Reservations & Waitlist

Creating a Reservation

1. Go to Reservations → New Reservation (or click the + New button on the dashboard).
2. Fill in:

1. Pricing is calculated automatically based on the space's rate, number of nights/days, and any applicable holiday pricing surcharges. For grooming appointments, pricing is based on the services selected rather than a nightly rate.
2. Optionally apply a Promo Code to reduce the price.
3. Click Create Reservation.

Vaccine Compliance Check: If a pet has expired or missing required vaccines, a warning banner appears. You can acknowledge and override the check — or the reservation can be blocked entirely.

Contract Check: If required contract templates exist and haven't been signed by the owner, the form lists which contracts are missing. Any staff member can tick the Override unsigned contract requirement box to proceed (the override is logged in the activity feed); otherwise send the contracts for signature before booking.

Recording a Walk-In or Backdated Stay

The Check-In Date picker accepts dates up to one year in the past, so you can record a stay that's already in progress. This is handy for two situations:

• A walk-in guest who's already been dropped off and you're entering the booking after the fact.
• A guest who was already in your care when you first started using Goodstay, so the stay began before today.

Just pick the actual past check-in date when you create the reservation. The Check-Out Date must still be after the check-in date.

Tip: Once the booking is created, you can check the pet in right away to mark the space as occupied.

Availability-Aware Space Selection

When you create or edit a boarding reservation, the Space dropdown is availability-aware. Spaces that have no remaining capacity — or are blocked — for the dates you've chosen appear as disabled "— Unavailable" options and can't be selected.

The list refreshes automatically whenever you change the Check-In/Check-Out Dates or the selected pets, so you always see what's truly open for that stay.

Note: When you're editing an existing reservation, its own currently-assigned space always stays selectable — even if the dates would otherwise show it as full — so you never lose the pet's spot just by opening the form.

Reservation Statuses

Confirming a Reservation

From the reservation detail page, click Confirm. The status changes from Pending to Confirmed and the owner receives an email notification.

Checking a Pet In

1. Open the reservation.
2. Click Check In.
3. The status changes to Checked In and the space status updates to Occupied.

Grooming appointments have an extended status flow: after check-in, you can click Start Grooming (pet goes on the table) and Complete Grooming (pet is ready for pickup). See Grooming & Add-On Services for the full grooming workflow.

Before checking in, you may want to review the pet's Pre-Check form (if sent) for updated emergency contacts, belongings, and drop-off timing notes.

Undo Check-In

Checked in the wrong pet, or the owner cancelled at the door? Open the reservation and click the amber Undo Check-In button to revert it back to Confirmed. The space is freed up and any grooming/ready-for-pickup flags are cleared. The action is recorded in the activity log.

Checking a Pet Out

1. Open the reservation.
2. Click Checkout Confirmation to preview the final summary (services rendered, totals, etc.).
3. Click Check Out to complete the stay.
4. An invoice can be generated immediately after checkout.

Cancelling a Reservation

From the reservation detail page, click Cancel Reservation. You will be prompted to confirm. Cancellation emails are sent to the owner.

Reservation Detail Page

The reservation detail page is the central hub for everything related to a specific stay:

• Status and key dates — check-in, check-out, service type, assigned space
• Pet and owner information — quick links to both profiles
• Price breakdown — base rate, holiday surcharges, add-on services, promo discounts, total
• Feeding Schedules — per-meal feeding instructions
• Medication Schedules — medication reminders and logs
• Add-On Services — grooming and other services booked for this stay
• Report Cards — daily updates sent to the owner
• Pre-Check Form — status and link to send/view
• Invoice — billing and payment status
• Internal Notes — staff-only notes

Door Cards

On a boarding reservation's detail page, click the Door card button to print a one-page kennel card for that dog. It's designed to clip to the kennel door so staff can see everything they need at a glance. The card shows:

• The dog (name, breed, photo)
• The owner plus an emergency contact
• The stay window (check-in and check-out dates)
• Feeding instructions
• Medications
• Booked add-on services
• A highlighted box for allergies, medical, and behavioral alerts

Tip: You can print door cards for every in-house dog at once from the Boarding Roster — handy first thing in the morning.

