Not every pet owner wants to board their animal. For cat owners especially, the idea of putting their cat in a cattery for a fortnight can feel stressful — for them and for the cat. Many cats genuinely do better at home. A carer who pops in twice a day, fills the food bowl, cleans the litter tray, and spends 20 minutes with them, keeps the cat comfortable in their own environment while the owner is away.
The same applies to dogs in certain situations: an anxious dog who doesn't suit group boarding, an elderly pet who needs minimal disruption, or a household where multiple pets of different species make transport and facility boarding impractical. Drop-in visits — a carer coming to the home one or more times a day — solve all of these.
For pet businesses, drop-in and sitting bookings present a different set of management challenges from boarding. Here's what you need to get right.
The core challenge: scheduling across multiple locations
A boarding kennel operates in one place. A drop-in service operates across multiple client homes, potentially spread across a wide area, with different visit times, different durations and different sitters. Managing this without software is genuinely difficult — a paper diary doesn't tell you whether two bookings are geographically feasible within a single hour, or whether a sitter is already committed somewhere else at that time.
The fundamental requirement is a booking system that ties each job to a specific carer and a specific time window, and makes conflicts visible. A sitter booked for a 30-minute cat visit starting at 10am needs her diary blocked until at least 10:45, accounting for travel. If another cat sitting request comes in for 10:15am in the same area, you need to see instantly whether she can do it.
KennelBooker handles drop-in and cat sitting as distinct booking types, with their own duration, pricing and scheduling rules. Each booking is assigned to a specific carer, and the calendar view shows you where every carer is at every point in the day.
What information you need to capture at booking
Drop-in and sitting bookings require more home-specific information than facility-based boarding. You need:
- Access instructions — how does the carer get into the property? Key collection or key safe code? Is there a gate code? Any alarms?
- Pet-specific care notes — feeding schedule, dietary requirements, medications, any health conditions staff should be aware of.
- Emergency contacts — the owner's contact details while away, plus a local emergency contact who can provide a spare key or deal with an urgent situation.
- Vet details — in the event of a medical emergency, who should be called and where?
- Visit schedule — how many visits per day, at what times, for how long? Morning and evening? Three times daily for a dog with medication?
- Property information — any quirks of the home the carer should know: a dog that's territorial at the door, a cat that hides under the bed and needs coaxing, a bin collection day that the carer should be aware of.
This information should be collected digitally before the first visit, not on a piece of paper handed over when the owner drops off a key. A good pre-visit form — sent as part of the booking confirmation — means the carer arrives fully briefed and the owner doesn't need to be home to give a briefing.
Managing cat sitting specifically
Cats are the most common subject of at-home sitting bookings, and they have particular considerations. Unlike dogs, cats often don't need multiple visits per day — once or twice daily is usually sufficient, unless they have medication or special needs. Many cat owners book a single daily visit for the duration of their holiday, typically 20–30 minutes: food, water, litter tray, a check that the cat is well, and some social time.
The key thing cat owners care most about is reassurance. They want to know the carer actually visited, actually saw the cat (not just opened the door and left a bowl), and that everything is fine. A brief message or photo after each visit goes an enormously long way. The carer sends a quick update — "Biscuit was hiding behind the sofa when I arrived but came out for a play at the end of the visit, eating well" — and the owner relaxes for the rest of the day.
Building this into your service as a standard feature, rather than an occasional personal touch, differentiates you from hobbyist sitters on platforms like Rover. You're a professional service with a documented care record, and the client knows it.
"Our cat sitting clients are our most loyal clients. Once they trust you with their home and their cat, they come back every holiday without even comparing prices. It's a very different relationship from boarding."
— Pet services owner, Glasgow
Pricing drop-in visits correctly
Drop-in visit pricing varies widely: £12–£20 per 30-minute visit in the UK, $20–$35 in the US, with premium rates for holiday periods or out-of-hours visits. A full day's cat sitting — two visits — runs £24–£40 per day, compared to £18–£30 for cattery boarding. Many clients are willing to pay the premium for the at-home option, and the labour cost is lower than a full facility day for you.
Where drop-in services often undercharge is on multi-pet households. Looking after two cats is meaningfully more work than one: double the bowls, double the litter trays, more time for social interaction. A 30% surcharge for the second pet is reasonable and rarely pushed back on.
Bank holidays and Christmas typically justify a 25–50% premium. Clients who want a carer to visit on Christmas Day know it's a significant ask. Price it accordingly and you'll find demand is still there.
Key collection and security
The issue most pet businesses are vague about is the management of client keys. You need a documented process: a signed key receipt, a log of where each key is kept, and a clear policy on what happens to the key after the booking ends (returned to the client, or retained for future bookings with written permission).
Key safes — where the client installs a combination lock box on their door and provides the code — are increasingly common and eliminate physical key handling entirely. They're worth recommending to clients, not least because it removes the liability of holding someone's house key in your possession.
For any new client whose home you'll be accessing, an in-person pre-visit is worth insisting on. Meet the pet, see the property, collect the key or code, and brief on care requirements in person. This also gives you a chance to assess whether the property is appropriate for unaccompanied access — a dog who becomes aggressive when strangers enter alone is a safety issue your standard booking form won't capture.
Turning drop-in clients into regular clients
The most predictable revenue in a drop-in service comes from weekly or fortnightly repeat clients — typically dog owners who are out all day two or three times a week and need a midday visit. This is closer to a standing arrangement than a holiday booking, and managing it well requires consistent scheduling, reliable carers, and proactive communication if anything needs to change.
For these regulars, a set weekly schedule booked a month at a time is much more manageable than ad-hoc bookings. It fills your carers' calendars predictably, reduces the admin of constant individual bookings, and gives the client confidence they have a reliable service. KennelBooker supports recurring booking schedules for exactly this use case.