Boarding your animals with a provider
Boarding your animals with a provider
When you need someone to care for your animals, boarding services on Creatures let you book a provider on a recurring monthly basis. This guide covers finding a service, reading the service page, the difference between applying and subscribing, what it costs, and how cancelling works.
Finding boarding
You can browse boarding services in two places:
- /boarding is the boarding directory, where services are listed for you to browse.
- /marketplace/boarding surfaces the same boarding services within the marketplace.
Both show available services so you can compare providers near you.
What the service page tells you
Open a service at /boarding/services/{id} and you get everything you need to decide:
- Housing type. Whether your animal is kept private (on its own) or in a group (shared with other animals). This matters if your animal needs to be kept apart.
- Species accepted. The kinds of animals the provider takes. You can only board animals whose species the service lists.
- Minimum commitment. Either month-to-month (cancel any time) or a set number of months you would be committing to. Know this before you book, because a commitment cannot be cancelled early.
- Location. Where the facility is, so you know the distance and whether you can get your animal there.
- The monthly rate, plus the 5% note. The price per animal per month. The page notes the 5% customer service fee that is added on top, so the figure you see is not the final monthly charge once the fee and your animal count are included.
- Terms. The provider's own facility rules, which sit on top of the Creatures Standard Boarding Agreement that applies to all boarding.
The page's main button is one of two things, depending on how the provider set up the service: Apply if they require approval first, or Subscribe if you can book directly.
Applying (when the provider requires approval)
If the service requires approval, you start by applying:
- Pick your animals. Choose the animals you want to board from the ones you own. You can only select animals whose species the service accepts; others are not eligible.
- Answer the form. Fill out the provider's application (a custom form they built, or the standard boarding form). Answer honestly and completely, since this is how they decide.
When you submit, your application is pending until the provider reviews it. If they approve it, you can then subscribe. If they reject it, you are notified and cannot book that service. Applying does not charge you; it is the request to be allowed to subscribe.
Subscribing (the recurring monthly booking)
Subscribing is what actually books the boarding and starts billing. It is a recurring monthly subscription, and here is exactly what you pay and agree to:
- The monthly amount is the rate times your animal count, plus 5%. If the rate is $100 per animal and you are boarding two animals, the base is $200, and the 5% customer fee brings the monthly charge to $210. It renews every month for as long as the subscription runs.
- A commitment sets an end date. If the service has a minimum commitment, subscribing locks you in until that end date. With no commitment, it is month-to-month.
- Credit and a promo code apply to your first invoice. If you have Creatures Credit or a valid promo code, they come off the first invoice when you subscribe. Later monthly invoices are billed at the normal amount.
Your subscription moves through these states: it begins pending, becomes active once billing is set up, and can be paused, canceled, or ended over its life.
Managing and cancelling
/dashboard/my-boarding is where you see your boarding subscriptions and manage them. Cancelling depends on whether you committed:
- No commitment (month-to-month): cancel any time. You can cancel immediately and billing stops.
- Under a commitment: cancel is blocked until it ends. While a minimum commitment is still running, you cannot cancel out of it. Once the commitment period is over, you are free to cancel. This is why it is worth checking the commitment on the service page before you subscribe.
When your animals come home and the boarding is done, leaving the provider a review helps the next person choose well. See Leaving a review.
Related information
Updated on: 23/06/2026
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