Flight cancelled, can he stay two more nights?
At 11pm a message arrives from an owner in Spain: their flight has been cancelled and they cannot get home until Tuesday. Can their Golden Retriever stay two more nights? The run he is in is booked from Monday for a new arrival. The owner is stressed and wants a yes.
The message is seen at 7.30. The member of staff on the desk has to check the diary, work out whether any other run is free for two nights, decide whether moving the dog is better than moving the new arrival, rebuild the run plan, update the bill, and reply, all before the morning rush.
Why extensions are hard
An extension looks simple. The difficulty is that it touches the bookings around it.
- The pet's run is often booked for someone else straight after.
- Moving a settled dog mid-stay is unsettling, so staff prefer not to.
- The extension may need medication or food that was only packed for the original stay.
- The bill, the collection slot and any pet taxi booking all need changing.
- Requests arrive out of hours, by any channel.
Most booking software handles a date change on one booking. It does not tell you what else breaks as a result.
What a messy extension costs
If the clash is missed, the new arrival turns up to find no run, and you have two unhappy customers instead of one. If the dog is moved in a hurry, he may have a harder stay. If the extension is refused, an owner stuck abroad will not forget.
Then there is the small stuff that slips: the extra nights not billed, the food that runs out, the medication that was only enough for the original dates.
Extension requests that check the diary
We build an extension route that does the checking for you as soon as the request arrives.
- The booking confirmation and reminders include a link to request a change of dates. Requests by text or email can also be entered by staff.
- The system checks immediately whether the current run is free for the extra nights.
- If not, it looks for options: another suitable run for the extra nights only, or moving the incoming booking to an equivalent run, and ranks them by how many pets would move.
- It checks food and medication stock against the new dates, and flags anything that will run out.
- Staff pick an option. The run plan, the bill, the collection slot and any taxi booking update together.
- The owner gets a reply confirming the new dates and any change to the bill, or a note that staff will be in touch if a person needs to decide.
| Situation | Suggested option |
|---|---|
| Run free for the extra nights | Extend in place, confirm to owner |
| Run booked, equivalent run free for incoming dog | Move the incoming dog before arrival |
| No run free for all nights | Split: current run, then another run |
| Medication runs out | Flag for staff to contact the owner and their vet |
The same 11pm message
The extension request comes through the link at 11pm. The system finds that run 9, identical to the Retriever's run, is free on Monday and Tuesday. It proposes moving the new arrival to run 9 before he arrives, so the Retriever stays put. It also notes that his owner's food will run out on Monday. At 7.30 staff accept the option, the owner gets a confirmation with the new bill, and the kitchen knows to start him on house food on Monday evening.
Do extensions throw your week out?
- Extension requests arrive out of hours by text.
- You find run clashes only when the next dog arrives.
- Settled dogs are moved mid-stay because it was quickest.
- Extra nights are not always billed.
- Food or medication has run out on an extended stay.