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Getting started

Small Pet Bookings is an online booking system for small animal boarders: rabbits, guinea pigs, rodents, birds, tortoises, reptiles and ferrets. It does not cover dogs or cats.

Choosing "Make it yours" in the demo shows you a preview of your own booking page in about two minutes. Setting up everything properly takes about half an hour. Before you start, have these to hand:

• Your business name, phone number and the email you want customers to reply to
• Your logo, if you have one
• Each type of accommodation you offer, how many of each you have, and your price per night
• Which animals need a vaccination card, and which vaccinations
• Your extras, such as nail clipping or medication, and their prices
• Your deposit and when the balance is due

Work through the menu under "Set up your booking page" from top to bottom. Everything saves as you type.

Your booking page

Your booking page is the page your customers use to book. It is built from your settings, so any change you make shows on it straight away.

Your page has its own link, for example smallpetbookings.co.uk/b/yourname. Put it on your website, your Facebook page and your Find Pet Boarding listing. You can change the short name in the link under "Your booking page".

Customers choose their animal, dates, accommodation, how many pets are sharing and any extras. They see the full price, the deposit and when the balance is due before they send the request. They add their pet names, feeding and health notes, their contact details and, where you need it, a vaccination card.

Set up mode and going live

While you set up, your page is in set up mode. You can preview it, but customers cannot see it or book. When you are happy, click "Go live" and pay the monthly subscription. Your link starts working straight away.

Once live, the "Taking bookings" switch lets you pause new bookings, for example when you are full or on holiday. Customers then see a message asking them to call or email you.

Accommodation and prices

Add one row for each type of accommodation you offer, for example "Cottage", "Deluxe hutch" or "Guinea pig cage". For each one, set:

• For: the animal it is for. Customers only see accommodation for the animal they pick.
• How many: how many of that unit you have. This sets how many bookings can overlap and builds the rows on your planner.
• Prices: the price per night for 1 pet, 2 pets, 3 pets and so on, for animals sharing one unit. Click "Add another pet" to allow one more animal to share.

If a unit has a single price, for example a space where the customer brings their own cage, it shows as "Per night".

To remove a type of accommodation, click the cross on its row. You need at least one.

Animals and vaccinations

List every animal you board. For each one, switch "Card needed" on if the owner must upload a vaccination card when booking, and type which vaccinations you need, for example "Myxomatosis and RHD2, in date for the whole stay".

Customers upload the card as a photo or PDF with their booking. You can view it on the booking and mark it as checked.

Animals without "Card needed", such as guinea pigs, are never asked for a card.

You cannot remove an animal while accommodation is set for it. Change or remove that accommodation first.

Extras and care

Extras are anything a customer can add to a stay: grooming, nail clipping, bathing, medication or extra care. For each extra set:

• Price
• Charged: "Once per stay" for a single job such as nail clipping, or "Per day" for daily things such as medication. Per day extras are multiplied by the number of days charged.
• Offered for: all animals, or one animal only, for example bathing for guinea pigs only.

Deposits and rules

• Deposit: a fixed amount per booking, for example £20, or a percentage of the total.
• Balance due: how many days before arrival the rest must be paid, for example 14.
• Minimum charge: the fewest days you charge for. A shorter stay is charged as this many days, and customers see a note saying so.
• Notice needed: how many days ahead customers must book.
• Book ahead up to: how many months ahead customers can book.
• Terms: the terms customers must tick to agree to before they can send a booking.

Emails

Customers get up to four emails, each in your business name. Replies go to the email you set under Business details.

• Request received: sent as soon as a customer sends a booking request.
• Booking confirmed: sent when you accept, with the invoice, deposit and balance.
• Deposit receipt: sent when you mark the deposit as received.
• Paid in full receipt: sent when you mark the booking as paid in full.

You can switch any of them off, and change the subject and wording. Tags in curly brackets are filled in for each booking:

• {customer} the customer's first name, {pets} the pet names, {ref} the booking reference
• {from} and {to} the dates, {days} the number of days charged
• {lines} the price breakdown, {total}, {deposit}, {balance} and {due} the balance due date
• {signer}, {business} and {phone} from your business details

"Put back the standard wording" restores the original email if you want to start again.

New booking alerts go to the email you set at the top of the Emails screen.

Bookings, planner and payments

Dashboard: who is arriving and going home today, requests waiting for you, and balances still to collect.

Bookings: every request and booking. Accept or decline a request with one tap. Accepting sends the customer their confirmation.

Planner: every unit across the next two weeks, so you can see what is free at a glance.

Payments: deposits and balances for each booking. When you mark a payment as received, the customer gets a receipt.

How do customers pay?

Customers pay you directly, the way they do now, by bank transfer, cash or card. Small Pet Bookings does not take payments from your customers or charge commission. You record the deposit and balance and the system sends the receipts.

Price and billing

• £5 a month, everything included.
• Setting up and previewing your booking page is free. You only pay when you go live.
• Unlimited bookings and customers. No booking fees and no commission.
• All customer emails are included.
• Pay monthly, no contract. Cancel any time from "Plan and account". Your page goes offline at the end of the month. Everything, including your settings, bookings, customers and vaccination cards, can be downloaded for 30 days and is then deleted. See your data.

Need a website too?

We also build simple websites for small animal boarders, with your booking page built in, from £30. What you need varies (just the site, a domain name or hosting too), so email hello@smallpetbookings.co.uk and we will send a fixed quote before any work starts.

Your data

Your bookings, customers and settings belong to you. You can download them at any time from "Plan and account". Each boarder only ever sees their own bookings and customers, and vaccination cards are stored privately.

If you cancel, your page goes offline at the end of the month. You can still download your data for 30 days, then it is permanently deleted. Full details are on the privacy and data page.