The Dog's Inn
dog boarding kennel · Milton, GTA
Running a 6-acre boarding property since 2003 with reservations still by phone and email - how are you currently tracking real-time run and suite availability during long weekends?
Why they need it
The Dog's Inn has been family-run by Nadine and Domenic Dipaola since 2003 on a 6+ acre Milton property, but reservations still go through phone and email with no online booking, no waitlist, and no owner-facing portal to check availability. For a boarding operation with real physical capacity constraints (runs, suites, play areas), that is a genuine operational risk - overbooking or turning away business during long weekends and holidays because staff are juggling a paper or spreadsheet calendar under phone pressure. A booking and capacity-management web app (real-time availability by kennel type, deposit collection, automated vaccination-record reminders before check-in) would let the Dipaolas stop losing bookings to voicemail, reduce no-shows with deposits, and give staff a single source of truth for what is actually available on any given date.
Tech gaps
No online booking, no real-time availability/capacity visibility, no reservation deposits, no automated vaccination-record reminders, reservations coordinated manually by phone/email
Current tech
Website with phone and email contact; no online booking, reservation system, or customer portal visible
Selling a web app
PlaybookA purpose-built application for one workflow that runs the business, quoting, ordering, booking, or reporting.
- Find the spreadsheet. There is always a spreadsheet everyone depends on.
- One workflow, done properly, in the first release.
- Hosted, backed up, and theirs.
Objections (1)
- “Can't we just use a template?”
- Templates are the reason the spreadsheet exists. If a template fit, you would already be on it.