Pet-care SaaS — Launch Spec & Competitive Analysis

🎯 What We Plan to Offer at Launch (Core Spec)

• Services supported (up to 4, under one price):
  • Dog walking
  • Overnight pet sitting
  • Pet-care visits
  • Pet transport
• Extras / Add-ons: Providers can configure extras as either standalone services or add-ons to existing services (e.g. key pick-up / key drop-off).
• Pricing & Pets / Services Configuration:
  • Providers set a “base number of pets” (e.g. 1-2 pets at same base price), with optional per-pet fees or tiered pricing beyond that.
  • Ability to define “sub-service types” — e.g. 30-minute walk, 60-minute walk.
  • Option to set a maximum number of pets per booking.
• Booking models: Two modes for recurring / multi-visit scheduling (for dog-walking / pet-care visits):
  1. Per-Visit Scheduling — client selects precise dates and time-slots; booking form applies all pricing rules (holiday surcharges, time-slot pricing, extras, per-pet fees) automatically.
  2. Package Booking — client enters a date range and total number of visits; they also manually specify how many visits fall inside any defined holiday-window or special pricing window.
• Time-slot & Schedule-based pricing + Holiday pricing:
  • Providers can define time-slots (e.g. Morning 8–11 am, Evening, Overnight, etc.). For “pet-care visits,” they can include an “Overnight” slot (which pulls pricing data from Overnight Pet Sitting config).
  • They can define “schedule-based pricing rules” — price adjustments for specific days of week and/or specific time-slots.
  • They can define “holiday windows”: a base holiday (e.g. Christmas), and how many days before/after that holiday the surcharge or discount applies. Those holiday price adjustments apply automatically per service when booking.
• Transport service config (for Pet Transport):
  • Option for single trip or multiple trips (up to a configured maximum)
  • Base pricing, one-way trip cost (with optional included mileage), round-trip cost (with optional included mileage)
  • Wait-time and return-trip cost logic (e.g. $5 per 15 minutes, up to some cap)
  • Option for “automatic mileage calculation” using provider-supplied Google Maps API key + address lookup (with address-lookup bias / radius constraint)
  • Ability to charge per additional km / mile beyond included mileage.
• Ease-of-setup + Embeddable Booking Form:
  • Provide reasonable defaults so providers can configure the system in ≈ 15 minutes.
  • After configuration providers get a WordPress plugin or a snippet of code they can embed in their existing website.
  • The embedded “smart form” handles client-side (HTML5 + JS) validation and server-side validation; afterwards the data flows into a shopping-cart or “buy-now” flow chosen by provider.
  • Behind the scenes, booking data is logged (for later reporting and/or staff scheduling, if provider opts in for scheduling component).
• Roadmap (Post-launch / Later):
  • Add optional staff scheduling / management + mobile app for staff (with potential GPS/check-in / check-out tracking).
  • Possibly offer a fully managed custom website option (i.e. branded public-site, beyond just booking-form embed).

✅ Why This Spec Is Well Designed — Strengths & Market Fit

• Flexibility in services, pets, extras, time-slots, and pricing. Real pet-care businesses often have mixed pets, varying service durations, extras (keys, transport, special care) — our flexible model accommodates many use-cases.
• Holiday pricing and schedule-based pricing is often required in real world. Pet-care businesses often price differently around holidays / peak times / weekends. By building holiday windows + per-slot pricing + surcharges/discounts, we cover a real need.
• Two booking modes (per-visit vs package) give clients more options. Some clients know exact dates up front; others just want “X walks over a date range” — package booking simplifies ordering and reduces friction.
• Embeddable booking form + WordPress-plugin lowers barrier to adoption. Many small pet-care providers already have a website (often WordPress). Offering a plugin or snippet means minimal setup; they don’t need a separate portal, which improves user adoption.
• Quick setup with sensible defaults reduces friction for providers. A “ready out-of-box” flow means even non-technical or small operators can get started with minimal overhead.
• Scalable roadmap allows starting small, then expanding to full suite when demand dictates. A lean launch focusing on booking/forms & pricing logic gives you the chance to get early adopters before investing heavily in scheduling/staff/mobile.

