Boarding pets as a business?

[PetsOnBoard]

Does anyone have any experience of this?

I've been considering doing this for a while now. I was leaning towards taking smaller animals though would consider cats in future. I'm constantly asked by friends and family to look after their animals as I look after them so well, so much so that often they don't want to leave.

I appreciate that it's a ton of work though and the setup will be expensive also that you're always on call. I'm ok with that. I've had experience with cats,dogs, lizards, snakes, birds of prey, parrots, small birds, fish and various rodents.

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.

TIA

I am not an expert but I believe you will need a licence from the council. Other than that, if its what you enjoy doing then go for it.

More details here: www.gov.uk/guidance/boarding-for-cats-or-dogs-licence-england

I used to work in pet boarding as a student. It can be a good business, but it has downsides that you need to know going in. Like other businesses in the hospitality industry, when others are playing you’ll be working. Your busiest times will be major holidays and summer. Are you ok working every Christmas and new year’s? Taking your holidays in October and March because that’s when demand is low?

You should also do some local market research to see what people near you are actually interested in paying for (not just what your friends say they’d theoretically like ) For example, most people in my area either want someone to stay in their home with the pet or want the full meal deal hotel style pet suite at a boarding facility. That might be different for your area, but you need to get that hard data first.

Thank you all for the advice. I'll certainly get a license and do my research.

You will also need insurance and a secure building, seriously good fire alarms, someone present 24-hours a day, and the phone number of every vet within a 50-mile radius.

A friend of mine runs a cattery. It is a bit of a millstone. You also need to have a proper procedure in place for such circumstances as the death of a pet while in your care, and what to do if an owner never returns to collect their animal.

We have guinea pigs and I really struggle to find anywhere to look after mine when on holiday, there are so few options around and those few are always so booked up! Guineas are such lovely animals as well, they would be ideal “customers” for you

We use a boarder who is part of NowBoarding, I think it is a franchise.

As PP said, she hardly takes time off during the holidays so if you have school age children. you have a big problem. We previously used one who took some of the school holidays off and it could cause issues with customers.

I think you need to look hard at your space, we had to use once a boarder who had hardly any outdoor space for the rabbits, ok for a week in October when the weather wasn't that nice but not good for 2 week in Summer when I would love to have my bunnies hopping around outside.