How to open a hotel for animals

* The calculations use the average data for the World

A fairly large number of people have their own pets, which they care about and give them a lot of attention. However, there are situations when the owners are forced to leave and therefore do not have the opportunity to care for their pet. This can happen for any reason: a business trip, a long-awaited vacation, an illness requiring inpatient treatment, a trip to relatives and the like. In this case, the animal must be constantly supervised and receive appropriate care. In this case, the owners sometimes turn to neighbors or nearby relatives, but such an opportunity is not always available. In this regard, it may be relevant to open your own hotel for animals. A similar type of business appeared relatively recently in this country, but the number of players is constantly growing, which indicates good prospects and great opportunities for such an initiative.

Not in all even relatively large cities can you find hotel services for animals today. Moreover, quite often such a hotel business is combined with an animal shelter and a veterinary clinic, which allows owners to offer a wider range of services, placing their entire enterprise in one territory. A novice entrepreneur must assess the situation in the market in order to know about the proposals of competitors and their strengths and weaknesses, this will offer potential customers something new, and in this direction there are many opportunities for additional services. Thus, the level of competition in most cases cannot be called critical, and players already working in the market can easily give up their positions only if they do not offer their customers the services of a truly large hotel.

However, some competition for entrepreneurs who decide to open a full-fledged business based on the shelter of animals for a while can be private individuals who are willing to look after someone else's animal for a much lower price, guaranteeing the abandoned pet practically the same conditions that it is at home. The main drawback of private individuals is the conclusion of an informal agreement, which means that from a legal point of view, they are completely absent from responsibility in case of illness or even death of an animal left in care. Private individuals in rare cases can provide veterinary care, provide proper nutrition; moreover, not always such a person can find the right approach to the animal, which is always only a professional dog handler can do. However, such private individuals who have long been engaged in overexposure (this is the name of temporary care for someone else’s animal, and this term is used by both professionals and amateurs) can open their hotel because they already have a certain reputation and a certain client base, which will allow they are much quicker to start a business and develop it. In this case, the competitive advantage will be precisely the professional approach and the conclusion of official contracts, which, of course, entails full responsibility for the entrusted animal, but allows attracting more and more consumers.

To start your work, you need to register as a business entity. The easiest way to take shape as an individual entrepreneur, because it does not require large financial costs, it will take a little time and effort. If there is a need to register a legal entity, the preferred form is a limited liability company, because in this case, as in the case of individual entrepreneurship, a simplified taxation system will be available that allows transferring to the state’s benefit no more than 6 percent of income or 15 percent of operating profit. The situation is somewhat more complicated if a veterinary clinic is opened on the basis of the hotel, because in this case it will be necessary to obtain a lot of permits and observe certain working conditions, including placing your shelter at a certain distance from residential buildings. Despite the fact that most pet hotels are located on the outskirts or even outside of cities, sometimes this can be inconvenient. More information about opening a veterinary clinic is provided in the relevant article. To open directly only the hotel itself does not require any special permits and licenses, in connection with which most entrepreneurs provide their clients with outsourced veterinary services. The activity itself falls within the definition of (OKPD 2) 75.0 Veterinary services and (OKPD 2) 96.09 Other personal services not included in other groups.

An important point in organizing your business is to find a territory for the hotel. As already noted, often hotels for animals are located on the outskirts of the city, where there is fresh air and a lot of open space for walking animals.

Other factors that determine the location of a hotel away from residential buildings include banal sanitary and environmental requirements. Just keep in mind that the site must be really large, because for work you will need several rooms, an area with aviaries and a walking area. Often, one hotel for animals occupies a plot of several hectares, although it is possible to stay on several peas of land, if it is not planned to take a large number of animals into care. The size of the plot is ultimately determined by the entrepreneur himself, depending on his requirements and the planned volume of work, as well as on the presence or absence of the provision of additional services, because the shelter and veterinary clinic require their own buildings and the surrounding area.

If there are opportunities and financial means, then it is better to buy the territory into property, while its location does not imply such a high price, as, for example, in the central areas of the city. It is optimal to find the abandoned territory of a kindergarten or camp, because such organizations are initially built with the expectation of a significant site in size and the construction of several buildings with their subsequent arrangement.

Thus, you can get a good territory with well-established infrastructure, and you will only have to invest in the repair of premises and buildings. If there is no opportunity to buy such property, then you can consider options for renting premises and territory, but in this case you will have to include a fairly large amount of funds in monthly expenses.

If there is no suitable property, then you need to find a good plot, large in size, and carry out the construction of the necessary buildings. The administrative block, which addresses all organizational issues, has its own warehouse and kitchen, as well as premises for accommodating small animals (primarily rodents), birds and reptiles. In addition, buildings are being built for the organization of their animal shelter and veterinary clinic, if this is provided for in the business plan. The cost of building the necessary buildings will cost several million rubles, as, however, the purchase of a finished territory with infrastructure will also cost a lot.

The next stage of planning is the equipment of your territory and premises. There will also have to invest a lot of money; however, the amount may vary depending on the chosen format of work. The simplest hotel is one that accepts only cats and dogs (or just cats or just dogs) for overexposure, while not having the capacity to accommodate a large number of animals. In this case, it is necessary to equip the insulated enclosures on the street and cages in the room, and often, if there are few animals, small ones are allowed into the room without being kept in the pen. However, often hotels are still focused on a sufficiently large number of pets at the same time, while taking at the time not only the main animal partners, but also everyone else. These are rodents: mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs; birds, reptiles and even arachnids. Each of these types of animals needs its own conditions of care and maintenance, and there must be a specialist who monitors them and provides them with everything they need.

