When is a boarding kennel''s year actually decided?

In about four weeks of it. Christmas, Easter, the summer holidays and half-term sell out, and the rest of the year the building runs half empty with the same staff and the same heating bill. That means every unbooked run at peak is revenue you can never recover — you cannot sell Christmas Day retrospectively — and it makes the single most valuable activity in the business getting last year's guests booked in before they have started ringing round.

Should a kennel take non-refundable deposits at peak?

Yes, substantial ones. A run cancelled a fortnight before Christmas cannot be resold, because everyone who needed boarding over Christmas found it in October — so a kennel without deposits is quite literally financing its clients' indecision out of its own pocket at the most valuable time of the year. Owners accept it readily when it is explained once, at the outset, because they understand that you are holding a scarce thing for them and turning others away.

How do you get a nervous first-time boarder to book?

Not at Christmas. An owner who has never left her dog anywhere will not make her first attempt during the most emotionally loaded week of the year, and pushing her to do so simply loses the enquiry. Offer a trial stay in February — a single night, cheap, when the kennel is quiet and the staff have time — and you convert a terrified first-timer into somebody who has seen the runs, met the staff, and will happily book the summer. The quiet months are for building next year's peak.

What goes wrong at a kennel on Christmas Eve?

Paperwork. Four families arrive with dogs whose vaccinations expired in March, no food, and medication instructions that exist only in somebody's head — and it is the busiest morning of your year. Every one of those problems is preventable with a pre-arrival sequence sent a fortnight out, chasing the vaccination record, confirming what to bring and stating that check-in closes at four. It is unglamorous and it saves your worst morning of the year.

Can GoHighLevel manage kennel occupancy and run assignments?

No, and attempting it would be actively dangerous to the business. There is no run board, no occupancy calendar, no capacity model, no pricing by run size or by number of dogs from one family, no feeding or medication chart and no vaccination vault. A kennel running its occupancy from a generic CRM calendar will double-book a run over Christmas within a fortnight — and that is not a scheduling error, it is a family standing in your reception with a dog and nowhere to put him.

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Use cases · Pet care

GoHighLevel for pet boarding / kennels

A boarding kennel is a hotel with a fixed number of rooms, and it sells out on the same four or five weeks every year: Christmas, Easter, the summer holidays, half-term. Owners book when they book the flight, which means the enquiry comes months ahead — or in a panic, ten days out, when they have discovered that everywhere decent is full. They found you because a friend uses you, because the vet mentioned you, or because they drove past.

By Michael Smith · Last verified July 12, 2026

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The problem

What actually goes wrong for pet boarding / kennels

Your revenue is decided in about four weeks of the year and you have a fixed number of runs. At peak, every unbooked run is money that can never be recovered — you cannot sell Christmas Day retrospectively. And at peak you are also turning away long-standing clients, who then find somebody else and may not come back. The rest of the year, the building is half empty and the staff are still being paid, which is the arithmetic that quietly kills kennels.

Selling the peak early to last year''s guests, and deposits that hold the run — because a Christmas cancellation two weeks out is unrecoverable and a kennel that does not take deposits is financing its clients'' indecision.

The build

Filling Christmas in September, and doing something with February

This is the automation worth building first. Not a generic funnel — the specific sequence that fits how pet boarding / kennels actually work:

