Grooming salon scheduling in a generic booking tool with no way to record breed, coat type, or grooming preferences that the next stylist needs?
Boarding facility managing kennel capacity in a spreadsheet with no automated waitlist or departure checklist?
Pet Grooming and Boarding Software Development
RaftLabs builds custom software for grooming salons and boarding facilities -- appointment scheduling, pet profiles with breed and coat notes, service packages, staff management, client communication, and payment processing.
Generic booking tools handle appointments. They don't handle the information that matters in a grooming salon -- breed, coat type, temperament notes, grooming preferences, and the history of every previous visit that the next stylist needs before picking up the scissors.
Appointment scheduling with pet and breed details
Grooming notes and service history per pet
Boarding capacity and kennel management
Automated reminders and client communication
RaftLabs builds custom software for grooming salons and boarding facilities -- appointment scheduling with pet and breed details, grooming notes and service history per pet, boarding capacity and kennel management, staff scheduling, automated client reminders, and payment processing. Projects are fixed cost with 10-14 week delivery cycles.
100+Software products shipped
·FixedCost delivery
·10-14Week delivery cycles
·24+Industries served
Grooming and boarding software built around the animal, not just the appointment
The problem with using a generic booking tool for a grooming salon is that a booking is not just a time slot. It is a Labrador with a double coat and a sensitive left ear. It is a Poodle whose owner wants a specific clip length and has asked three times that the stylist not use the high-velocity dryer. None of that information has a field in a generic system, so it lives in a paper card, a handwritten note, or the memory of a particular stylist. When that stylist is off, the information is gone.
Boarding is a different problem. A grooming appointment is a one-to-one interaction. Boarding is a capacity management challenge -- a fixed number of kennels, animals arriving and departing on different days, vaccination requirements to check at intake, and a departure checklist that has to happen correctly every time. A spreadsheet can hold the names. It cannot automate the waitlist, flag an animal with an expired vaccination, or generate the feeding and medication schedule for each animal in the facility on a given day.
What we build
Appointment scheduling and calendar
Appointment booking with service type, duration, stylist assignment, and pet details captured at the time of scheduling -- not added later as a note. Service duration varies by breed and coat type, so the system sets the correct slot length based on what the owner selects rather than using a flat default. Staff calendar view showing each stylist's day with pet name, breed, service type, and any flagged notes for that animal. Same-day schedule changes handled without losing the pet information attached to the original booking. Online booking option for clients with pet profile and service selection, feeding directly into the salon calendar without admin intervention.
Pet profile with grooming history
Pet profile per animal with species, breed, coat type, colour, temperament notes, any health conditions that affect handling, and the owner's standing preferences for that pet. Grooming notes added after each visit -- what was done, what the stylist noticed, any client feedback -- stored against the pet record and visible on the next booking. Service history timeline showing every visit, the stylist who handled the animal, the services delivered, and the notes from that session. Allergy and product sensitivity flags visible on the booking record so the stylist sees them before starting. Photo storage per pet to record current coat condition or a reference style the owner has requested.
Service packages and pricing
Service catalogue with individual services and packages configurable by the salon -- full groom, bath and dry, nail trim, ear clean, and combinations. Pricing set per service with breed-specific price tiers where coat complexity justifies a different rate. Package booking where a client pays for a set of visits upfront at a discounted rate, with visit balance tracked per pet. Add-on services selectable at booking or at the appointment. Invoice generated from the services delivered, not from the booking estimate, so any add-ons captured during the appointment appear on the final bill. Payment collected at checkout by card or digital wallet.
Staff and room or kennel management
Staff profiles with working days, hours, and service capabilities -- not every stylist handles all breeds or all service types. Appointment assignment based on availability and capability match. Room or station assignment for salons with multiple grooming areas. Kennel allocation for boarding with capacity limit enforced at booking -- the system prevents overbooking a facility that is full. Kennel status board showing each kennel, the animal in residence, dates of stay, feeding schedule, and medication notes for the current day. Departure checklist assigned per animal on the day of checkout.
Client communication and reminders
Appointment confirmation sent to the owner when a booking is made. Reminder sent by SMS and email at a configurable lead time before the appointment -- 48 hours and 2 hours are common defaults. No-show and cancellation tracking per client so the salon can identify patterns over time. Boarding check-in confirmation with the animal's intake notes sent to the owner so they have a record of what was noted on arrival. Departure notification when the animal is ready for collection. Review request sent after each grooming visit. Lapsed client reactivation message triggered after a configurable period without a booking.
Reporting and business analytics
Daily appointment and revenue summary for the salon owner or manager. Revenue by service type and stylist over any date range -- showing which services and which team members drive the most income. Booking volume by day of week and time slot to identify understaffed periods and underused slots. Client retention report showing repeat visit rate and average time between bookings per client. No-show and cancellation rate by client and by period. Boarding occupancy rate and revenue per kennel for facilities running both services. Export of booking and revenue data for accounting reconciliation.
Frequently asked questions
Grooming software is primarily a scheduling and pet record system. The core workflow is: book an appointment with the right pet details, assign to the right stylist, capture the service and notes on the day, and invoice at checkout. Boarding software is primarily a capacity and care management system. The core workflow is: check availability before accepting a booking, manage intake with vaccination verification and feeding or medication notes, track the animal daily against those care notes, and process departure with a checklist. A combined grooming and boarding product needs both layers. Businesses that do only one of the two don't need the complexity of the other, and we scope accordingly.
Breed affects both the duration of a grooming service and, in some cases, the price. A Golden Retriever full groom takes longer than a Chihuahua full groom. We build service duration and pricing tables that vary by breed group or coat type -- the owner selects the breed at booking, and the system sets the slot length and price accordingly. For salons with more granular pricing, the tables can go down to individual breed level. Stylist experience is a second variable -- a new stylist may need a longer slot for the same service than an experienced one. The system supports per-stylist duration overrides per service type if the salon needs that level of control.
Yes. Multi-location grooming businesses need each location to operate independently -- its own calendar, its own staff, its own kennel or room allocation -- while a group owner or manager has visibility across all locations. We build a location hierarchy where each site manages its own schedule and bookings, and a group dashboard shows revenue, appointment volume, and occupancy across all sites. Client records can be shared across locations so an owner who books at one branch and then moves to another doesn't need to re-enter their pet's information. Reporting is available per location and in aggregate for the group.
A focused grooming salon tool covering appointment scheduling with pet profiles, grooming history, service packages, reminders, and payment typically runs $15,000 to $40,000. A full platform adding boarding capacity management, staff scheduling, kennel management, departure checklists, business analytics, and an online booking portal typically runs $30,000 to $80,000. Multi-location builds are scoped individually based on the number of sites and the reporting requirements. Cost depends on the number of staff, service complexity, boarding capacity, and any third-party integrations. We price every project at fixed cost, agreed before development starts.
Talk to us about your grooming or boarding software project.
Tell us your current booking process, your team size, and the specific problems you need the software to solve. We'll tell you what we'd build and how long it would take.
