Looking for a KennelBooker Alternative? Here’s How Pet Manager Stacks Up

So, you’ve hit a growth spurt. The phone is ringing off the hook, your kennels are bustling, and the joyful chaos of happy pets is the soundtrack to your days. But behind the scenes, you’re starting to feel the strain. The software that got you off the ground, perhaps a tool like KennelBooker, is starting to show its limitations. You’re in the market for an alternative, something more comprehensive, more scalable, and more aligned with your vision for the future.

KennelBooker is a popular choice for many starting out. It’s known for its straightforward booking and kennel management features. It gets the job done. But as your business expands from just boarding to daycare, grooming, or training, you need a system that can grow with you, not hold you back.

Enter Pet Manager. It’s not just about managing kennels; it’s about managing your entire pet business ecosystem. Let’s explore why Pet Manager is the KennelBooker alternative you’ve been searching for.

Beyond the Kennel: A Truly All-in-One Platform

Many pet businesses are more than just one thing. The kennel that also offers grooming, the daycare that runs puppy training classes – these multifaceted businesses are the future. According to the American Pet Products Association, pet owners are spending more than ever, and they value businesses that can cater to multiple needs.

KennelBooker, as the name implies, has its roots firmly in kennel management. While it has expanded, its core focus remains on boarding.

Pet Manager was designed from the ground up to be a true all-in-one solution. It features separate, dedicated modules and schedulers for every facet of your business: Boarding, Daycare, Grooming, Training, Dog Walking, In-Home Services, and even Canine Hydrotherapy. This isn’t just a single calendar with different labels; it’s a purpose-built environment for each service. Your grooming appointments don’t clutter your kennel availability. Your daycare roster is managed independently from your boarding schedule. This modular approach means the software adapts to your business, not the other way around.

Imagine this: a customer wants to book a 10-day board, with a full groom on day 9, and add their second dog to the Tuesday puppy class. With a less integrated system, that’s three separate, manual operations. With Pet Manager, you can manage all of this within a single customer’s profile, linking all services, invoices, and communications together seamlessly.

Financial Flexibility You Can Bank On

As your business grows, so does the complexity of your finances. You might introduce tiered pricing, seasonal rates, or special discounts for loyal customers.

KennelBooker offers solid invoicing and payment functionalities. You can take online payments and manage your basic financials.

Pet Manager, however, takes financial management to another level with its powerful, rules-based pricing engine. Think of any pricing scenario, and Pet Manager can likely automate it.

• Seasonal Pricing: Automatically apply “Peak Season” rates for school holidays.
• Length-of-Stay Discounts: Set up automatic discounts for stays longer than 14 days.
• Customer-Specific Rates: Offer special pricing for ‘VIP’ or ‘Rescue Partner’ customer types.
• Late Checkout Fees: Automatically add a daycare charge if a pet isn’t picked up by your specified time.

This isn’t just about convenience; it’s about accuracy and revenue protection. No more forgetting to add the public holiday surcharge or giving a manual discount. The system handles it, ensuring consistency and maximizing your income. Furthermore, its deep integration with accounting software like Xero means your financial data is always in sync, making tax time less of a chore.

Next-Level Communication and Customer Engagement

Communication is key to building trust with pet owners. They want updates, they want photos, and they want to feel connected to their furry family members while they’re away.

KennelBooker allows for email communication with customers. But in today’s world, that’s just the starting point.

Pet Manager provides a comprehensive communication suite. You get fully customisable email and SMS templates for everything: booking confirmations, welcome emails sent 7 days prior to a stay, check-in/checkout reminders, vaccination expiry warnings, and more. You can see a full log of every message sent, so there’s never a question of “did they get the reminder?”

But the feature that truly delights customers is Pet Postcards. Imagine being able to send a customer an email midway through their pet’s stay with a lovely photo and a short, personalized update. It’s a small touch that creates a massive amount of goodwill and generates the kind of rave reviews that money can’t buy. One user wrote in a review, “Our clients absolutely love the postcard feature! It sets us apart from our competitors.”

Data, Dashboards, and Making Informed Decisions

Are you running your business on gut feeling, or are you running it on data? As you scale, data-driven decisions become critical.

While most platforms give you basic reports, Pet Manager provides a suite of interactive dashboards that give you a bird’s-eye view of your entire operation at a glance. The main dashboard features clickable tiles showing you who’s in-house, today’s check-ins and checkouts, and any new online bookings needing attention. You can even create custom tiles for specific tasks, like a list of all pets requiring medication that day.

Beyond the main dashboard, there are separate dashboards for each business area (Boarding, Daycare, Grooming, etc.) showing you key statistics, booking graphs, and financial totals for that specific department. Want to know your kennel occupancy rate for next month? There’s a report for that. Need to see which customers haven’t booked in over a year? There’s a ‘Lapsed Customers’ report for that. This level of insight allows you to identify trends, plan promotions, and manage your resources with precision.

Moving on from any software can feel daunting, but when you’re upgrading to a system that not only meets your current needs but anticipates your future ones, it’s not just a change – it’s an evolution.