Three cats, two pens, one set of notes
A family books their three cats for a fortnight at half term. The two sisters have always shared and sleep curled up together. The older tom does not get on with them and needs his own pen, preferably one where he cannot see the sisters. The family would like the sisters in a family pen with a heated sleeping area because one of them is elderly.
Your booking system has one line per cat. Someone makes three bookings, writes "sisters share, Tom separate" in the notes, and adjusts the price by hand because your sharing discount does not apply automatically. When a single-cat booking comes in for the same week, nobody can quickly tell whether the family pen is actually free, because it looks like two separate bookings.
Systems that count cats, not households
Most booking software, including much of what is sold to kennels and catteries, thinks in single animals per space, or treats sharing as a note. Catteries need something closer to how cats actually live.
- Cats from the same home may share, may need separate pens, or a mix.
- Pens differ in size, heating, outdoor run and whether they suit sharing.
- Pricing for sharing cats differs from single occupancy in most catteries.
- Sharing arrangements change: a new kitten, a cat who has fallen out with the others.
- Some households must be kept apart from particular other cats in the next pen.
When all that lives in notes, availability and pricing both become guesswork.
Guesswork has a cost
Wrong availability means you either turn away bookings you could have taken or promise a family pen that is not free. Manual pricing means the same household is charged differently on different stays, and the family notices.
Stress for the cats is the other cost. Cats that are split up when they should share, or put together when they should not, have a harder stay, and owners are upset when they hear about it.
Bookings built around the household
What we build treats a household as the unit of booking, with each cat's sharing rules inside it.
- Each household profile holds its cats and who can share with whom, set once and updated when things change.
- Your pens are set up with size, heating, run type, capacity and whether they can take sharers, plus neighbour notes where it matters.
- When a household books, the system suggests a pen arrangement that fits the sharing rules and shows availability for that arrangement, not for individual cats.
- Pricing follows your rules for sharing and single occupancy, applied automatically and shown to the customer in the confirmation.
- Staff can override the suggested arrangement, and the system warns if a rule is broken.
- Feeding, medication and handling notes stay per cat, so sharing cats with different diets are still handled correctly.
| Household | Arrangement | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Two sisters who share | One family pen | Sharing rate from your list |
| Tom who must be alone | Single pen, not facing the sisters | Single rate |
| New kitten added this year | Profile updated, rules asked | Recalculated automatically |
| Single cat, same week | Only pens genuinely free | Standard rate |
Half term, booked properly
The family books online. The system recognises the household, offers a heated family pen for the sisters and a single pen on the other side for Tom, and shows the total with your sharing rate applied. The next single-cat enquiry for that week sees exactly which pens are left.
On arrival, the pen sheet shows the sisters together and their different diets, and Tom's notes are on his own pen.
Does your cattery booking look like this?
- Multi-cat households are booked as separate cats with notes.
- Sharing discounts are worked out by hand.
- You are never quite sure which pens are really free.
- Cats have been put together or apart against the owner's wishes.
- Neighbour issues between cats are handled from memory.