How to Get More Clients for Your Pet Hotel: Google Maps, Rover and AI Answers Before the Holidays

A pet hotel fills its rooms through three things: a Google Business Profile with real photos of the kennels or cat suites, reviews that mention how the pet was on return, and a site that states vaccination rules, prices per night and holiday dates in plain text. Owners book boarding days or weeks before a trip, compare two or three places, and visit if they can. Make each of those comparisons easy and you win the booking; leave the price or the vaccine rules hidden and they call the next place.

Where pet hotel clients look today

Boarding is a planned purchase with a hard deadline. The trip is booked, the flight date is fixed, and the dog or cat needs a place. That creates two very different searches.

The planned search. Weeks before summer or the Christmas break, owners type "dog boarding near me" or "cattery" into Google Maps, open three to five profiles, and read reviews closely. They look at photos of where the animal will sleep, the size of outdoor runs, whether dogs are walked individually or in groups, and whether cats are kept away from dogs. Many ask a friend, a vet receptionist or the local dog-walking group on Facebook. More and more often they also ask ChatGPT or Gemini something like "best cattery near Leeds with separate heating" and get a short list.

The emergency search. A sitter cancels, a relative falls ill, a work trip appears. These owners search on a phone, call the first place that shows availability, and do not read much. Here the winner is the profile that answers the phone, shows "open now" hours correctly and says clearly whether last-minute stays are possible.

Platforms. In the US, UK and much of Western Europe, Rover lists boarding, sitting and day care, but mostly from individual sitters. For a home-based boarder it can be a real channel. A licensed kennel or cattery gets most bookings from Google Maps, its own website and repeat clients. Yelp still matters for boarding in some US cities, and Apple Maps shows up for iPhone users who search from the map.

Repeat clients. A pet hotel has an unusual advantage: once an anxious dog settles in one place, its owner rarely switches. The first stay is the expensive one to win. Everything below is about winning that first stay.

What people ask ChatGPT and Google

Typical searches and prompts from pet owners:

• "dog boarding near me with no kennel cough vaccine requirement"
• "cattery in Bristol where cats don't share air with dogs"
• "pet hotel open on Christmas Day for drop-off"
• "dog boarding that takes reactive dogs in Manchester"
• "best dog hotel with webcams"
• "how much does dog boarding cost per night in Austin"
• "boarding for an elderly cat that needs insulin injections"
• "kennels with individual walks, not group play"
• "is it better to use a dog sitter or a kennel for a nervous rescue dog"

To answer, an AI assistant pulls what it can find: your Google profile category and reviews, the words people use in those reviews ("came home calm", "gave her medication", "sent photos every day"), your website text, and mentions on listing sites or local forums. It needs plain facts to quote: price per night by pet size, which vaccines you require, whether you accept medication, intact males, puppies or reactive dogs, your opening hours for drop-off and pick-up, and whether you are licensed. A place whose site only says "your pet's home from home" gives the assistant nothing to work with.

The plan: 10 steps

1. Fix the Google Business Profile category and hours (1 hour)

Pick the primary category that matches what you mainly do: Pet boarding service, Kennel, Cattery or Dog day care center. Add the others as secondary categories only if you really offer them. Then set drop-off and pick-up hours, not just "office hours". Add special hours for every bank holiday and the Christmas week well in advance. Google's help page on editing your business hours shows how.

2. Photograph where the animal actually sleeps (half a day)

Owners want to see the bed, not the logo. Upload: each type of kennel or suite, the outdoor run or garden, the cat room with windows and shelves, the kitchen where food is prepared, the fridge with labelled medication, staff walking a dog on a lead. Add a short video tour of a typical day.

3. Publish a "Before your pet's first stay" page (2–3 hours)

This page does the most work for both Google and AI answers. Put on it, in plain text:

• required vaccines (for dogs, for example, distemper, parvovirus and kennel cough; for cats, the core vaccines you require) and how recent they must be
• flea and worming rules
• what to bring: food, bed, toys, medication with instructions
• whether you require a trial day or a visit before the first stay
• policies for intact males, females in season, puppies, senior pets
• check-in and check-out times and what happens if a flight is delayed

Keep it on one URL such as /first-stay, and link to it from your Google profile.

