Pet Hotel Business Plan Template

Are you about starting a pet hotel? If YES, here is a complete sample pet hotel business plan
template & feasibility report you can use for FREE.

Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a pet hotel. We also took it further by
analyzing and drafting a sample pet hotel marketing plan template backed up by actionable
guerrilla marketing ideas for pet hotels. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.

Table of Content

Why Start a Pet Hotel?

Pet Hotel Business Plan – Executive Summary

Pet Hotel Business Plan – SWOT Analysis

Pet Hotel Business Plan – MARKET ANALYSIS

Pet Hotel Business Plan – SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

Pet Hotel Business Plan – Publicity and Advertising Strategy

Pet Hotel Business Plan – Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

Why Start a Pet Hotel?

Starting a pets’ hotel business can be fun especially if you are passionate about pets and a lucrative
business as well. Pets’ hotel exists for owners who through one reason or the other – personal,
business, vacation – are not able to be with their pets and so take them to a place where they can
stay and be cared for the duration of a time they intend to be away. To however start and run a
successful pet hotel business, there are several factors to consider.
Such factors include zoning regulations, laws, the sizes of the pets, equipment and data storage. If
these things are not taken into consideration, you could encounter hitches trying to run the
business especially if you are going to run the business close to where people live or in your house.

Every business needs a business plan and the pet hotel business is no different. If writing a business
plan sounds intimidating, you should consider sourcing for free pet hotel business plan online to
guide you. Below is a sample of a pet hotel business plan;

A Sample Pet Hotel Business Plan Template

Business Overview

The pets grooming industry is one that doesn’t have any companies with a dominant share in the
market. The industry which is often joined with the pets grooming industry has yearly revenue of
$7bn. The industry has witnessed an 8% growth between 2011 and 2016. There are approximately
104,000 pets boarding and grooming business employing over 180,000 people in the united states
of America.

As at 1988, the first pet survey that was conducted had about 56% of households in the United
States owning pets. However, recent survey by National Pet Owners Survey, between 2015 and
2016, saw 65% of households in the United States owning pets which amounts to nearly 80 million
homes.

The kind of pets that were owned ranged from bird, cat, dog, horse, saltwater fish, freshwater fish,
reptile and small animals. Freshwater fish, cat, dogs and birds were amongst the pets that were
owned by majority of those who owned pets in the United States of America.
The industry is regarded as recession proof and is one of the few industries that have made
tremendous gain over the last ten years, and even doubling in size especially during the economic
downturn experienced by the economy.

The changing demands of customers for new luxury pet services has greatly benefitted the industry
and the trend is expected to continue to gain momentum even till 2021, especially as it is projected
that pet ownership will increase and that more people will increase the disposable income for
luxury services for their pets.

According to IBIS World, the pets boarding industry is one that is in its growing life cycle, which has
seen more businesses start up and more people being employed. Also, the industry has seen
operators introduce niche luxury services for pets over the past five years, which has contributed to
the profit seen in the industry.

The value of the industry has outpaced that of the GDP of the United States during the period
between 2011 and 2016 and is expected to rise to an average annual rate of 7.3% before 2021,
while the GDP before 2021 is expected to rise by an average annual rate of 2.2%.

According to the American Pet Products Association, APPA, pet owners as at 2015, spent a total of
$60.28 billion with that of 2016 expected to be higher. Out of this amount, pet services such as
boarding had about $5.41 billion expended on this segment by pets’ owners. The revenue for 2016
is estimated to be $62.75 billion, with boarding having about $5.73 billion.

Pet Hotel Business Plan – Executive Summary

Patty Pet Hotels is a leading and standard hotel for pets here in San Francisco – California. Our core
service is to ensure that we help owners board their pets and take general care of the pets till the
owners come for them. We also intend to offer other services as well in order to grab a huge share
of the market here in San Francisco.
Our strategic location here in San Francisco is elemental to our success as there are a large number
of pet owners that can afford to provide luxury services for their pets which makes us sure of
meeting our set target. Our vision is to provide a safe and secure environment for all the pets that
will board at our facilities by providing the best care possible for the pets here in San Francisco.

