Reservations & Waitlist

Creating a Reservation

1. Go to Reservations in the sidebar and click New Reservation.
2. Fill in:

3. 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.
4. Optionally apply a Promo Code to reduce the price.
5. Click Create Reservation.

Size-priced facilities: if your facility prices boarding by pet size, each selected pet on a boarding stay shows a size-band picker reading Auto — [band] (derived from the weight on the pet's profile). Pick a different band to override it and the estimated total reprices as you choose. See Pricing by Pet Size.

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. Staff with the right role can tick the Override contract requirements box to proceed; otherwise send the contracts for signature before booking.

Temperament Evaluation Check: If your facility requires a temperament evaluation for the chosen service and a selected pet hasn't passed one, an amber Temperament Evaluation Required banner names the pet. Tick Evaluation visit to book the evaluation itself, or tick Override evaluation requirement to book anyway.

Blocked Dates Check: If the chosen dates overlap a Space Block — a facility-wide closure, or a block on the selected space — the red error summary names the block and its dates. Staff can tick the checkbox to Book anyway despite the block (the checkbox is labeled Book anyway); online booking and the customer portal treat a block as a hard stop.

Already-Booked Check: If a selected pet already has a live reservation overlapping these dates, the form blocks the save and names the existing stay — its dates, space, and reservation number — because the same stay entered twice gets invoiced twice at checkout, so open the existing reservation instead of creating a duplicate. If the pet genuinely needs two overlapping bookings, tick Book anyway — this is a separate stay. Customers can't override this one either, and grooming appointments are exempt on both sides (a grooming visit during a boarding stay is normal).

Send confirmation to client: The form ends with a Send confirmation to client checkbox, pre-ticked when your facility's booking confirmations are on for that service type. Leave it ticked to email (and text, when SMS is set up) the client that their booking is confirmed; untick it to suppress a one-off send — handy for backfills and test bookings. A ticked box sends as soon as the booking is created, whatever status it's saved at — even when the facility's automatic confirmations are off for that service type.

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.

Boarding capacity is two-dimensional: each boarding space has a booking Capacity (how many separate families can share it at once — a multi-pet family counts as one booking) and an Occupant Capacity (total pets inside at once). If a space can't take your reservation, the error message names which limit blocked it. See Boarding Capacity: Bookings & Occupants.

Board & Train Stays

Board & Train is an overnight stay that includes training — the dog boards in your normal runs while your team works with them. It behaves exactly like boarding for the calendar, capacity, availability, check-in/check-out, and door cards; only the pricing and labels differ.

Board & Train Rates

Board & Train always appears in the Service Type dropdown. Set a Board & Train Rate ($) on the spaces that charge a different price for training stays — the space picker shows each space's board & train nightly rate, and a space without its own rate charges its regular daily rate for these stays.

Board & Train Pricing

• Every pet on the reservation is charged the space's Board & Train nightly rate — there is no additional-pet discount, because training is per-dog work.
• Holiday pricing surcharges still apply on top of the Board & Train rate.
• The stay bills under its own Board & Train line category on the invoice, with its own taxable-category toggle and its own row in the Revenue by Category breakdown. Promo codes can target Board & Train specifically.

Board & Train reservations are marked with an emerald badge on schedule views and invoices.

Staff-only: Board & Train can only be booked by your team. It is not offered in online booking or the customer portal.

Temperament Evaluations

Many facilities require a temperament evaluation — a meet & greet, a trial day — before a dog joins group play. Goodstay can run that rule for you: each pet carries an evaluation verdict (Not Evaluated, Passed, or Not Passed), and booking checks it.

Requiring Evaluations

In Settings → Policies, the Temperament Evaluations panel has one toggle per service:

• Require an evaluation for daycare
• Require an evaluation for boarding (incl. board & train)
• Require an evaluation for grooming

Everything starts off. Most facilities gate daycare only — a dog can then board all week while still needing its play-group evaluation.

Before you switch it on: mark your current regulars as Passed first — it's two clicks on each pet's profile — so long-time clients aren't asked to audition again.

What the Requirement Does

Booking a gated service for a pet who hasn't Passed shows the amber Temperament Evaluation Required banner on the booking form, and the save is blocked until you resolve it one of three ways: record the pet's verdict, tick Evaluation visit (below), or tick Override evaluation requirement — you always have the last word. On a multi-pet stay, every pet is checked.

