How to Board Your Pets for Cheap

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After months of careful planning and setting money aside, you finally have saved up enough to take that elusive vacation. You’ve booked the flight, hotel, transportation, and gotten the clear to take the days off from work. You’re all set for an incredible getaway, and then it dawns on you that you’ve forgotten something. Who’s going to watch your furry friends while you’re away?!

Unfortunately this is an all too common inconvenience for pet owners. This recently happened to us as well. We have two dogs, so as soon as we booked our last vacation, the first order of business was finding a dog sitter. Months in advance I got confirmation and thought we were all set.

Wrong. 5 days before we were supposed to fly out for vacation, our dog sitter canceled on us. So I frantically began considering other options.

Traditional Boarding

While the most frugal way to handle this problem is to have a family member or friend watch your pets while you’re away, that’s not always an option, as my above situation shows.

Another popular option is to board your pets at Petsmart’s PetsHotel. This can be a viable option if you’re in a pinch. While we almost decided to go the Petsmart route since there is almost always space available and you know your pets will be getting care from experienced professionals, there were two main drawbacks for our situation.

First, the cost was above our budget. For two dogs we were looking at a hefty cost of around $60/night for both dogs, especially considering we were going out of town for a week. Additionally, we were unsure of how much time our dogs would get to be together, how much exercise and playtime they would get, and how much attention they would receive.

Finding a Solution

After some more browsing, I came across Rover.com, which is a partner of Petco (use this link to receive $20 off your first booking). The concept is simple. You download the Rover app, and it’s basically an AirBnb for pets. You put your location in and then dozens of listings pop up with different people offering their rates. The app offers five different services via the app:

• Dog Boarding: your dog will be watched at the sitter’s residence overnight
• House Sitting: your dog will be watched while at your own residence
• Drop-in Visits: a sitter will visit your dog for 30 minutes of playtime
• Doggy Day Care: a sitter will watch your dog during the day
• Dog Walking: a sitter will take your dog on a 30 minute walk

Source: Rover.com

After searching through numerous listings and reading a fair share of reviews, I finally selected a dog sitter. Initially, I was nervous about the whole process. Were we really going to leave our dogs with some stranger we had never met? Despite my hesitations, I contacted the dog sitter and set up a meet and greet for the next day.

The meet and greet left me feeling much more pleased with the whole situation. It let us meet the dog sitter, let us see where our dogs would be staying and how much space they would have to play, and also let the dog sitter meet our dogs. It clearly showed me that the large majority of the dog sitters on Rover are simply dog lovers that are looking to make some additional side income.

Source: Rover.com

Benefits We Found Using Rover

Long story short, my first experience with Rover was an incredibly positive one for a variety of reasons:

1. Familiarity: Our dogs got to stay at someone’s house, which is what they are used to, instead of being kept at the PetsHotel.

2. Space: They got plenty of space for exercise and playtime in the backyard, while getting to interact with other dogs that our Rover dog sitter was watching.

3. Attention: Rather than be in the PetsHotel with countless other pets, they were among a handful of dogs that our Rover sitter and her husband watched for the week. This meant much more attention for them.

4. Cost: Prices on Rover range anywhere from $15 and up, but for most sitters to watch your dog at their own house you’re looking at $25-45 per night. Sometimes this can add up to significant savings over other places that offer dog boarding, especially for multiple dogs and for long periods of time. I negotiated with our Rover sitter and we ended up settling on a $50 per night rate for them to watch both dogs.

5. Communication: Every day throughout my vacation, our Rover sitter sent pictures and videos via text message of our dogs and let us know that they were doing well. This personalized touch was very appreciated on our end and gave us added peace of mind that our dogs were being well taken care of.

6. Consistency: Now that we’ve found a reliable Rover sitter close to where we live, we have a go-to option for boarding our dogs for future vacations.

Overall, using Rover was a very positive experience for us and we now have a dog-sitter that we book each time we go out of town. While I was initially nervous, it worked out incredibly well. Now we have quality pet care for a much more cost effective rate.

Sign up and try it out, use this link to receive $20 off your first booking.

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This post contains some affiliate links, this means that if you sign up for one of the services I may receive a small commission, but the cost is still completely free for you. At Spills Spot, my readers come first, and I pledge to only recommend products and services that I use myself or have researched thoroughly to verify their usefulness.