Roll over, sit, stay…vacay! For dog owners, planning their vacation away from home also involves finding accommodations for their four-legged family member. While some choose a dog resort or kenneling, more owners are choosing to send them to someone’s house with the help of dog-boarding services like Sleepover Rover.
According to Fox Business, the robust dog boarding industry is worth roughly $5 billion dollars. “Sleeping arrangements for pets is one of the fastest-growing segments in the pet marketplace, compared to vet spending, supplies or food,” said Bob Vetere, president and CEO of the American Pet Products Association.
Seattle-based online pet sitting service Rover.com acquired Phoenix-based Sleepover Rover, uniting two companies that are attempting to simplify the method of finding qualified people to watch your dog.
Sleepover Rover operates in-home dog boarding services in California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Texas, focusing on pooch-loving families.
Maggie Brown, co-founder of Sleepover Rover, shares her response soon after the acquisition, “We are thrilled to be working with the leader in this space and are grateful to have found a partner that is as passionate as we are about creating win-win-wins for pets, pet-owners and pet-sitters.”
CEO of Rover.com, Aaron Easterly, told AZTB what impressed him most about the Sleepover Rover team was their 10 years of experience in this field and their “consultative approach” to vetting potential dog sitters. Home inspections, in-person interviews, and 3rd party verified photographs instill confidence in pet owners and ensures that their pup is treated with the utmost care, he explained.
Rover raised $12 million in venture funding earlier this year and has a network of about 25,000 pet sitting professionals. The 600 pet professionals on Sleepover Rover roster have profiles already set up on Rover as a result of the deal, leaving very little downtime and overlap Easterly explained. Rover plans to continue to roll out the Sleepover Rover service nationwide, “we fully expect this to expand across the nation,” he said.
Easterly explained that Rover’s acquisition of Sleepover Rover is a value-added service that will grow both businesses into flourishing dog-boarding platforms. Sleepover Rover will continue to serve its existing clients with the ability to offer them additional benefits through Rover, such as complimentary premium insurance and access to 24/7 emergency support.
“We are excited about expanding Sleepover Rover nationally, as we’ve be inundated with requests for expansion from potential hosts and clients who are outside of the markets we serve,” Brown said.
We asked Easterly what his favorite part of the day, and as expected, it involved office pets, “The minutes in between meetings” in which he is greeted by his dog Caramel and several of the cutest office dogs. He said that these four-legged interactions are, “the equivalent to having several lunch breaks in the day,” and adds to a positive work environment.
Graphics provided by Rover.com
