Service Types - Complete Guide

On Services you create Initial, Regular, Stay and Add-on services. Puppy school, scentwork and other group programmes are courses: create those on Courses, not with Add New > New Service. The type is chosen when you create a service and cannot be changed afterwards.

Service types at a glance

Initial Services

Initial services are first-visit appointments that gate access to Regular or Stay services. Until a pet has met its Initial service, it cannot book the services linked to it.

Link an Initial service to a Regular service

The link lives on the Regular or Stay service, which names the Initial as its prerequisite. Create both services first, for example an Initial "Daycare Assessment" and a Regular "Full Day Daycare".

1. Open Services, select Manage on the Regular service, then Manage Service.
2. Choose Who Can Book and switch on Advanced options.
3. Under Service Prerequisite, switch on Require Prerequisite Service and pick the Initial service.
4. Select Publish Changes, tick the box in Before You Publish, then select Publish Changes.

From then on, new pets must meet the Initial before they can book the Regular service. Eligibility is tracked per pet, not per customer. Your team can bypass the requirement for special cases. Initial services can be booked online, and the booking portal shows customers what is required.

Charge for consultations, because your expertise has value, and give assessments a realistic duration. Some businesses offer free assessments to win customers. Not every Regular service needs an Initial.

See Service prerequisites for every option.

Regular Services

Regular services are your core appointment types: grooms, training sessions, daycare days and walks. Customers book them on their own, again and again.

A Regular service can have a fixed price, such as $100 for every booking, a "from" price, such as "from $100" adjusted once the work is done, or a separate service for each size. Its Service Duration is what the booking uses; Duration shown to customers can show a range such as "90-120 minutes" instead, and padding adds setup and clean-up time before or after, such as 15 minutes. It can be bookable at any time in working hours, at one start time a day with Fixed Start Time, or at set times through sessions with Fixed start times, and it can be limited to certain team members. Eligibility rules can limit it by breed, by weight, such as under or over 25kg, by age, such as puppies under 6 months or senior dogs, or by an Initial requirement.

Examples by business type

For daycare with one drop-off time, use Fixed Start Time. For a drop-off range, set A window under Times customers see (previously Service Windows). To hide the clock and show Morning or Afternoon, select A message instead of a time. See How do I show Morning or Afternoon instead of clock times?.

Stay Services

Stay services are built for multi-day boarding. Unlike a Regular service, which is one appointment, a stay handles overnight care with a check-in, a check-out and nightly or daily pricing.

Windows do not add an early or late fee. Charge more through Duration-based spillover, an invoice line, or an add-on.

On Pricing & Payments, set Pricing Mode:

• Number of nights: enter Rate per night, and Daycare rate (same-day stays) if you take day stays
• Number of days: enter Standard Daily Rate; arrival and departure days are both charged
• Duration-based: 24-hour periods, with optional short-stay and spillover rates

Each mode can add Extended Stay Discounts for longer stays. See Stay pricing and the Service Pricing Guide.

Set check-in and check-out bands on Duration & Timing, under Check-in & Check-out Windows. Pet owners can only pick inside the band; your team's New Stay stays editable. See Stay Check-in and Check-out Windows.

When a pet books a 5-night stay, Petboost checks capacity for all 5 nights. If any single night is full, the booking cannot go ahead, which prevents overbooking on busy nights such as holidays even when other nights are free.

Boarding extras include medication, an extra playtime session, a groom on the departure day, photo or video updates and a special diet meal. On a stay booking, your team can set a quantity on an add-on, such as one medication round for each day.

Add-On Services

Add-on services attach to Regular, Stay or Initial services. They cannot be booked alone; they always go with a main service.

A customer selects a main service, such as a Full Groom, and the add-ons for it appear in the booking flow. They tap to add one, such as a Nail Trim, and the price updates. The appointment shows the add-ons icon on the calendar, and your team sees exactly what was requested.

An add-on can have a fixed price, such as $15 for a Nail Trim, or a "from" price, such as "from $10", for extras you adjust. Add-ons have no time slot and do not lengthen the appointment. By default an add-on shows with every service; to show it only with specific services, use Only Show With Certain Services under Add-on Pairing on its Who Can Book tab, which applies to online booking only.

Upselling extras can raise revenue by 10-30% (Accenture). A second offer at checkout catches extras customers missed, and customers add them themselves with no work from your team. See the Add-ons Guide.

Course templates (group programmes)

A course template is the blueprint for a multi-lesson group programme, such as puppy school, scentwork or obedience. You create it on Courses, not on Services.

Do not create a Regular or Lesson service for a group class. The template creates the lesson service. Staff enrol from Courses with New > Enrol pet(s), or Manage > Enrol Pet on the course. The New > Appointment form on Appointments does not list courses.

Use courses for puppy school, group obedience at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, speciality programmes such as agility, scentwork or therapy dog training, and any fixed group programme with a class list. Use a Regular service for a single appointment, including 1:1 training, and recurring appointments to repeat that one service for one pet. See Courses versus services.

Run a course

1. Open Courses, select New, then New Course Template, and build the template.
2. Select New, then Publish New Course, and set the start date.
3. Enrol pets with New, then Enrol pet(s), or Manage, then Enrol Pet, on the course.
4. Track capacity and mark attendance on each lesson.

See the Courses overview.

Packages (Prepaid Bundles)

Packages are prepaid bundles of services, often sold at a volume discount. Customers pay up front, and credits are taken off as they book.

Package customers bring prepaid cash before services are delivered, commit up front, and tend to book more often; packages can raise customer lifetime value by 30-50%. See the full Packages Guide.

Which type should I use?

Common mistakes

How the types work together

Related guides

• Getting Started with Services - Create your first service
• Pricing Guide - All pricing models including stays
• Add-ons Guide - Deep dive into upselling
• Courses Overview - Group programme management
• Packages Guide - Prepaid bundles
• FAQ - Common questions answered