Operator case study · Money
Dog boarding business income: real records from a home boarder
What 33 Rover-client stays and one busy boarding calendar can tell us.
By Dave Waggins, 6-year home boarder, founder of Houndtrust
Published August 12, 2026 · ~8 min read
The figures below cover Rover clients only: 33 completed stays with $11,385.50 in service charges and $2,277.10 in sitter fees. They do not include our private clients, so the export does not represent the income of the whole boarding business.
Rover clients only
Rover service charges
$11,385.50
service charges on 33 completed stays
Rover sitter fees
$2,277.10
20% of the listed service charges
Rover earnings
$10,162.45
after Rover fees, with $1,054.05 in tips
The export includes one stay completed in December 2025 and 32 completed from January through May 2026. It does not include private payments or operating expenses. Client and pet names are omitted here.
Our client mix
Roughly 30 clients book through Rover. The rest are private clients acquired outside Rover and managed in Houndtrust. The 33 rows in the export are completed stays, not a count of unique clients.
The records behind the numbers
The detailed figures come from a Rover earnings spreadsheet downloaded May 19, an Apple Calendar roster built in late June, and an August roster built from four calendar exports on August 1. I removed client and dog names before publishing anything.
The Rover spreadsheet is the clean money record. It lists booking dates, service units, service charges, Rover fees, tips, and earnings. The calendars are better at showing the physical work: how many dogs were in the house and how bookings overlapped. They are not bookkeeping ledgers. We did not keep every private booking or payment up to date in the calendar, so I use calendar totals only as documented minimums.
Rover clients only: January through May 2026
Swipe the table to see charges, fees, and earnings.
| Checkout month | Stays | Service nights | Charged | Rover fee | Recorded earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 8 | 63 | $3,936.00 | $787.20 | $3,471.10 |
| February | 4 | 16 | $877.00 | $175.40 | $766.60 |
| March | 6 | 24 | $1,300.00 | $260.00 | $1,178.75 |
| April | 8 | 45 | $2,877.50 | $575.50 | $2,652.00 |
| May | 6 | 29 | $1,680.00 | $336.00 | $1,379.00 |
| Jan through May | 32 | 177 | $10,670.50 | $2,134.10 | $9,447.45 |
Grouped by the month each stay ended, matching Rover’s export method. Recorded earnings include tips. January through May tips totaled $911.05.
The simplest useful fee picture
Every stay in this export shows Rover taking 20% of the service charge. On $11,385.50, that is $2,277.10. The average fee was $69.00 per completed stay. The average service charge was $345.02. The $2,277.10 is the fee recorded in this short Rover-only export. It is not a yearly estimate. Client count alone cannot produce a fair cost comparison because one client may book far more nights than another. The comparison below holds booking revenue constant.
What $1,000 in bookings looks like
The same booking revenue, using the 20% rate shown in our Rover export.
Booked through Rover
Booking revenue
$1,000
Before operating expenses
$800
Your own clients on Houndtrust
Booking revenue
$1,000
Before processing and operating expenses
$976
Difference in one $1,000 month
$176
Difference over 12 months at $1,000 per month
$2,112
Rover can bring new clients and includes marketplace services. Houndtrust manages clients you acquire independently and charges no percentage of their bookings. This example uses the current $24 founding Solo price. Card processing, taxes, and operating expenses are separate.
Rover’s official service-fee page lists a 20% provider fee and notes that some US accounts may be in a different-fee pilot. Your fee can differ by market and account. Read the pilot details in our Rover tier guide, or put your own numbers into the Rover fees calculator, or estimate monthly revenue and profit with the dog boarding income calculator.
What the boarding calendar adds
The Rover export leaves out private clients. The calendar gives a broader view because it merged a private Dogs calendar with Rover and two subscribed feeds. That June roster recorded 31 bookings touching the month and 243 dog-days on an inclusive daily-presence basis. Several late-June checkout dates were approximate. The highest recorded daily count was 15 dogs. An incomplete August snapshot, de-duplicated from four calendar exports, recorded 14 bookings and 96 dog-nights.
Those figures explain why we needed a real system. A booking can appear on two or three calendars. Checkout dates move. Direct clients text instead of using a marketplace. A paper roster answers “who is in the house?” It does not reliably answer “what did we collect, what did we spend, and who still owes money?”
The calendars were incomplete, so I use them only for recorded workload. Missing entries are treated as unknown, never as a measure of how steady the business was.
Revenue, earnings, and profit are different
The cleanest formula is dogs × billable nights × nightly rate. That gives a starting revenue estimate. Then add holiday premiums and services. Subtract discounts, free nights, platform fees, refunds, and unpaid balances to reach collected earnings. Subtract food, cleaning, insurance, supplies, payment processing, taxes, and other costs to reach profit.
A one-dog example at $50 a night
$500
10 nights charged
−$100
20% platform fee
$400
Rover payout before tips
$0
Houndtrust booking fee
For an independently acquired $500 booking, Houndtrust charges no booking percentage. The $24 monthly subscription, card processing, taxes, and operating expenses are separate. The Rover example uses the 20% fee shown in this operator export.
What I would track from the first booking
Keep one record per stay with check-in and checkout, number of dogs, client source, rate, discounts, platform fee, deposit, balance, and payment date. Keep the operational calendar connected to that record. Do not ask a calendar to be an income statement.
Separate marketplace clients from people you acquired yourself. That makes the cost of discovery visible. It also lets you compare a percentage fee with the fixed cost of the tools you use for your own clients. Finally, close each month. A month that stays half entered will never give you a trustworthy answer later.
Questions people ask about boarding income
How much can a home dog boarding business make?
Income depends on rate, safe capacity, booked dog-nights, client mix, fees, and expenses. The Rover-only export in this case study lists $11,385.50 in service charges and $2,277.10 in sitter fees across 33 completed stays. The business also serves private clients, who are not included in those totals.
Does this Rover export include every client in the business?
No. Roughly 30 of the clients we serve book through Rover. The rest are private clients acquired outside Rover and managed in Houndtrust. The export includes completed Rover stays only.
How do you calculate dog boarding revenue?
For a simple estimate, multiply the number of dogs by billable nights by the nightly rate, then add holiday premiums and services. Keep that estimate separate from collected revenue. Deposits, discounts, free nights, refunds, platform fees, tips, and unpaid balances can change what you actually keep.
What percentage does Rover take from a sitter?
The 33-stay Rover export in this case study shows a 20% sitter fee on every listed service charge: $2,277.10 on $11,385.50. Rover's current public fee can vary by account and market, including a tiered pilot in selected US metros. Check the fee displayed in your own account.
Is owning a home dog boarding business profitable?
It can be, but revenue is not profit. Start with what clients paid, then subtract platform fees, payment processing, food, cleaning, insurance, supplies, taxes, refunds, and other costs. This case study publishes revenue and fee records, not a profit claim.
Keep the calendar and the money together
Houndtrust gives independent dog-care pros one place for bookings, client records, waivers, updates, invoices, and balances. It takes 0% of bookings you bring. Free to start, with a 7-day Solo trial when you need the full workflow.
Start freeRun your own numbers with the free dog boarding income calculator, or set your rate with the dog boarding rate guide.