4. Put prices on the site (1 hour)

"Call for prices" sends planned searchers elsewhere. Show the price per night by dog size or per cat, the second-pet discount, extras like individual walks, medication, grooming before pick-up, and the holiday surcharge if you have one. If prices vary, give a range and say what changes it. AI assistants answer "how much does boarding cost" with whatever numbers they can find, so make sure yours are among them.

5. Show the licence and your rules on care (30 minutes)

In England, boarding needs a council licence under the animal activities regulations, and many councils publish a star rating. Elsewhere it may be an insurance policy, a veterinary partnership or a kennel association membership. Whatever you have, write it on the homepage and in the profile description with the licence number. Add who your vet is and what you do if an animal falls ill.

6. Create one page per guest type (1 day)

Separate pages answer separate questions better: "Dog boarding", "Cattery", "Day care", "Senior and special-needs pets", "Small animals and rabbits" if you take them. Each page should say who it suits, how the day looks (walks, feeding times, quiet time), the price and the vaccine rules for that animal. The page for senior pets is where you win the owner whose cat needs insulin twice a day.

7. Ask for reviews at pick-up, with a specific prompt (ongoing)

Pick-up is the emotional moment. The pet is happy, the owner is relieved. Send a short message the same evening: "Thanks for trusting us with Max. If you have a minute, a Google review helps other owners. It helps most if you mention how he settled in and how he was when you got home." Reviews that mention medication, a nervous dog settling, or daily photo updates are the ones that later get quoted in AI answers to exactly those questions. Use your profile's review link from Google's guide to getting reviews.

8. Plan holiday capacity in public (2 hours per season)

Add a post to your Google profile and a banner on the site in early spring for summer and in early autumn for December: "Christmas stays: booking opens 1 October, X runs left". Update it as you fill. This answers "pet hotel open over Christmas" searches and stops calls you cannot take.

9. Add structured data (1–2 hours)

Use schema.org LocalBusiness (there is no dedicated pet hotel type) with name, address, geo, openingHoursSpecification, telephone, priceRange and aggregateRating if you show reviews on the site. List your services with makesOffer. The schema.org LocalBusiness page lists every property.

10. Get mentioned where local owners talk (ongoing)

Ask your vet, local groomers and dog trainers whether they would list you as a boarding option they trust, and offer the same in return. Answer questions in the local Facebook dog groups or Nextdoor as yourself, with useful advice rather than adverts. If you are a home boarder, keep a Rover profile with the same photos and rules as your site. Consistent facts in several places are what make an AI assistant confident enough to name you.

Checklist

Mistakes that cost pet hotel clients

• Hiding vaccine rules until the phone call. An owner who finds out at drop-off that the kennel cough jab is missing will not come back, and may leave a review about it.
• Photos only of the reception area. If owners cannot see where the dog sleeps, they assume the worst.
• Wrong hours on bank holidays. The worst review a boarding business gets is "we arrived and the gate was closed".
• Answering a "my dog came back thin" review with a defence of the dog's appetite. Explain what happened, what you fed and what you will change. Other owners judge you by this.
• One page for everything. A single "Services" page cannot rank for both "cattery" and "dog day care", and an assistant cannot tell which you are better at.
• No word about medication. Owners of diabetic, epileptic or elderly pets are loyal clients for years, and they look for this sentence first.

Check in 10 minutes whether AI recommends you

Open ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity in a private window and paste:

1. "Which pet hotels or kennels near [your town] would you recommend for a nervous dog, and why?"
2. "Is there a cattery in [your town] that keeps cats away from dogs?"
3. "How much does dog boarding cost per night in [your town]?"
4. "I need boarding for an elderly cat who needs daily medication in [your town]. Where should I look?"

A good answer names your business, repeats something true from your reviews or site (individual walks, daily photos, medication given) and gets your price range roughly right. A bad answer skips you, describes you vaguely, or quotes an old price or the wrong opening hours. Each bad answer points to the step above that fixes it. Show Me Geo runs this kind of check across hundreds of questions for local businesses and tracks the answers over time.

Next guide: How to Get More Clients for Your Pet Grooming Salon: Google Maps, Rebooking and AI Answers