I have been a cat sitter on catinaflat since it launched in London in 2014 and would've previously given it a 5 star rating.

However, since the acquisition to Rover, it has gone significantly downhill. Even though I have set my cat sitter profile to charge per visit rather than per cat, the requests I have had through for 2+ cats are causing the price to double or more. This is not necessary for cats! For 2x visits a day the price would be £48 which is completely unreasonable for my clients. They're now not only taking a cut of the catsitters fee but also charging the cat owner an extra fee on top of their booking - doubling their own profits there. I have also tried to update my own cat's profiles on the system as I need to book with my own sitter and it will not allow it to save their new "profiles".

I raised both of these issues via email with the team at Rover and they completely brushed me off. Appalling customer service and such a shame they have sold their business to Rover.

They seem to have totally ruined a great service. Cat in a Flat used to be the one that worked best, it was easy to use and the sitters were all genuine cat lovers. The prices were very reasonable. I think we used to pay about £9-11 a day.
Now the website is hard to use, but most importantly, the prices have sky rocketed. Now looking at £30 a day, in some cases £45! There are surcharges for having 2 cats (never heard of this!) and 15% :O goes on a booking fee. It used to be flat a £1.50 per booking, which for us was usually about 2-5% tops.
I am hoping my regular sitter will work outside the platform as I will certainly not be using it again. Such a shame.

Welcome to the world in 2026. A community built around loving cats, caring for them, and providing a community service has been sold to the highest bidder. Not only will they now take every last pound they can bleed out of you, they've made a perfectly functioning app into a crap one for your trouble. Pay more, get less, and your cat sitter is worse off too. Quite literally everything that's wrong with the world now. Use anything else. Don't reward this evil, shameless greed.

What used to be a pleasant and simple platform is the latest victim of PE-backed enshitification.

My message archive has been deleted, messages from an upcoming sit have not been delivered and the fee system means our new corporate overlords are taking an almost 50% bite out of my earnings.

Such a shame.

It *was* a great app, perfectly tailored to finding local cat sitters and an essential part of my routine when planning to go away. However, since the app has merged with Rover, it has gone from an app perfectly tailored to cat sitting, to a dog sitting app with cat sitting shoved in like a square peg in a round hole. I have used it for one cat sitting job (and the sitter was fantastic and absolutely no reflection of her service) but between the prices being auto-charged per cat (rather than per visit), the report cards being the primary method of communication (rather than WhatsApp) and the sitting visits being timed at 30 minutes a piece I personally am moving away from the app to instead work directly with my regular sitter (who has left the app, along with many others apparently).

It's such a shame about the merge with Rover, and has not made the app better (quite the opposite in fact) in any measurable way for me as a user.

The application went from being an absolute gem to being absolutely awful after the merger. Instead of using their app, I just messaged some old cat sitters directly, who were happy to just do everything. They have lost my trust and future business… such a huge footgun from a company like this…

I loved Cat in a Flat and specifically avoided Rover because Rover’s system has always felt designed primarily for dog sitting. After the merger, all my Cat in a Flat information disappeared and was replaced with outdated details from an old abandoned Rover account, including my old address, so I had to manually re-enter everything.

The entire booking system now feels like a copy and paste of Rover’s dog focused model, and it simply does not work well for cat sitting.

1. Charging significantly more for multiple cats makes little sense compared to dogs. Checking in on two cats in the same home is not remotely comparable to handling multiple dogs.
2. Proximity matters far more for cat sitters. A sitter popping in for 20 minutes is not going to want to drive 20 minutes each way unless prices double.
3. Prices have gone up substantially while the service itself feels worse and less specialised.
4. The total cost is not shown clearly upfront, which the old site provided. I want to know the full price, including fees, before going through the booking process.

Cat in a Flat succeeded because it understood cat sitting specifically. Replacing that with a generic Rover-style system that was based on dogs completely misses what made the platform good in the first place.

If these issues are not addressed, I will stop using the site, just like I stopped using Rover, and continue booking independently with the sitters who have already looked after my cats for years. A genuinely disappointing and poorly thought-out merger.

I’ve been using Cat in a Flat for years and always had a simple, straightforward experience. Since the move to Rover, everything has become a mess. I can’t even see how much they’re going to charge until I send a request, and then I discovered they now charge per cat per visit. I have two cats and only one litter tray, and sitters usually spend about 15–20 minutes with them. It’s definitely not worth paying per cat per visit. I’ll be using another platform from now on. Bye, Rover.

