How to Get Your First Rover Pet-Sitting Bookings With Zero Reviews (2026)
Pet sitting is one of the fastest-growing side hustles right now, but almost nobody warns you about the actual bottleneck: a zero-review profile looks invisible next to an established sitter down the street. Rover keeps 20% of every booking as its standard service fee, so you keep 80% of the listed price before tips, according to Rover’s own commission structure. Getting past that first stretch takes a specific approach — pricing, timing, and follow-up — not just a good profile photo. Here’s what actually gets a brand-new sitter their first paying bookings.
What’s Ahead
- Why Are the First 10 Reviews the Hardest Part?
- What Do You Actually Need Before You Can Accept a Booking?
- How Should You Price Your First Few Bookings?
- What Do Rover Services Actually Pay, Before and After Fees?
- How Do You Land That First Booking With No Reviews?
Why Are the First 10 Reviews the Hardest Part?
No pet owner wants to hand over their dog to a sitter with zero history when there’s a sitter two profiles down with 80 five-star reviews. That’s the whole problem in one sentence.
When I compared how new-sitter advice threads and established sitter guides frame this, the number that kept coming up was the same: roughly the first 10 to 20 completed bookings are the grind phase, where you’re competing on price and availability instead of reputation.
It gets easier after that. Once a profile has a stack of reviews, search placement and client trust both compound — but nothing compounds until you get the first booking, which is why the early strategy has to look different from how an established sitter operates.
Most people skip the planning part and just make a profile. That’s usually where the stall happens.
What Do You Actually Need Before You Can Accept a Booking?
You create a profile, choose which services you’ll offer — drop-in visits, dog walking, house sitting, or boarding — and pass a background check before Rover approves you to accept bookings.
Pick fewer services to start, not more. A new sitter who lists drop-ins and short walks only can build a fast, reliable review base before adding overnight boarding, which carries more responsibility and more risk if something goes wrong on booking one.
Fill in every part of the profile: a real photo of you, a specific description of your experience (even if that experience is your own pets, say so directly), and your exact availability. A half-filled profile reads as less trustworthy than a specific one, even before a single review exists.
How Should You Price Your First Few Bookings?
Underpricing feels like the obvious move, and it works, but only within a range. When I checked how new-sitter guidance frames this, the common advice was to price a dollar or two below the local average, not to undercut it dramatically — a $10 walk next to $30 walks reads as suspicious, not appealing.
Find the local average yourself: search your service and city on Rover, open the first 15 to 20 profiles near you, and average their listed rate. Price just under that, not far under it.
Raise your rate once you clear roughly your first 10 to 15 bookings and have real reviews to back the price. Sitters who stay underpriced too long train their own client base to expect the discount rate permanently.
What Do Rover Services Actually Pay, Before and After Fees?
Here’s roughly what each service type earns per booking, and what actually lands in your account after Rover’s 20% service fee.
| Service | Typical Listed Rate | You Keep (After 20% Fee) |
|---|---|---|
| Drop-in visit | $15–$25 | $12–$20 |
| Dog walking | $20–$35 | $16–$28 |
| Overnight house sitting | $50–$100 | $40–$80 |
| Boarding (per night) | $40–$80 | $32–$64 |
Tips aren’t touched by that fee — you keep 100% of anything a client adds on top, which matters more than it sounds like once you have repeat clients.
How Do You Land That First Booking With No Reviews?
Confirm your availability daily in the Rover calendar. Sitters who do this move up in search results, and search position is most of what a zero-review profile has going for it.
Say yes to awkward timing before you say yes to premium pricing. A same-day drop-in or an odd holiday-week booking is exactly the kind of job an established sitter with a full calendar turns down — and it’s your fastest way to a first review.
Respond to inquiries within the hour if you can. Pet owners messaging multiple sitters at once tend to book whoever answers first, reviews or not.
Ask for the review directly after the booking ends, with a short, specific message — a generic ‘thanks, hope you enjoyed it!’ gets far fewer responses than ‘if you have a minute, a quick review really helps new sitters like me get started.’
Remember that this income is still taxable self-employment income even before you get a 1099 — the IRS gig economy tax center confirms gig earnings need to be reported regardless of the form count, and our guide to side hustle taxes walks through exactly what to set aside.
What Should You Watch Out For Before You Say Yes?
Don’t accept a boarding or overnight booking as your very first job. If something goes wrong overnight with no track record behind you, it’s a much harder situation to manage than a 20-minute drop-in gone slightly wrong.
Read the pet’s profile and any special instructions twice before confirming — a booking that goes badly because you missed a medication note costs you far more in reputation than a slow start ever would.
Don’t let your price sit below market for months after the reviews arrive. Sitters who treat the early discount as permanent make it much harder to raise rates later without losing the clients they built.
Checklist for Your First Rover Booking
- ✅ Complete every profile field before applying — photo, experience, exact availability
- ✅ Start with drop-ins or short walks, not boarding
- ✅ Price a dollar or two under the local average, not far under it
- ✅ Confirm availability daily and respond to inquiries within the hour
- ✅ Ask directly for a review after every completed booking
FAQ
How long does it usually take a new Rover sitter to get their first booking?
It varies heavily by city, but sitters who confirm availability daily, price near the low end of the local range, and accept flexible or last-minute jobs tend to land a first booking within the first couple of weeks, while an inactive or overpriced profile can sit untouched for months.
Does Rover take a cut of tips as well as the booking price?
No. Rover’s 20% service fee applies to the listed booking price, not to tips — any tip a client adds goes to the sitter in full.
Should a brand-new sitter offer overnight boarding right away?
It’s usually better not to. Boarding carries more responsibility and more ways for a first booking to go wrong, so building a review base with drop-ins or walks first, then adding boarding once you have a track record, is the lower-risk path.
Sources
- Rover Help Center — How Do I Become a Pet Sitter or Dog Walker on Rover?
- The Rover Blog — Reminder to Review Your Pricing on Rover
- IRS — Gig Economy Tax Center
