The merger of Cat in a Flat with Rover has been a very poor experience. It has erased valuable existing reviews and cat profiles, which were essential for building trust and continuity. The new pricing structure is also unreasonable — charging double for two cats, despite the visit still being the same 30 minutes, feels unjustified and exploitative.

On top of that, I am now being shown sitters who are not cat-focused, and many reviews relate primarily to dog sitting, which undermines one of Cat in a Flat’s core strengths: a platform dedicated to cat care.

Please restore what made Cat in a Flat distinct and address these issues urgently. Otherwise, you risk losing a significant number of loyal customers and sitters.

I urge any future reviewers to post this feedback on rover as well given they are the root cause of the issue as previous to the merger, cat in a flat was a wonderful, easy, affordable, respectful app for cat owners to use.

The CIAF app used to be simple, fit for purpose and reliable.

The app has since merged with Rover, and with it, came loss of reviews, profile data and a cat-centric capabilities. The fees are now crazy for owners, and visibility of sitters in my local area is no longer viable - my filter is filled with dog sitters, and the verbiage in the app relates to dog care, I.e. times of the day for visit, 30 minute minimums (half the time you feed a cat and it will go back into the garden! It'd be weird if I sat in someone's house for longer than I need to)

As a sitter, and owner I will be closing my account and booking directly with local sitters

I haven't been paid for a sit I did. I am owed over £300 by this company, them and rover keep passing the buck and reiterating their payment policies.
I have got ACAS involved and will be going through the small claims court if I don't get my money soon. Terrible business sense as it seems others are in the same position and will take the same action which will cost them more.
You can't just not pay people for work they've done. Disgusting.

Came here after trying to book a weekend with our usual sitter and noticed the price had nearly tripled from before. A "service charge" and a charge for both cats individually. From the other recent reviews, it's clear I'm not alone in frustration at the changes. Pure greed and I'm afraid I'm out from any future use. Shame.

Same as others complaining since the merger with Rover things have gone downhill. I have been a sitter on cat in a flat for about a year now and never had any issues. I had two bookings through rover last week and have only been paid for one of them. I can’t tell you which one has paid and which one hasn’t because there is no longer any way to see this. I have been emailing for several days now and I’m not receiving a response. I’m out of pocket as I’ve had to pay for petrol for the week long booking. Bad!!!

Is this Brittney "the support" a chatbot or literally this useless so she can only copy paste template answers? Are you from Rover as well, Brittney? Rover did not merge, it destroyed Cat in the Flat as competition by pure elimination. I also used their services for multiple years, until being forced to join this losers app Rover that erased everything built via Cat In The Flat. The app owner should have been pretty desperate to sell Cat In The Flat to this losers app Rover.

I have used Cat in a Flat to find sitters for my cat for over 3 years and loved it. The app was clear and very easy to use. Since the "merger" with Rover things have gone completely downhill. My current booking and other info was not pulled through, the booking system is now very clunky with a horrible interface. It requires specifying times and the "use same times" function doesnt work if your first and last day requires 1 visit not 2. It doesn't accept the proper format for UK postcodes. I could go on... It seems more like a take over than a merger. A merger would have kept the good features not binned them. From other recent reviews I see that others feel the same. It looks like none of the changes were tested or Rover just doesn't care. A textbook example of how not to treat customers. "Brittney" - I hope you can provide a more meaningful response with the concrete positive action that Rover needs to take to keep its customers, than you have been able to do so far in reply to the other negative reviews. However, I am not hopeful so after this booking I'll be looking for another service.

Edited to add: I've now read some more reviews and am utterly shocked at the apparent incompetence of those managing this take over - from possible animal welfare issues to a complete lack of information to pet owners on the new pricing model. And I see that the treatment of sitters appears to be even worse, truly shocking.

I have been a loyal customer/cat sitter for nearly a decade and have 43 five star reviews. The website was great. However the move to Rover has obliterated that.

Not only was communication pre, during and post migration nearly non existent (we received an email saying there was going to be a switch and that we would receive an email with instructions how to switch and activate our accounts - which we never received)

Most things I’ve had to figure out myself such as reactivating bank details, and etc, automatic increasing of rates, even the character limit on my title has changed.

Not only that but I’ve not been paid for my last 3 jobs that were booked before the merge. These jobs ended 8-14 days ago.

I will be leaving as soon as I get paid. Luckily I have clients who book me privately and I’ll be encouraging the rest of mine to do so if they feel comfortable in doing so.

LOVED the old version. Normal cat in a flat. Great app, great navigation. Now after the merge with rover? Absolute ass. Literally. Will be deleting my profile.

Similar to all other recent reviews, the merger with Rover app has completely destroyed Cat in a Flat.

I'd used CIAF for years as both a cat sitter and cat owner, and found it so incredibly user-friendly. Now it's a complete mess, I cannot figure out how the cat sitting element works, and my regular clients also now hate it. Luckily I am able to contact them all other than via the app, so bye 👋🏻 Rover.

What a shame :(

Completely ruined a 5 year reputation. The merge has left me no choice but to quit using catinaflat / rover. The customers don’t deserve the shambles it has become and I’d rather be out of work than deal with the stress the new platform has induced.

