How Does Rover Work? A Step by Step Guide for First Timers

Rover is a marketplace, not a staffing agency: it connects pet owners directly with independent sitters and dog walkers in their area, and every part of the transaction, from the first message to the final payment, happens inside the Rover website or app. If you have never used it before, the process can feel like a lot of steps for something as simple as a dog walk. The bottom line: create a profile, search and filter for a provider, read their reviews, message them and usually meet in person first, then request to book and pay through the app so your payment is protected until the service is complete.

Creating an account and setting up your pet's profile

Signing up starts with a free owner account, either through the Rover website or the mobile app, using an email address, Google account, or Facebook login. Once the account exists, you build out a pet profile for each dog or cat: breed, age, size, temperament, medications, feeding schedule, and any behavior notes a sitter would need to know, such as reactivity to other dogs, a habit of jumping the fence, or a strict crate routine at night. This profile is what gets shared with a sitter once you start a conversation, so the more complete it is, the fewer surprises come up at the meet and greet. Rover's own walkthrough of the platform describes this profile step as the foundation the rest of the booking flow is built on, since providers use it to decide whether they are a realistic fit before a conversation even starts. Owners are not charged anything to create an account, build a pet profile, search listings, or message providers. You are only charged once you formally request to book a specific service, and even then the charge does not happen until a provider accepts.

Searching for a sitter or walker and using the filters

Rover organizes providers by service type: dog boarding (overnight in the sitter's home), house sitting (the sitter stays at your home instead), drop in visits, dog walking, and doggy day care, plus a smaller cat sitting category. You enter your zip code and the dates you need coverage, and a results list of nearby providers appears with their base rate, star rating, and number of completed stays on the platform. From there you can filter further by price range, availability on your exact dates, whether the provider has a fenced yard, whether they accept multiple pets or specific breeds, whether they live with other dogs or cats, and whether they offer extras like medication administration or overnight crate care. Filtering hard on the details that actually matter for your pet, rather than sorting by price alone, is the fastest way to shrink a long results list down to a handful of realistic matches. A cheap listing that cannot accommodate your dog's reactivity or your cat's insulin schedule is not actually cheap once you count the mismatch. See our full breakdown of what Rover actually costs for how these base rates translate into a real total once service fees and add ons are included.

Reading provider profiles and reviews

Each listing includes a written bio, photos of the provider's home or walking routes, their experience level, their home environment (yard, other pets, kids in the house), and a full history of written reviews left by previous owners. Reviews on Rover are tied to completed, paid bookings, which makes them harder to fake than an open ended review site with no purchase requirement, though no review system anywhere is completely immune to manipulation. Look past the star average for repeat clients, specifics about communication and punctuality, and how the provider handled anything that went wrong, not just a wall of five star praise. This is also where you would notice whether a provider has completed Rover's optional background check, since screening is opt in for providers and not universal across every listing. For a deeper look at vetting a provider beyond what the profile page shows you, including exactly what a background check does and does not catch, see is Rover safe and our general guide to how to find a trustworthy dog sitter, which applies just as well inside an app as it does off one.

Messaging and scheduling a meet and greet

Once you find a provider you like, you send a message through Rover's in app messaging system describing your pet, your dates, and what you need from the visit. Providers typically respond within a day, and the conversation is where you sort out logistics like key exchange, feeding instructions, and house rules before anything is formalized. Most owners, and most experienced sitters, treat an in person meet and greet as a standard, expected step before a first booking, especially for overnight boarding or house sitting where a stranger will be in your home unsupervised. This is a short, no obligation visit where the sitter meets your pet, you walk through feeding and routine, and both sides confirm it is a good fit before any money changes hands. The American Kennel Club specifically recommends an in home consultation before hiring any pet sitter or dog walker, and frames a provider's unwillingness to meet beforehand as a genuine red flag rather than a minor inconvenience. Rover does not technically require a meet and greet for every service type, and plenty of quick, one off dog walk bookings skip it, but skipping it for a multi day overnight stay is a real risk that is easy to avoid for the cost of thirty minutes.

Requesting to book

When you are ready, you open the conversation thread with your chosen provider and select Request to Book. This step requires you to confirm the exact dates, the number of pets, any add on services like a second daily walk or medication administration, and your payment method, then submit the request. The provider has to actively accept it before the booking is confirmed; a pending request is not a guaranteed reservation, so it is worth requesting with enough lead time that you have a backup plan if the first choice declines or does not respond. Nothing is charged to your card at the moment you submit the request, which is one of the details first time users most often get wrong. See the table below for the full sequence from account creation through the eventual payment release, which lays out who is responsible for each step and when money actually moves.

