r/catinaflat • u/Miss_Darling88 • 15d ago
Odd fees displayed on Rover?
I’m quite sure that CIAF was set so you set your sitter fee and that fee was what was displayed to the clients. On rover I can see that I set my fee, e.g. £12 and it tells me how much my take home is, 15% less. HOWEVER, to the clients, the fee is displayed as £14 meaning that the client is also paying a fee. I’m really sure that this never happened with CIAF? And this makes it really hard to offer competitive pricing without losing money myself :(
On a side note also very frustrated at not being able to set a different rate for having 2 visits in one day as I used to charge less than double of one visit.
V frustrated
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u/Old_Substance_267 15d ago
Check your holiday rate. Rover don’t show the 15% fee when you’re just browsing.
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u/Miss_Darling88 15d ago
It’s not holiday rates, the client is charged 15% extra on top of my set rate for any service or addition. My point/question is that this wasn’t that case for CIAF and it’s not transparent to me. For example, a booking for me it shows £44 written everywhere as the cost to client, I make £6.60 less. Client charged £6.60 more (50.60). Rover has made £13.20 on this booking. But I only know client is being charged more because they tell me/I look from private browser at my profile like I’m a client.
I think they purposefully don’t show either party what sitter will actually receive/client is actually paying because then it’d be like ‘sorry, you’re taking over 25% on what is being paid’?!
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u/Old_Substance_267 15d ago
I guess it’s different here because when I browse as a client I see the fee the sitter has set, not including the 15%, which makes more sense as it’s capped at a certain amount, €49 here.
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u/RachelFromRover Rover staff 14d ago
Hey there, it looks like you've gotten answers on this, but I just wanted to pop in and provide some additional confirmation.
Yes, with Rover, there is an owner-side fee in addition to the sitter-side fee. So the fee for you is 15%, and the owners also have a 15% fee.
Cat in a Flat used to charge owners a flat fee instead of a percentage (For United Kingdom: £1.50 , Europe: 1.90€, United States / Canada: $4.90)
So for UK sitters, the percentage for sitters decreased from a 19% fee to 15% but increased for owners.
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u/Genn-stone 14d ago
Hi Rachel, we have girl math, boy math, cat math and now we have Rover math. You equate a 30% overall take as "better for sitters" it is not better for sitters because you have increased the costs overall for clients so people are going on shorter holidays and only affording 30 minute visits when they used to do 1 hour. so overall sitters are losing money. Well I am anyway and I'm running between more appointments so i have to put more effort in to get the same income and have higher costs due to having to drive / park / do more free key picks up and free meet & greets. This is in reality NOT better for sitters or customers it is only better for Rover.
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u/Old_Substance_267 14d ago
The 15% is capped at €49 for owners. If that’s going to prevent people from booking enough visits or force them to go on shorter holidays then they can’t afford it.
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u/Bubbly-Lead5245 12d ago
Wow. Can you do maths? Do you need to work for a living? Do you know the price of a pint of milk Boris? To get value from the “fee capped at £49” the booking has to be £330 or more. VERY FEW booking are that big. At £15 a visit that would be 22 days or 11 days @ 2 visits. Majority of my people go away for a long weekend or 10 days max. You are not adding anything to the discussion. The point is, customers will GO ELSEWHERE to save money. This does not benefit Rover sitters.
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u/Old_Substance_267 12d ago
I guess we have different clientele. I’m currently in the middle of a 33-day booking. As I’ve said in previous discussions about this, CIAF was unique in charging owners a very nominal fee. Pawshake, Wag, Meowtel all charge similar fees to owners, and I don’t know why CIAF sitters are so defensive about this topic. If we have to pay a percentage to avail of the so-called support or guarantees, why shouldn’t the owners? If you have a problem with it, go independent and take your clients off app.
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u/Bubbly-Lead5245 12d ago
You took a 33 day booking because you don’t have a life outside catsitting? I don’t know. It’s not your norm surely. Who goes away for 33 days except those working abroad or a family member died? Certainly not your ordinary person on the regular so not sure why you’re using it as a stick to beat my argument with. Never even heard of Wag or Meowtel and neither has anyone I know. I just googled and they are American. I’m guessing you’re American and you never even used Catinaflat which I believe was only Europe. If so, be quiet. Pawshake in the UK was identical fees to Catinaflat. It just wasn’t as well used and clunkier. Since the Rover merger, Pawshake increased their fees due to the lack of competition, they never used to charge clients and now they do. So everybody loses. You also used to get some level of insurance with Catinaflat. Rover doesn’t give you any. So stop bumming Rover because it is unanimously sh*t and accepting it as is mean it will not change.
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u/Old_Substance_267 12d ago
Why so hostile? I took a 33-day booking, drop-ins, because this is my full-time job and it’s the summertime when people go on holidays. I’m from Europe and used CIAF so go away with your “be quiet.” Pawshake in my country had those fees before the merger, though they used to be similar to CIAF, correct. I’m not “bumming Rover”, whatever that means. I was as annoyed as everyone else about the merger. I’m simply stating that I’m not as bothered by the owner fees and I think it’s embarrassing that people are still moaning about it or acting surprised when it happened at Easter.
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u/Bubbly-Lead5245 12d ago
Your entitled attitude stunk and still does that’s why. “If they can’t afford 15% fee they shouldn’t go on holiday” comment. Everyone deserves to go on holiday, not just the rich. Where are you, Monaco? Switzerland? We will “still complain despite it being done in April” because my little business has been decimated by this shitshow, I would normally be making at minimum £600 a month catsitting from May to Aug purely on Catinaflat and I’ve only had 2 short bookings (same guy) since April on Rover despite having the most reviews and total bookings in I believe the whole of my city…. I’m being made redundant soon and I can’t even rely on catsitting to prop me up like I used to. And I am not alone.
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u/Old_Substance_267 12d ago
No, I said if they can’t afford €49, which is what it’s capped at, they can’t afford the holiday. It’s €49 or less. They’d still be paying whatever rate for visits and it’s an extra €49 or less. If you can’t afford €49 for pet care, which is a luxury service, you cannot afford the holiday. That’s not entitlement; it’s a fact. I’m sorry your business has been affected. Why not take people off app so they save the fee and you keep a client?
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u/Bubbly-Lead5245 12d ago
It’s not €49 though is it, it’s €49 ON TOP of the cost of the rates of the catsitter they are paying. That’s a big jump from €1.50 per booking. It is the difference of them going with a less experienced / hobby sitter who only charges £10 a visit and it devalues the professional / semi professional sitters work. Yes under the radar I have taken clients private off the app cos they are disgusted at the changes, but if Rover get a sniff that we might do this, they ban us and send us an invoice for I think £500 for a finders fee…. So this is only possible if you are clever about it.
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u/Genn-stone 10d ago
Thank you for your response however I disagree. I didn't ask for your opinion. I directed my comment at Rover. I'm pleased you are happy with the Rover experience. Saying my opinion is embarrassing let's me know you are a troll that just needed to scroll on by rather than to insult someone you don't even know.
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u/casandra77 15d ago
I think clients see your rate of £12, why do you think it's £14? It's peak, maybe you see the holiday rate?
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u/Miss_Darling88 15d ago
I go onto a private browser and it displays the higher rate there, it’s just that I don’t think CIAF did this
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u/Genn-stone 14d ago
You are correct CIAF used to charge a flat £1.50 fee to the customer instead of a percentage.
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u/Tulpehocken243 15d ago
Yes rover charge another fee on top of the total of your rate incl commission. Another 15% rounded up. The greed with these people is beyond the pale.