Going rate for long term boarding- please help- thanks! - Page 2

    Having a safe and clean place to board is woth a Pretty Penny IMO...: )

    

I have a boarding kennel in Ontario Canada. I charge $15.00 a day and the dogs have a lot of playing time - for no charge to their owners.
If they stay longer then a month - and they are my regular customers I will give them discount of 10%

Iwona

With any puppy or dog I place or sell  I stipulate that I will provide 4 days of free pet sitting, with a charge of $10.00 a day after that. Most people want their dog watched for a weekend or a week, but I have done up to a month. The first 4 days are free every time I watch their pet, not just a 1 time deal. It is a responsibility, as you said though, and for an extended visit, i wouldn't hesitate to charge $10.00 to $20.00 /day.Still much cheaper than the average commercial boarding kennel in our area.

All those rates sound great to me!! The best boarding kennel around here is $27.00 a day plus, they charge for play time, medications, walks, baths etc. It is a fantastic kennel and no matter the price I wouldn't leave them anywhere else around this area but it does hurt the wallet when you have to leave 3 large dogs there for very long. It was almost $400.00 when I boarded the two of them there for 5 days. Of course they need all the extras cuddle time and play time and baths etc. I can't imagine $5.00 a day would be fantastic!! There are cheaper places to board but not nearly as nice as Cascade Pet Camp! So worth the extra money!!

I think I know where I am going to ask for board if the need should arise ;)

Elkoorr, maybe Apache would like to attend a family reunion, lol. All you have to do is ship him here. LOL 

Molly, you're saying that you would watch a dog you'd sold for several months at no charge? A few days to a week, sure...I would too, but to take on a high drive 2yr old adult and bring it into your home....? That requires a significant amount of extra work, rotation, exercise, etc. If I had a boarding kennel, I'd do it for just the cost of food because my daily structure and schedule wouldn't be altered. My house is a whole 'nother story;-)

I have a boarding kennel but often I do bring them into my home if they are still puppies or dogs that can join my "house pack" without a problem.  It's something I offer my puppy owners.  Some of them pay anyway, though I never ask for it and always try to turn the money down, some still pay "something" - others are happy to accept my free offer and that's fine with me. 

molly

If you are going to board this dog long term, I highly recommend asking them to pay at least a month in advance and keep the payments within that structure. Boarding fees soon mount up and if they can't/won't pay the installments they won't pay at the end, you can be sure of that. If you don't keep control it is too easy for the cost to spiral beyond what the people can pay in one lump and things go very much downhill from there. I have boarding kennels and have got into this situation too many times and ended up stuck with the dogs, no payment and friction between me and the owners who gradually drop out of contact because they can't pay.

Also make sure you have a boarding contract drawn up clearly showing what you are prepared to do for the money, who is responsible for any vet bills or other extra expenses incurred and a clause making provision for you to keep or dispose of the dog if not collected within a couple of weeks of the agreed end of boarding date and get it signed and witnessed. You can always get that part updated and signed for each month when they pay the next installment if there is no defintie end of boarding date.

Margaret N-J 

Jen...FWIW....if it were one of "our" puppy people, we would charge them $12-$15 dollars a day plus food. (price depends on the age of dog)...puppies cost $15 (honestly, they are more work).
I think the price is fair and the dogs/puppies are taken care of better than any boarding place can offer.....
*We have watched our buyers puppies also at *no cost*...but it's usually just for a couple of days or long weekend.*

I charge $20 for small dogs, $22 for medium, $24 for large and $26 for anything over 100 lbs. (Got a Cane Corso coming in soon, and that's what they are going to pay. Unlike a previous Cane Corso that I refused to board, they say this one is good with strangers and other dogs!)

What we do in the way of discounts varies, but for a long stay, say a month, I'd offer a 10% discount. We sometimes offer discounts for multiple dogs, too, as long as they can go in the same cage. I had a lady bring 3 Westies in the other day, just for the day (they were camping and wanted to visit the African Lion Safari) and charged her $40 for all 3.

Our rates are some of the best in the area. There is a kennel to the north of us that does doggie daycare as well as boarding. They charge $28 per day for boarding, regardless of the size of the dog! I visited them one day during the spring, when we had NO dogs in for boarding at all. They had about 10 or 12 small dogs, and 3 or 4 large ones. Since the boarders run with the daycare dogs, I'm not sure which was which, but obviously, there were lots of clients willing to pay top dollar for that style of care! (Dogs run free in the basement of the house, which is furnished with a carpet and comfortable upholstered furniture. The large dogs were separated from the small ones by an x-pen. The owner of the business sleeps with the dogs on a fold-out couch.)

Cats are $14, and we will sometimes charge the same for one cat as for two, if it's a long stay, or the people are obviously hurting financially. Cats are't a big part of our business, and we only have 3 kennels for them, plus two metal cages.

Why are we more expensive than most of the prices quoted so far? I don't know, but it could be because our winter heating bills are higher here in Ontario. That 4000 watt electric heater really gobbles up the power!   Petsmart charges $34 a day for my friend's medium-sized boxer mix, and, of course, playtime and walks are extra.

Any of Sarah's puppies that come back get babied and played with. One of her dogs, a  young female, is good with just about ANY dog, so she will usually turn the two out together in the large dog yard. They don't pay extra for this, but she still charges them $24 a day, even though some of these dogs (the adults) are over 100 lbs. Most other boarders get the traditional cage-and-run style of boarding, however, we will allow playtime with other dogs, if the owner requests it. One of our goals for the future is to fence off a large area where big dogs can safely run together, but the cost quoted by the fence guy was $10,000!  [sigh!] Maybe next year, if business picks up enough.