What is a small-capacity pet hotel?

In a word, small capacity means: personal.

Traditionally, the model for pet boarding facilities is to get the largest commercial space possible and stack it with as many kennels, runs, and rooms that can physically fit inside of the building.

Whether this is a "luxury" facility or a more modest kennel environment, this means that the capacity for dogs and cats can easily average 100-200 animals in 1 building, and during the holidays these numbers can be double or more.

‍Let's say a commercial facility has a team of 4 people available on the day shift, 1 manager and 3 pet counselors, and a couple more counselors on the night shift for potty breaks. Using 100 dogs and 3 pet counselors on average to do some simple math, this means that every 1 counselor will be responsible for 33 pets (on the low end), which if you divide across an 8 hour shift, means each pet typically only receives a maximum of 14 minutes of individualized attention per day. Factor in time spent cleaning, feeding, a 1 hour lunch, and breaks in a shift for  human counselors, and the math is pretty abysmal for the animals, with each pet only receiving 5 to 10 minutes of personalized attention and care per day.

Even if there are more staff (4 or 5 counselors instead of 3), the math doesn't get much better. With 4 counselors, pets can receive a maximum of 19 minutes of individual attention, and with 5 counselors, about 24 minutes of attention per 8 hour shift, not including lunch breaks for human counselors or the time they must spend cleaning, doing laundry, stocking supply rooms, and preparing meals for 100+ pets.

Although many large commercial facilities offer stylish spaces and playful branding, the math is difficult to ignore.

The Small-Capacity Difference

Now let's change the math a little.

At Z Pet Hotels, we have 28 rooms, and we typically only book 25 of them (leaving 3 available for pets that need to be moved to decrease their FAS, last minute reservations, etc.) This means our total capacity for pets is between 28 and 40 in the entire hotel, so even if we were booked to capacity, each of our staff are responsible for a maximum of 10-20 pets on average, which across our team's around the clock shifts means each pet receives a minimum of 40-80 minutes of individual, personalized attention every single day, in additional to all day play with their doggy friends or time relaxing in an our oversized kitty suites.

When Zaneta created Z Pet Hotels, it was after successfully starting & selling another large-scale, luxury, pet care facility in Las Vegas, and when Jacqueline joined the Z family in 2025 it was after working as a trainer for other large commercial facilities in town. Both women shared the same concerns about the lack of individualized attention, utilization of teenage staff, and more than anything, the high-stress environment created by the amount of animals in 1 building, which laid the foundation for Z Pet Hotels.

Founded in 2020

When Zaneta founded Z Pet Hotels in 2020, she set out to create a completely different concept than what everyone else was doing. Not just a luxury pet hotel, but a boutique luxury pet hotel, which mixes all the comforts of home with the professionalism of a commercial facility so that pet owners can have the peace of mind knowing their baby is not only recieving the best care possible, they're also not just a number in a system. They recieve personal attention every day from our team, who really take the time to get to know their behaviors, likes/dislikes, play styles, and all the special things that make your pet unique.

Fear Free Certified Pet Care

It would be trivial for us to add more kennels to the building and increase our capacity and revenue, but we choose not to. This is because we are not only committed to our model of personalized care, but because we are also committed to our Fear Free status, which includes building design. We believe that less capacity, with more personalized care is the way to go.

Fear Free is a continuing education program for pet professionals that teaches staff the signs of fear, anxiety, and stress in animals (also known as "FAS".) In the Fear Free program, FAS is measured and assigned a score based on a pets behaviors, such as willigness to take treats, interactions with staff or other pets, as well as sudden changes not typical for your pet. Our staff are trained on what fear, stress, and anxiety looks like in pets and have been taught how to reduce or alleviate stressors through play, body language, giving treats, and other fun activities.

We are committed to the Fear Free ideology and are proudly Fear Free Certified.