Step | What happens | Who acts
1. Create account and pet profile | Free, no charge, sets up your dog or cat's needs | Owner
2. Search and filter | Browse providers by service type, dates, price, and pet needs | Owner
3. Message and review profiles | Read reviews, ask questions, confirm experience | Owner and provider
4. Meet and greet | In person introduction, usually free, before a first booking | Owner and provider
5. Request to book | Owner confirms dates and enters payment, no charge yet | Owner
6. Provider accepts | Booking is confirmed, card is charged, funds held by Rover | Provider
7. Service happens | GPS tracked walks, photo updates, and Rover Cards sent during the stay | Provider
8. Payment released | Rover releases payment to the provider about two days after service ends | Rover

How payment and payment protection work

Your card is charged only once the provider accepts your request, and Rover holds that payment rather than sending it straight to the sitter the moment the booking is confirmed. According to Rover's own payment help documentation, funds are typically released to the provider about two days after the service is completed, which gives you a short window to flag a real problem, such as a no show or a pet returned in visibly worse shape, before the money moves. Paying inside the app, instead of handing a sitter cash or a personal Venmo transfer, is also what activates Rover's platform protections in the first place. Every booking that is requested and paid through Rover, rather than arranged and paid outside it, is covered by what Rover calls the Rover Guarantee. Never agree to pay a provider directly outside the app to save on service fees; doing so forfeits this protection entirely and leaves you with no recourse if something goes wrong.

The Rover Guarantee and protection basics

The Rover Guarantee is a reimbursement commitment built into every paid booking, and according to Rover's own guarantee terms it can cover eligible veterinary costs and certain property damage tied directly to the care that was booked and paid for through the platform, alongside ongoing customer support. Rover is explicit in its terms that the Guarantee is not an insurance policy and is not sold as an offer to insure, which matters because it means coverage is a company commitment with its own conditions, documentation requirements, and exclusions rather than a regulated insurance contract with guaranteed claim rights. In practice that means you should keep records, photos, and timestamps if anything goes wrong during a stay, and read the current guarantee terms before assuming a specific incident is automatically covered. It is a meaningful layer of protection compared to an informal cash arrangement with a stranger, but it is not a blank check, and treating it as one is the most common mistake first time users make. For the fuller safety picture, including how background checks work and where they fall short, see is Rover safe.

GPS tracked walks and Rover Cards

During a booked dog walk, the provider's app records a GPS route of the walk, which the owner can typically see either live as it happens or as a completed map afterward. When the walk or visit ends, the provider sends what Rover calls a Rover Card, a short report that includes the walk route, duration, potty breaks, and usually a photo or two of your dog out and about. For boarding and house sitting, providers commonly send similar daily photo updates through the in app messaging thread rather than a single end of stay report, since a multi day stay does not fit neatly into one card. None of this is a substitute for a home security camera or an actual relationship with your provider built over repeat bookings, but it does give you a timestamped paper trail for each visit, which matters if you ever need to reference the Rover Guarantee or simply confirm a walk happened when it was supposed to.

Tipping your sitter or walker

Tipping is optional on Rover and is not built into the base price you agree to at booking, so it never silently inflates your total without your knowledge. If you want to tip, you can add it through the app after the service is marked complete, and the full amount goes to the provider rather than being split with the platform. There is no single expected percentage the way there might be for a restaurant, and plenty of owners do not tip at all for routine, one off walks while others tip generously for excellent overnight or holiday care where the provider went out of their way. Treat it as a discretionary thank you for good service rather than a mandatory fee, and if you are unsure what is typical, our dedicated tipping guide breaks down real ranges by service type.

Canceling or changing a booking

If you need to cancel, the refund amount depends heavily on timing. According to Rover's cancellation and refund help article, canceling before the booking start date generally gets you a full refund. Cancel later than the platform's cutoff, typically around noon the day before the service begins, and you may only get a partial refund for the first several days of a longer booking, with any remaining unused days refunded in full. If a provider cancels on you instead, Rover states that owners receive a full refund and, if the cancellation happens within a week of the start date, an additional credit to help cover the cost of rebooking with someone else on short notice. Refunds are generally returned to your original payment method within a few business days of the cancellation. Because these terms can shift over time, always check the specific policy shown on your own booking confirmation before you count on a particular refund outcome. If you would rather compare Rover's pay per booking marketplace model against a subscription based house sitting exchange instead, see Rover vs TrustedHousesitters, and read our complete Rover review for the full pros and cons beyond just the mechanics covered here.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to meet the sitter before booking on Rover?

Rover does not force a meet and greet for every booking, but it is standard practice and strongly recommended, especially for overnight boarding or house sitting where a stranger will be alone with your pet and in your home.

When does Rover charge my card?

You are not charged when you send a request to book. Your card is charged only after the provider accepts the request, and Rover holds those funds until roughly two days after the service is completed.

What does the Rover Guarantee actually cover?

It is a reimbursement commitment, not an insurance policy, that can cover eligible vet bills and property damage tied to a booking paid through the app. Coverage has its own limits and exclusions, so review the current terms on Rover's site before relying on it.

Can I track my dog's walk in real time?

Yes. Walks booked through Rover include GPS tracking, and the provider sends a Rover Card afterward with the route, duration, and usually a photo from the walk.

What happens if my sitter cancels last minute?

You get a full refund, and if the cancellation happens within seven days of the start date, Rover adds a credit toward rebooking with another provider.