Cat in a Flat spent a decade as an independent, cats-only platform with a flat booking fee for owners. Its sitters moved onto Rover at the end of March 2026 and now pay Rover's commission. Here is what changed, and how a percentage model compares with a flat annual fee.
| Metric | The Pet Sitter | Cat in a Flat |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue model | Flat subscription | Rover's 20% commission, plus an 11% owner fee |
| Sitter cost structure | Predictable annual fee | Scales with your revenue |
| Ownership | Independent | Acquired by Rover 2024, sitters migrated 2026 |
| Markets | Worldwide — sitters in any country | UK and Europe — not Australia |
Commission marketplaces generate revenue by taking a percentage of each transaction processed through the platform. The model aligns platform revenue with transaction volume — the more bookings that flow through, the more the platform earns. What Cat in a Flat shows is what happens to that percentage when the company collecting it changes.
Commission models lower the barrier to entry — you pay nothing until you earn — which helps a young marketplace build liquidity quickly. They also make a specialist marketplace an attractive acquisition: a trusted niche brand with a loyal owner base can be folded into a larger network while keeping the front door owners already recognise.
Cat in a Flat was founded in London in 2014 by Julie Barnes and Kathrin Burckhardt, and it did one thing deliberately well: cats, in the owner's own home, with sitters who chose cats on purpose. That focus is genuinely valuable, and it is why the brand still has a following. Rover announced its acquisition on 31 October 2024, citing more than 50,000 care providers and two million visits across nine countries. At the end of March 2026 — seventeen months later — Cat in a Flat's sitters were migrated onto Rover and began paying Rover's rates: the standard 20% sitter commission, with an 11% booking fee charged to the owner on top. Rover's fees do vary by market — the UK and Europe have run a 15% sitter fee, dropping to 5% for recurring weekly care — but 20% and 11% are the broadest standard rates, and they are the figures used throughout this page. The Cat in a Flat brand continues as a cats-only booking front end for owners, powered by Rover. It is still a live place to book a cat sitter. What changed is who sets the terms.
Two notes before the numbers. The booking figures are in Australian dollars for consistency with the rest of these pages; our subscription is priced in euros, and Cat in a Flat bookings are billed in pounds and euros. The currency is not the point, the model is. And the rates used here are Rover's broadest standard ones: 20% taken from the sitter, with an 11% booking fee charged to the owner at checkout.
The Pet Sitter's Free plan costs €0 and takes 0% commission. Measured against the Pro plan's founding rate of €199/year + VAT, a 20% commission costs the same at approximately €83/month in bookings. Above that threshold, every additional dollar you earn is kept in full under the subscription model.
At this level, a 20% commission costs A$1,920/year. The Pro founding rate is a flat €199/year + VAT, so most of that A$1,920 stays with you — funds that could go toward insurance, equipment, or marketing.
At A$2,000/month, a 20% commission is A$4,800/year. The Pro founding rate stays at €199/year + VAT, so almost all of that A$4,800 is retained earnings instead.
At full-time professional volume, commission reaches A$9,600/year. A flat €199/year + VAT subscription is a small fraction of that — and the subscription figure does not move when the platform changes hands.
The migration is the part worth sitting with. A sitter who joined Cat in a Flat in its early years chose a small, independent, cats-only platform. The rate schedule they work under today was set by a different company, at a different scale, seventeen months after an acquisition they had no say in. That is not a criticism of anyone's conduct — it is what a percentage is: a claim on your growth that can be transferred. A flat annual fee has nothing to index against. It is the same number whether you bill A$500 or A$5,000 in a month, and the same number next year.
Estimate your annual platform costs based on your monthly booking revenue.
Annual platform cost on Cat in a Flat
€2,880
20% commission on your booking revenue
Annual cost on The Pet Sitter
€199+ VAT
Flat subscription, no commission
Estimated annual fee savings with The Pet Sitter
€2,681
Based on fee difference only
Cat in a Flat figures are converted from their published price at an approximate rate, for comparison only. The Pet Sitter price shown here is the amount Checkout charges in euros (EUR).
| Annual gross booking revenue | €14,400 |
|---|---|
| Estimated net on Cat in a Flat | €11,520 |
| Estimated net on The Pet Sitter | €14,201 |
Cat in a Flat used to charge pet owners a flat booking fee of about £1.50. Since its sitters moved onto Rover at the end of March 2026, bookings carry Rover's owner booking fee instead — documented at 11% as Rover's standard rate, and at 15% capped at £49 in the UK. A flat fee became a percentage; only the size of the percentage depends on where you are.
The Pet Sitter charges neither side of a booking.
Structural differences between the two business models.
Percentage of each transaction (Rover's standard 20%)
Fixed annual subscription
Your booking revenue
Nothing — cost is fixed
Rover, since the March 2026 migration
Independent, sitter-focused
11% booking fee at checkout
None — owners pay nothing to book
Overnight stays and drop-in visits booked separately; pricing per cat
Sitter defines their own services and rates
Cash payment and off-platform communication prohibited
Card, bank transfer or cash — the sitter decides
Cats only
All pets, six bookable service types
UK and Europe
Worldwide — the software sells globally
Transaction volume
Revenue scales with the number and value of bookings processed, so the platform is incentivised to maximise throughput through its own payment rails.
Payment intermediation
Since the migration, cash payment and off-platform communication are not permitted on these bookings. A percentage model has to stay in the payment flow to collect its percentage.
Group-level economics
Once a specialist platform sits inside a larger group, its fees and product rules are set at group level. Local and niche priorities compete with the parent company's.