In order to ensure that we attain our desired objectives, we are going to hire only those that are
proficient enough and have the required knowledge necessary to handle the pets that we would
board at our facility. This is why we are taking our business structure very seriously and ensuring we
set the right foundation.

We have created a welfare package for our employees, which is the best in the industry. We know
how important it is for our employees to remain happy at what they do as this will improve
productivity for the business overall. We would also ensure that our employees undergo
continuous trainings to enhance their skills.

We have strategies in place that would allow us be able to compete favorably with all our
competitors as we have studied the weaknesses of our competitors and know where to strengthen
our services in order to gain a large share of the market.

We know how important our customers are to us and we intend to treat them right by ensuring
that we offer them excellent customer care. Our customer care executives are highly trained and
remain updated about the trends in the industry.

Finally, the owners, Patrick and Patricia Taylor have between them the right expertise and years of
experience necessary to ensure that the business gets to its desired level. Patrick has several stints
at the veterinary clinics for 10 years and Patricia has several years of experience of managing a
business.
Our Products and Services

At Patty Pets hotel we intend to provide our clients with various services so as to have a large
database of customers from the target market, whilst also generating revenue to boost our bottom
line and sustain our business.

In addition to boarding facilities, we intend to run other services that are in line with our core
business concept, which will include grooming and walking services. All the services we intend to
run will conform to industry standards and best practices and will be under the permissible laws of
the United States of America;

Therefore, some of the services and products we intend to offer are;

Pet boarding facilities

Pet bathing

Pet grooming

Pet walking

Pet snacks

Pet accessories

Giving or medication to pets

Consultancy services

Our Vision Statement

Our vision is to provide the safest and conducive boarding facilities for pets and be the preferred
pets’ hotel here in San Francisco
Our Mission Statement

In order to achieve this vision, we intend to get the right equipment and ensure that we provide a
conducive environment along with the right staff for all the pets that will be boarding at our facility.

Our Business Structure

Having the right business structure is very important to us here at Patty Pets Hotel because we are
concerned with getting the business started on the right foundation that will allow for smooth
business operations. It is for this reason that we sought for and hired the best employees that are
not only competent and have the right experience but understand the business thoroughly and
have great passion for caring for pets.

Our employees know and understand our vision as a company and are committed to ensuring that
we become the preferred pets’ hotel for pet owners here in San Francisco. We are committed to
ensuring that we properly pay our employees the right salary and wages and that their other
welfare packages including their insurance are up to industry standards. We know that the right pay
would improve productivity for our pets’ hotel business.

Asides from paying them well, we also intend to ensure that they receive continuous training that
will not only enhance their skills and improve productivity for us but also improve their skill set in
the overall industry and also be able to handle all the different tasks that will be assigned to them
due to the various services we are going to be offering.

Therefore, below is the business structure we intend to build at Patty Pets Hotel;

Chief Executive Officer

Admin and Human Resource Manager

Pets Hotel Manager

Marketing Team

Accountants/Cashiers

Customer Service Executives

Purchasing Manager

Security Guard

Driver

Cleaner

Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Officer

In charge of making strategic decisions on behalf of the hotel

Drafts and ensures that company policies are understood and implemented by the employees

Evaluates and reviews the strategies used by the hotel and removes ineffective ones

Admin and Human Resource Manager

Sources for and recruits competent employees on behalf of the hotel

Ensures that employees welfare packages are well coordinated

Ensures that the facility runs smoothly

Pets Hotel Manager

Coordinates all activities that take place at the pet hotel

Inspects the facility and effects repairs where necessary

Ensures that the facility is up to standard at all times

Marketing Team

Conducts a market research that will bring forth new customers for the hotel

Drafts marketing strategies that would be used to bring in new clients to the hotel

