Case study
PawsBook
Purpose-built booking software for people who board pets in their own home — not a smaller kennel system, and not a calendar workaround.
- Duration
- Live product · ongoing
- Type
- Multi-tenant SaaS · pet care
- Responsibilities
- Design & product
Overview
The market has no suitable product for home-based dog boarding — operators who care for roughly 1–15 pets in their own house. PawsBook is built for that gap: date-range boarding and daycare booking with capacity, payments, and an operator admin for the day ahead. Happy Paws House is the first live tenant.
Problem
Home-based operators need affordable, purpose-built booking. Today they are forced into three bad choices:
- Wrong tool — SimplyBook, Calendly, and Acuity are appointment schedulers. Boarding is check-in → check-out date ranges. Workarounds create bugs.
- Too expensive — Gingr ($154–209/mo) is kennel software: overkill for a household operation.
- Too basic — DoggieDashboard lacks payments, automated email, and modern UX.
Result: manual work, confused clients, and lost bookings. For retention, the real competitive pressure is often Rover's commission (about 20–25%) — Rover helps with discovery; operators still need a home for repeat clients they already have.
Why kennel software fails home operators
Kennel products are built for a different physical and staffing reality than boarding in a house.
Kennel software assumes
- A facility with individual rooms or runs
- Often a reception desk
- Someone is always on-site
- Walk-ins / drop-ins are normal
Home-based boarding
- Occupancy can be sparse — e.g. only a few dogs for a few days in a month
- The operator is not always home
- Walk-in doesn't work — stays are planned date-range bookings
- Tooling must match that rhythm: capacity, check-in/out dates, and async confirmations — not front-desk kennel workflows
Journey
From first visit to the stay
Client books a stay. Operator runs the booking — same product, two jobs.
Stages from the booking PRD · Client + Operator
Find
Reach the booking page
Client actions
Lands on the booking page (tenant URL)
Operator actions
Channels / tools
Booking page (web, mobile-first)
Needs / friction
Home boarding needs a page built for stays — not kennel software or generic appointment tools
Design focus
Clear entry to date-range booking
Plan
Pick dates & see price
Client actions
Picks check-in + check-out → nights auto-calculated → price shown
Operator actions
Channels / tools
Date picker on booking page
Needs / friction
Check-in / check-out dates must be crystal clear; price should follow the nights
Design focus
Nights + price readable before commitment
Book
Profiles, add-ons, pay
Client actions
- Fills dog profile
- Fills owner info
- Selects add-ons (optional)
- Reviews summary
- Pays via Stripe or Pay Later
Operator actions
Receives notification email when the client completes booking
Channels / tools
- Booking form
- Stripe Checkout (or Pay Later)
Needs / friction
Finish in one sitting; pay now or pay later; both sides get notified
Design focus
Dog + owner + pay path without kennel assumptions
Stay
Run the visit
Client actions
Operator actions
- Logs in to admin
- Sees dashboard (calendar + list)
- Opens booking detail
- Updates status (confirmed / checked-in / checked-out / cancelled)
- Adds notes
Channels / tools
- Operator admin (Supabase auth)
- Calendar view
- List view
Needs / friction
One place for upcoming stays; status and notes without double-booking confusion
Design focus
Dashboard → detail → status in a few moves
After
Confirmations land
Client actions
Receives confirmation email immediately
Operator actions
Channels / tools
Email (client + operator)
Needs / friction
Instant confirmation — no wondering if it went through
Design focus
Confirmation + operator alert as the close of book
Also: operator can add a booking manually (phone)
Operator admin
Today — all-in-one for the day ahead
Home operators shouldn't bounce between a calendar, a chat thread, and a spreadsheet to know what's happening. Admin Today is the all-in-one view: at a glance you see arrivals, departures, who's in house, the day's schedule, and the actions to take (check in, check out, notes). One screen for the day's work — less juggling calendars and tools, fewer missed daily tasks.
Approach
We are not a smaller version of kennel software. We are built for people who board pets in their own home.
- Date-range boarding and daycare booking with household capacity — not single-slot appointments or walk-in queues.
- Payments for card and cash, plus client confirmation emails for when the operator is offline.
- Operator admin centered on Today — arrivals, departures, in-house, schedule, and actions in one place — the daily rhythm of a home-based business, not a kennel front desk.
- Multi-tenant SaaS: every shop gets its own website, with no extra fee for that per-shop site — each operator's branded booking page is included. Happy Paws House runs live at happypawshouse.pawsbook.io.
Outcome
Happy Paws House is live on PawsBook as tenant #1 — real boarding and daycare bookings on the product, on its own shop website (included — no add-on fee for a per-shop site). Soft, qualitative gains so far: less juggling calendars and side tools, fewer missed daily tasks, and Admin Today as the all-in-one glance for what to do today (arrivals, departures, in-house, schedule). Work continues on deepening home-operator workflows (including daycare payment paths). No percentage time-saved claims — we don't invent metrics that aren't approved.