The way you charge for daycare shapes almost everything about your business — client behaviour, cash flow, admin workload and how full your facility runs on any given day. Most daycare owners start with a simple daily rate and never revisit it. That's usually a mistake. Different pricing structures suit different clients, and the right mix can meaningfully increase both revenue and retention.
There's no single right answer, but there is a wrong one: pricing by gut feel and never thinking about it again. Here's how the main models work, what they're good for, and where each one falls down.
The flat daily rate
The simplest model: you charge a set amount per dog per day. No commitments, no packages, no tracking credits. The client shows up when they want, pays when they leave.
In the UK, full-day daycare typically runs £18–£35 depending on location and facilities. In the US, $35–$65 is the common range for a full day. Half-day rates are usually 60–70% of the full-day price — not exactly half, because your overhead doesn't halve when a dog leaves at lunchtime.
Where it works well: Flat rates are perfect for occasional clients — people who need daycare once or twice a month rather than weekly. They're easy to understand, easy to communicate, and require no client account management. There's nothing to track and nothing to expire.
Where it falls short: It gives your most loyal clients — the ones who come every week — no reason to commit. They can book at the last minute, cancel freely, and feel no particular loyalty to you over a competitor offering a similar price. You also end up with unpredictable revenue: busy some weeks, quiet others, with no reliable baseline.
Most daycare businesses should use flat rates as their entry-level option, not their only option.
Credit packages (block bookings)
A credit package is a bundle of daycare days sold upfront at a discounted rate. Common structures are 10 days for the price of 9, or 20 days for the price of 17. The client pays in advance, and credits are drawn down each visit.
This model does several useful things at once. It brings cash in before the service is delivered, which smooths your cash flow considerably. It locks in revenue even if a dog doesn't come in some weeks. And the discount incentivises clients to commit — they feel they're getting value, and they've already spent the money, so they're more likely to use you consistently.
The critical detail is expiry. Credits that never expire create a long-term liability on your books — you owe those days indefinitely. Most operators set a 3–6 month expiry window. Be transparent about this upfront; a client who loses credits because they forgot about the expiry is an unhappy client. Some businesses handle this by offering to convert expired credits into a store credit for add-on services rather than losing them entirely, which feels fair and keeps goodwill intact.
The admin challenge: manually tracking who has how many credits remaining is tedious and error-prone. If you're running packages on a spreadsheet, you'll eventually make a mistake. Good daycare management software handles this automatically — clients can see their balance, and it decrements with each visit without anyone having to remember.
"We introduced 10-day and 20-day packages three years ago. Our cash flow improved immediately, and we noticed clients started booking further ahead because they'd already committed."
— Daycare owner, Manchester
Multi-pet discounts
If a household has two dogs and you charge full price for both, you might get one dog in regularly and the second occasionally. Offer a 15–20% discount for the second dog from the same household, and you'll often find both dogs come in together every time.
The economic argument is straightforward: a second dog in your facility adds incremental cost (a bit more staff attention, marginally more space) but not double the cost. You can afford to discount because the margin on the second animal is still healthy, and the incremental revenue from a dog that wasn't coming at all is pure gain.
Multi-pet discounts work particularly well when combined with packages. A household with two dogs on a 20-day package becomes a very sticky client — they've invested meaningfully, they're getting value, and switching to a competitor means starting over.
Keep the discount structure simple. A "second dog from the same household" rule is easy to communicate and administer. You don't need a tiered system for three or four dogs — just apply the discount from the second dog onwards and call it a day.
Monthly subscriptions
The subscription model is the most recent evolution in daycare pricing, borrowed from gym memberships and streaming services. A client pays a fixed monthly fee for unlimited (or capped) daycare days. Common structures include "5 days a week unlimited" or "up to 20 days per month" for a set monthly price.
The appeal is obvious: predictable monthly income, deeply loyal clients, and a client who feels they're getting maximum value from their subscription and will therefore use you consistently. In the US, monthly subscriptions typically run $400–$850 depending on how many days are included and the local market.
The risks are real, though. A client on an unlimited subscription who sends their dog every single working day is potentially underpriced — you need to model this carefully. If your facility runs at capacity during the week, an unlimited subscriber blocking a space while occasional clients can't book is a genuine problem. Many operators get around this by limiting subscription slots — selling, say, 10 monthly memberships maximum — or by making subscriptions day-specific (the client nominates their days each month).
Subscriptions also create churn risk at the renewal point. A client who cancels a £500/month subscription is a meaningful revenue loss in a way that a package client isn't. Handle renewals proactively: remind clients before they auto-renew, and consider offering a loyalty discount for clients who've been subscribed for six months or more.
Which model is right for your daycare?
Most successful daycare businesses don't pick one model — they layer them. A typical structure might look like this:
- Flat daily rate for walk-in and occasional clients
- 10-day and 20-day packages for regular clients who want flexibility
- Multi-pet discount applied on top of any of the above
- Monthly membership for your most frequent clients, with capped day limits to protect your capacity
The key is making it easy for clients to upgrade. A client who's been using the flat rate for six months has shown you they're committed — they just haven't been given a compelling reason to buy a package. A well-timed email pointing out how much they'd save over a year on a 20-day block is often all it takes.
KennelBooker handles all of these pricing models in a single system. You can set up packages with credit tracking, configure multi-pet rates, and manage subscription clients — all without spreadsheets or manual reconciliation. If pricing admin is currently eating your time, it doesn't have to.