Setting up your business/10 min
How to set up booking rules
Booking rules are the difference between a schedule that helps and a schedule you have to babysit. They decide how much can be booked, when, and what has to be true before a pet arrives.
What you end up with: A calendar that only accepts work you can genuinely deliver.
Steps
Set your daily capacity
How many pets you can hold at once, per care type. Boarding and daycare capacity are counted separately.
Confirm your opening days and hours
Drop-off and pick-up windows keep arrivals inside hours you're actually staffed for.
Decide what's required before arrival
Vaccination requirements can block a booking from being confirmed until records are in place.
Choose how bookings are confirmed
Decide whether your team confirms each request or bookings are accepted straight away.
Test one booking of each type
Make a real reservation, check the calendar, then cancel it. Five minutes here catches most setup mistakes.
Recommended setup
- Leave a little headroom in capacity for regulars and emergencies.
- Keep requirements few and firm rather than many and negotiable.
Tips
- Capacity shows on the dashboard, so you can see a full weekend coming before it arrives.
- Multi-pet bookings count each pet against capacity.
Related resources
Ready to set this up for real?
Create your business and work through it step by step. Buddy can propose the setup for you, and you review everything before anything is created.