Twenty calls before lunch
On a Monday in spring, the kennels phone rings every few minutes. "Have you got anything for the week of 3rd August? Two dogs, medium size." "Is there space for my cat over New Year?" Each call means stopping, opening the diary, working out which runs are free across all the nights asked for, and explaining the answer. The emails and Facebook messages say the same thing and wait until evening.
Many of those calls end with "sorry, we're full". That is half an hour of the morning spent saying no.
The diary is the only source of the answer
Availability is the most common question, and the answer is locked in a diary only staff can read.
- The website says "call us to check availability".
- Checking a multi-night stay means looking at every night for a free run of the right size.
- Multi-pet households and sharing complicate the check.
- Staff often answer from memory rather than the diary, and get it wrong.
- Messages arrive out of hours and wait until the morning.
Answering the same question all day
Every availability call pulls a member of staff off the runs or away from arrivals. In busy months, some callers give up and ring the next kennels on the list, and you never know they tried.
Out-of-hours enquiries are a lost opportunity too. People plan holidays in the evening. If your answer comes the next day, they may have booked elsewhere already.
A live availability check that reads your diary
What we build is an availability check on your website, connected to your real bookings.
- The customer enters dates, number of dogs or cats, sizes and whether they share.
- The check reads your bookings, whether in kennel booking software with an API or in a system we build, and looks for runs or pens of the right type free for all nights asked.
- It answers straight away: available, partly available (for example, all but one night), or full with an option to join the waiting list.
- Where there is space, the customer can go on to request or book, with vaccination upload and deposit if you want those steps.
- Rules you set are respected, such as not showing peak-week availability to new customers until regulars have rebooked, or holding a few runs back for staff to allocate.
- Every check is logged, so you can see demand for each week, including requests you could not meet.
| Enquiry | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Space for two dogs in August? | Phone call, diary check | Answered on the website |
| Cat over New Year, 10pm Sunday | Email answered on Monday | Answered instantly |
| Fully booked week | Staff time to say no | Waiting list sign-up |
| How busy is next summer? | Feel | Demand log by week |
Your phone still rings for questions that need a person, such as a nervous dog or a special diet. It rings less for the question a screen can answer.
Monday morning, quieter
The same spring Monday, most availability questions are answered on the website overnight and over breakfast. Three people have requested bookings and uploaded vaccination cards. Two have joined the waiting list for August. The phone calls that do come through are about the dogs, not the diary.
Is this your phone?
- Most calls and messages are about availability.
- Your website asks people to phone to check for space.
- Staff check the diary between jobs, sometimes from memory.
- Out-of-hours enquiries wait until the next day.
- You do not know how many people you turn away each week.