What time would you expect my business to close for the day?

[ihavealife1]

I do doggy day care and dog boarding, in my own home. It's just a normal house, mid terraced, so there are neighbours either side (relevant).

I keep getting customers asking if they can collect their dog quite late at night. Like 9.30pm or 10pm. My answer is always that we close at 7pm. This is for a few reasons:

1. When dogs arrive or leave, the bell is rung, there is much excitement and lots of barking - not great for the neighbours, and I also don't want the dogs getting all bouncy at night time, when they should be winding down.

1. I actually would like a life! I want to be able to get in to my PJ's at 7pm, have some dinner, maybe even a glass of wine. I don't want to be sitting around in my dog walking clothes and clock watching. And I go to bed at 10pm, as I am always up at the crack of dawn.

1. When I started out, I did allow late pick ups, and people really stretched their luck, they would say "around 10pm", and then turn up at 11pm or even midnight!

1. Kennels are not open at these hours.

Some people seem genuinely surprised (annoyed?) that I won't accommodate a drop off or collection at "around 10pm" (which could easily turn into 11pm, or beyond). I have also had customers asking if they can drop dogs off as early as 5am! I even had one lady looking for day care every day, with a 5am drop off and 11pm collection, because she couldn't afford full boarding.

I would love others thoughts on this. Surely these requests are cheeky and unreasonable.

They're just taking the piss. Its your business so you set the hours, not them

I'd say 7 is generously late. I'd equate it to either a nursery or a kennels/cattery (in terms of opening hours) and I wouldn't expect either of those to be open that late.
The cattery I use is hugely flexible (in that they don't have set times for drop off/collection), but if we can't get there for 5.30 (6 at the very latest) then it's a next-day collection. And that's fair enough, I think - cats need to be fed, put away for the night etc etc, so if you're dealing with that and late collections, it makes for a very late end to the day.

I'd say 6pm latest, for the good of your neighbours, the dogs in your care, and yourself.

I was going to say 6pm. So 7 is more than reasonable.

7pm is fine.

@dementedpixie thank you. I am now strict with this. I don't want to be permanently "on". But I'm still surprised at how many of these requests I get! I've had another one today.

They may be working around flight times and trying to avoid an extra day’s fee for the dog care. Stick to your times, you could always say it’s a condition of your planning permission to run the business or something like that if it helps.

I'd expect 6pm.

They're just being CF's because you live there. Your opening hours are very generous imo.

The pet boarding we use charges an extra day if pets are picked up after 12noon. This is made clear at time of booking.

I think it would be entirely reasonable to refuse late pick ups - they can pay for an extra night and pick up next day.

yes if not collected by 7pm then it's next day collection ( allow people maybe once for late collection due to circumstances beyond control say car accident blocking road )
make sure you take some time to yourself so block holidays and the odd weekend
I think 12 hours is more than long enough for day care drop at 7am on way to work pick up 7pm on the way back if you want 11pm then you need to pay for an overnight

You need to be firm and advertise your times wherever it is you advertise your services. Keep it consistent and simple and don’t divert from these times unless it’s an extenuating circumstance.

The Cattery we drop off at has fixed windows for drop off and pick up, so if you can’t make these times you pay for an extra day overnight.

Obviously for day care it’s a bit different so I would say 7pm cut off.

@ReviewingTheSituation
@SoupDragon
@Toddlerteaplease

That's great to hear, thank you! You start to question your own sanity when multiple people make the same request! My evenings are quite important to me. I want to be able to do the last walk of the day and then unwind!

When I have used a similar business it’s 6 and if it’s over that it’s an extra day to be paid for

Sounds like they are taking the piss! Maybe these are people who regret getting a dog and now want not much to do with them. Choose your 'closing time' and stick to it. Any late pick-ups should be charged double/triple time?

I don't think it's cheeky for them to ask. It's cheeky for them to be annoyed when you refuse to accommodate and for anyone to be late picking up.

My parents owned a boarding kennels and cattery when I was growing up, so I feel your pain we were always dealing with these kind of ridiculous requests.

In the end what worked best was having very defined drop off/pick up times just like they do in hotels.

So drop off/pick up was between 8am-10am or 3pm-5pm.

The time before, between and after those slots was for us to get the animals exercised, cleaned, fed, medicated and for us to have breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We still got the 'it's an emergency' calls at midnight/3am because there was a family emergency or because social services had a house full of feral cats and their owner had been hospital, but it did allow some structure.

People fail to realise that as the people caring for the animals at peak holiday times you will be walking dogs at 5am in piss it down rain on Christmas morning or scooping diarrhoea off the kennel floor at 8pm on Easter Sunday. So you really can't also just be on call to fit in with the travel plans outside of standard business hours constantly.

They aren’t cheeky and unreasonable, they are potential customers that are expressing a need. If you don’t want to cater to that then that’s fine, but they’re doing nothing wrong by asking if it’s part of the service you provide.

7pm is already later than I would expect. So you are nice enough to offer that.

Do you not need a licence to do this from home? Surely there are time restrictions. Your poor neighbours!

The very plush dog kennels near me open 10am- 4pm. 7pm is very generous - especially if you have neighbours.

For day care I would say 7pm is more than enough time for people to finish work, collect kids, go shopping etc

Personally I would offer late pick ups Friday and Saturday at double time past 6 pm..
Few will go for it but that extra money would surely be great?

We use doggy day care as we work long days so collection has to be 9. 30pm. Our sitter frequently has others there at the same time so I assume they work a similar shift pattern. It works for everyone involved so we're def not being CFs! We're using an available business that suits our needs. You're self employed though so have the joy of being able to have whatever opening hours suit you.

I'd hope for 6pm but expect 5pm, people are weird!

I’d say 6.30 - 7pm.

They’re not unreasonable to ask and you’re not unreasonable to operate different hours. 7pm seems fine from the point of view of most people finishing work then collecting.

Your poor neighbours though!