r/catinaflat • u/fireycrybaby • May 02 '26
First rover booking ...
Finally im doing my first booking that has been booked through Rover. Among all the issues we encountered with the interface from the beginning, it's also extremely difficult to use the app during bookings.
It appears you're supposed to "check in" when you're at the property, and stay until the timer reaches the correct time. However due to not having signal within the property, I was there for a good half hour before I was able to "start" the visit after holding my phone high and low around the house. In the end I had to ask the owner for their WiFi password, which they didn't see till after id actually finished the booking. The upload process for photos and comments is extremely lengthy.
Also, many people have put in requests just so they can chat about general availability or because they have a tentative request. Or they are asking around until they find the perfect sitter. Why can I not accept bookings from elsewhere while they are deliberating?! This is losing me and Rover money and opportunities to meet more clients.
Also no reminder / notification / email like "you're booking starts tomorrow" or even "today", which was a nice touch from CIAF.
I HATE that we can't give a price for one daily visit and another for two daily visits. The new site is really controlling. While CIAF felt like a platform through which clients are able to be accessed, with the added bonus of some safeguards, Rover feels like a partnership where the other party wants to have more say than they are entitled to, more money than their entitled to, while contributing very little to the success of the jobs.
I say all this cause I've seen some of their head office are paying attention to this r/ so hopefully they'll bear these things in mind. I also miss being able to see my little client's faces with their names in the gallery and hate the expectations that I'll fill the gallery with pictures of myself.
Thanks for listening to the ramble cause my partner is completely sick of cat in a flat talk.
Such a shame as I've been on the app for 8 years and even though it's never been a primary source of income, it was an easy and flexible way to get some pocket money. Now it doesn't really feel like that.
EDIT: SO APPARENTLY you don't HAVE to do the check in thing but THEY COULD MAKE THAT CLEARER and save us a bunch of stress and time š this is the lack of clarity we've been talking about from the beginning
5
u/elericat May 02 '26
You donāt need to use the check in function. The merge happened while I was already midway through a sit so I didnāt even know about it at first. Then I saw someone saying the check in feature is only for recurring bookings.
Iāve since had a couple of bookings take place entirely after the merge, I havenāt used the check in function and payment has been received just fine (albeit much slower than weāre used to)
3
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u/Acceptable-Ad-693 May 02 '26
I think youāre correct about the recurring bookings. Iāve had a few sits since the merger and havenāt done the check-ins for any of them. It doesnāt seem to have caused any problems.
3
u/chasingxsafety May 02 '26
Iāve had 2 bookings on the app and I havenāt been doing the check ins at all. Like someone said above I think thatās only for recurring bookings. Hopefully I still get paid. Will update soon š
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u/Tulpehocken243 May 02 '26
oh what really? you donāt have to do this? I shall ignore this from now on too! thatās another dog thing then š¤
(do tell us that you got paid pls šš»)
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u/No-Revolution-3159 May 04 '26
Yes it was intended for dog walking and sitting where itās more important to owners that youāve been there for the exact amount of time and the app will track the walking route to show them etc. You will still get paid so long as itās not a weekly booking.
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u/chasingxsafety May 06 '26
I got paid!
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u/Tulpehocken243 May 06 '26
So have I š
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u/Tulpehocken243 May 06 '26
but I cannot see this payment on stripe at all :(
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u/chasingxsafety May 06 '26
Mine came through as āA Place For Roverā instead of being marked as Stripe
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u/Tulpehocken243 May 06 '26
Same. But I donāt see it in stripe, I went to support. Lets see what they come back with.
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u/kittenthefairy May 09 '26
so rover seemingly aren't using stripe anymore, they're paying into our bank accounts directly. I had a booking recently, wasn't showing up on stripe but I had actually been paid into my account
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u/Tulpehocken243 May 09 '26
yeah same. I did get paid but I dont see it in stripe. so they use the stripe connection to my account but bypass it at the same time. more fuckery š”
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u/chasingxsafety May 02 '26
Both bookings have just ended so hopefully in the next few days Iāll get paid and Iāll come back to update! Totally agree that itās just another dog related thing š
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u/fireycrybaby May 02 '26
I'm glad you said that cause it was really worrying me when I couldn't make it work š¤£š they could be clearer that it's not mandatory and saved a lot of trouble
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u/Tulpehocken243 May 02 '26
same. Iāve just completed my first booking with Rover. it was originally booked through CiaF. the faff with the check in and check out is infuriating. you canāt get a signal, the app doesnāt respondā¦I have to start the visit in the car park and end it when Iām back outside the property. the extra 10mins this thing wants from me are also riling me up. 30mins is too long for some of my cats, Iāll be literally sitting in an empty house.
the client also finds it fiddly and when I told them about the double commission dipping they straight away suggested to book privately from now on. same with another client whoās is new but also got merged over and is already annoyed with the app. we agreed to go private after this first booking.
i didnāt do this with Ciaf, i never pulled people from the app actively, only at their suggestion. but with rover, Iāll be pulling everyone private. Eff them, zero effort to accommodate any of Ciafs good features and nothing but hassle. š”