The requirement applies to new bookings only. Turning it on never blocks editing, checking in, or checking out a reservation that already exists.

Evaluation Visits

Tick Evaluation visit under the Service Type when the booking is the evaluation — a trial daycare day, say. An evaluation visit books without a prior pass, and it wears an amber Evaluation badge on the Daycare Roster so staff know which dog they're watching that day.

The reservation's detail page shows an Evaluation Day panel with a Passed and a Did Not Pass button per pet. Record the verdict at pickup — it lands on the pet's profile for good, and future bookings check it automatically. Facilities that run informal meet & greets off the calendar can skip the visit entirely and record the verdict straight on the pet's profile.

Online Bookings

Customers are never turned away by the requirement. An unevaluated pet's daycare request from the portal or your public booking page automatically becomes an evaluation-day request — the client is told up front, and it arrives badged and pending like any other request. Boarding and grooming requests still come through, tagged with a "⚠️ STAFF REVIEW" note so your team follows up before confirming.

Reservation Statuses

Confirming a Reservation

From the reservation detail page, click Confirm Reservation. The status changes from Pending to Confirmed, and — when booking confirmations are enabled for the service type — the client receives a confirmation email (and text). A reservation only ever gets one confirmation, so confirming twice never double-sends.

Checking a Pet In

1. Open the reservation.
2. Click Check In.
3. The status changes to Checked In. For boarding and board & train stays, the space status also flips 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.

Opening the Stay's Invoice Mid-Stay

An owner wants their running total — or wants to pay something down — while the pet is still with you? On a checked-in reservation, click Open Invoice. The stay's one invoice opens with the charges so far and accepts payments at any time; checking out later finalizes that same invoice (same invoice number, all mid-stay payments intact) instead of creating a new one. See Invoicing & Payments for the full workflow, including how deposits and pre-payments land on the same invoice.

Checking a Pet Out

1. Open the reservation.
2. Click Check Out & Invoice to open the checkout confirmation page and preview the final summary (services rendered, totals, etc.).
3. Click Check Out & Invoice again to complete the stay and finalize its invoice. If the stay already has an open invoice, checkout finalizes it rather than creating a second one.
4. If the stay is already fully billed, the detail page shows a plain Check Out button instead, which closes the stay out directly.

Adjusting Billed Days at Checkout

Boarding bills per night, so a Jul 3–13 stay is 10 nights. If you bill by drop-off and pickup time instead — counting both bookend days, or charging a half-day — adjust the Billed days field on the checkout confirmation page. It defaults to the standard night count and moves in half-day steps (e.g. 11 or 10.5); the invoice total updates as you type, and the stay bills as a flat days × nightly rate line per pet.

• Leaving the field at the standard nights changes nothing — normal per-night billing, including holiday pricing, applies.
• An adjusted day count prices flat, so per-date holiday surcharges are not layered on top of an override.
• Available on boarding and board & train checkouts (daycare has no night count), when checking out a single stay.

Overdue Checkouts

A stay still marked Checked In after its check-out date has passed is overdue — usually a pickup nobody closed out in the app, which means an unbilled stay. Goodstay surfaces these in two places:

• The Dashboard shows an Overdue Checkouts alert listing each overdue stay with the pet, the owner, and how many days overdue it is.
• The Reservations list has an Overdue filter tab (alongside Upcoming / Current / Past) showing every stay that's past checkout but still in.

To resolve one, open the reservation and check the pet out as normal — the invoice is generated at checkout just like any other stay.

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, laid out as a front-desk worklist in three panes:

On the left, the identity card (pets, owner, status) sits above Stay Details — service type, dates, duration, appointment times, assigned space, nightly rate (per dog on a multi-pet stay), and total price.

In the middle, the care feed:

• Feeding Schedules — per-meal feeding instructions
• Medications — medication reminders and logs
• Care Tasks — recurring care chores for the stay (potty breaks, walks, baths), with per-stay extras and skips
• Add-on Services — grooming and other services booked for this stay
• PreCheck — status and link to send/view
• Notes — staff-only notes

On the right, the Next Steps rail lists every action the stay is ready for, each with a one-line explanation: status moves (Confirm Reservation, Check In, Check Out & Invoice), invoice actions (Open Invoice, Bill Ahead, Create Invoice — details), corrections (Undo Check-In, Mark No-Show), and the everyday tools (Edit, Door card, Rebook). A checked-out stay that was paid or written off outside Goodstay can be removed from invoicing with Settle Outside Goodstay — undoable later via Undo External Settlement (details). Cancel Reservation sits below, under Other Actions. The stay's Activity Log rounds out the rail.