No regard for user experience during cat in a flat takeover. Issues:

- clients had to reconfirm bookings and pay IMMEDIATELY to secure
- increased pricing of existing CIAF bookings 🐽
- sitters not paid until after booking (used to be during) despite payment being taken from owner MONTHS in advance
- fee now taken from owner as well as sitter
- prohibits phone number exchange - concerning in case of emergency where client/sitter have no data, or app issues
- glitchy app - no longer a bookings tabs
- ‘also sits cats’ on profile like cats are an afterthought
- awarded me star sitter status then took it away almost immediately 😂

Greed over regard for cat owners and cat sitters. Moved all my clients off the app to private sits. Rover - you won’t get a penny of my or my cat owners money.

Wird jetzt von Rover betrieben und ist jetzt viel teurer. In meinem Fall doppelt so hoch. Ich werdecdas jetzt nicht mehr nutzen. Schade.

Ich war jahrelang vom Service begeistert.
Aber seit der Übernahme von Rover klappt nichts mehr.
Meine vorherigen Buchungen sind verschwunden, meine ehemaligen Catsitter nicht buchbar.
Beim Versuch zu buchen, hätte ich sofort zahlen müssen trotz einer Buchung für August.
Mehrmaliges Nachfragen werden mit standardisierten Mails angefertigt.
Auch Freunde in England berichteten von den gleichen Erfahrungen.

How to lose customers in one easy go. Like everyone else I was a loyal user of Cat in a Flat but went in after the merge to find a completely different and inferior set up. They even changed the password criteria so my usual one was invalid. Can't find my usual sitter but they offer loads not in my area. Luckily I have other contact with my sitter and will deal with privately.

I used to cat sit through this app but cat sitters have been completely screwed over by the merge with River. No notice board and it shows sitters miles away, because the algorithm favours only the most established sitters instead of locals. The platform has been ruined.

Ik heb ruim 1,5 jaar met plezier oppaswerk gedaan via Catinaflat. De commissie was altijd een aandachtspunt, maar naar mijn mening niet abnormaal hoog en nog in verhouding tot de dienstverlening van het platform.

Helaas slaat de overgang naar Rover wat mij betreft de plank volledig mis. Hoewel er wel een FAQ beschikbaar was, zijn zowel oppassers als klanten die niet dagelijks inloggen in de praktijk nauwelijks op de hoogte gebracht van de veranderingen. Juist bij zo’n grote overgang mag je verwachten dat er actief en duidelijk wordt gecommuniceerd, bijvoorbeeld per e-mail of via andere directe kanalen.

Ik heb van diverse klanten vernomen dat zij helemaal niet op de hoogte waren van de merge. Sommigen konden na de overgang zelfs niet meer inloggen, wat voor veel verwarring en frustratie zorgde. Dit heeft niet alleen gevolgen gehad voor de gebruikservaring, maar ook voor het vertrouwen in het platform.

Daarnaast heb ik sterk het gevoel dat vooral mijn klanten nu financieel de dupe zijn en onnodig veel betalen. Waar Catinaflat nog redelijk in balans was, voelt het bij Rover alsof klanten vooral een poot wordt uitgetrokken, zonder dat daar een duidelijke meerwaarde tegenover staat.

The Cat in a Flat website was a fantastic service for both cat parents and sitters, and the keyword here is "WAS". Since the takeover by Rover, the website is virtually unusable since merging both systems, there are broken links everywhere and sitter profiles don't appear on search results. Sitters were not notified of our accounts being suspended, and the only way to reactivate them is by being forced to merge our existing CiaF accounts with Rover. I am losing bookings from previous clients as they cannot find me on the website, and despite following Rover's instructions my account still remains "deactivated". And let's not get into Rover's predatory pricing and fees for both sitters and owners...

Extremely disappointing and frustrating.

Cat in a flat has completely changed and merged with Rover’s platform. As a sitter who has been using cat in a flat for over 7 years, I am extremely dissatisfied with this merge. CiAF used to be incredibly easy to use, offered unique sitting experiences for owners who needed twice a day visits and did not try to push cat owners/sitters into the needs/services required for dogs. Absolutely would not recommend booking through this service anymore, it’s more beneficial to go privately.

Sehr schade - mit der Übernahme durch Rover ist die Plattform und der Service katastrophal geworden!

Ich war langjährige Kundin bei Catinaflat und immer zufrieden :) Die Cat-Sitter sind toll geblieben. Nur deshalb gibt es 2 Sterne.

Nun bin ich gezwungen mir einen anderen Anbieter zu suchen. Die Katzenbetreuung ist nach wie vor gut, nur die Geschäftspraktik von Rover sind nicht seriös. In Euro angegebene Preise werden einfach in GBP umgeändert ohne die Zahlenwerte zu ändern. Durch den Wechselkurs werden die Buchung so gleich mal teurer. Die Servicepauschale ist "dynamisch" und wird ebenfalls in BGP angegeben. Zudem werden zukünftige Buchungen nicht auf der Kreditkarte vorgemerkt sondern direkt abgebucht. Somit entsteht im Zweifelsfall eine hohe Kreditkartenabrechnung, wenn man seine Buchungstermine weit im Voraus plant.

Die App-Oberfläche ist ebenfalls nicht nutzerfreundlich. Die geplanten Buchungstermine kann man nur in einer Unterrubrik des Posteingangs finden und da auch nur im jeweiligen Chat mit dem Cat Sitter.