Conducts direct marketing on behalf of the hotel

Accountants/Cashiers

Prepares all the financial records and statements on behalf of the hotel

In charge of issuing vouchers and receiving cash on behalf of the hotel and monitoring it as well

Drafts the budget in collaboration with the chief executive officer

Customer Service Executives

In charge of answering enquiries from clients on behalf of the hotel

Possess updated knowledge of the hotel’s principles and policies

Keeps an accurate customer database on behalf of the hotel

Purchasing Manager

In charge of procuring all the supplies used by the pet hotel

Sources for reliable vendors and suppliers on behalf of Patty Pets Hotel

Ensures that the contract document are constantly reviewed on behalf of the company
Security Guard

Patrols the premises to ensure that it is safe and secure

Scrutinizes incomings and outgoings of clients, staffs and their properties

Carries out any other duty as is determined by the human resources manager

Driver

In charge of bringing in supplies needed by the pets hotel

Ensures that the vehicle is maintained at all times

Carries out light maintenance work on the vehicle

Cleaner

Ensures that the everywhere around the premises are kept clean everyday

Clean up all the areas concerning the pets

Ensure that the convenience s kept clean for staff and clients

Pet Hotel Business Plan – SWOT Analysis

In order to ensure that we had the best concept for our business, we hired a well known business
consultant here in San Francisco, who not looked at our business concept but had a high
understanding of how the industry worked and was able to conduct a thorough analysis for us.

The analysis which took stock of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats we were
likely to face in the course of the business is referred to as SWOT analysis. Below is the result of the
analysis that was conducted for Patty Pets Hotel here in San Francisco:
Strengths

We have several strengths working for us and they include the fact that we have a strong
relationship with pets associations and veterinary clinics, as well as pet stores. Our team takes good
care of all the pets at our facility as there is no issue of neglect or cruelty on any of the pets.

Also, due to our excellent and efficient services, most of our customers are highly loyal to us and we
have retained a high number. Finally, we have a competent and professional team who are well
trained to handle all the pets and who have the right expertise necessary to ensure that we remain
in business.

Weaknesses

Since we are relatively new in the market and haven’t generated revenue yet, we have a limited
marketing budget and so might not be able to carry out all the marketing activities and strategies
we intend to for now. Also, as much as we would love to board every pet, we won’t be able to do
so based on the fact that we have limited capacity.

Opportunities

This is a growing market and more opportunities exist for us as not everyone is aware of our
existence; this means we would intensify our efforts at creating publicity for our business. Another
opportunity stems from having fixed costs no matter the number of pets we board.

Threats

Facing threats is what every business new or existing should expect an so every serious business
should be prepared to handle whatever threats are likely to crop up during the course of running
the business. The threats we are likely to face include arrival of new competitors into the same area
and location, a slump in the economy which will result in less people wanting to spend extra on
their pets and disease breakout amongst pets in the boarding facility.

Pet Hotel Business Plan – MARKET ANALYSIS

Market Trends

The pets’ hotel market which is sometimes referred to as pets’ boarding provides pet care services
which includes boarding amongst other activities. This usually includes animal shelters and pet
boarding. This business caters to pet owners who have to go away for a while either due to
personal, medical or business reasons and usually need somewhere their pets can put up for the
duration of time they are away.

These sort of pet owners prefer this service to having to get a pet sitter to come and care for their
pets in their homes during their absence. This has caused a tremendous growth in this market as
pet owners would want their pets to be properly taken care of by professionals while they are
away.

Another trend with pets boarding services is the fact that most of those in this business usually
offer other services that would complement their core service. The offering of other services is also
a way of not only adding more revenue and boosting the bottom line; it is also a way at ensuring
that the business gets more customers and inadvertently a huge share of the market.