In September, every dog who boarded last Christmas is contacted by name with the dates: "Bella stayed with us over Christmas last year — we are taking bookings now, do you want the same week before we fill?" Owners who have not yet thought about it will book on the spot, and they are grateful to have been reminded.
Peak bookings take a substantial, non-refundable deposit. A run cancelled a fortnight before Christmas cannot be resold, and a kennel that does not take deposits is simply funding its clients' uncertainty out of its own pocket.
The waitlist for sold-out peak dates is real and it is worked. When a cancellation happens, everybody on it is texted at once, because a peak run is genuinely scarce and someone will take it within the hour.
The pre-arrival sequence handles the things that go wrong on the day: vaccination records that expired in March, food that must be brought, medication instructions, and the fact that check-in closes at four. A kennel's worst morning is Christmas Eve with four dogs whose paperwork is not in order.
Updates while the owner is away — a photo of the dog on his bed, or out in the paddock. The client is on a plane feeling guilty, and this is the difference between a nervous customer and a loyal one.
On collection, the next booking is asked for immediately, referencing the next school holiday, while they are relieved and reunited and their guilt is at its lowest.
The empty months are attacked with a different product entirely: daycare, midweek boarding for people working away, a discounted trial stay for a dog who has never boarded — because an anxious first-timer will never book Christmas cold, and a quiet February is the perfect time to introduce them.

It is one workflow inside the GoHighLevel CRM, reading the same contact record the SMS engine, the calendar and the pipeline read — which is why it takes an afternoon rather than a Zapier chain across four vendors.

Read this part

Where GoHighLevel is weak here

GoHighLevel cannot run a kennel. There is no run or capacity board — which is the single thing a boarding business is made of — no occupancy calendar, no feeding and medication charts, no vaccination record vault, no check-in and check-out, no incident log and no pricing by run size or number of dogs in a family. A kennel that tried to manage its occupancy in a CRM calendar would double-book a run at Christmas within a fortnight, and that is not an inconvenience — that is a family standing in your reception with a dog and nowhere to put him.

Gingr, Kennel Connection or PawLoyalty runs the kennel: the run board, occupancy, vaccinations, feeding and meds, check-in, billing. That is not optional and it is the first thing you buy. GoHighLevel is worth adding for exactly one thing — chasing last year''s Christmas guests in September before somebody else does — and for a single-site kennel, that may well be a job for a phone and an afternoon rather than a second subscription.

We would rather you heard that from us than found it out in month two. The plan price is also not the bill — SMS, phone numbers, email and AI all meter on top of it. Run your own numbers on the true-cost calculator before you commit.

In detail

Pet boarding / kennels, specifically

Four weeks pay for fifty-two

That is the whole business, and every decision follows from it.

Christmas. Easter. The summer. Half-term. Your runs are full, you are turning people away, and the money is genuinely good.

The rest of the year, the building is half empty — and the staff are still paid, and the heating is still on, and the insurance still costs what it costs.

Which means two things are true at once: every unbooked run at peak is unrecoverable revenue, and every empty week in February is a slow bleed. Those are two completely different problems and most kennels only ever work on the first one.

Sell Christmas in September

The most valuable thing you will do all year is send one message, in September, to every dog who stayed with you last Christmas.

“Bella was with us over Christmas last year — we’re taking bookings now if you’d like the same week, before we fill up.”

Half of them have not thought about it yet. They will book on the spot, and they will be genuinely grateful to have been reminded, because the alternative was discovering in November that everywhere decent is full.

You are not selling. You are being useful, at exactly the right moment, and the timing is the entire trick.

Take a real deposit

A run cancelled a fortnight before Christmas cannot be resold. Everyone who needed boarding over Christmas sorted it out in October.

So a kennel with no deposit policy is, quite literally, financing its clients’ indecision at the single most valuable moment of the year.

Take a substantial one, make it non-refundable, and say so once, plainly, at the point of booking. Owners accept this without complaint — they can see that you are holding something scarce and turning other people away to do it.

Work the waitlist properly

Peak cancellations do happen, and a peak run is genuinely scarce.

Text everybody on the waitlist at once. Somebody will take it within the hour, and they will be delighted with you.

The worst morning of your year is preventable

Christmas Eve. Four families arrive. One dog’s vaccinations expired in March. Another has come with no food. A third has medication instructions that live entirely in the owner’s head and she is now leaving for the airport.

Meanwhile you have thirty dogs to settle.

All of that is preventable with a boring sequence sent a fortnight out: chase the vaccination record, confirm what to bring, state that check-in closes at four.

