Take one. Not because boarders are less trustworthy than grooming clients, but because the arithmetic is different. A groom that falls over on Tuesday morning is one hole in one day, and a message to the waiting list can fill it by lunchtime. A fourteen-night stay that falls over on 20 December is fourteen consecutive nights of one run standing empty, in the fortnight you were counting on to carry January.
The mistake is carrying the grooming number across. A flat amount that feels right against an $85 groom is close to nothing against a $1,400 stay, and it lands at the moment the owner is least likely to walk away anyway.
Size it to the stay, not to the slot
Two things should drive the number: what the stay is worth, and how likely you are to refill it if it goes.
A midweek night in February is refillable. A fortnight across Christmas and New Year is not, because everyone who wanted those dates booked them in October, and the people ringing you on 20 December want exactly the dates you have just lost. The less refillable the stay, the more of it should be paid before the dog arrives.
In Petboost a deposit is either a percentage of the booking total, from 5% to 95% in 5% increments, or a fixed dollar amount. You set a business default under Settings then Pricing & Payments, and override it on the individual service. That per-service override is what makes peak workable: a separate Stay service for your peak window carries its own deposit while ordinary boarding stays light. How deposits and pre-authorisation are configured has the fields.
The number most operators get wrong
A deposit is not the same as protection, and the gap is bigger than it looks.
Say you hold 30% on a $1,400 stay and your cancellation fee is 50%. The owner cancels inside your notice period. Petboost keeps your cancellation-fee percentage of the deposit already paid, refunds the rest, and does not charge the unpaid remainder.
Fifty per cent of the $420 you held is $210. You have protected 15% of the booking, not 50%, and $210 goes back to the owner.
That is the shape of the tool rather than a fault in it. If the whole booking needs protecting, the setting is Pre-pay in Full, not a larger deposit. If you are content protecting a slice, take the deposit with your eyes open about which slice you end up with.
Your peak rate is paid up front
If you run a holiday rate, the deposit percentage is worked out on the service totals only, but the holiday and weekday amounts are not left for later. Petboost collects them in full with the deposit when the booking is made, never more than the booking total. A 30% deposit on a stay carrying a Christmas uplift takes 30% of the base nightly rate plus the whole uplift.
The price is fixed at booking, too. A stay booked in October keeps the price it was booked at even if you change the holiday rate in November. Editing a rate never reprices an existing unpaid booking on its own. Only changing the booking's dates, times or services reprices it.
What to actually set
Start here, then move the numbers from what you see rather than from what you fear.
- Ordinary midweek and weekend stays: 20% to 25%, or nothing at all if you have never been burned and your cancellation policy has teeth.
- School holidays: 30% to 50%.
- Christmas, New Year and Easter, the weeks you cannot refill: 50%, or Pre-pay in Full if you have already lost a peak run to a late cancellation.
- New customers with no history, at any time of year: the peak number.
Put the peak dates on their own Stay service so those numbers can differ. One service with one deposit cannot be gentle in February and firm in December.
Set the deposit on the peak Stay service
Set the heavier deposit on the peak Stay service itself, so ordinary boarding keeps the business default.
- Open Services, then Manage on the peak Stay service and Manage Service.
- On Pricing & Payments, switch on Deposit to override the business default.
- Choose Pre-pay in Full, or choose Partial deposit and set the Deposit type and the amount.
- Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.
The business default for every other service is Require a deposit at booking, on the Deposits card of Settings > Pricing & Payments.
When you take the booking yourself
An online booking takes the deposit at that moment. The owner needs a card on file and the charge has to succeed, or the booking is refused.
When you create the stay and the owner has no card, the booking still lands and sits as Pending, with a blue Deposit due banner on the appointment. From there, Send card request texts them the add-card link, and Take $X collects once the card is on. That is the path for the owner who rings from the car park in March about Christmas. Take the dates, send the link, let the deposit land when they get home.
Before you act: deposits, refunds and cancellation fees are commercial terms between you and your customer, and this is general information rather than legal or financial advice. Check your own terms and your obligations under Australian consumer law before you change them.