Sitter retention
Revenue depends on sitters continuing to find value in the tools and the marketplace. The platform is incentivised to make sitters successful, not just busy.
Repeat client value
With no per-transaction cost, repeat clients get more profitable over time. The model rewards sitters who build lasting relationships.
Independence
A flat fee can be judged on the product it buys. There is no share of your revenue for a future owner to reprice.
A 20% commission means the platform's revenue rises with yours: at A$4,000/month of bookings, that is A$800/month earned from your work. On The Pet Sitter the Free plan costs nothing and the Pro plan is a flat €199/year + VAT at the founding rate, whether you book A$500 or A$5,000 in a given month. A percentage has something to index against your growth. A flat fee does not.
Neither model is universally better, and for most readers of this page it is not a live choice: Cat in a Flat operates in the UK and Europe, not Australia. What follows is about which model fits the business you are building.
Cat in a Flat is where a great many cat owners in those markets start looking, and it is the only one of the two platforms that operates there at all.
Bookings now sit inside the Rover network and are covered by the Rover Guarantee, which contributes up to £25,000 or €25,000 toward vet care on eligible claims. That is real, and a young platform cannot match the demand-side scale behind it.
If you take one or two cat visits a month, a percentage of a small number costs less than any annual fee. Commission is proportional at low volume — that is its genuine strength.
Once bookings are regular, a fixed cost is more efficient than a percentage that grows with you. Against 20%, the Pro founding rate of €199/year + VAT breaks even at approximately €83/month in bookings — and the Free plan itself costs nothing.
A flat annual fee is a price for software. It cannot be restructured into a larger share of your bookings, because it is not a share of anything.
A subscription model does not need to sit between you and your clients, or to prohibit you from talking to them directly. You build a portable reputation and keep the relationship.
The gap between a fixed cost and a percentage widens every month you grow. Over years it becomes the difference between a job and a business.
You can start on Free with your own profile page, permanent booking link, bookings, messaging and limited client records. Pro adds business tools including invoice generation when available. Check the pricing page for current Pro availability and the applicable offer; signing up for Free does not reserve a founding subscription. In-product sitter search is on the roadmap.
We should also be plain about this particular comparison: Cat in a Flat operates in the UK and Europe. Our software sells worldwide, so for a cat sitter in London, Dublin or Amsterdam this is a live choice today — and where Cat in a Flat has never operated, the model question is the same anyway: a percentage of every booking, or a flat annual fee. What happened here is the clearest recent case study of what that percentage does when the company collecting it changes.
What we are building is infrastructure for professional sitters who want to own their business economics: predictable costs, direct client relationships, and a fee that does not grow because you did. If that is where you are heading, we would like to build it with you.
Rover announced its acquisition of Cat in a Flat on 31 October 2024, citing more than 50,000 care providers and two million visits across nine countries. Cat in a Flat's sitters were then migrated onto Rover at the end of March 2026 and now work under Rover's fees and rules. The brand itself continues as a cats-only booking front end for owners, powered by Rover — it is still a live place to book a cat sitter.
Rover's standard published rates: 20% of the booking from the sitter, with an 11% booking fee charged to the owner on top. Those fees do vary by market, which is the next question. Older sitter-fee figures still visible on some undated help pages predate the migration and no longer describe what sitters pay — check the current Rover fee page for your country rather than trusting a number without a date on it.
Yes. The rates used on this page — a 20% sitter commission and an 11% owner booking fee — are the broadest standard ones. The UK and Europe have run a 15% sitter fee, dropping to 5% for recurring weekly care, and California is a 25% marketplace fee plus the 11% booking fee. Rover is also piloting a tier that varies with how much a client has booked with you: 30% under US$599, 15% from US$600 to US$1,199, and 10% at US$1,200 or more — so a new client relationship starts at 30%, above the flat 20%. That pilot runs in a handful of US cities, with a Canadian variant at lower thresholds; it is not a national rollout. Check Rover's current fee page for the country you sit in.
The booking fee. Owners used to pay a flat fee of about £1.50 (€1.90 in Europe) per booking; they now pay a percentage instead — Rover's 11% booking fee as standard, and in the UK and Europe a 15% service fee capped at £49 or €49. Bookings are covered by the Rover Guarantee, which contributes up to £25,000 or €25,000 toward vet care on eligible claims. Practically, overnight stays and drop-in visits are booked separately now, pricing is per cat, and cash payment is not permitted.
This is sentiment rather than fact, and the volume is modest — a handful of public posts, not a survey. In a TrustedHousesitters community thread titled "Private equity ruined my cat-sitting side hustle", and in scattered comments elsewhere, the complaints cluster more on the new booking experience than on the fee percentage itself; the most repeated one is losing the ability to offer several drop-in visits in a single day. Rover's own sitter help pages acknowledge the reaction: "We hear your frustration and we're listening." Read it as an anecdote worth knowing, not a verdict.
No — Cat in a Flat operates in the UK and Europe, so an Australian sitter is not choosing between the two today, and we are not going to imply otherwise. A cat sitter in the UK or Europe is: our software sells worldwide and a sitter in any country can subscribe. We compare the two because the underlying choice — a percentage of every booking versus a flat annual fee — is the same wherever you sit.
Yes, where both are available to you. Many professional sitters list on several platforms while building their client base, and there are no exclusivity requirements on our side. Note that off-platform communication is not permitted on bookings that originate inside the Rover network.
A flat fee stays flat — including on the day the platform changes hands.
Your tools. Your clients. Your business.