Reservations & Waitlist

Creating a Reservation

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

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.

Blocked Dates Check: If the chosen dates overlap a Space Block — a facility-wide closure, or a block on the selected space — an amber warning names the block and its dates. Staff can tick Book anyway despite the block to override; 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 warns you with a link to the existing booking — 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. The confirmation goes out only when the reservation is created with Confirmed status.

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.

Enabling Board & Train

Set a Board & Train Rate ($) on at least one space. As soon as any space has the rate, Board & Train appears in the Service Type dropdown on the reservation form, and the space picker shows each space's board & train nightly rate. A space without its own Board & Train 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.

Reservation Statuses

Confirming a Reservation

From the reservation detail page, click Confirm. 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 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.

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 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. If the stay already has an open invoice, checkout finalizes it rather than creating a second one.

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, space, due date, 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:

• 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
• 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
• 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

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 Rate per dog / night.
2. Click Apply to all dogs.

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. Click Reset to standard rates to return to your normal tiered pricing. 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, breed, photo)
• The owner 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 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.