Report cards are managed from the Report Cards page, not from the stay.

Pricing by Pet Size

When your facility uses size-based boarding pricing, an uninvoiced boarding stay's detail page shows a Pet Size card with one band selector per dog on the stay. Each reads Auto — [band] (derived from the pet's recorded weight; "Auto — no weight on file" if there's none) until you pick a band explicitly. Click Save Pet Sizes to apply — the band saves onto the pet, so the next booking starts from it, and only this stay is repriced.

When dogs share a kennel, the largest dog's band sets the nightly rate and the others bill their band's extra-pet rate. A negotiated shared rate takes precedence — the card warns you that size bands won't apply until the manual rate is reset.

Setting a Shared Boarding Rate

Multi-dog families often get a negotiated price — say both dogs at $30/night sharing one kennel, instead of your standard first-pet + additional-pet tiers. On a boarding reservation's detail page, the Boarding Rate card (shown until the stay is checked out) sets one nightly rate for every dog on the stay:

1. Enter the Nightly rate per dog.
2. Click Set Rate. Apply to all dogs is the effect: every dog on the stay gets the agreed price.

The stay reprices immediately — including its open invoice, if one exists — and the rate sticks through checkout, so the final bill charges every dog at the agreed price. To Reset to standard rates — your normal tiered pricing — clear the field and click Set Rate again. Once the stay has been invoiced, the rate is locked.

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, species, breed) and a large kennel/space panel
• The owner (with phone) plus an emergency contact
• The stay window (check-in and check-out dates)
• Feeding instructions
• Medications
• Care tasks — the dog's recurring care tasks and their times of day
• Booked add-on services
• A highlighted Alerts box for allergies, medical conditions, and behavioral notes

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 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 No-Show and confirm the prompt.

The flag is recorded and your facility's default policy is applied automatically: Charge the booked amount (creates a draft invoice), Deduct a package day (burns one prepaid day from the owner's best-available daycare package), or Waive (record it with no charge). Set the default before you need it — see below. The button works for boarding, daycare, and grooming reservations.

Automatic No-Show Flagging

Automatic no-show flagging is on out of the box, with a default policy of Charge the booked amount and a 10:00 AM cutoff. Goodstay flags un-arrived reservations on a nightly sweep and applies your default policy automatically:

• Daycare — flagged on the next morning's sweep, once the booked day's cutoff time (default 10:00 AM, in your facility's time zone) 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 sweep runs once a night and catches up on any past dates it hasn't processed yet, so nothing slips through.

Turning It Off & Choosing a Default Policy

In Settings → Policies, the No-Show Handling panel has:

• Flag no-shows automatically — turns the nightly sweep on or off.
• The Default policy (Charge the booked amount, Deduct a package day, or Waive) applied when a stay is flagged — automatically or manually.
• The Same-day cutoff — the wall-clock deadline the sweep uses for every service type.

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 Rebook 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 Create Invoice.

Reservations Index Pagination

The Reservations index lists 20 reservations per page. Use the page navigation at the bottom to browse older bookings. The filter tabs (Upcoming / Current / Past / Overdue) apply 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 and click Add to Waitlist.
2. Pick the Pet from the dropdown, choose the Space Type, set the Check-in Date and Check-out Date, and add any Notes.
3. Click Add to Waitlist.

Waitlist Statuses

Notifying a Waitlisted Client

When a spot opens (e.g., a cancellation), Goodstay automatically surfaces matching waitlist entries. Open the entry and click Notify Owner to send an availability notification email.

Converting to a Reservation

From a waitlist entry, click Create Reservation. The booking form opens pre-filled with the waitlist details, and the entry flips to Booked when you save it.

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 — live reservations checking in that day (pending, confirmed, or already checked in), sorted by scheduled drop-off time
• Departures — reservations checking out that day (confirmed, checked in, or already checked out), sorted by scheduled pickup time. Cancelled stays never appear in either list.

Each card shows the pet name, a species icon, the service type, the owner, the assigned space, the status, and the scheduled time — or a "No appointment time set" flag. 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.