rover.com
Rover.com is a large online marketplace that helps pet owners find local people for pet sitting, boarding, dog walking, day care, drop-in visits, and other pet care.
What is Rover.com and what does it actually do?
Rover connects pet owners with independent pet care providers instead of sending employees from one central pet care company.
A pet owner enters a location, chooses a service, adds dates, and then compares nearby sitters using profiles, prices, experience, availability, ratings, and reviews on Rover.com.
The main services in the United States include boarding in a sitter’s home, house sitting in the owner’s home, doggy day care, dog walking, drop-in visits, and dog training.
This makes Rover closer to Airbnb or another two-sided marketplace than to a normal kennel.
The website handles discovery, messaging, booking, payment, reviews, and parts of the safety process while the sitter provides the actual care.
Why has Rover.com become so large?
Pet care is a local problem, so a marketplace becomes more useful as more sitters and owners join it.
Rover says its wider group now operates across 18 countries, has cared for more than 12 million pets, and has generated more than 41 million five-star bookings across its marketplaces, according to its current company overview.
Its network also goes beyond the main Rover brand.
The Rover Group now includes Rover, cat-focused Cat in a Flat, and Australian platform Mad Paws.
Rover also acquired U.S. cat-sitting marketplace Meowtel in January 2026, giving the company another way to serve owners who want care designed specifically for cats.
The important business insight is that Rover is slowly becoming a group of specialized pet marketplaces rather than only a dog-walking website.
How does Rover try to make pet owners feel safe?
Trust is the hardest part of this business because customers may give a stranger access to their pet, home, or both.
Rover says new U.S. sitters and dog walkers go through an enhanced third-party criminal background check, while profiles are also reviewed before providers join the marketplace.
Owners can examine verified reviews, communicate inside the platform, receive photos or videos, and arrange a Meet & Greet before making a booking.
Rover itself recommends meeting possible sitters before booking because a successful match depends on the pet, the owner, and the individual sitter.
Dog walks booked through the platform can also include GPS tracking and activity information such as food, water, and bathroom updates through the app.
These tools reduce risk, but they do not make every sitter equal, so the quality of the individual provider still matters greatly.
What is the Rover Guarantee really for?
Bookings made through Rover may qualify for the Rover Guarantee, which can reimburse certain costs when something goes wrong during an eligible booking.
Coverage can include some veterinary expenses, certain property damage, and some third-party injury costs, subject to detailed rules, limits, and exclusions.
The Guarantee should not be treated as normal pet insurance because many situations are excluded.
For example, Rover says coverage does not generally include preventive treatment, chronic or pre-existing conditions, injuries outside confirmed booking dates, or bookings arranged outside Rover.
Keeping the booking and payment inside the platform is therefore important if an owner wants access to Rover's protection and support systems.
How does Rover.com make money?
Rover mainly earns money by charging fees around each completed transaction.
In the United States, Rover currently says pet owners generally pay an 11% booking fee calculated at checkout.
Pet care providers normally pay Rover a 20% service fee, meaning they keep about 80% of the listed earnings, although Rover notes that some U.S. providers may be included in tests with different fee structures.
This model gives Rover a strong reason to increase both the number of providers and the number of repeat bookings.
It also creates an important pricing detail for customers because the sitter's advertised rate is not always the final amount paid at checkout.
Is Rover.com good for pet sitters?
Rover can remove much of the work needed to start a small pet care business because it supplies customers, payment processing, profiles, reviews, scheduling tools, and platform support.
Sitters can normally choose their own prices, services, and availability rather than working fixed employee shifts.
The trade-off is the platform fee and dependence on Rover's search system, rules, reputation tools, and customer marketplace.
Strong sitters can build many reviews and repeat customers, which makes their Rover profile valuable, but that also means new providers often need patience while building trust.
What should pet owners check before booking?
The smartest way to use Rover is to treat its search results as a shortlist rather than an automatic recommendation.
Owners should read recent reviews, look at the sitter's experience with similar pets, check the home setup when boarding is involved, discuss medication or behavior needs, understand the cancellation policy, and arrange a Meet & Greet whenever possible.
Price matters, but fit matters more because two sitters charging the same amount may offer very different homes, routines, experience, and attention.
Rover's biggest value is therefore not simply finding the cheapest person nearby.
Its real value is giving pet owners one structured place to compare local care providers, build trust, communicate, pay, and keep important protections connected to the booking.