Taking grooming bookings by phone because your online booking tool doesn't know that Max needs two hours not one, requires a muzzle, and has a skin condition your groomers need to know about before he arrives?
Boarding a dog whose kennel cough vaccination expired last month because there is no system checking vaccination status before the booking is confirmed?
Pet Services Booking Software Development
Custom booking software for grooming salons, dog daycare, boarding kennels, dog walkers, and pet sitters who need appointment scheduling with pet-specific rules, vaccination tracking, and capacity management built around how their business actually runs.
Generic booking tools handle appointments. We build the pet profile layer -- breed and size-based duration rules, vaccination record gating before boarding or daycare is confirmed, kennel capacity by group size and breed compatibility, and automated reminders that keep customers coming back.
Online booking with pet profile selection and breed-specific duration rules
Vaccination record tracking with expiry reminders and booking gating
Capacity management for daycare and boarding by kennel and group size
Automated booking confirmation, reminders, and post-visit follow-up
Pet services booking software handles the specific logistics of booking and managing appointments for grooming, daycare, boarding, and walking businesses -- including breed-specific duration rules, vaccination record gating, kennel capacity management, and owner communication. It stores pet profiles, tracks vaccination expiry, enforces capacity limits for daycare and boarding, and automates confirmations, reminders, and post-visit follow-up. RaftLabs builds custom booking systems for independent pet service businesses and multi-location groups.
100+Products shipped
·24+Industries served
·FixedCost delivery
·12-14Week delivery cycles
Booking software that understands what makes pet services operationally different
Booking software built for hair salons or medical practices doesn't understand that a nervous large breed needs a different appointment slot than a calm small breed, that a boarding kennel must verify vaccination status before confirming a stay, or that daycare capacity is limited by staff-to-dog ratios and breed compatibility rather than just available time.
Pet service businesses need software that carries pet-level data into every booking -- health and temperament information visible at the point of service, vaccination status enforced before confirming daycare or boarding, and customer communication automated around the pet's schedule rather than the owner's calendar.
We build booking systems for pet service businesses that understand these operational realities from the start, not as bolted-on configuration.
What we build
Online booking with pet profile
Online booking for grooming, daycare, boarding, dog walking, and pet sitting with pet selection at the booking step so every appointment is linked to the correct pet profile. Breed and size-based duration and pricing rules applied automatically -- a standard groom for a Golden Retriever books a different slot than a Chihuahua, without the owner needing to know the difference. Add-on services selectable at booking: de-shedding, nail trim, teeth brushing, and medicated shampoo. Owner emergency contact and vet details stored against each pet profile and visible to staff before the appointment. Service notes and temperament flags displayed to the groomer or carer on the day's run sheet.
Appointment scheduling with service duration rules
Service duration configuration by breed, coat type, and service level -- double-coated breeds, doodle coats, and matted coats block longer slots than short-coated breeds. Buffer time between bookings set per groomer so baths, drying, and clean-down time are accounted for before the next dog arrives. Capacity management by grooming bay or kennel so the booking system only shows availability when a bay and groomer are both free. Recurring booking for regular clients with the same slot reserved weekly or monthly. Walk slot scheduling with maximum dogs per walker per slot and group composition rules. Schedule view for each staff member showing the full day's appointments with pet details and any alerts.
Vaccination record tracking
Vaccination record stored against each pet profile -- vaccine type, date administered, and expiry date. Required vaccination check enforced before a boarding stay or daycare visit is confirmed -- if a required vaccination is expired or not on file, the booking is flagged for review or blocked from confirming, depending on your policy. Automated expiry reminder sent to the owner when a vaccination is approaching its renewal date, with a prompt to upload the updated record. Document upload flow for owners to submit updated vaccination certificates via the customer portal. Staff review step before the record is marked as current and the booking is cleared. Vaccination status visible on the booking confirmation seen by the groomer or carer.