⚠️ Risks, Complexity & What to Watch Out For — Potential Pitfalls

• Pricing logic complexity: Combining per-pet pricing, extras, time-slot surcharges, holiday windows, package pricing, transport mileage & wait-time — this becomes combinatorial. Edge cases (multiple pets, mixed pet types, overlapping surcharges + discounts) may lead to bugs or confusing invoices.
• UI / UX complexity for providers: While flexibility is great, too many options/configurations can overwhelm small providers (especially non-technical ones). Without a clean UI and good defaults, onboarding could become painful rather than 15 minutes.
• Complex backend data model needed to support services, pets, bookings, extras, surcharges, pricing rules, transport logs, packages — with good maintainability. If schema is rigid, you risk limiting real-world use cases; if too loose, technical debt could accumulate.
• Validation & booking-form logic must be robust: Must correctly enforce max-pets, max-dates, slot conflicts, holiday window rules, transport + mileage, extras — form + server logic must be comprehensive.
• Client (pet-owner) UX risk on “package booking”: If clients just specify number of visits over a date-range + holiday counts, they may not clearly know when exactly visits will happen. Could lead to confusion or disputes unless provider communicates clearly or provides a preview or confirmation flow.
• Scalability risk when adding scheduling/staff/mobile modules in future: If booking logic and data model is tightly coupled, adding staff scheduling, mobile check-ins, staff shift assignments, etc., could require major refactor or cause coupling problems.
• Integration with external carts/payment systems: Because booking form hands off to “cart/buy-now of choice,” integration must be generic enough to support different payment gateways and carts, while preserving metadata (service, pets, extras, surcharges) — this adds complexity.

💡 Recommendations Before Full Implementation — What to Prototype / Validate Early

Risk / Challenge	Suggested Early Step / Mitigation
Complex pricing logic & edge-cases	Build a “pricing engine” module and write unit tests / test cases covering many combinations (pet #, extras, holidays, time-slots, transport, packages). Verify accuracy.
Booking form & validation logic	Prototype the booking form (client-side + server-side) with full validation: max-pets, slot availability, holiday windows, transport + mileage, extras, package flow. Test thoroughly with mock data.
Data model / schema design	Sketch relational or document schema (services, pets, bookings, extras, pricing rules, holidays, transport logs, packages). Review for flexibility and future scalability (staff, scheduling, mobile).
First-time user onboarding / configuration UI	Build a “setup wizard” UI with defaults. Test with a non-technical “pet-care provider” (could be a friend / colleague) to validate fast setup (<15 min) and intuitive flows.
Client UX for package booking vs per-visit scheduling	Test with potential “pet-owner users”: mock both flows, identify confusion or communication gaps; design confirmation or schedule-review step if necessary.
Payment/cart integration	Ensure booking metadata (services, pets, extras) is passed cleanly to cart/payment system. Design data transfer schema and test with at least one real payment gateway.

📈 Why This Spec Could Win — Market Position & Differentiation

• There is significant demand for flexible, customizable booking + pricing + extras — many small-to-mid pet-care operators are likely underserved by “one-size-fits-all” tools.
• Embeddable forms and WP plugin make adoption very low-friction — ideal for solo operators or small businesses who don’t want to overhaul their websites.
• Holiday / schedule-based pricing + package booking + transport + extras + flexible pet-/service-type support provides a more complete, real-world friendly tool than basic scheduling tools.
• Lean launch with core features — you can begin serving customers earlier, gather feedback, and iterate. Then expand to more advanced modules (staff scheduling, mobile, site management) only if there is demand — reducing risk and wasted development effort.

🧾 Next Step: Build a Feature / Implementation Matrix & Data Model Schema

I recommend creating a shared feature matrix to track what we support at launch vs what we defer, and a data model schema (tables or JSON) that supports all the necessary entities (services, pets, bookings, extras, pricing rules, holidays, packages, transport, etc.).

This matrix + schema will help us — as CEO & CTO — plan development, identify dependencies, and avoid architectural mistakes early.

Doc generated from internal planning discussion (Lethal & team).