No-Show Handling

When a pet fails to arrive for a confirmed reservation, Goodstay can flag it as a No-Show and apply your chosen policy — either automatically or with one click.

Marking a No-Show Manually

1. Open the reservation. The Mark as No-Show button appears whenever the reservation is still Pending or Confirmed and its check-in date is today or earlier (it disappears once the pet is checked in, checked out, cancelled, or already flagged).
2. Click Mark as No-Show.
3. Select a policy: Charge (creates a draft invoice for the booked amount), Deduct from Package (burns one prepaid day from the owner's best-available daycare package), or Waive (record it with no charge).
4. Add optional internal notes.

The button works for boarding, daycare, and grooming reservations.

Automatic No-Show Flagging

If you turn on no-show handling (see below), Goodstay flags un-arrived reservations for you each morning and applies your default policy automatically:

• Daycare — flagged the same day, once your no-show cutoff time (default 10:00 AM, in your facility's time zone) has passed without a check-in.
• Boarding — flagged the morning after the stay was due to end, so multi-day stays already in progress are never falsely flagged.
• Grooming — flagged the morning after the appointment day.

The check runs daily and catches up on any past dates it hasn't processed yet, so nothing slips through.

Turning It On & Choosing a Default Policy

In Facility Settings, you can:

• Enable no-show handling — turns automatic flagging on or off.
• Set the default policy (Charge, Deduct from Package, or Waive) used by automatic flagging and pre-selected on the manual dialog.
• Set the no-show cutoff time for daycare (the morning deadline after which a no-arrival becomes a no-show).

Clearing a No-Show

Flagged something by mistake — or the pet turned up late? Open the reservation and click Clear No-Show in the red banner. This fully reverses the flag, including removing any draft invoice that the Charge policy created. The action is recorded in the activity log.

No-shows appear on the Dashboard under "Unhandled No-Shows" until resolved.

Copy / Rebook a Reservation

To quickly create a new reservation based on a previous one (useful for returning clients):

1. Open the original reservation's detail page.
2. Click the Copy button.
3. A new reservation form opens pre-populated with the original's pet, space, service type, notes, and scheduled drop-off/pickup times.
4. The check-in date defaults to today and the check-out date to tomorrow (or the same day for daycare/grooming).
5. Adjust any details as needed and click Create Reservation.

Tip: This is especially handy for repeat boarders — copy last month's reservation and just update the dates.

Create Invoice for Checked-Out Reservations

If a pet was checked out but no invoice was generated at the time:

1. Open the reservation detail page.
2. If the reservation is Checked Out and has no linked invoice, a Create Invoice button appears.
3. Click it to open the checkout confirmation form with pricing details.
4. Review and click Generate Invoice.

Reservations Index Pagination

The Reservations index lists 20 reservations per page. Use the page navigation at the bottom to browse older bookings. Search and filter controls operate across all pages, not just the current one.

Waitlist

The Waitlist lets you track demand when spaces are fully booked, so you can notify interested clients the moment a spot opens up.

Adding a Waitlist Entry

1. Go to Waitlist → New Entry.
2. Fill in:
   • Pet (search by owner name or pet name)
   • Space Type wanted
   • Desired Check-In and Check-Out Dates
   • Notes
3. Click Save Entry.

Waitlist Statuses

Notifying a Waitlisted Client

When a spot opens (e.g., a cancellation), Goodstay can automatically surface matching waitlist entries. Click Notify Client to send an availability notification email.

Converting to a Reservation

From a waitlist entry, click Convert to Reservation to create a new reservation pre-filled with the waitlist details.

Arrivals & Departures Schedule

The Schedule page (accessible from the sidebar navigation) shows all arrivals and departures for a given day, organized by appointment time.

• Arrivals — All reservations with a check-in date matching the selected day, sorted by scheduled drop-off time
• Departures — All reservations with a check-out date matching the selected day, sorted by scheduled pickup time

Each card shows the pet name, owner, species, assigned space, and the scheduled time (if set). Reservations without a scheduled time appear at the bottom.

Use the date navigation arrows to move between days. This page is ideal for front-desk staff to prepare for the day's traffic.

Tip: Set drop-off and pickup times when creating or editing a reservation to keep this schedule accurate.