Pet boarding looks simple from the outside. Dogs and cats come in, you charge per night, the kennels fill up at Christmas. The reality is more nuanced, and the gap between a struggling site and a thriving one almost always comes down to a few specific numbers.
This guide walks through the honest economics of running a boarding business in Australia in 2026. We use real nightly rates, current award wages, and published occupancy benchmarks, then we subtract the costs most new owners underestimate.
What This Guide Covers
- Headline income ranges for small home boarding, mid commercial kennels and catteries, and large multi-run sites.
- The revenue model: kennels multiplied by nightly rate, occupancy, and nights, plus add-ons and peak surcharges.
- Australian seasonality, and why off-peak occupancy is the make-or-break number.
- A realistic monthly cost breakdown under the Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award.
- What separates high earners, and why boarding is more capital-intensive than daycare or grooming.
The short version: nightly rate gets you in the door, but year-round occupancy is what you actually take home.
01. The Headline Income Ranges
Let us start with the answer, then show the working.
Boarding income in Australia spans a very wide band. A small home-based setup might earn a few thousand dollars a year as a side income. A well-run commercial kennel or cattery with strong repeat custom can generate healthy six-figure revenue, with owner take-home somewhere well below that top-line figure once wages, finance, and compliance are paid.
For context, the broader pet sitting and boarding sector in Australia was estimated at around AUD $1.1 billion in 2026 and has grown at roughly a 16.2% compound annual rate between 2021 and 2026, according to IBISWorld. It is also highly fragmented, with no single operator holding more than about 5% of the market. That fragmentation matters: it means there is room for a well-run local business, but also that most operators are small and price-sensitive.
Key Takeaway: Boarding revenue and boarding take-home are different numbers. A site turning over AUD $400,000 a year is not paying its owner $400,000. Industry-wide net margins for boarding sit around 14% on average, so the take-home figure is a fraction of the top line.
The single best predictor of where you land is occupancy across the whole year, not just the busy weeks. We come back to that in section 03.
02. The Revenue Model, Line by Line
Boarding revenue is one of the more predictable models in pet services because it rests on four variables you can actually count.
Capacity multiplied by nightly rate multiplied by occupancy multiplied by nights.
- Capacity is the number of runs, kennels, suites, or cattery condos you can fill.
- Nightly rate is what you charge per pet per night.
- Occupancy is the share of your capacity that is actually booked.
- Nights is simply 365, adjusted for any days you close.
On top of that base sit the extras that quietly lift a good operator above a break-even one:
- Exit baths and grooming before pickup.
- Extra one-on-one walks or play sessions.
- Daycare for local pets between boarding stays.
- Basic training or enrichment sessions.
- Retail: food, treats, toys, bedding.
- Peak-season surcharges, covered below.
Nightly rates in Australia, 2026
Published 2026 rates vary by city, pet size, and tier. As a rough guide drawn from Australian boarding price listings:
| Tier | Per night (per pet) |
|---|---|
| Standard dog kennel | AUD $45 to $65 |
| Premium dog suite | AUD $65 to $95 |
| Cattery condo | AUD $30 to $50 |
City averages differ too. One 2025 dataset put the average dog boarding night at roughly AUD $62 in Sydney, $56 in Melbourne, and $40 in Brisbane, with a national average near $49. Cattery averages sat lower, around AUD $38 nationally. Larger breeds and private suites push toward the top of each band.
These are revenue figures, not profit. Every night booked also carries feed, bedding, cleaning, and staff cost, which we tally in section 05.
03. Australian Seasonality: The Make-or-Break Number
This is the part that catches new owners out. Boarding demand in Australia is heavily concentrated around a few periods, and the rest of the year is much quieter.
Christmas and New Year, Easter, and the school holiday blocks drive a large share of annual bookings. Many sites book out months ahead for the summer holiday peak, and some report being full well before Christmas. Industry analysis suggests holiday weekends alone can account for around 30% of boarding revenue.
The flip side is the shoulder and off-peak weeks. Published benchmarks put average boarding occupancy across the year around 60%, with established, well-run sites reaching 70% to 85% and newer ones climbing from 40% to 50% in their first year toward those mature levels over two to three years.
So you can be turning customers away in late December and have half-empty kennels in February. The owners who do well are the ones who lift that off-peak floor.
Key Takeaway: Two boarding businesses with identical kennels and identical Christmas weeks can earn very differently. The one that runs 65% occupancy in the quiet months will out-earn the one running 45%, because those off-peak nights are pure additional volume on a cost base you are already paying.
A peak versus off-peak illustration
Take a mid-sized site with 20 dog runs at an AUD $60 standard rate. The table below shows how occupancy swings reshape monthly revenue, before add-ons.
| Period | Occupancy | Filled run-nights (30 days) | Indicative revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christmas / January peak | 90% | ~540 | ~AUD $32,400 |
| School holiday block | 75% | ~450 | ~AUD $27,000 |
| Shoulder month | 55% | ~330 | ~AUD $19,800 |
| Quiet off-peak month | 40% | ~240 | ~AUD $14,400 |
The peak months are clearly where the money is. But there are only a handful of them. The shoulder and quiet months happen far more often, which is why lifting the floor by even 10 percentage points has an outsized effect on the annual total. Peak-season surcharges of around 20% to 30%, common across Australian sites, add further to those December figures.
