During school holidays, most boarding kennels have more demand than capacity. When a cancellation comes in for Christmas week or the August bank holiday, there's almost always another client who would take that run — if only you had a way to reach them quickly. A waitlist is the mechanism that converts those cancellations from lost revenue into filled capacity. Yet most kennels run their waitlist as a sticky note or a mental list that they remember only when the phone rings at the right moment.
A managed waitlist — with clear client expectations, a defined process, and a fast communication method — can recover the majority of last-minute cancellation revenue during peak periods. Here's how to build one.
Why most waitlists fail
The typical approach: a client calls to ask about a fully booked period. The receptionist says "we're full but I can take your number." The number goes on a piece of paper. When a cancellation comes in, someone tries to call the number, gets voicemail, tries another number on another piece of paper, and by the time they reach a willing client it's often too late or the run has already been marked unavailable.
Three things make this work poorly: the information isn't organised, the outreach is slow, and the client on the waitlist has no clarity about what being on it actually means. Fixing all three is straightforward.
Structure your waitlist properly
Treat a waitlist request the same way you treat a booking enquiry. When someone asks to go on the waitlist for a period, collect the same information you'd collect for a booking: client name, contact details, dog's name, breed, desired dates, and a flexible date range if they have one. Log this in your booking system, not on paper.
Organise waitlist entries by period. Christmas waitlist. August half-term waitlist. Easter waitlist. Each is a separate pool of potential clients, and when a cancellation comes in, you go to the relevant pool. A single undifferentiated "waiting list" where you're trying to match complex date requirements against available gaps in real time is unworkable.
Note the client's flexibility. A client who needs exactly December 23–28 has very narrow usefulness to you. A client who needs any time during the Christmas period and has family who can flex around your availability is far more useful. Ask the question when they join the waitlist and record the answer.
Contact waitlist clients by text, not phone
When a run becomes available, time matters. A phone call that goes to voicemail has already lost the race. A text message arrives in 30 seconds, is read within a few minutes, and can be responded to without the client needing to step away to make a call.
Your text should be brief and specific: "Hi [name], we've had a cancellation for December 23–28 and thought of you for our waitlist. Would you like to book [dog's name] in? Reply YES and we'll send you a booking link, or call us on [number] if you'd like to discuss." That's all it needs to be.
Contact the first two or three clients on the waitlist simultaneously, not one by one. Your run fills when the first one responds yes — you simply thank the others and keep them on the list for future availability. You're not over-committing; you're racing to fill a cancellation, and speed is the point.
"We put all our waitlist clients into a WhatsApp group for each peak period. One message reaches everyone instantly. We can usually fill a Christmas cancellation within the hour."
— Kennel owner, Northamptonshire
Set clear expectations with waitlist clients
The most frustrated waitlist clients are those who didn't understand what being on the list actually meant. They thought they were guaranteed a place. They told their family they were sorted. They feel let down when a cancellation doesn't materialise and they spend Christmas without pet care.
Be explicit: "The waitlist means we'll contact you if we have a cancellation during this period. We can't guarantee availability, and spots go to whoever can confirm first. If you're not happy with that uncertainty, we'd recommend exploring other options in parallel." This is not a negative message — it's honest, and it prevents the resentment of misaligned expectations.
Give priority to existing clients
When multiple people are on the waitlist for the same period, prioritise existing clients over new enquiries. A client who's boarded with you six times a year for three years should get first right of refusal on a cancellation over someone who's never been to your kennel. Loyalty should have tangible value — this is one way to make it real.
Communicate this to clients: "We give priority for waitlist cancellations to regular clients who've boarded with us before. New clients are welcome to join the waitlist and we'll be in touch if we have capacity once we've offered it to our regulars first." This is a policy that rewards loyalty, and most clients receive it positively.
Maintain the waitlist year-round
A cancellation in January for next Christmas might seem far off, but the client who joins your waitlist in January is committed and organised. Don't turn them away — add them to next year's peak period waitlist and note the date they joined. In September, when you open Christmas bookings and see you have 3 runs still available, the clients who've been on the waitlist longest get first contact.
KennelBooker lets you tag clients with waitlist periods and contact groups, making it straightforward to send targeted messages to specific client pools when cancellations or capacity open up. If you're currently managing this with a notebook and your memory, the upgrade in recovery rate for peak cancellations will be immediate.