Why are Rover sitters declining my booking requests?

Usually for one of three reasons: they are either not available, your profile doesn’t match their specifications, or they just don’t like your communication style/you.

Not available is an easy reason that they will likely tell you regardless of the actual reason. Anytime I see a client that is not a good fit I generally will just tell them I’m not available those days. If you’re a recurring client and they say they’re not available, they are probably telling the truth. You should avoid trying to book with dog sitters who don’t update their calendar that you have not previously worked with. Also, if they are lower volume dog sitters (i.e. only accepting one dog at a time) they are can be great in a pinch but their availability is not consistent enough since they usually have a lot more than dog sitting going on and one dog at a time keeps them fully booked.

Your profile may not match their specifications. For whatever reason, and I haven’t seen a conclusive answer on this, Rover will show you a range of sitters whose preferences do not match your dog’s profile. For example, my dog is intact and that is updated in his profile, but when I select him and enter dates into the search bar I get a plethora of sitters who do not accept intact males. If you were to submit this request to them, it will show on their side that your dog does not meet their preferences. My assumption here is that the specifications are a jumping off point and Rover decided that sitters will often decide to book clients that are not a good match if they have time and availability so they present them anyway in the search results. I don’t know if this is scummy practice or smart but it certainly increases options for dog owners and a lot of the pickier sitters are very aware of the specific challenges that your dog may represent so if they accept you’ll probably get really good care. For example, they may take an intact male on occasion if they have no other dogs for those days.

The sitter may not like you or you may have said something to annoy them. They will never say this because Rover monitors messages and will review your correspondence if they complain. Some of the key things that have annoyed me when clients submit requests is leaving paragraphs of demands on what has to be done for their dog, not responding timely (i.e. waiting multiple hours or even days), and not paying for the booking in advance after being reminded. In my opinion, you should just cut all of these customers if you’re the dog sitter. If you’re the dog owner corresponding in that manner…..well, shame on you. Your initial correspondence should just have the dates you are looking for and a fully updated profile for your pets with all care instructions. Do not send a separate list of instructions or demands in your initial request. The sitters do not work for Rover and will often not respond if it seems like you’re difficult to work with.

I would say in concluding that if you make sure your dog matches the sitter’s real preferences that they have as opposed to just any sitter Rover shows you, communicate promptly and politely (preferable briefly as well), there’s a high chance that they’ll accept the booking. I’ve blocked a ton of client who just seemed rude or difficult based on their initial message. I’ve also blocked recurring clients who started getting too casual about paying in advance or just stopped responding to messages timely. Do what you can to make sure this is a good experience for you and the sitter.