Boarding phones do not follow office hours
Overnight care is a floor business. Someone is walking dogs, medicating, or checking a new arrival while the desk line rings. Callers are not browsing. They need a pickup window, a late checkout, or a last-minute Thanksgiving stay. If nobody answers, they try the next kennel on the list.
Holiday weeks compress a month of volume into a few days. Owners call after their own workday — 6:30 p.m. on a Thursday — to ask if you still have a large-dog run. That is not a voicemail they will wait on. Aveline picks up, checks the rules you set (species, size, vaccine requirements, peak dates), and either books or takes a hold for you to confirm.
You keep your existing number. We train it on pickup hours, late fees, medication handling, and what to do when someone is running late Sunday night. Most businesses go live in 3–5 days. $497 a month, depending on call volume. No contract. Aveline already answers for 80+ local businesses.
Calls a kennel actually gets
- “Can I pick up at 7 instead of 5?” — answered from your late-pickup policy, or flagged if it needs a person.
- “Do you have space this weekend for two dogs?” — booked or waitlisted against occupancy and runs, then texted to you.
- “She is on thyroid meds twice a day” — collected and attached to the reservation notes, then texted to you.
- After-hours “we are stuck in traffic” — logged so the closer is not surprised at the door.
If you run Gingr, PetExec, or Time To Pet, Aveline books or waitlists against the occupancy calendar those tools already sync — runs, pickup windows, drop-off times — then texts you. If you use something else, we still go live on Google Calendar or Outlook plus a text. We do not invent a run you do not have.
This is different from a veterinary after-hours line, where the job is triage and transfer. Boarding is about windows, capacity, and not leaving a regular on hold while you are in the yard. For the weekend pattern itself, see weekend boarding call volume.
If you also run daycare or grooming on the same property, one line can cover all three with separate scripts. Other trades are welcome — they are just not this page.