Finally, due to intense competition in this industry from large scale dog boarding businesses to the
individual people going into this business, the stakes have increased in trying to gain a huge share
of the market, as ore strategies keep cropping up as businesses seek to attract more customers to
patronize their services.

Most pet hotel businesses have either started lowering the prices, offering one or two of their
services for free in order to gain customers, or going into a niche market where there aren’t too
many competitors in order to stand out from others offering the same services. This has led to
diverse services being offered and also made the industry to become vibrant and more recession
proof.

Our Target Market

Just like any other business, it is important for us that we determine our target market as this
would help us draft better strategies that would be effective in getting this target market. Knowing
how important the location of a business is in determining the growth of the business, we are
confident that our strategic location will not be restrictive; it would instead open us up to more
opportunities that the target market has to offer.

Due to this reason, we have conducted a market research that would help us determine what
exactly the target market is looking for when they put up their pets for boarding and what we
should expect from them as well. Therefore the following groups of people are those that we would
be offering our pets’ hotel services to;

Households

Corporate Executives

Business people

Celebrities and important personalities

Sports men and women

Tourists

Our competitive advantage

Patty Pets Hotel is a leading pet’s hotel that has been established to make profit by offering
boarding facilities to all natures of pets here in San Francisco – California. To achieve or vision of
being the preferred pets boarding facility we have outlined different strategies that will be used in
ensuring that we maintain a competitive advantage over other boarding facilities here in San
Francisco.

To stand out from others, we intend to offer additional services to or core boarding services for the
different pets. These additional services are; pet boarding facilities, pet bathing, pet grooming, pet
walking, pet snacks, pet accessories, giving or medication to pets and consultancy services. We are
confident that even though or competitors might offer some of these services, they won’t offer all
and that will make us stand out.
Secondly, we have sourced for and hired competent employees that are quite professional and
understand the pets boarding business thoroughly. Our employees also understand our vision and
are committed to working to ensure that we attain the desired goals and objectives. Our employees
are well paid and have the best pay packages across similar start-up such as ors in the industry.

Asides ensuring that our employees have the best remuneration and welfare packages. We also
carry out regular appraisals to ensure that hard working employees are adequately rewarded with
promotion or fringe benefits so as to encourage them. Finally, for our employees we make sure
that they undergo regular trainings that would not only enhance their skills but also improve their
productivity for the company as well.

Finally, we take our customers very seriously. We know the importance of having customers in a
business and we have gone all out to ensure that we provide our customers with the excellent care
by not only politely answering their enquiries and offering our suggestions but also ensuring that
we resolve their complaints as fast as we can, while also conducting periodical follow up.

Pet Hotel Business Plan – SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

Sources of Income

Like every other business that has been established to make profit, we at Patty Pets Hotel intends
to not only care for pets at our facility but ensure that we generate revenue and make profit as
well. However, even though our core service is providing boarding facilities for pets; we intend to
add other services as well in order to boost our bottom line whilst also getting more customers for
our business.

We therefore intend to generate revenue at Patty Pets Hotels by offering the following services;

Pet boarding facilities

Pet bathing
Pet grooming

Pet walking

Pet snacks

Pet accessories

Giving or medication to pets

Consultancy services

Sales Forecast

Due to various statistics and facts, pet owners have become more loving towards their pets, and
treating these pets as humans. It is for this reason why demand for services such as ours have
increased and will continue increasing. Our strategic location here in San Francisco has us optimistic
of reaching our revenue target and exceeding it within a year of operation. We are confident that
we will not only sustain the business but grow it as well.

We conducted a thorough analysis on this business and hired the services of a sales consultant to
look into the market and determine what our chances were of generating revenue and reaching our
target in as few months as possible. Data was gotten from similar start-ups and used to conduct this
analysis here in San Francisco.

Therefore, below are the sales projection that was conducted for Patty Pets Hotel based on several
assumptions and data.

