A boarding facility lives and dies by the peak. The week around Thanksgiving, the two weeks over Christmas, the Fourth of July — about 45% of the year's bookings land in those windows, occupancy runs 80–90%, and a double-booked run or a dog that shows up with an expired rabies certificate becomes an operational emergency. Pet boarding and kennel software is built for exactly this: run/occupancy management so you never oversell, vaccine tracking that blocks a booking before the dog arrives, deposits that hold peak dates, and feeding/medication schedules and report cards that prove the care happened. This guide covers the boarding workflow end to end, what to look for, and which real platforms fit a small kennel or a multi-suite resort.
The operational pain #
The end-to-end flow is where boarding software either earns its keep or fails. A stay starts with online booking — ideally the client uploads vaccine records and pays a deposit before you ever pick up the phone. At check-in, staff verify vaccines (rabies is legally required in every state; DHPP and Bordetella are near-universal facility requirements), confirm feeding and medication instructions, and print a kennel/run card. Through the stay, staff log feeding and medication on schedule and send a report card with photos. At checkout, the deposit applies, the invoice closes, and — done right — the client rebooks. Break any link and you get the pains owners actually describe: overbookings when capacity isn't enforced, expired vaccines caught too late, day-vs-night charging that the software can't model, and no-show risk on peak dates that a deposit would have covered.
What to look for in boarding software #
- Run/occupancy management with capacity caps. The system must know how many runs, suites, and daycare spaces you have and refuse to oversell them — especially at peak. Per-day caps (limit big dogs, suites) are a real requested feature.
- Vaccine tracking with expiry blocking. Store rabies/DHPP/Bordetella records and auto-block or flag a booking when a required vaccine is expired or missing. This is the core compliance surface for boarding.
- Printable kennel/run cards. The physical artifact staff work from — feeding, medication, and handling notes per dog, per run.
- Feeding and medication schedules. Logged and checkable, so care is provable and nothing gets missed on a full weekend.
- Deposits + peak/holiday pricing. Hold peak dates with a deposit and a card-on-file, and apply holiday surcharges (standard industry practice) automatically.
- Report cards with photos. The trust-builder and rebooking driver — proof the dog had a good stay.
- Flexible boarding models. Day-vs-night, half/full-day, and per-24h charging vary by facility; inflexible service modeling is a top complaint, so confirm yours is supported.
The boarding & kennel platforms worth knowing #
Revelation Pets — Best for small independent kennels #
A clean, easy-to-learn cloud platform for small daycares, boarding kennels, catteries, groomers, and trainers, with 24/7 online booking, vaccination tracking, automated SMS/email reminders, integrated payments, and a well-regarded free data-migration service. Pricing is transparent — Silver $60/mo, Gold $77/mo (Gold adds API access) — with a no-card free trial. Reviews are strong (Capterra 4.8/176). Honest caveats: reviewers report bugs (including a disappearing recurring reservation), a payments/Stripe flow that isn't always obvious, and limited POS. Owners scaling past ~25 dogs sometimes outgrow it.
ProPet — Best for multi-service facilities that want modular pricing #
A founder-owned all-in-one for boarding, daycare, grooming, training, and retail, structured modularly so you pay only for what you use ($49.99/user/mo base per Capterra, plus modules). Standouts include a Vaccination Manager with automated reminders and cloud record storage, Kennel View for occupancy, report cards with pet photography, a Smart Pricing engine, and a genuinely broad integration list (QuickBooks Online, Stripe, Square, Mailchimp, Zapier, Twilio). Reviews are strong (Capterra 4.7/104). Honest caveats: reviewers describe the retail module as clunky, post-sale support as inconsistent, and overbooking when capacity limits aren't enforced.
Kennel Connection — Best for desktop-first and hybrid operators #
A 30-year platform for boarding, daycare, grooming, training, retail, and pet sitting that uniquely offers cloud, hybrid (online + offline), and desktop/offline deployment — appealing to kennels that want local-database reliability plus online booking. Cloud and Hybrid are $149/mo, Desktop from $89, and a grooming-only Hello-Groom tier is $69. Honest caveats: there's no free trial (demo only), no annual discount is advertised, 2-way SMS is a $50/mo add-on, and some long-term users report the software has grown "quirky" with runtime errors and payment-screen crashes.
Kennel Booker — Best for capacity-priced small-to-midsize kennels #
A cloud booking and management platform for kennels, catteries, daycare, grooming, walking, and board-and-train, priced by capacity rather than per user — $49.99/mo (up to 10 rooms) to $122.99 (up to 100), with a 14-day no-card trial and free migration. It bundles 24/7 booking, vaccination-compliance tracking with expiry alerts, custom questionnaires, dietary/medical info per pet, digital pet postcards, and POS. Reviews are solid (Capterra 4.6/77). Honest caveats: online payments are Stripe-only, calendar month-to-month navigation is awkward, and adding a service to a boarded dog doesn't surface cleanly on the schedule.
ProPet alternatives aside, larger and desktop-committed operators should also weigh two more: #
KennelSoft — Best for owners who want to own the software outright #
A Michigan vendor selling Windows desktop/on-premise software (Atlantis and Avalon) on a mostly one-time perpetual license — an unusual model in a SaaS-dominated niche. Atlantis runs $695 (LITE) to $1,095 (single-user Full), Avalon $299 single-user, with an optional annual support plan and a $365/yr web-reservation add-on. It's deliberately pitched as outage-proof local software with unified boarding/grooming/daycare scheduling, multi-run assignment, loyalty rewards, built-in card processing, and collar/label printing. Best for owners who want to avoid recurring per-month fees; a poor fit if you want cloud/mobile-first and modern integrations.
K9Sky — Best for mid-market facilities wanting clear edition pricing #
A 100% web-based platform for boarding kennels, daycare, grooming, and training with clear edition-based pricing — Pro from $45.83/mo (annual first year), Corp $87.50, Enterprise $133.33 — and multi-location support out of the box. It includes online reservations, boarding management with vaccination alerts, groomer assignment, deposits/payments, and customer communications. Honest caveats: setup fees apply on all editions, 24/7 support is a $30–$50/mo add-on (base is business hours), and reviewers want more integrations and a stronger native mobile app.
Comparison #
| Platform | Best for | Starting price | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revelation Pets | Small independent kennels | $60/mo | 4.8 (176) |
| ProPet | Multi-service, modular pricing | $49.99/user/mo | 4.7 (104) |
| Kennel Connection | Desktop-first / hybrid | $69/mo (Hello-Groom); $89+ desktop | 4.4 (80) |
| Kennel Booker | Capacity-priced small-mid kennels | $49.99/mo | 4.6 (77) |
| KennelSoft | Own it outright (desktop license) | $299 one-time (Avalon) | — |
| K9Sky | Mid-market, clear edition pricing | $45.83/mo | — |
How to choose #
Start with deployment and size. If you want cloud-first simplicity for a small kennel, Revelation Pets or Kennel Booker fit; if you need modular multi-service depth, ProPet; if you're desktop-committed or want local-database reliability, Kennel Connection (hybrid) or KennelSoft (own it outright). Then pressure-test the two things that break boarding operations: watch a booking hit a capacity cap and get refused in a demo, and watch an expired vaccine block a reservation. Confirm the system charges the way you do — day-vs-night, per-24h, half-day — because inflexible service modeling is a top complaint. And make sure deposits and peak/holiday surcharges are automatic, since that's how you protect the peak weeks that make your year. Facilities that also run heavy daycare should compare the doggy daycare software guide, and multi-service operators the pet care business software hub. Browse the full catalog on the vendors hub.