I have been using CIAF to book cat sitters for almost 6 years and was extremely happy with the service. 5 stars! UNTIL Rover took over recently and it became unusable. I feel so bad for CIAF, because they've built an amazing service and community. Now with Rover, the UI is terrible and very unclear, lost my list of favorite cat sitters, there's a ton of new features that make no sense, while the useable ones have disappeared and prices have increased like crazy?? A booking that cost me €31,90 on CIAF (incl service fee) would now be €60 on Rover?! And that's not even including the new 15% service fee. I'm very very disappointed that Rover took something so amazing and absolutely ruined it overnight. This website is clearly meant for dog sitting, without even considering how cat sitting is a totally different service. I write this review with a sad heart, because I used to absolutely love CIAF. Thank goodness I still have the contact info of a some lovely sitters I previously booked through CIAF. Will book with them directly now. Looking at the other reviews, I'm not the only one (not many Dutch reviews yet, but take a look at the English reviews...). Unbelievable!

Awful after the merger with Rover, which is so obviously just set up for dog sitting not cat sitting. All my reviews have disappeared, there's no way to set up more than one visit a day, search is cluttered with irrelevant profiles, and to top it off the fees have increased!
So frustrating, but hopefully it won't be long until a new app fills the gap in the market

Absolute shambles! What used to be an easy to use app for owners and pet sitters is now completely rubbish and not fit for purpose !
My profile as a cat sitter completely disappeared then when that was finally fixed, I can’t access my availability calendar !
And who on earth looks for a cat sitter on a website called Rover ?

Since merger with Rover, it is awful.

Won't be using again, price hikes, ai rubbish, no support, don't pay on time, feel this is just a cash grab.

Avoid, avoid, avoid. The market will respond, I am sure a competitor will emerge as the experience now is truly, truly awful.

cat in a flat gehört nun rover und seit diese Umstellung läuft, geht nichts mehr. Meine Buchung war plötzlich nicht mehr beim Sitter vorhanden und meine Zahlungsmethode war weg. PayPal wird nicht mehr akzeptiert nur noch Kreditkarte. Eine Neuanfrage machte in der App aus der ursprünglichen Buchungssumme von 350 € plötzlich 1.044 €, die Servicegebühr von 4,90 € wurde plötzlich auf 49 € heraufgesetzt. Selbst durch die Preisanpassung vom Sitter wurde die Servicegebühr bei 49 € beibehalten (Preiserhöhung um ein 10faches!) Für mich somit sehr unseriös und absolut indiskutabel. Meine Kreditkarten habe ich vor diesem Hintergrund erst gar nicht preis gegeben. Selbst die Löschung des Kontos ist nicht ohne weiteres möglich, man muss erst eine Anfrage stellen und bekommt den Hinweis, dass man sich vorbehält, nicht alle Daten zu löschen und einige Daten zu behalten. Ohne Worte, ich bin fassungslos.

Please please please go back to cat in a flat. Rover is absolutely awful. AI chat bots, price hikes and no traffic to my pet sitting page meaning no bookings.
Clients not able to leave reviews, no one to talk and and I am not a dog walker!!! I never wanted to join the merge and am now looking for an alternative site to join or starting my own as it’s been nothing but problems.
Rover is purely dog oriented and is alienating the cat sitters causing a loss of business.

Such a shame. They have taken a fantastic app that worked brilliantly for sitters and pet owners and absolutely ruined it. This company (Rover) is aimed at dog sitting and dog walking. They’ve adapted absolutely nothing in order to adapt it to cats. In particular the following changes have been put into place (from the old app) which are dreadful:

1. You need to select particular times - this is often irrelevant for cat sitting. The previous app allows you to select once or twice a day visit. This worked absolutely fine.
2. They cannot adapt pricing for multiple animals and multiple visits so the calculations are ridiculous and need to be adjusted behind the scenes by the cat sitter offering extra admin and confusion for owners because it looks like the prices have doubled or tripled from Cat in a Flat. CIAF sitters do not charge double their fee for looking after two cats in one place.
3. Rover now take payment at the point of booking. This is the point that I find the most appalling. The previous app allowed you to make a booking and pay three days before to secure it. This worked fine. Now you cannot secure the booking without payment, and this is often months in advance. Rover claim that this is to allow for 'better security' for the pet sitter but that is nonsense because they still don’t get paid until three days after the sit. Where is my money? They must be making a fortune off this.
4. Their attitude on social media has been totally shit. There has been no client or customer consultation and the announcements have gone down extremely badly. Responses are copied and pasted without addressing real concerns. I do not know anyone that is happy with this transition.
5. The 'suggested cat sitters' brings up ridiculous suggestions that are miles away. I’ve been using the same two people for the last three years and they do not even appear on my radar or suggested list. I have to book them by going into previous bookings. Why aren’t they listed and how is this affecting their new clients? I do not want a cat sitter who lives 5 miles away nor I suspect they would be willing to drive 5 miles to come and feed and play with my cat for 20 minutes.

