Owner requesting refund after 6 days of drop-ins

My partner has been providing drop in and walking services for months now, but we’ve never encountered something like this before.

The owners of these drop in visits are demanding a refund because their apartment was disturbed, for theft, and unauthorized guests. My partner clearly did not take anything from their home; the apartment was unkept, not cleanly, and smelled from the first drop in. Their dog and 3 cats were living in a messy and small apartment, with many loose items left out. I feel bad for the pets because of their living conditions. In between visits their dog would grab items off the table/floor adding to the mess — my partner picked up what she could, especially what may have been a choking hazard.

On top of that, the owners were not responsive to messages during the stay so my partner did not have a lot of instructions go off of. After the last day of drop ins, the owner requested a cancellation. A few days later my partner gets an email and call from Rover customer service hinting that we should issue a refund.

For context, we both went to a meet and greet before the drop ins mainly to get to know the dog and learn instructions. They originally had a second dog that was not socialized properly with the main pet on the booking — they were in the same room together for the first time during the meet and greet! Because of this, we let the owners know I would also be coming with my partner to help walk and drop in (since it was a lot of work that we were only barely comfortable with). Last minute, they had to give up the second dog with little to no explanation why.

Also, the 3 cats were not even on the booking. The owners told us not to take care of them. However, towards the middle of the stay their feeder (which was just a water dispenser filled with kibble) got clogged and no food was dispensing. So my partner ended up going above and beyond to take care of the cats as well or else they would have been left hungry.

The pets’ community water bowl/dispenser was also neglected. In the middle of the stay my partner refilled it, but noticed pink film/slime coated on the bowl. It seems like the owners never cleaned this before. It is sad that they had to drink from a gross bowl with mold growing.

Has anyone else had this happen to them? It seems like the owners are trying to commit fraud to get a refund. What did you do? How did you approach the response to Rover?