Covid-19’s Impact on the Pet Boarding & Daycare Industry
By Staff
Pet Boarding & Daycare Magazine surveyed around 200 facilities to see how the country’s current pandemic has really affected their businesses.
About half of the facilities surveyed indicated that their business has decreased by around 50%, with only about 7% saying there business has not decreased at all, or by less than 20%. Nearly 9% reported their business decreasing by 81-100%.
We also asked the facilities what services they are now offering to help make up for lost business. A large number responded saying that they added grooming services, or have been marketing their existing grooming services at a higher rate than usual. Others said that they have expanded their daycare hours or days, or added additional activities, including training, in order to bring in more revenue.
A few came up with some unique and creative ideas including, renting out daycare yards for one-on-one owner/pet playtime for those not comfortable going to the dog park, offering gift cards at a discounted rate to bring in immediate revenue, and providing pet food and treat delivery services.
Others followed suit of non-pet-related businesses to adapt their practices to meet social-distancing protocols. Some of their operational and service changes included, contactless curbside services, door-to-door drop-off and pick-up services, virtual training sessions and online retail.
In addition, we asked a few questions in relation to how the pandemic has affected the staff load of boarding and daycare facilities. As a baseline, of the 200 facilities surveyed, 66% reported employing 0-10 staff members, with 23% employing 11-20 and 11% employing 21+ staff. Ninety five percent of those facilities said they had to layoff/terminate 0-10 staff members, 3% said they relieved 11-20 individuals and just 1.5% said they relieved 21+ employees.
We also asked those facilities if they (owner/manager) or any of their staff members furthered their education or skills by way of virtual learning. Nearly 53% answered that yes, they themselves or staff have pursued virtual learning.
The results of this survey go to show that, like most other small, service-based businesses, the pet boarding and daycare industry has taken a hard hit during this tough time. However, they continue to persevere and remain hopeful for a bright future of caring for pets and the people who love them.