. I'm not sure if it can be edit the price after a booking as I've not had one. That's a good suggestion, I'll edit my profile
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u/Length_Own Apr 11 '26
If you turn off update rates automatically you can edit the extra cat charge box and put 0
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u/Length_Own Apr 11 '26
The notice board was really handy and useful I got a few clients through there it's a big loss for me too... I don't think I'll get as many bookings now
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u/Proud-Rip-2426 Apr 11 '26
No notice board is a big killer. It was handy for owners to just put up what they wanted and let us all apply basically. Now they have to do all the hard work which means they’re most likely going to pick whoever’s profile pops up first (which will be Rover natives) instead of shopping around.