Setting Up Your Services and Pricing

Written By Lucas Stefanski

Last updated 3 months ago

Your services are what clients book - dog walking, pet sitting, boarding, daycare, and more. Each service can have multiple pricing tiers, extra pet rates, and custom settings.

This article will walk you through creating and configuring services for your pet care business.

Understanding Service Types

Scritches supports two types of services, each with different scheduling behavior:

Appointment Services

Examples: Dog Walking, Drop-in Visits, Meet & Greet

  • Appear as time blocks on your calendar (e.g., 9:00am - 9:30am)

  • Scheduled within service windows like "Morning (7am-10am)" (see → Setting Up Your Availability article for more details on service windows)

  • Clients select a date, then choose from available service windows

  • Perfect for: Walks, quick visits, consultations

Stay Services

Examples: Overnight Pet Sitting, Boarding, Day Care

  • Appear as all-day events on your calendar

  • Scheduled by start and end dates with arrival/departure times

  • You configure arrival/departure windows in availability settings

  • Can charge per night or per day

  • Perfect for: Multi-day care, overnight stays, full-day services

Creating Your First Service

  1. Go to Services

  2. Click Add Service

  3. Enter basic information:

    • Service Name: What clients will see (e.g., "Dog Walking")

    • Description: Brief explanation of what's included

    • Icon: Choose from available icons (searchable)

    • Category: Organize services by type (optional)

  4. Choose Service Type:

    • Leave "Stay-based scheduling" off for appointment services

    • Switch "Stay-based scheduling" on for stay services

  5. For stay-based services, choose Charge per night or Charge per day:

    • Per night example: An overnight sit with a cost of $80 from October 13th to October 15th would be charged 2 nights, or $160

    • Per day: A daycare stay with a cost of $50 from October 13th to October 15th would be charged 3 days, or $150

  6. Click Save

Setting Up Pricing Options (Variants)

Most pet care businesses offer multiple pricing options per service. For example:

  • Dog Walking: 30min/$25, 45min/$35, 1hr/$45

  • Boarding: Standard Room/$50, Deluxe Suite/$75

Adding Variants

  1. Open your service

  2. Go to the Variants section

  3. Click Add Variant

  4. Enter:

    • Name: Tier name (e.g., "Standard Walk")

    • Description: What's included (optional)

    • Duration: Length in minutes (appointment services only)

    • Price: Cost for this tier

  5. Click Save

Repeat for each pricing tier.

Setting a Default Variant

Mark one variant as the default - this pre-selects when clients book on your booking page, making it faster for them to book your most popular option.

Configuring Extra Pet Rates

Most pet care services charge more when clients have multiple pets. Scritches makes this automatic.

How Extra Pet Pricing Works

  • Base rate: The variant price covers the first pet

  • Extra pet rates: Automatically applied for 2nd, 3rd, 4th+ pets

  • Can be fixed amount (e.g., +$10 per pet) or percentage (e.g., +50%)

  • Species-specific rates (dogs vs cats can have different rates)

Setting Up Extra Pet Rates

  1. Open your service

  2. Go to Extra Pet Rates

  3. Click Add Rate

  4. Configure:

    • Species: Dog, Cat, or Any

    • Pet Number: Which pet this applies to (2nd, 3rd, etc.)

    • Rate Type: Fixed amount or Percentage

    • Amount: The rate (e.g., $10 or 50%)

    • Apply to all after: Optional - use the same rate for all pets beyond this number

Example Setup:

2nd Dog: $10 (fixed) 3rd Dog: $10 (fixed) - "Apply to all after" checked 2nd Cat: $5 (fixed) 3rd Cat: $5 (fixed) - "Apply to all after" checked

With this setup:

  • 1 dog = base price

  • 2 dogs = base + $10

  • 3 dogs = base + $10 + $10 = base + $20

  • 4 dogs = base + $10 + $10 + $10 = base + $30 (same $10 applies to all after 3rd)

Making Services Bookable

To allow clients to book a service on your public booking page:

  1. Open the service

  2. Toggle Bookable to on

  3. Make sure the service has:

    • ✅ At least one variant

    • ✅ Availability configured (service windows or arrival/departure times)

Services marked as not bookable won't appear on your booking page but can still be used for manual bookings you create.

How Services Appear on Your Booking Page

When a service is bookable and active:

  1. Service Card: Shows on your public booking page at app.scritches.io/book/[your-slug]

  2. Displays:

    • Service name and icon

    • Description

    • Starting price ("From $25" if multiple variants)

    • Exact prices when client clicks "View Details"

  3. Booking Flow:

    • Client clicks service

    • Sees all pricing variants

    • Selects preferred variant

    • Chooses date and time (or date range for stays)

    • Fills out needed info and completes booking

→ Customizing Your Booking Page

Organizing Your Services

Categories

Group similar services together:

  • "Dog Services" (Walking, Drop-ins, etc.)

  • "Cat Services" (Drop-ins, Boarding)

  • "Overnight Care" (Sitting, Boarding)

Categories appear as filters on your booking page, making it easier for clients to find what they need.

Display Order

Drag and drop services to reorder how they appear on your booking page. Use this to guide clients on your booking page, for example, if you have a service that needs to be performed before any other (like a Meet & Greet), you can place it first in order.

Archiving Services

Stop offering a service without deleting it:

  1. Open the service

  2. Click Archive

Archived services:

  • Won't appear on booking page

  • Can't be booked by clients

  • Still appear in reports and past bookings

  • Can be unarchived anytime

Best Practices

Start Simple

  • Create 3-5 core services to start

  • Add more as your business grows

  • Try to keep things simple, too many options can overwhelm clients

Competitive Pricing

  • Research rates in your area

  • Consider your experience and qualifications

  • Factor in drive time and expenses

Clear Descriptions

  • Explain exactly what's included

  • Note any requirements (e.g., "Must be friendly with other dogs")

  • Keep it brief - 1-2 sentences

Extra Pet Pricing

  • Make it worth your time

  • Common rates: 50-75% of base price for 2nd pet

  • Slightly less for 3rd+ pets (30-50%)

Test the Booking Flow

  • Book yourself as a client to see the experience

  • Adjust pricing and descriptions based on clarity

  • Make sure all variants show correct prices

Need Help?

  • Questions about service setup? Search the Help Center

  • Need pricing guidance? Contact support@scritches.io

  • Want to see examples? Check out example services in our online booking demo