Is your boarding kennel thriving and operating at full capacity or do you have empty rooms staring at you every night? Are you working long, hard hours and doing everything that you can think of to get people and their pets through your doors? Do you spend a ton of money on print, radio, and other advertising only to get disappointing results?

Or are you getting a good night’s sleep while a pet owner is booking a two-week stay for his pet at your facility and has also requested that his pet gets extra walks, individual playtimes, and a full grooming before he picks him up? You might be if you are taking advantage of a brand new way to promote your business. What is it? It is an online reservation booking service that’s designed exclusively for kennels. And it doesn’t matter if you are a small, family-owned operation or a huge facility with 30 employees. This service can help you fill your vacancies.

People are online all the time with smart phones, iPads, tablets, and all kinds of high-tech gadgets. Many of them already book their own vacations, airline flights, and activities online, so why not allow them to book their pet’s vacation at your facility online, too?

No matter how many hours you put in at your business, you can’t be there 24/7. With an online booking service, your clients can take an online tour of your facility, see all of your accommodations and view your rates, and then book their reservations whenever it is convenient for them.

We interviewed representatives from three online pet reservation booking companies: Christopher Tilson, Founder and CEO of petbookings.com; Andy Smit, CEO of furlocity.com; and David Broughton, Founder of mypetboarding.com. We asked each of them to explain this exciting new concept and how it can benefit your business.

“My family has been in the pet boarding business for over 50 years,” says Chris Tilson of Petbookings.com. “I know it’s sometimes difficult to try a new way of doing business, but there’s nothing difficult about this. When a facility signs up with us, Petbookings takes care of everything. We do the initial setup for them and load all their information. Once their profile is completed, we launch them live on the Petbookings platform. If they have their own website, a booking widget is also embedded on their site.

“There are many benefits to the kennel owner when he adds online booking,” continues Mr. Tilson. “The consumer can compare different kennels and all the accommodations and services that they offer, make his pet’s reservation, pay his deposit, and receive immediate confirmation of the reservation.”

“Bringing accessibility to pet owners is our number one goal,” says Andy Smit of Furlocity. “The kennel owner benefits by getting exposure on a much larger level. Kennel owners pay only a booking fee (which we call a success fee) on each reservation. There is no downside to the kennel owner, no set-up fees, no monthly fees – only the success fee on each booking – so you only pay if it works for you.

“And with Furlocity, we have a rewards program for the pet owners,” adds Mr. Smit. “When they stay for ten nights, they receive one night of boarding for free.”

“We connect pet owners looking for boarding to facilities that fit their needs,” states David Broughton of MyPetBoarding. “With online reservation booking, the pet owner can compare several kennels and their room types at one time, look at their add-on services, and see if they have availability.

“Extra services really sell online. Traditionally extra services are offered to a client when they drop off their pet for boarding. Typically the client is in a hurry to make a flight or leave for vacation and doesn’t have time to hear about those extra services – so they decline them. When booking online,” Mr. Broughton continues, “they have time to look at the services and their costs, and they are more inclined to select several and add them to their pet’s reservation.”

Booking pet boarding reservations online has many benefits for the pet owner:

• It’s convenient. With the technology explosion, many people simply prefer to do it themselves. They like to compare the different kennels and their services and decide for themselves what they want. Then they can book anytime 24/7, pay their deposit, and get immediate confirmation of their reservation.
• They don’t have to leave voice mail messages or send email inquiries and wait for the kennel owner to return them.
• Booking online is very straightforward. The client can see what the different kennel’s policies are, see their pricing, look at their options and add-on services, and see if they have vacancies.
• If they have a need for a last-minute booking for their pet, they can just go online to look for vacancies instead of calling every kennel in the phone book. Using an online booking service benefits the kennel owner as well:
• You don’t have to have a website. You do need a computer or other device, and you must have Internet access so that you can manage your facility’s information on the booking site.
• You can make instant changes on your site, such as adjusting your prices, running a promotion, or requiring a minimum stay.
• You don’t have to have a merchant account to process credit cards for client deposits when they make their reservations. The online booking service takes care of that and direct deposits the funds into your bank account.
• The service is available 24/7, so you don’t miss any opportunity.
• You will have fewer phone messages to return and fewer email inquiries when pet owners can see all your information and pricing online.
• There is less “selling” on your part. Pet owners see what you have to offer, and things like extra services sell themselves. This helps you maximize your revenue with each reservation.
• You have increased revenue instead of empty rooms.
• You only pay when you get bookings. “It’s like a partnership when a kennel signs up with us,” says Chris Tilson. “It is our mission to help each business get the most exposure. We take the consumer from the initial click on the site to the confirmation of the completed reservation.”

Online reservation booking is the wave of the future and what we’re seeing now is only the tip of the iceberg. “On the Furlocity site,” says Andy Smit, “pet owners can already book reservations at pet-friendly hotels, and can also search for veterinarians in the same way they looked for boarding kennels.”

"We need to start thinking of boarding kennels as a tourism service,” encourages David Broughton. “Airlines and hotels book online, and they have a proven high rate of occupancy. We’d like to see the boarding kennel market be added to sites such as Expedia. That would make it easy for pet owners to book everything at the same transaction point.”

So what do you think? Would you like to have an online presence at work for you 24 hours a day? And how about the fact that you only pay a commission when you receive a booking? Check out these online pet reservation booking sites and see how your business can become a cyber space success story.

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