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Colorful line icon illustration of a person walking a dog outside a pet store with a paw print sign.
Pet Businesses Thrive
and Others Just Survive: A New Industry Report Card
and Others Just Survive: A New Industry Report Card
By Heather Murphy
For an industry that has spent decades running on gut instinct, word of mouth and a genuine love of dogs, pet boarding and daycare professionals rarely get a precise, standardized look at industry benchmarks. However, one survey was recently conducted, which collected responses from 457 facility owners.

The 2026 Pet Boarding, Daycare & Resort Industry Benchmarking Survey1 is one of the most detailed looks this industry has had in years at what’s actually happening behind the front desk: what facilities are charging, how full their kennels are and how earnings are landing in their pockets (or not). The following is a summary of four trends that the survey highlighted.

1. The Capacity Gap Is Bigger Than Most Owners Realize.
Nearly a quarter of boarding operators and 38% of daycare operators report filling less than 30% of their capacity on average across the year. Meanwhile, facilities keep getting bigger—the median footprint is 4,000 square feet, and the top 10% of facilities run 20,000 square feet or more.

This industry doesn’t lack demand, but it does have a yield-management problem: expensive space sitting empty on Tuesdays while owners turn away business on holiday weekends. Some facilities have gotten creative about increasing capacity during slow periods by implementing programs such as daycare memberships that build recurring monthly revenue. Others introduced peak-season pricing and lowered rates in slower seasons to encourage occupancy. Changes like these allow facilities to match pricing to demand and build a steadier, more predictable income throughout the year.

Graphic reading "59% use minimal paid $$ marketing and only 31% run a formal referral program," with a storefront icon.
Infographic reading "Yet 54% of facilities pull in 75% or more of their monthly $$ revenue from repeat customers."
2. Referrals, Not Ad Spend, Are Still Doing The Heavy Lifting.
Fifty-nine percent of owners describe their customer acquisition strategy as minimal paid marketing, and only 31% run a formal referral program—yet 54% of facilities pull in 75% or more of their monthly revenue from repeat customers. The growth engine in this industry isn’t Google Ads; it’s reputation.

What consistently sets many businesses apart isn’t the size of the facility or the lowest prices but their level of service. A high level of communication and personalization builds loyal clients who choose a facility because of the experience that was consistently delivered—proof that the fastest path to growth is often making current clients feel seen, not chasing new ones.

3. The Upsell Gap Is Leaving Real Money On The Table.
Out of every 10 bookings, 57% of customers purchase only one to three add-on services beyond the base reservation, and just 22% buy six or more. This goes to show that owners could be selling a lot more than what’s showing up on their receipts.

The facilities closing that gap are rebuilding their booking flow, not their sales pitch. One of the simplest ways some are growing revenue is by restructuring their online reservation process. Instead of relying on the front-desk team to remember to offer every service at check-in, optional add-ons are built directly into their online booking form. Making those options visible at the point of purchase has been shown to increase add-on sales, improve consistency and raise the average revenue per reservation.

4. The Booking Calendar Predicts The Owner’s Paycheck.
Here’s the finding that should get every owner’s attention: How far in advance a facility is booked out was one of the strongest predictors in the survey of whether an owner paid themselves anything at all last year. Among owners who said they took no personal income from the business, 66% are typically booked out less than two weeks or not reliably fully booked at any point. Among owners who did pay themselves, only 25% were in that position; the rest were booked out weeks or months ahead.

As it turns out, a full calendar is a cash-flow forecast. The operators managing this well are using deposits and waitlists to push their booking horizon out for peak periods, which gives them the confidence and the data to staff up, invest in enrichment or take on that second location before the demand even arrives.

The Businesses Built To Last
None of these four trends require six figures of capital or a brand-new building. They require owners who are willing to look at their own practices and numbers as closely as they look at the dogs in their care. The facilities that will still be standing in 10 years won’t necessarily be the ones with the fanciest splash pad or the biggest lobby. They’ll be the ones who found the gap between where they are and where the data says they could be, and closed it.

Heather Murphy is Customer Success & Operations Manager at The Dog Gurus, the leading provider of education, coaching, and business training for pet care professionals, where she brings 12+ years of experience building and scaling pet care businesses. She founded Texas Doghouse and Woodlands Grooming Co., growing the combined operation to over $1 million in annual revenue before a successful acquisition. Based in Magnolia, Texas, Heather now helps businesses design training procedures, programs, and systems that strengthen their organizations.

References:
  1. 2026 Pet Boarding, Daycare & Resort Industry Benchmarking Survey. https://heyzine.com/flip-book/ibpsasurvey.html#page/1
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