Custom software for grooming salons, doggy daycares, boarding facilities, and pet care groups who need booking, pet records, and staff management built around the specific logistics of caring for animals, not generic appointment scheduling.
Off-the-shelf booking tools handle appointments. We build the pet profile layer, record-verification workflow, service-specific booking logic, and loyalty mechanics that standard configuration cannot express.
Appointment booking with pet-specific service requirements, duration rules, and health notes
Pet profiles and care records with document status, owner-provided notes, and service preferences
Staff scheduling with groomer assignment, capacity management, and automated customer reminders
Loyalty programs, subscription plans, and multi-location management for growing pet care groups
The problem
Taking grooming bookings over the 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?
Losing customers between visits because there's no automated reminder, no loyalty incentive to come back, and no way to track which pets are due for their next appointment?
Short answer
RaftLabs builds pet services software for grooming, boarding, and daycare operators. A focused v1 with pet profiles, booking, payments, and staff tools costs $30,000 to $65,000 and takes 12 to 20 weeks. Custom fits when pet, capacity, or location rules exceed standard tools.
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Booking software built for hair salons or medical practices doesn't understand that a nervous large breed dog needs a different appointment slot than a calm small breed. It doesn't know that a boarding kennel needs vaccination proof before confirming a stay, or that daycare capacity is limited by staff-to-dog ratios rather than just physical space.
Pet service businesses need software that understands these operational realities: pet-level data attached to every booking, care and safety notes visible at the point of service, and customer communication automated around the pet's schedule rather than the owner's calendar.
The booking slot is only one part of the system. The correct model depends on the service being reserved.
| Service model | Inventory being reserved | Rules the system must check |
|---|---|---|
| Grooming | Groomer time, station, and service duration | Pet size, coat, add-ons, staff skill, and preparation time |
| Daycare | Daily capacity, play area, and staff coverage | Approved pet status, attendance limits, and check-in rules |
| Boarding | Kennel or room nights plus care tasks | Date overlap, pet compatibility, record status, and deposit policy |
| Training | Trainer time, class capacity, or programme credits | Pet level, prerequisites, attendance, and package balance |
A generic appointment tool may be enough when these rules are simple. Custom software becomes useful when the rules affect availability, require staff approval, or must stay consistent across locations.
Appointment scheduling that doesn't account for each animal's specific needs
Grooming slots go into a physical diary. Boarding availability lives on a whiteboard. Customers who want to book online can't. Customers who call during a busy grooming session can't get through. Appointment data isn't connected to the pet's service history, so every booking starts from scratch. The result: groomers walking into an appointment with no warning about the dog's skin condition or that he needs a muzzle.
Required records and care notes not visible at the point of service
A dog arrives for daycare. The required record is in a filing cabinet. The groomer does not see the owner-provided skin note from the last visit. Information that should appear at check-in is stored in a format that makes it invisible when it matters. The system should surface care notes to authorised staff and hold a booking when a required document has not been verified.
Boarding availability tracked manually, which leads to overbooking at peak times
Kennel availability is managed by whoever knows which runs are occupied. During school holidays and peak periods, bookings come in faster than the whiteboard gets updated. Overbooking happens. A customer who has already arranged travel discovers their dog has no place to stay. That customer doesn't come back, and they tell people.
Owner communication handled ad hoc, so reminders and updates get missed
Appointment reminders go out when someone remembers to send them. Post-visit updates depend on which staff member is free at the end of the day. Record-expiry reminders do not happen unless a staff member notices the date when the next booking arrives. A workflow should make each message traceable: which event triggered it, which channel delivered it, whether the owner responded, and what staff must do next. That makes communication measurable without claiming that a reminder or photo will automatically improve retention.
Online booking for grooming, daycare, boarding, and training with service-specific duration rules and capacity limits. Pet selection at booking links the appointment to the correct pet profile and service history. Size, coat, and service rules can reserve different durations without relying on breed alone. Add-on services are selectable at booking. Deposits can be captured for boarding stays, with cancellation rules shown before payment. Availability reflects confirmed bookings and active checkout holds across staff members and service stations.