It is the least glamorous thing on this page and it will save your worst morning of the year.

Do not sell Christmas to a first-timer

An owner who has never left her dog anywhere will not make her first attempt during the most emotionally loaded week of the year. Push her and you simply lose the enquiry.

Sell her February instead. A single trial night, cheap, when the kennel is quiet, the staff have time, and she can be shown the runs.

She is now a person who has boarded her dog, seen where he sleeps, and met the woman who looks after him. She will book the summer without hesitating.

Your quiet months are not a problem to be endured. They are where next year’s peak is built.

Send the photo

She is on a plane, feeling guilty.

A picture of her dog asleep on his bed, or charging round the paddock, is worth more than any loyalty scheme you could design.

What it cannot do

No run board. No occupancy calendar. No capacity model. No pricing by run size or by two dogs from the same family sharing. No feeding or medication charts. No vaccination vault. No check-in.

That is not a gap — that is a kennel, and it lives in Gingr, Kennel Connection or PawLoyalty. You buy one of those first, and you buy it regardless.

A kennel trying to manage occupancy in a generic CRM calendar will double-book a run over Christmas inside a fortnight. That is not a software inconvenience. That is a family in your reception, on Christmas Eve, with a dog and nowhere to put him.

So be honest about the scope: this adds one message in September and a deposit link. For a single-site kennel, that might be an afternoon with a phone rather than a second subscription. If you run several sites, price it properly on the cost calculator.

Nearby

Related use cases

GoHighLevel for pet groomers

Pet grooming software for the booking problem — breed-length slots, the no-show that eats a morning, and the eight-week coat clock. No vaccine vault.
GoHighLevel for dog walkers

Dog walking software for the recurring midday business — route density, key management, and the client who started working from home. No GPS tracking.

Or go back to every industry we have written up.

Frequently asked questions

When is a boarding kennel''s year actually decided?: In about four weeks of it. Christmas, Easter, the summer holidays and half-term sell out, and the rest of the year the building runs half empty with the same staff and the same heating bill. That means every unbooked run at peak is revenue you can never recover — you cannot sell Christmas Day retrospectively — and it makes the single most valuable activity in the business getting last year's guests booked in before they have started ringing round.
Should a kennel take non-refundable deposits at peak?: Yes, substantial ones. A run cancelled a fortnight before Christmas cannot be resold, because everyone who needed boarding over Christmas found it in October — so a kennel without deposits is quite literally financing its clients' indecision out of its own pocket at the most valuable time of the year. Owners accept it readily when it is explained once, at the outset, because they understand that you are holding a scarce thing for them and turning others away.
How do you get a nervous first-time boarder to book?: Not at Christmas. An owner who has never left her dog anywhere will not make her first attempt during the most emotionally loaded week of the year, and pushing her to do so simply loses the enquiry. Offer a trial stay in February — a single night, cheap, when the kennel is quiet and the staff have time — and you convert a terrified first-timer into somebody who has seen the runs, met the staff, and will happily book the summer. The quiet months are for building next year's peak.
What goes wrong at a kennel on Christmas Eve?: Paperwork. Four families arrive with dogs whose vaccinations expired in March, no food, and medication instructions that exist only in somebody's head — and it is the busiest morning of your year. Every one of those problems is preventable with a pre-arrival sequence sent a fortnight out, chasing the vaccination record, confirming what to bring and stating that check-in closes at four. It is unglamorous and it saves your worst morning of the year.
Can GoHighLevel manage kennel occupancy and run assignments?: No, and attempting it would be actively dangerous to the business. There is no run board, no occupancy calendar, no capacity model, no pricing by run size or by number of dogs from one family, no feeding or medication chart and no vaccination vault. A kennel running its occupancy from a generic CRM calendar will double-book a run over Christmas within a fortnight — and that is not a scheduling error, it is a family standing in your reception with a dog and nowhere to put him.

Try it against your own pet boarding / kennel numbers

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