First Fiscal Year-: $270,000

Second Fiscal Year-: $450,000

Third Fiscal Year-: $920,000

N.B: The above sales projection was conducted for a three year period and was based on what is
obtainable in the industry as at the time of the analysis. The assumptions were that there won’t be
an arrival of a competitor in same location offering same services for the duration of the period.

Also, that there won’t be restrictive policies from the government on the industry. Should there be
a change in any of the assumptions, the sales projection figures are likely to increase or decrease.

Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

Marketing is a very important aspect of any business as this is the aspect that ensures that revenue
is generated for the company. It is for this reason why every business takes its time to draft
effective marketing strategies that would serve the business well in the long and short run and
Patty Pets hotel is not different.

We have hired a marketing consultant to help us conduct a market study on this market and how
we would be able to penetrate the market and gain a fair share of the market. We have been able
to garner the detailed data that would be used for this survey and create effective strategies that
would not be only used to attract customers but also allow us compete favorably with our
competitors here in San Francisco.

The marketing consultant is not only reputable but understands the business totally and will
therefore help draft the right strategies. The consultant will also work with our marketing
executives who have been empowered to ensure that the strategies drafted are in line with the
core values of our company.

Lastly, we would not overlook the importance of technology in ensuring that we market our
business to customers near and far. We would effectively use the internet – our website and social
media platforms to ensure that we reach out to as many customers as possible.

Below are the marketing strategies we intend to adopt at Patty Pets Hotel to ensure that people
patronize our services as well as products.
Engage in Word-of-mouth or direct marketing

Ensure that we place ads in local newspapers and magazines as well as on radio and television
stations here in San Francisco

Print handbills and distribute them in target areas such as parks where pet owners and lovers like
to hang out.

Ask our loyal customers to refer our business and give discounts to those that do

Throw a big launching party that will generate interest and create awareness for our pets’ hotel
business here in San Francisco.

Leverage on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to market Patty Pets
Hotel

Ensure that we are listed on offline and online directories.

Pet Hotel Business Plan – Publicity and Advertising Strategy

Having publicity for a business is very important as publicity brings forth the awareness that the
business needs in order to attract more customers to it. This is why it is very vital to ensure that the
right publicity strategies are crafted and implemented effectively.

Asides from boosting the bottom line of a business through revenue generation, publicity also
allows the business to favorably compete against its competitors either in the same location or
industry.

We would ensure that our publicity strategies penetrate the market and allow us gain a huge share
of potential customers whilst also ensuring that old and loyal customers are retained for the growth
of the business. We have hired a promotion consultant who thoroughly understands the business
to help us draft strategies would effectively propel us to the height we want, while still
communicating our brand effectively.
Therefore the strategies we intend to implement for Patty Pets Hotel to boost awareness and
increase our revenue are;

Ensure that we place adverts in local newspapers and magazines and also on radio and television
stations

Attend pet fairs and events and offer to be a speaker, thereby increasing more awareness for Patty
Pets Hotel

Create an interactive website and throw up contests

Use our social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other forums for pets to
educate and enlighten the audience

Install billboards in strategic locations all around San Francisco

Sponsor a pet related events in the local community

Our Pricing Strategy

Even though this might be a fun business when starting out, it is still a business that would still need
to be profitable and so would largely depend on what prices you intend to set to make the needed
profit. Setting a price is not easy since prices vary depending on the location of the pet hotel.

However, checking on what competitors in the same location are charging plus what services and
benefits they get from the charges should go a lot into determining what should be charged.

However, in order to gain the needed customers for the first few months of our business and also
increase awareness for the business, we intend to offer reduced prices for our pet hotel services.
The reduced prices will be for at last three months, and will only reduce our profit margin but won’t
make us run at a loss.

Payment Options
Because of the various services we intend to offer at Patty Pets Hotel, we are aware that our clients
will prefer different payment options that would be more convenient for them. It is to this effect
that we have come up with different payment platforms that will be made available to all our
clients. Below are the payment options;

Payment via cash

Payment via check

Payment via credit card

Payment via Point of Sale (POS) Machines

Payment via online portal

Our payment platforms were carefully chosen and we assure all our customers that they will
perform without any hitches whatsoever.