Pet profile management with breed, age, weight, temperament notes, and owner emergency contact stored against each animal. Record management includes document upload, staff verification, expiry tracking, and automated alerts before a boarding stay or daycare visit. Care notes and owner-provided allergy information are visible to authorised staff before the pet arrives, flagged at booking confirmation and on the daily run sheet. Service history by pet shows each visit, service performed, groomer notes, and approved photos. Vet contact information can be stored against the pet record for emergencies during boarding or daycare.
Staff scheduling with groomer and carer assignment based on availability, skill level, and pet-specific requirements. Nervous or reactive animals can be assigned to the same staff member for consistency. Capacity rules for daycare and boarding account for dog-to-staff ratios and kennel or play area limits, not just appointment slots. Daily run sheets for each staff member show pet arrival times, service details, health notes, and special instructions. Time tracking for each service against target durations helps identify where appointments run over, so the business can adjust pricing or scheduling. Staff availability management handles leave requests and cover assignment.
Automated appointment reminders go out via SMS and email at 48 hours and 24 hours before the booking, with confirmation and rescheduling options. Post-visit follow-up messages include a summary of services, notes from the groomer, and photos from the visit sent directly to the pet owner. Vaccination expiry alerts go to the owner when a vaccination on file is approaching renewal. Re-engagement messages surface lapsed customers before they find a competitor. Boarding update notifications give owners a midday photo and message when their pet is staying overnight.
Loyalty programs can award points on eligible bookings and redeem them for configured services, add-ons, or products. Subscription grooming plans let regular customers pay a monthly fee for a set number of grooms, with bookings created according to plan rules and customer confirmation. Daycare memberships can hold a monthly day allowance. Referral rewards trigger when the defined qualifying event occurs. A ledger records every earn, redemption, expiry, correction, and staff override.
Online payment processing at booking with card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Deposit management for boarding stays with balance collection at check-out. Invoicing for commercial accounts such as rescue centers and breeders. Multi-location management for pet care groups shows revenue, booking volume, capacity utilization, and customer metrics across all sites in one dashboard. Shared customer and pet records across locations mean an owner can book at any site without re-entering their pet's details. Per-location reporting runs alongside a brand-consistent customer-facing booking experience with location-specific pricing and capacity rules.
Off-the-shelf pet services platforms handle standard grooming and boarding booking well for most single-location businesses. Custom software is the right choice when your booking logic exceeds what the platform's configuration supports: pet-specific durations, document verification, capacity rules, or shared multi-location records. It also fits when loyalty and subscription mechanics go beyond the platform or you are building a product for other operators. Custom development carries maintenance cost that subscription platforms absorb, so we compare both options against the same workflow before recommending a build.
Vaccination gating checks the records required by your business and local rules before a boarding or daycare booking is confirmed. Owners upload a document, an authorised staff member verifies it, and the system records the status and expiry date. Missing, expired, or unverified records can trigger a reminder, manual review, or booking hold according to your policy. The software supports the workflow; your team remains responsible for deciding which records are required and approving them.
Yes. A groomer can take a photo in the staff app, attach it to the appointment, and send an approved update by SMS or through the customer app. The important design choice is operational: decide which visits need updates, when staff should capture them, who can review them, and how consent and retention are handled. We measure delivery, replies, and later rebooking instead of assuming photos improve retention.
A focused v1 with pet profiles, booking, payments, staff scheduling, and reminders typically costs $30,000 to $65,000 and takes 12 to 20 weeks. A full platform with loyalty, subscriptions, customer apps, and multi-location operations usually costs $65,000 to $120,000. Complex products with marketplace roles, extensive integrations, or advanced data migration can reach $100,000 to $160,000. Scope, integrations, and record-verification workflows determine the final fixed price.
Loyalty Program Development
Custom loyalty mechanics for pet services businesses covering visits, product purchases, referrals, and subscription rewards.
Custom Software Development
Custom pet services platforms, booking systems with pet profiles, and vaccination gating tools built for your service model.
Business Process Automation
Automate appointment reminders, vaccination record expiry alerts, rebooking prompts, and staff scheduling.
Tell us the challenge, booking, pet records, staff scheduling, or loyalty. We'll tell you what we'd build and how.
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