Pet Hotel Business Plan [Sample Template]

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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.

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

1. Industry 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 2022, 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 2022, while the GDP before 2022 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.

2. 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.

3. 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

4. Our Mission and 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
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

5. Job 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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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.

13. Startup 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.

14. 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.

Check List / Milestone

Business Name Availability Check: Completed
Business Registration: Completed
Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
Securing Point of Sales (POS) Machines: Completed
Opening Mobile Money Accounts: Completed
Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
Application for business license and permit: Completed
Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
Conducting feasibility studies: Completed
Generating capital from family members: Completed
Applications for Loan from the bank: In Progress
Writing of Business Plan: Completed
Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
Drafting of Contract Documents and other relevant Legal Documents: In Progress
Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: In Progress
Recruitment of employees: In Progress
Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
Creating Awareness for the business both online and around the community: In Progress
Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement (License): Secured
Opening party / launching party planning: In Progress
Establishing business relationship with vendors – wholesale suppliers / merchants: In Progress
Purchase of trucks: Completed