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.

YANBU. Bloody cheeky of them. As you said @ihavealife1 boarding kennels are not open at the hours you mention. We have boarded our cats before, and they have not opened til 8.30am, and close at 6pm. And on weekends they are open 8.30am til 1pm.

So if you're going away for a few days/a week, and you have to leave your house on Monday at 7am, (for your flight at 9.30am say,) you have to take your pet on Sunday morning. And then if you don't get back til 8pm Friday, you have to collect them Saturday.

So if you're going away for 5 days you still have to pay for 7. We have had this quite often. Having to pay for 2 extra days at the boarding kennels, because of early departures and late arrivals. It's just par for the course. It's a damn cheek for someone to expect to drop their pet off at 5 or 6am, and collect them at midnight!

@LookItsMeAgain

To be honest, irrespective of how you can disconnect your bell, if I was your neighbour and you hadn't gone through the relevant planning approval process, to change the use of your private residence to a business, I'd hate living beside you.

I would want you to find proper kennels and to set up your business and run it from there.

I do have the proper licence. We get on great with the neighbours. I have been very careful to only accept dogs coming and going at reasonable times, which is the whole point of this thread. The bell is unplugged from 7pm until 9am. And in any case, both neighbours are up at the crack of dawn for work. The whole point is to be the polar opposite of kennels - a home from home.

@MurmuratingStarling

YANBU. Bloody cheeky of them. As you said *@ihavealife1* boarding kennels are not open at the hours you mention. We have boarded our cats before, and they have not opened til 8.30am, and close at 6pm. And on weekends they are open 8.30am til 1pm.

So if you're going away for a few days/a week, and you have to leave your house on Monday at 7am, (for your flight at 9.30am say,) you have to take your pet on Sunday morning. And then if you don't get back til 8pm Friday, you have to collect them Saturday.

So if you're going away for 5 days you still have to pay for 7. We have had this quite often. Having to pay for 2 extra days at the boarding kennels, because of early departures and late arrivals. It's just par for the course. It's a damn cheek for someone to expect to drop their pet off at 5 or 6am, and collect them at midnight!

Yes, I agree.

The lady who wanted day care from 5am until 11pm was very persistent that I honour these hours for her - I received several texts, where she was clearly indignant that I wouldn't do this, in order for her to save on my costs (as boarding would be more). I don't accept any bookings from her any more, as I just can't deal with the madness, lol.

The day care we use is 8 - 5 and we can pay extra for one hours earlier or later drop off.

Ours is staying overnight for the first time and I had to book 3 nights (Fri to Monday morning) due to a bank holiday but don’t need them all. No issue with this as I’m happy to pay for good care and trust them but also really I don’t want ddog to feel like I’ve abandoned him for 3 nights when he’s never been away from us over night before. Because of this I am planning to ask about a pick up outside of their usual Sunday hours (which are quite limited) but would respect it if they say no.

I think you should expect people to ask you for what they need/may suit them but be comfortable saying no or explain you’ll do something for an extra fee.

@ihavealife1

The lady who wanted day care from 5am until 11pm was very persistent that I honour these hours for her - I received several texts, where she was clearly indignant that I wouldn't do this, in order for her to save on my costs (as boarding would be more). I don't accept any bookings from her any more, as I just can't deal with the madness, lol.

Did she only want to pay for one day too?

I'd say 6pm is more than reasonable!

I looked into doing daycare (I currently do walking and sitting) but I didn't want to lose the privacy I get at home. Is it hard to run a business from home that essentially never closes?

Unfortunately running your own business always means you get cheeky fuckers that think you are there to just serve them 24/7.

I'd say keep your boundaries and don't be afraid to turn business down if they seem like piss takers

7pm is pretty generous, I think. It's day-care, not full board! I would probably have expected 6 - 6.30pm - basically enough time for people to finish a standard working day and get to you to collect the pooch.

If people work shifts or are going out after work or whatever, they need to look at a different kind of arrangement for their dog, like a pet-sitter who comes to them for a couple of hours or something.

[quote MurmuratingStarling]@ihavealife1

The lady who wanted day care from 5am until 11pm was very persistent that I honour these hours for her - I received several texts, where she was clearly indignant that I wouldn't do this, in order for her to save on my costs (as boarding would be more). I don't accept any bookings from her any more, as I just can't deal with the madness, lol.

Did she only want to pay for one day too?[/quote]
Yes! LOL

I think some people are just a bit odd OP. I am also self employed and work 9-5, Monday to Friday doing a very obvious office based 9-5 job. I had someone call me at quarter to 8 one evening and berate me for my phone being engaged for 30 minutes (I'd been calling my dad). When I told them I didn't usually take work calls in the evening they told me my business would never go anywhere if I wasn't prepared to work 24/7 🙄 Needless to say I declined their project. I've also had a couple of calls at the weekend when I've made it obvious I'm out with my children, but still the potential client just carries on talking obliviously !!
My motto is if the client is 'testing before you've started working with them then walk away because from experience it won't get any better.