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.

We're using an available business that suits our needs

Sure it's not cheeky to use facilities at the times they're advertised - but it is cheeky if OP advertises to 7pm and she's regularly being asked to be available much later

I think 7pm is late tbh, I would have said 6pm latest.

It’s your business you set the hours. There’s obviously a demand for the hours eg are there lots of shift workers or hospital staff. For the right person in a detached house or business premises it sounds like they could really cash in on it. But it’s not feasible for you to offer those hours. Just state your hours clearly on your advertising.

Just decline their requests , its not something to get worked up about

Haven't read the replies, but it's your business so you open and close when you want. You could choose to close at 3pm and it would be down to them if they want to use you.

I would say 6:30 latest, and you dont need to give reasons. You could do what nurseries do and charge extra to keep them until 7pm, but again you set the rules.

What time does your council licence let you trade until?
Here there is only 1 DDC that can go past 7.30pm

YANBU, cheeky fuckers

I would say 6-6.30pm. I also think doing what my son’s nursery does really discourages late pick ups - fees per 15 mins for late pick ups! We pay about £58 a day for nursery for 7am-6pm but every mins after that is £8.

7pm seems very generous to me!

8-6 seem reasonable.

I imagine lots of people are asking for it because there's demand for it but it's something that's not available elsewhere.

It's entirely reasonable of you just to say no. But in your shoes I'd come up with an extortionate price that would make it worth not putting on PJ's for!

For doggy day care I'd expect similar hours to childcare. So 7:30 drop off at the earliest, and 6:30 pick up at the latest.

My doggy day care lady tends to shut at 4:30 and gets a little annoyed if we say we are running 15 minutes late!!

Luckily we are only round the corner from her house but considering most people who use day care work from 9-5/6 it seems a little strange.

YADNBU.

7.30am-6.30pm

People are taking the piss.

Our local kennels, where I regularly leave our dog, has a strict 10am-6pm policy. No drop-offs or pick-ups between these times. And everyone who uses the kennels respects this and pays the extra for another overnight if their return is after 6pm.

My mum's a dog walker and holiday care and has occasionally had dogs in her own home but doesn't offer it anymore due to people pushing their luck and turning up hours after agreed. If people have late flights they're getting in for then they need to book an extra day/night boarding. It's not up to the person offering that service to be available at all times. You don't get this in physical stores or kennels, they also have a cut-off point.

I'd also support others saying 6pm is late enough for most people at 7pm is very generous. It can be very hard to create strict boundaries when running a business like this from your own home.

My dog daycare is 8-6pm and that is good as far as I'm concerned. It is daycare not wrap-around care. If I have to be in another city and leave early/get back late then the dogs have to be boarded and that's totally fair enough.

6.30 pm, the same as the nursery does here.

I’d expect somewhere around 5.30-6pm. 7 would be too late for me

It's your business, and you can run it however you like, but if customers/potential customers are seeking extended pick-up/drop-off times, that points to a clear need for such a service (which it's certainly not down to you to provide, if your choice is NOT to offer extended hours).

You need to be REALLY explicit in your terms and conditions and put measures in place to mitigate the inconvenience of people who try to push those T&Cs: for example, if the dogs are going to bark and inconvenience both you and your neighbours by someone knocking on the door/ringing the bell, I'd be thinking about removing the batteries from the doorbell and putting some kind of door knocker/letterbox baffle in place after hours to prevent the noise from sending the animals into a frenzy - along with a clear notice on or next to the front door/garden wall or gate re-iterating your opening hours.

I can well imagine some owners getting increasingly annoyed and angry by not being permitted to collect their animal(s) after hours, even though you've made it perfectly clear what your opening times are!

I'm sure there will be genuine occasions or first-and-only times when you'll be prepared to waive your opening times, and I think a degree of flexibility goes a long way to creating long-term customer loyalty, but if I were you, I'd definitely be putting measures into place that both explicitly set out my terms of business (and regularly communicating these to my customers - eg: every time they make a booking, or when you make changes to your T&Cs) and taking mitigating action to reduce my own stress levels for customers who can't/won't adhere to those terms.

Also, when I ran my own business (not in pet care, I should add), I wasn't afraid to 'choose' my customers - which I realise is a luxury for many business owners - and came to understand that turning away business/customers who I felt would cause me avoidable stress and difficulties wouldn't mean losing money in the long run.

Best of luck, OP, I imagine running doggy care is both exhausting and stressful (possibly more because of the owners than the dogs, in some cases)!

My dog walker drops the dogs off after her last walk, between 5.30 and 6pm. If your dog is to accommodated after that time your have to book it as an overnight stay. Perhaps you should drop the dogs off yourself at your convenience.

They are not being unreasonable to ask. You are not being unreasonable to say no. they are being unreasonable to be rude when you say no.

It's your business, you choose what hours you want to do.

Personally, if you did allow later pick ups or whatever, I'd expect there to be a surcharge for that. So in an emergency, you will allow a later pick up but with a 50% per hour additional charge for the extra time or a once off fee.

I was going to say 6pm latest so you’re being very generous!

I would have expected 6pm, so 7pm seems more than fair.

My friend has a dog in doggy daycare who drop back at her house between 4 and 5pm, so I suppose session finishes at 4pm.

Turning up at 11-12pm is absolutely bonkers - i would have locked up at ten and sent them a message to collect in the morning and that they would be charged for overnight boarding! Cheeky beggers

I would have said 6. 7 is very generous.

I live in an area where almost everyone is home from work by 5/5:30 though.

@WabbitsAndWeasels

My mum's a dog walker and holiday care and has occasionally had dogs in her own home but doesn't offer it anymore due to people pushing their luck and turning up hours after agreed. If people have late flights they're getting in for then they need to book an extra day/night boarding. It's not up to the person offering that service to be available at all times. You don't get this in physical stores or kennels, they also have a cut-off point.

I'd also support others saying 6pm is late enough for most people at 7pm is very generous. It can be very hard to create strict boundaries when running a business like this from your own home.

The registration required for overnight boarding in a domestic resident is very hard to get. Only 1 centre in our whole area is registered. What council is she in that allows it?