04. Three Income Tiers
Boarding businesses come in very different shapes. Here is how revenue and the path to take-home typically differ across three common tiers. All figures are illustrative estimates built from the rates and occupancy benchmarks above, and assume the business is past its first ramp-up year.
| Tier | Capacity | Nightly rate | Typical annual occupancy | Indicative annual revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small home / rural boarding | 3 to 6 dogs or cats | AUD $40 to $60 | 35% to 55% | ~AUD $25,000 to $70,000 |
| Mid commercial kennels / cattery | 15 to 30 runs or condos | AUD $50 to $75 | 55% to 70% | ~AUD $250,000 to $500,000 |
| Large multi-run resort | 50-plus runs and suites | AUD $55 to $95 | 60% to 80% | ~AUD $800,000-plus |
A few things to read into this:
- Small home boarding is often a genuine side income rather than a full living. It carries low overheads, but capacity caps the ceiling, and council rules on how many animals you may board from a residential address are strict.
- Mid commercial is where most full-time boarding owners sit. Revenue can look strong, but this tier carries real wage bills, council compliance, and often a mortgage or lease on purpose-built premises.
- Large multi-run resorts generate the biggest top-line numbers and, with strong off-peak occupancy and add-ons, the biggest take-home. They also carry the heaviest capital and staffing load.
Owner take-home in each tier is a fraction of revenue. At a roughly 14% average net margin, a $400,000 mid-tier site might leave the owner somewhere in the region of AUD $50,000 to $90,000 before their own wage, with well-run sites doing better and stretched ones doing worse. The spread is wide, and it is driven mostly by occupancy and cost control rather than by the headline rate.
05. The Cost Structure, With Australian Specifics
Boarding has a heavier cost base than people expect, and several lines are non-negotiable.
Premises and finance
This is the big one. Boarding usually needs purpose-built premises with sound-managed kennels or cattery rooms, exercise yards, drainage, and a perimeter fence (commonly a minimum 1.8 metre boundary fence under state codes). You are either servicing a mortgage on land and buildings or paying commercial rent. This single line is what makes boarding far more capital-intensive than mobile grooming or home-based daycare.
Staff wages, super, and penalty rates
Boarding runs seven days a week, including early mornings, late evenings, weekends, and public holidays, because the animals are on-site the whole time. That puts you squarely into penalty-rate territory under the Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award (MA000118).
From 1 July 2025, the award's Level 1 rate (the entry classification covering animal attendants and kennel hands) is around AUD $24.95 per hour, or about $948 per week full-time, following the Fair Work Commission's 3.5% increase. On top of base rates:
- Casual staff carry a 25% loading.
- Saturday work attracts 150% of the base rate.
- Sunday work attracts 200%.
- Public holidays attract 250%, with a minimum engagement.
Then add superannuation, which rose to 12% from 1 July 2025. Because boarding cannot avoid weekend and holiday cover, your effective hourly cost is materially higher than the base rate suggests. This is the line that most erodes peak-season margins: your busiest, highest-revenue days are also your highest-penalty-rate days.
The rest of the monthly bill
Here is an indicative monthly cost picture for a mid-sized commercial kennel or cattery. Treat these as illustrative ranges, not quotes; actual figures vary widely by state, location, and scale.
| Cost line | Indicative monthly range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Premises (rent or mortgage) | AUD $4,000 to $15,000+ | Largest single cost; depends on land and location |
| Wages, super, and penalties | AUD $8,000 to $30,000+ | Seven-day cover under MA000118; scales with capacity |
| Insurance | AUD $400 to $1,200 | Public liability and animal-care cover |
| Council and compliance | AUD $100 to $600 | Animal-establishment approval, registration, inspections |
| Utilities | AUD $600 to $2,500 | Heating, cooling, water, hot water, laundry |
| Feed and bedding | AUD $500 to $2,000 | Scales directly with occupancy |
| Software and payments | See pricing | Booking, billing, and card processing |
| Marketing | AUD $300 to $2,000 | Local search, listings, and repeat-customer comms |
Council and compliance
Boarding almost always requires council approval. Most operators need a development approval and an animal-establishment or domestic-animal-business registration, and must comply with their state's code of practice for boarding establishments. Approvals can take months, so this is a cost in both money and lead time. Build it into your plan early; our boarding setup guide covers the council steps in detail.
06. What Separates High Earners
Across the boarding owners doing genuinely well, the same handful of habits show up again and again. None of them involve charging the highest nightly rate in town.
- They protect off-peak occupancy. They run loyalty offers, daycare, and repeat-stay incentives to keep the quiet months above the danger line, rather than relying on Christmas to carry the year.
- They take deposits and enforce a clear cancellation policy. Peak weeks are too valuable to lose to a no-show. A non-refundable deposit (25% is common across Australian sites for peak bookings) turns a tentative booking into a committed one.
- They sell add-ons. Exit baths, extra walks, and retail lift the average value of every stay without adding a single kennel.
