Service

Pet boarding software development

For owners and managers of boarding kennels, catteries and dog daycare centres who need a booking and stay system built around units, nights, vaccination records and care schedules rather than a holiday-let calendar bent to fit.

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The problem

What goes wrong today

Where it usually starts

A kennel takes bookings by telephone into a wall planner with a column per kennel.

In the school holidays the planner fills, a double booking is found on the morning the second dog arrives, and the manager spends the afternoon moving dogs between units.
Vaccination cards are asked for at drop-off, so a dog whose booster lapsed last month is standing in reception with its owner about to leave for the airport.
Two dogs from one household are meant to share a double kennel but were booked as two singles because the planner has no concept of a shared unit.

Where it gets harder

Feeding and medication instructions are written on a whiteboard in the kitchen from what the owner said at drop-off; the evening carer cannot read the handwriting and the dog that needs its tablet with food at six gets it at eight.

Owners telephone for news and whoever answers has to find the carer who saw the dog.
Peak-season rates and minimum stays are applied by memory, so two owners pay different prices for the same week.
Daycare runs alongside boarding on a separate paper register, so nobody can see the total number of dogs on site on a given day.

Scope of the service

What the build covers

A custom boarding build normally covers the stay from enquiry to collection:

An animal record under an owner account with species Breed, vaccination dates, behaviour notes and signed consent
Units modelled as kennels Pens, cattery suites or daycare places with a type, a size limit and the option to share between animals from one household
Date-range availability So a booking only confirms when a suitable unit is free for every night
A vaccination check at booking That compares the record against the rules you set and holds the booking until the record is updated
Feeding and medication schedules captured per stay and shown to carers By time of day
Drop-off and collection slots so reception is not overwhelmed
Peak-season pricing and minimum stays
Deposits and balance collection
Daily updates with photographs sent to owners

How discovery works

Discovery works through a real peak week with the manager: how units differ, when a dog may share, what the vaccination rules are and who may override them, how medication is signed off, how daycare sessions count against the same site total, and what the inspection and licensing records the business keeps need to look like so they can be exported. Each becomes a named stage in the scope document.

Deliberately out of scope

Payroll, accounting and veterinary treatment records beyond the notes carers write
Those stay in the tools you already use

When the scope grows

Scoping scenario

A site with twenty kennels, a cattery of twelve suites and a daycare licence for thirty dogs wants one availability picture across all three, household sharing in the doubles, a vaccination hold that reception can release once the card is seen, and medication sign-off that the manager can audit. That is a different build from a six-kennel home boarder, and the scope document says so plainly.

Deliverables

What you receive

Discovery notes mapping units, unit types, sharing rules and daily routines on the site
A scope document naming each workflow stage, the vaccination and sharing rules and what is out of scope
Design of the availability planner, the booking flow with vaccination check and the carer schedule view on phone and desktop
The build, deployed to your hosting or hosting we manage
Migration of owner, animal and future stay records from your planner or current system where relevant
Training for reception, carers and the manager, with a written guide
Handover material and ownership of the source code and your data

Process

How a project runs

Each stage maps onto the project view in your client panel. Durations are set in your proposal, never on this page.

Onboarding

Access to the wall planner or current system, the price list, the vaccination rules you apply and any payment account you already use.
Project stage: Onboarding
Planning

Discovery with the manager and a senior carer; unit model, vaccination and sharing rules and the scope document are agreed.
Project stage: Planning
Design

Clickable designs of the planner by unit and night, the booking flow with its vaccination step and the carer schedule by time of day.
Project stage: Design
Development

Units and availability first, then booking, vaccination checks and deposits, then schedules, updates and daycare sessions.
Project stage: Development
Client review

Reception and carers run a test peak week on real booking patterns and medication routines and report what does not match the site.
Project stage: Client review
Revisions

Findings are corrected and re-checked against the scope document.
Project stage: Revisions
Ready for launch

Future stays migrated, updates and reminders tested against contacts you control, launch checklist signed off.
Project stage: Ready for launch
Delivered

The site runs on the new system; hosting and maintenance continue under their own agreement if chosen.
Project stage: Delivered

Integrations

Commonly integrated

Systems this kind of business usually asks us to connect. Each integration is confirmed during discovery; none is assumed.

Card payment providers for deposits, balances and daycare passes
SMS and email providers for confirmations, vaccination requests and daily updates
Photo and video storage for daily update galleries
Accounting software for takings and deposit reconciliation
Veterinary practice systems or microchip databases for record look-up where the practice allows it
Calendar feeds for the manager and carers on their own phones
Website booking widgets and enquiry forms on the existing site

How we would approach it

Worked example

Concept demo

A kennel, cattery and daycare on one site

The situation

A site with twenty kennels, twelve cattery suites and a daycare room ran three separate paper registers and could not say how many animals were on site on any given day.

Why it is a custom build

A holiday-let calendar could not do this because it has no concept of a vaccination hold, a shared unit or a daily site total; the clashes this site suffered from were invisible to it.

The scope we would propose

Units of three types with their own size limits and sharing rules
One availability engine across all of them
A vaccination step at booking that holds the stay until reception confirms the record, feeding and medication schedules shown to carers by time of day with sign-off, daycare sessions counted against the same daily total
A daily update with a photograph sent to each owner at a time the manager sets

Concept demo: a scoping scenario written to show how we would approach the work. It is not a delivered client project.

Pricing

What affects the price

Every proposal is priced on scope. These are the factors that move it most for this kind of build.

Number of units, unit types and sharing rules, and whether daycare runs alongside boarding
Vaccination rules, who may release a hold and how the record is evidenced
Feeding and medication schedules with carer sign-off and manager audit
Daily updates with photographs and the messaging channels used
Peak-season pricing, minimum stays, deposits and the payment provider involved
Drop-off and collection slots and reception capacity
Volume of owner, animal and future stay records to migrate
Hosting choice: your own hosting or ours

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

When is the package enough and when is custom work needed?

The pet boarding package models units by type, availability by night, vaccination checks, schedules and updates with configuration. Custom work becomes the honest route when you run several sites, need unusual sharing or pricing rules, or want integration with a veterinary system or an existing website booking engine. Discovery is where we tell you which applies.

How does the vaccination check work at booking?

The booking compares the dates on the animal record with the rules you set for each species and holds the booking if anything is missing or lapsed. The owner is asked to upload or bring the updated record, and a person you authorise releases the hold once it has been seen. The system applies your rules; it does not decide what they should be.

Can two dogs from one home share a kennel?

Yes, when the unit type allows sharing and the manager has set a size limit. The booking is made for both animals on one owner account against one unit, and the availability engine counts it as one unit for the stay.

Who owns the system afterwards?

You do. Source code and data are handed over at delivery. Hosting and maintenance are optional and separately agreed, and the system can be moved to another provider.

Can you move our existing bookings?

Usually yes. We take owner, animal and future stay records from your planner, spreadsheet or current system, map them to units and nights and import them so the switch happens between one day and the next. The scope document states what can and cannot be carried over once we have seen the data.

Get a project quote for boarding software

Answer a few questions about your business, your current systems and what should change. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.

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Pet boarding software development

What goes wrong today

What the build covers

How discovery works

Deliberately out of scope

When the scope grows

What you receive

How a project runs

Onboarding

Planning

Design

Development

Client review

Revisions

Ready for launch

Delivered