Automated communication
Booking confirmation sent immediately with appointment details, preparation instructions, and any pre-visit requirements -- what to bring for boarding, grooming prep notes. Reminder messages sent 48 hours and 24 hours before the appointment with confirm or reschedule options. Collection notification when the pet is ready -- sent with a note from the groomer or carer and any photos taken during the visit. Post-visit follow-up message with a brief service summary and a rebooking prompt. Vaccination expiry alerts sent to the owner at a configurable lead time. Re-engagement messages for pets that have not visited in their typical interval, surfacing lapsed customers before they find a competitor.
Capacity management for daycare and boarding
Kennel availability management for boarding -- total kennel count, kennel size allocation by dog size, and date-range availability so a boarding booking only confirms if a suitable kennel is free for the full stay. Daycare capacity by staff-to-dog ratio and physical space limits -- the booking system checks both before confirming a daycare place. Group size rules for dog walking slots -- maximum dogs per walker per walk with breed compatibility configuration to keep certain combinations out of the same group. Overnight boarding capacity visible by date so owners and staff can see availability across a week or month. Waitlist management for fully booked daycare and boarding dates with automatic notification when a space opens.
Invoicing and payment collection
Card pre-authorisation at booking for grooming appointments to reduce no-shows, with authorisation released or captured on completion. Deposit collection for boarding stays with balance payable at check-out. Package and credit tracking for clients on grooming plans or daycare bundles -- session credits deducted automatically at each booking. Online payment via card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Invoice generation with itemised service and add-on lines. Automated payment reminders for outstanding balances. Revenue reporting by service type and staff member showing which services and staff members are generating the most bookings and revenue.
Frequently asked questions
PetLinx, 123Pet, and similar platforms handle standard grooming and boarding booking well for most single-location businesses. Custom software is the right choice when your booking logic goes beyond what the platform's configuration supports -- breed-specific duration rules, vaccination gating with a document review workflow, and group compatibility rules for daycare. It also makes sense when you're operating multiple locations and need consolidated reporting alongside shared pet and customer records, or when you're building a pet tech product to sell to other operators. Platform subscriptions carry lower ongoing cost than custom software. We'll tell you directly if the configuration would meet your requirements before recommending a build.
Each pet profile stores a vaccination log with the vaccine name, date administered, and expiry date. When a booking for boarding or daycare is made, the system checks whether all required vaccinations are current for that service type. If a vaccination is expired or missing, the booking is flagged -- either for manual staff review before confirmation, or blocked from confirming automatically, depending on your policy. The owner receives an automated message asking them to upload an updated vaccination certificate via the customer portal. A staff member reviews the document, marks the record as current, and the booking is cleared for confirmation. The same expiry check runs automatically at a configurable lead time before the visit and sends a reminder to the owner if renewal is needed.
Daycare and boarding use different capacity models. For daycare, capacity is set by your staff-to-dog ratio and the physical space -- for example, a maximum of 15 dogs with a minimum of two staff members present. The booking system checks both the dog count and the staff schedule before confirming a daycare place for a given day. For boarding, capacity is kennel-based -- each kennel has a size and breed suitability configuration, and the system checks availability by date range before confirming a stay. A booking for a large breed only confirms if an appropriately sized kennel is free for the full duration. Waitlists handle overflow for fully booked dates, with automatic notification to owners when a place opens up.
A focused booking system covering online booking with pet profiles, vaccination tracking, automated communication, and invoicing for a single-location business typically delivers in 12 to 14 weeks from requirements sign-off. Adding capacity management for daycare and boarding, group compatibility rules for dog walking, and a customer portal for vaccination record uploads extends the scope to 16 to 18 weeks. Multi-location builds with consolidated reporting and shared customer records typically take 18 to 22 weeks. Cost is fixed and agreed before development starts. We'll tell you directly if an existing platform would cover your requirements at lower cost.
Veterinary Software -- clinical veterinary software for practices and animal hospitals
Talk to us about your pet services booking project.
Tell us the challenge -- booking logic, vaccination enforcement, daycare capacity, or multi-location management -- and we'll tell you what we'd build and how.
