Showing boarding prices online, rather than keeping them hidden behind a phone call or a login wall, is the choice that wins more first-time bookings for the large majority of pet resort operators.
PocketSuite powers 7,000+ service businesses, including 1,000+ pet service businesses, whose clients have collectively processed nearly $1 billion in income and scheduled over 9.2 million appointments.
With Online Booking through PocketSuite, a prospect sees a service’s real price and its real, current availability before providing any personal information, and can move straight to booking once they’ve decided the price and dates work for them.
This post looks at both sides of the decision, why some operators still choose to hide pricing, why the majority now show it, and what actually happens to conversion and phone volume when a facility publishes its rates.
The Case Operators Make for Hiding Pricing
The most common reason an operator gives for hiding pricing is wanting a conversation first, a chance to explain what’s included in a rate, to ask about a dog’s temperament, or to build rapport before a prospect sees a number and mentally compares it to a competitor’s without any of that context.
A second reason is genuinely variable pricing: a facility whose rate depends heavily on breed size, add-ons, or a dog’s specific needs may feel a single posted number would be misleading more often than it’s accurate, and prefers to quote a real number once it actually has the details.
Both concerns are real. Neither one, in practice, requires hiding a starting price or a general rate range. A posted range still lets a facility have the fuller conversation once a prospect reaches out, it just doesn’t force every single prospect through that conversation before they even know whether the facility is in a workable price range for them at all.
A third reason, less often stated out loud, is habit: pricing has always been handled over the phone at a particular facility, and nobody has revisited why. That’s a genuinely different situation from the two concerns above, since it isn’t protecting anything specific, it’s simply the way things have always been done, which is worth separating from an actual, considered business reason before deciding whether to keep it that way.
Why Most Operators Choose to Show Pricing Anyway
A prospect comparing several facilities at once treats a hidden price as a signal, usually the wrong one. Rather than assuming a facility is being thoughtful or personalized, most prospects assume a hidden price means a higher price, or a facility that doesn’t want to be compared. That assumption sticks even after a prospect eventually gets a real number, since it colors how they read everything else about the facility from that point forward.
A facility with genuinely fair pricing for its market has the most to gain from showing it early and the least reason to hide it. Discounts can still be applied at checkout for a multi-night stay or a first-time client, so showing a base rate up front doesn’t mean giving up the ability to make a specific booking more attractive once a prospect is actually ready to book.
Scale reinforces this pattern rather than complicating it. Per the “2026 Pet Boarding, Daycare & Resort Industry Benchmarking Report” (International Boarding and Pet Services Association, The Dog Gurus, PocketSuite, and Researchscape International, 2026), ongoing discounting as a primary marketing tactic drops from 16% among operators under $150K in revenue to just 9% among $1M+ operators, meaning the facilities doing the most business rely the least on discount-driven pricing games and the most on simply being clear and competitive from the start.
Friction shows up in demand, not just in abandoned checkouts. Per the “2026 Dog Training Industry Benchmarking Report” (Researchscape International, in partnership with AggressiveDog.com, APDT, IACP, and PocketSuite, 2026), only 2% of $150K+ dog training businesses say they’re not typically fully booked during their busiest periods, versus 19% of those under $50K. The report ties that gap to the same everyday friction an unclear price, or an unnecessary account wall, adds to a prospect’s decision.
What Actually Happens to Phone Volume Either Way
Operators who hide pricing often assume it protects their staff’s time, since every serious prospect has to call in and get a real conversation. In practice, hidden pricing usually increases low-value phone volume rather than filtering it: a facility fields far more “how much does it cost” calls from prospects who have no real idea whether the facility is even in their budget, alongside the fewer, more serious calls it was hoping to have.
A posted price range filters that traffic naturally. A prospect who sees a starting rate and decides it’s outside their budget doesn’t call at all, which is exactly the outcome a facility wants, since that call was never going to convert regardless of how it was handled. The calls that do come in tend to be from prospects who already know the general price range works and are calling about something more specific, availability for their exact dates, a particular add-on, a special need.
None of this requires giving up flexible payment options as part of how a facility presents its pricing. Buy Now Pay Later through Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay lets a facility show a full, honest rate while still giving a client a way to spread out a larger board-and-train or extended-stay charge, which often does more to make a real price feel approachable than hiding the number ever did.
PocketSuite’s a little bit more fluid, you can navigate between things a little bit easier.
Robert Norris, owner, The Dog Wizard Woodlands
I never want to lose a client due to cost. If there’s anything we can do to work with them to get their dog into training, we’re going to do that.
Abigail Missimo, PocketSuite, “Webinar: From Click to Confirm: Fixing the Leaks in Your Booking Page!“
How to Post a Price Without Oversimplifying It
A facility with genuinely variable pricing doesn’t have to choose between a single misleading number and no number at all. PocketSuite pet resort software lets a facility list each distinct service and rate tier, standard boarding, a luxury suite, an add-on, separately, so a posted price is specific to the actual service a prospect is looking at rather than a single blended average that fits nobody’s real stay.
A facility can also post a starting rate with a short, honest note that a final price depends on a dog’s size or specific add-ons selected, which is a very different thing from posting no price at all. That framing still gives a prospect a real number to work with while leaving room for the facility to confirm specifics once a booking is actually underway.
A facility making this change doesn’t need to overhaul its whole pricing structure to start. Publishing rates for its two or three most-booked services is a reasonable first step, expanding to the rest of the service list once the change proves out with real booking data behind it.
What a Facility Risks Either Way
A facility that keeps pricing hidden risks losing prospects to a competitor that shows its rates, especially since so much boarding search now happens on a phone, in a moment when a prospect is comparing several options in adjacent browser tabs rather than committing to a single call. A hidden price in that moment simply loses the comparison by default.
A facility that posts pricing risks nothing comparable in return. A posted rate doesn’t stop a facility from having a great conversation with a client who calls, it just stops that conversation from being the only way a prospect can find out whether the facility is even in a workable range.
The businesses seeing the strongest growth in the industry aren’t the ones treating price as a secret to be protected. They’re the ones confident enough in their value, their facility, their staff, their track record, to let a prospect see the real number and decide for themselves that it’s worth booking.
A facility weighing this decision doesn’t have to treat it as permanent or all-or-nothing. Posting rates for a single service, or for a limited time, and comparing booking volume against the same period a year earlier gives a facility real data to decide with, rather than a decision made purely on instinct or on how a competitor happens to handle it.
Showing prices, or at least a starting rate range, wins more first-time bookings for most operators than hiding pricing does. A prospect comparing several facilities usually reads a hidden price as a higher price rather than a sign of a more personalized business.
It reduces low-value calls from prospects who were never in the facility’s price range to begin with, while the calls that do come in tend to be from prospects who already know the general rate works and are asking about something more specific.
Yes. A facility can list a starting rate per service along with a short note that a final price depends on size or add-ons selected, giving a prospect a real number to work with while still leaving room to confirm specifics at booking.
No. A discount can still be applied to a reservation at checkout, for a multi-night stay or a first-time client, so a posted base rate doesn’t remove a facility’s ability to make a specific booking more attractive when it wants to.
