What would you want from a cattery?

[miggy]

Am hopefully building a small luxury cat hotel, just 9 units, each able to take 3 or 4 cats fom a family (though also for 1 or 2 cats)
The pens will basically be like little rooms, indoors and heated (but biggest pen size of any cattery in uk), with a cat flap to a small outdoor run area.
This will very much be designed for the cats comfort, eg lots of places to hide, not being overlooked by other cats etc but as a doting owner what things would make you feel your cat was to be well cared for and happy and are there any services that you would like?
Hopefully will have on line booking, accept paypal or credit cards and offer collection/delivery service.
did think of webcams?

I think your biggest selling point is that you're a vet and are more than able to look after and medicate diabetics, hyperthyroids etc.
As a vet nurse I used to do a lot of house sitting and these were my most common clients.

That's quite true. Seniorboy is on meds and although in his case they're not normally problematic (added to food and not injections or pills) it is important that he gets them on a regular basis. If he had to go into a cattery, I'd be so much happier if I knew that the person running the cattery could really appreciate the need for that - and also know what to do if he went on a food strike or something.

Having a vet in charge would just be generally such a relief - to me, certainly and to other owners also, I think. After all, no-one really likes putting their cat in a cattery and people can become very anxious about it.

Thats true, one of the universities recently did a study of quality of life for pets and owners with diabetes and the number one stressor for owners of diabetic cats was what to do when they went on holiday.
Will send a letter round all the local vet practices just to let them know we exsist.
Want lots of nice healthy cats as well though :)

on the litter front i was planning on a covered tray indoors and open tray outdoors ( run is roofed) with a choice of either wood pellet style (pos cardboard though) or softer clumping stuff depending on cats preferences. Obv want to avoid litter tray strikes :)

Have you tried chick crumb? It looks like ultra clumping litter but is made of maize.

20kg is £8 but it lasts longer than ultra clumping. The animal feed places do it, I got mine from a shop that was essentially a barn with a till.

If you are going to be using lots of it it makes sense to keep costs own, eg I often use the £ shops for stationary because even though I can claim it back you still have to pay for it and I only claim 20% back.

I guess you'll include a question in the booking form, miggy? Having different types around will bulk a bit but if you have a barn, presumably you can construct a quick inner waterproof Supplies Room to keep, food, litter and spare kit of all sorts. Some utilitarian shelving on the walls should do most of it. (Relatively inexpensive for decent stuff commercially although if DH or you are 'handy' they should be easy enough to put up yourselves.)