- They reward repeat custom. A boarding business lives on regulars. Multi-night and multi-stay packages encourage longer bookings and bring people back.
- They roster efficiently. Because weekend and holiday hours are the expensive ones, matching staff cover to actual bookings (rather than over-staffing the quiet days) directly protects margin.
Key Takeaway: High earners do not win on price. They win on year-round occupancy, committed bookings, add-on revenue, and tight rostering. Each of those is a number you can manage, which is exactly where good software earns its keep.
07. Owner Take-Home Versus Revenue
It is worth saying plainly: revenue is not income.
A boarding business carries a substantial fixed-cost base (premises, insurance, baseline staffing, compliance) that you pay whether the kennels are full or not. That is why occupancy matters so much. Once those fixed costs are covered, additional nights drop a much larger share to the bottom line.
Boarding is also more capital-intensive than its pet-services siblings. A grooming or daycare business can start lean. A boarding business usually cannot, because it needs the land, the buildings, and the council approvals before it takes a single booking. That higher entry cost is the trade-off for a more predictable, repeatable revenue model.
If you want to pressure-test your own numbers, our pricing and revenue calculator and the 7 financial KPIs every pet business owner should track are good starting points. For how nightly rates are set across boarding and daycare, see our Australian boarding and daycare pricing guide.
How Petboost Helps
Petboost is built for Australian pet businesses, and several features map directly onto the levers above. We will keep this honest: software does not fill your kennels, but it removes the friction that quietly costs boarding owners money.
Bill every night correctly and never overbook
Boarding is billed by the night, not the appointment, and peak weeks are unforgiving of double-bookings. Stay services handle 24-hour boarding billing properly, capacity tracks availability per run, suite, or cattery condo, and smart booking rules stop you accepting more pets than you can house when demand spikes at Christmas.
Take deposits, reduce no-shows, and let owners book themselves
No-shows hurt most in peak season. Payments let you take deposits and hold a card on file, self-service booking lets pet owners request stays around the clock, and packages make multi-night and loyalty offers simple to run for the repeat custom that fills your quiet months. For why this matters, see reducing no-shows and prepaid packages that sell.
See your occupancy and revenue clearly
You cannot lift an off-peak floor you cannot see. Reporting and intelligence shows occupancy and revenue trends so you know which months need work, team and scheduling help you roster cover against real bookings to protect margin on penalty-rate days, and report cards give owners a premium update on their pet that supports add-on pricing and repeat stays.
The Bottom Line
Pet boarding in Australia can be a solid, repeatable business, but the income depends far more on year-round occupancy than on the nightly rate you advertise. Small home boarding tends to be a side income. Mid commercial kennels and catteries can earn a genuine living once they are established and well run. Large multi-run resorts generate the biggest numbers and carry the biggest capital and staffing load.
Wherever you sit, the same truth holds: protect your off-peak occupancy, take deposits, sell add-ons, and roster tightly, and your take-home follows.
See how Petboost handles boarding billing, capacity, and deposits for Australian pet businesses.
Or start free and explore it yourself. Prefer to talk it through? Emily, our AI assistant, can answer questions any time on 1800 291 005.
Sources
- IBISWorld, Pet Sitting Services in Australia, market size and growth (2026): https://www.ibisworld.com/australia/market-size/pet-sitting-services/5699/
- IBISWorld, Pet Sitting Services in Australia, industry analysis (2025): https://www.ibisworld.com/australia/industry/pet-sitting-services/5699/
- Airtasker, Dog Boarding Cost in Australia (2025 data, city averages): https://www.airtasker.com/au/costs/dog-boarding/dog-boarding-cost/
- Dogster, How Much Does Dog Sitting and Boarding Cost in Australia (2026 price guide): https://www.dogster.com/lifestyle/how-much-does-dog-sitting-dog-boarding-cost-australia
- The Quote Yard, Dog Kennel and Boarding Cost NSW 2026: https://www.thequoteyard.com.au/services/dog-kennel-boarding-cost-2026-nsw
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award MA000118 pay guide: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employment-conditions/awards/awards-summary/ma000118-summary
- Connecteam, Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award pay rates and penalties: https://au.connecteam.com/awards/animal-care-veterinary-services/
- Australian Taxation Office, Super guarantee rate (12% from 1 July 2025): https://www.ato.gov.au/tax-rates-and-codes/key-superannuation-rates-and-thresholds/super-guarantee
- Agriculture Victoria, Boarding establishments and code of practice: https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/livestock-and-animals/animal-welfare-victoria/domestic-animal-businesses/boarding-establishments
- Cairns Regional Council, Kennel / Cattery / Pet Shop / Animal Shelter requirements: https://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/7174/Pet-shop,cattery,kennel.pdf
- PetExec, Kennel Profitability and margins (industry net margin reference): https://www.petexec.net/resources/business-operations/kennel-profitability-how-to-calculate-margins-profit
- Dogster, Pet Daycare and Dog Boarding Industry Statistics (occupancy benchmarks, 2026): https://www.dogster.com/statistics/pet-daycare-dog-boarding-industry-statistics