Start – Up Expenditure (Budget)

Every business requires capital in order to successfully start and run till it can sustain itself from the
revenue generated. This business is no different, as with other businesses, there are certain aspects
that we would need to spend the bulk of our capital on, such as leasing and renovating a facility for
use, paying employee salaries as well as utility bills.

Therefore some of the areas we expect to spend the bulk of our capital on at Patty Pets Hotel are;

Fee for registering the business in the United States of America – $750

Licenses, zonal permits, accounting software and other legal expenses incurred during the
registration process – $1,250

Cost of hiring a business consultant – $2,000

Insurance coverage (General liability, property insurance, and workers’ compensation) – $4,000
Cost of leasing and renovating a facility to board the pets for at least a year – $40,000

Operational costs for the first six months of running the pets hotel business (employee salaries,
payment of bills) – $100,000

Cost of purchasing equipment in bulk (such as leashes, clickers, cages, tubs, pet snacks, and retail
products) – $10,000

Marketing and publicity expenses (for grand opening party as well as normal business operations) –
$5,000

Other start-up expenses which includes furniture, stationeries, phone, and computer – $5,500

Cost of purchasing an official vehicle – $20,000

Cost of launching a website – $500

Cost of throwing a grand opening party – $3,000

Other miscellaneous expenses – $8,000

From the above , we would need an estimate of $200,000 if we intend to fully start and successfully
run our pets’ hotel business here in San Francisco. It is clear from the above break down that the
bulk of the capital will go into paying salaries and settling utility bills for at least 6 months. Other
aspects that will take a huge amount of our capital are leasing a facility and having to buy a vehicle.

Generating Funding / Startup Capital for Patty Pets Hotel Business

Patty Pets Hotel is a business owned and financed by husband and wife, Patrick and Patricia Taylor.
It is a family owned business and therefore they do not intend to seek for external investors to
partner with them in the business, which is why they have decided to restrict sourcing their start-
up capital to just three sources.

Below are the areas we intend to generate our start-up capital from;
Generate part of the start-up capital from personal savings

Source for soft loans from close friends

Apply for loan from our bank

N.B: We were able to generate the sum of $50,000 from our personal savings, and the sum of
$20,000 as soft loans from close friends. We approached the bank for the sum of $130,000 to be
repaid back in 5 years at 3% interest rate. Our loan has been approved and we have signed all the
necessary documents. We have been told that the money would soon be credited to our account.

Pet Hotel Business Plan – Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

Every business that intends to have a long life cycle needs to have strategies in place to ensure that
the business stays for as long as the owner wants. For a business to remain sustaining, it needs to
ensure that it keeps generating revenue and this can be done if there are enough customers
patronizing the business. For a business to get customers it needs to generate publicity and market
its services and products effectively while also having competent employees handling every task.

Having the right employees is very key to making sure the business becomes a success. Without the
right employees to understand the values and corporate policies of the business, the business is
likely to keep losing money in retrenching staff and recruiting new owns.

This is why we carefully sourced for those who are working for us now, they are not only
competent and experienced, but they are also committed to our vision of being the best boarding
facility here in San Francisco.

We know the importance of having customers and how it is necessary to ensure that they remain
loyal to us. We have the best customer care service that ensures that all our clients’ inquiries and
complaints are promptly adhered to. We also ensure that our repeat clients get discounts and that
those who refer us to others are equally rewarded. We are constantly on the look-out for ways that
our customers can enjoy more benefits from us.
Generating continuous and effective publicity for our business is one of our goals and we intend to
ensure that we draft the right strategies that will allow us gain a huge share of the market and also
compete favorably against other competitors in the marketplace. We know that if we take these
three factors seriously, we are likely to effectively sustain and expand our business successfully.