Please could somebody create a new app for car owners that is back to the normal version of Cat in a Flat because you would be inundated with customers.

Really sad that this lovely app was sold to such an absolutely dreadful company who clearly do not care about cat owners. Like many others I’m exploring how I can make private arrangements with my lovely cat sitter and not give money to this absolutely dreadful company.

Avoid.

THIS IS NOT A CATSITTER WEBSITE

What the hell is going on with my CAT in a flat profile asking me to sign up to Rover? And complete a new account for something to do with dogs?? Of all the mergers…
It tried to charge me for a cancelled booking, deleted or changed the profilesof my cat’s friends (his 2 fave sitters). Dodgy, and took 3 emails to confirm they won’t try and charge me again.
Anyway, before this I have had the best experience with Cat in the Flat - like I mentioned, my elderly antisocial rescue made friends with 2 awesome sitters. Their patience, love and genuine care meant I was happy to book either over the platform.
No longer, I’ll just reach out directly to arrange.

The shafted Catsitters should set up a new website - cat parents will follow them!

I have been a cat owner on Catinaflat for 5 years. We go away 4 times a year for between 1 to 3 weeks at a time. I used to love the app. I found several sitters on it over the years and all have been reliable. I just tried to rebook my current usual sitter for 2 weeks this summer and found that her fees had jumped from £14 per visit to £21 per visit. So I had a more thorough look at the new terms and conditions and it seems that I would also have to pay for the whole catsitting right away rather than the day before as was the case previously. Also, during a catsitting I always communicate with the sitter via whatsapp and apparently that is not allowed anymore. For all these reasons, the Catinaflap app is no longer fit for purpose. So I contacted the catsitter on whatsapp and asked if she would consider taking the catsitting outside the app, which she was happy to do, for £14 per visit. She is also leaving the platform as she has many regulars that will happily follow her. It is a real shame because I did like the security booking through Catinaflat provided.

Bis vor kurzem war ich grosser Fan von Catinaflat und als Sitterin aktiv. Nach der Übernahme von Rover ist meine Motivation stark gesunken Sitting anzubieten. Rover verkauft die neuen Optionen als Sicherheit, ich sehe es eher als permanente Überwachung.

Fixierte Zeitvorgaben, bei "Besuch" einstempeln, Besuch wird getrackt, Kommunikation nur über die unübersichtliche App... wenn ich nicht schon neue Aufträge hätte, würde ich die App wohl sofort abschalten.
Catinaflat hatte Timeslots, basierte stückweise auf Vertrauen - das hat prima funktioniert aber nun ja, Rover hat Catinaflat "kaputt gemacht" :-(
Eine liebevoll gestaltete App für Vermittlung, welche auf Vertrauen basierte wurde in eine dienstleistungsorientere unübersichtliche App die KI gesteuert ist umgemünzt.

Der Kundendienst bemüht sich, scheint aber mit der Migration total überfordert.

Je croyais avoir trouvé un super service pour faire garder mes chats, mais depuis le rachat de Rover, les prix ont simplement explosé ! Cat In a Flat était clair dans ses prix, je n'étais pas obligée de payer des suppléments à droite à gauche qui font gonfler la facture artificiellement. D'autant qu'un de mes chats est un véritable fantôme, timide et ne joue pas. Il est clair que la visite réservée n'est pas pour lui, il en n'a pas besoin, mais pour la médication de mon autre chat malade chronique. J'aurais donc aimé continuer payer par visite et non pas chat ! Tant pis, je regarderai ailleurs pour les faire garder.

An absolute shambles now they have merged with Rover. They have completely ruined everything that was brilliant about Cat in a Flat. Through the old CIAF booking system my sitter was £14 for 1 visit in a day and £17 for 2 visits in a day. I’ve tried to book again for 1 day, 2 visits and the new system does not allow for the discounted 2nd visit. The price is now £28. That’s a 60% increase.

With the merge, they have failed to acknowledge that cats and dogs are very different and don’t require the same level of care. Selecting timed visits, and not allowing sitters to discount a second visit for cats is ridiculous.

I’ll be doing everything I can to find a family member/friend or neighbour to drop by to feed our cats instead.

Seriously, do better, how on earth can you state on your website “Your Cat in a Flat experience just got better!” when it’s gotten significantly worse, terrible app UI and far more expensive.