Of course, the most difficult is to allocate and equip places for cats and dogs (the probability that someone will drag another animal complex in its content, for example, a crocodile or a hippo of some kind, is critically small), all other small animals are placed in special racks on a cell-by-cell basis. The main thing here is to monitor the condition of the animal and give it food at a certain time, reptiles generally for the most part lie for days, would only feed, arachnids feel great inside the terrarium, the main thing is to ensure that the huge spider does not creep out, because then there not only the risk of being crushed, but also that a couple of people will faint.

With all the small animals there are much fewer problems, but they also bring them to the hotel not so often, however, a place for them is still necessary. To do this, you have to select a rather large room; one stand for about 20 small animals takes half a meter in width, two meters in length and two and a half meters in height, between them more passages are needed, and their proper location is important. The cost can vary greatly depending on the characteristics (additional lighting, climate control, heating, automatic feeders), but one rack is unlikely to cost more than 100 thousand rubles.

Further aviaries are equipped, and they differ not only in size, but also in internal equipment. It is advisable to order the installation of heating devices immediately, because otherwise it will be impossible to keep animals there in winter. The cost of one enclosure for a small dog is 25-40 thousand rubles, but larger animals need more expensive devices. They cost about 60 thousand rubles. In general, you can find cheaper enclosures, and many hotels offer their customers even different levels of service and comfort for animals. If you want your pet to live in a royal apartment - pay extra money. If you buy aviaries and order their installation in bulk, it will come out somewhat cheaper in terms of unit of production. Cats can be kept in relatively small cages, providing the animal with a lot of space and everything necessary for living.

In some particularly advanced clinics, even video surveillance systems are installed in each cell and aviary so that the owner can monitor his pet in real time. Installing such a system is an additional expense and maintenance cost, but customers appreciate it very much and are ready to spend extra money.

In addition, you need to rely on the equipment of the shelter and veterinary clinic (if it was decided to build them, of course), while the shelter is equipped on the same principle as the hotel, only the level of comfort here is an order of magnitude lower, but the veterinary clinic is very complicated undertaking. It will be very useful at a hotel and a shelter, but not all entrepreneurs can afford this area of ​​activity. In more detail - again in the corresponding article.

An important issue is personnel selection. The first is the administrative and maintenance staff, their direct boss will be the entrepreneur only if he is not a veterinarian, for example. There will be few people, but the exact number of employees is calculated exactly depending on the size of the hotel. You can’t do without the help of a veterinarian, who, ideally, should be constantly on site or at least be able to come immediately upon request. Some hire last-year students who study veterinary medicine so that a novice can gain experience (and require lower wages). The veterinarian examines the incoming animals, examines the guests, carries out treatment, if necessary, including preventive. Its services are initially included in the cost of overexposure services. If there is a veterinary clinic, all the necessary personnel are hired, from the main veterinarian to the cleaners and assistants.

By the way, it is worth noting that most hotels do not accept animals without a veterinary record or at least a health certificate. If a sick animal gets into the hotel, the infection can spread to other animals and even people - it’s not worth talking about the consequences. This is at best a loss of a certain amount of money, and often a reputation. Therefore, the incoming animal is examined in a veterinary clinic in the territory, if there is a clinic and if the owner did not take care of this in advance.

Next, you need to make sure that animal specialists work at the facility. This is, first of all, dog handlers who can interact with other people's animals, reassure them. They are hired to help people who walk dogs, monitor free-walking animals, ensure order, monitor the condition of food and aviaries. The following staff units are the kitchen staff who prepare the food. At the same time, the owner is offered a choice - to buy food on their own and leave it or pay for kitchen services.

The hotel, as one could understand, offers a sufficient number of services. In addition to living, this is food, games and walking, even training, additional knitting services are also offered (which in general has nothing to do with the hotel), veterinary services. It is difficult to call the shelter a commercial area of ​​activity; usually it is opened as a charity, accepting and giving animals free of charge. In this type of business, such charity looks very organic. The cost of overexposure depends mainly on the size of the animal, as well as on the conditions of its detention. Perhaps the most difficult thing is with the dogs, because they need walking, dogs can mate with each other, sometimes even attack a person, they are always the most difficult. It is easier to take cats to overexposure, they can pose a serious danger only for each other or for small animals such as birds and rodents, but they are usually kept in closed cages. In general, the hotel usually excludes the maximum contact of animals with each other, but, for example, dog walking is rarely carried out individually, usually several animals are collected that go for a walk. Only an experienced dog handler can cope with this, because the dogs intersected before each other, and their reaction is difficult to predict.

A small dog is taken to the hotel for 300-500 rubles per day, the cost of the day for large breeds can reach up to 1000 rubles. Overexposure of a cat is a little cheaper or as much as for a small dog. Rodents, reptiles and other spiders are taken for even less money, only if it is not a dangerous animal, although who keeps them at home ... All additional services are discussed with the client additionally, and it is advisable to immediately inform the person by phone about the conditions of settlement and accommodation.

Such a business can work in different formats. In this article, a rather large hotel with a shelter and a veterinary clinic, designed for a large number and at the same time a wide variety of animals, was described to a greater extent. At the same time, many companies work in a different format, having at their disposal no more than 10 places for animals, and only dogs are taken. You can start a business from this in order to know in which direction it is better to move subsequently.

Matthias Laudanum

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08/18/2019

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