Cattery Capacity Isn't Kennel Capacity: Units, Not Headcount
Kennel capacity thinking goes: twenty runs, twenty dogs, count heads. Apply that to a cattery and you will either overbook or leave money on the table, because cat capacity isn't a headcount — it's a question of units, and of which cats can legitimately occupy one together.
Count units, not cats
Since unfamiliar cats never share, the true unit of capacity is the housing unit. Ten units means ten household groups — which might be ten single cats, or seven singles and three bonded pairs, fourteen cats in all. Two bookings of two cats each consume two units if each family shares, four if they don't. Your occupancy question is never “how many cats are in the building?” — it's “how many units are free on each night of this stay, for this party?”
Mixed facilities: dedicated space plus flexible space
If you board dogs and cats, your spaces divide into three kinds: dog-only, cat-only, and flexible spaces that can house either — one species at a time. Flexible units are how a mixed facility follows demand across seasons without rebuilding. The allocation strategy that keeps the most options open: fill dedicated units first, and hold flexible units in reserve as overflow for whichever species needs them. Spend the flexible space early and you'll find yourself turning away a cat because a dog is in the one unit that could have taken either.
The signals worth watching
Two more ideas complete the picture. First, an early-warning signal: you want to know when a date has only one or two cat-capable units left — not to stop bookings, but to price and plan accordingly. Second, planned reductions: deep cleans, repairs and quiet-season staffing all temporarily shrink how many units you can run, and your booking system should respect a reduced cap per day rather than forcing you to close outright.
How The Kennel Manager models it
Every unit is typed — dog, cat, or flexible — and capacity is evaluated in units per species per night, with household groups from one booking treated as one unit of demand. The availability engine fills dedicated units first and keeps flexible units as last-resort overflow, exactly the strategy above, and it re-checks the maths at confirmation so a request that no longer fits can't slip through. Calendar days show “filling up” the moment a species is down to its last couple of units, and reduced-capacity periods cap the number of units bookable per day without closing the diary.