I have been a cat sitter for three nearly four years with them. I had a business that was steadily growing year on year, so much so that I made it my full time job. What a mistake that was, my business is now non existent, no enquiries, no bookings and I have been horrified at the lack of action and support from the company.
Charging both the client and myself 15% is just plain greedy!!!!

Used to love this platform before it was bought by Rover. Now it’s barely functional and owned by a company who doesn’t care about its users. Terrible app, terrible support.

Absolute shambles since the merge with Rover, for both sitters and cat owners. Communication is terrible and the system is so difficult to navigate. You has lost a loyal user and customer.

horrible merger with Rover, used to be a great app but now useless

I've used Cat in a Flat regularly over the past year and was very happy with the service. Now it's terrible, as others have said. Prices have been hiked up and totally inconsistent through the flow of requesting a sitter (they increase at each step for no apparent reason) and it's harder to find local sitters to me. The poor experience on the website was exactly the reason that I never used Rover and now they've copied it.

Absolute greed from everyone involved, in what has been an absolute shambles of a merger. Clunky horrible interface which is not geared toward cat sitting. Abysmal customer service, and I mean truly awful, which is incredibly concerning given some of the issues involves customers not being able to pay, and sitters being left unpaid.

Oh, and you want to confirm with your sitter 6 months in advance? Well you’ll have to pay straight away, whilst your sitter gets paid many days, if at all, after the job has finished. But don’t worry, they’ll look after that money for you in the meantime, in their lovely high interest accounts whilst also charging you and the sitter extra fees!

Used to be great, was both a sitter and customer for 5-6 years, then they merged with Rover, who have put the costs up for customers with their much more expensive booking fees and cancellation fees, as well as reduced flexibility and later payment for sitters, many of whom will now go independent because no one is looking for a cat sitter on a dog centric app called Rover. The app is nowhere near as user friendly either. Bring back the old CIAF!

I was a sitter through CIAF for nearly three years, built a community of regular cats, and took in new people at every peak period.
After the merger with Rover I now only work privately and directly with my clients, and there is no way for new people to find me. I was given no notice of the merger, half my profile is missing, the financial information is incorrect and the whole system is totally unusable.

What a shame , the merge has destroyed CIAF the fees are ridiculous costing up to £49 more for the customer in booking fees ..

Neglectful of their users. Very dismissive and patronising responses to reasonable questions and upset. Very disappointing as had previously had very positive experiences.

I have been cat sitting for around 6 months, steadily building up my clients and reviews…and it’s all been taken away merging with Rover!
I had to wait for my account to be verified after the merger which took days, I had a booking enquiry that I couldn’t respond to. My profile is mixed in with dog sitters who will consider feeding cats, it’s almost unfindable! The whole thing is just disastrous and badly thought out.
Nobody is going to pay those ridiculous fees.
If they were hoping to bring in more business by taking over Cat in a flat - they are dead wrong. All they have done is tick people off and encourage them to set up independently.

Ein Stern ist noch zu viel, seit der Übernahme durch Rover. Seit Tagen versuche ich meine Buchung abzuschließen und zu bezahlen. Es funktioniert nicht. Vor der Übernahme, war der Buchungsvorgang easy und wurde einfach vom Konto abgebucht. Das war es wohl mit Cat in the Flat. Ihr habt diese schöne Plattform zerstört, mit der Übernahme.

Cat In A Flat's acquisition by Rover was obviously a great business decision for them, but they need to stop pretending that it still exists in any meaningful way. It used to be a great app for sitters and owners to connect and provide/receive great cat care. Not anymore. Rover is a micromanaging algorithm and cat-only sitters are treated like an afterthought on a dog-centric platform where we're described as, "Also providing cat care." It's quite clear that Rover and Cat In A Flat are not aligned in their view of this acquisition: Cat In A Flat have been trying to portray it as two pet care platforms coming together for everyone's benefit, while Rover is obviously only interested in the financial aspect of acquiring the competition. There has been no effort on their part to "merge" the two. Instead, the dogs still come first for them and the cat sitting is quite clearly a secondary aspect.

This was the only service I would use as a cat owner prior to the merge with Rover. Since this I have deleted my account as it is just hopeless and completely souless. Well done!

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.