One of the challenges with pets is how to care for them if you are away. You might trust a few of your friends with your wonderful pets 🙂 When that works it is great. Sometimes you can even win over those unfortunate pet-less souls to improve their lives with a wonderful cat. Or maybe even a dog, though that seems to be a step down in my opinion 🙂
Sometimes you can find a trustworthy kid to help you out. You can try virtual pet sitting with a remote camera and hopefully robot.
But occasionally that won’t work. There are wonderful pet spas to board you pets, but finding one you trust can be a challenge. Showing their 2nd class nature again 🙂 some dogs even require daycare even just for a workday. I don’t know of cats that are so needy 🙂
Obviously you want to be sure the place is clean and the kennels are safe and comfortable for the pets. But the competence and caring of the staff is critical and it can be a bit difficult to judge. Recommendations from friends are nice, from a vet you trust might be even better (they have the opportunity for so much feedback that if bad things are happening they would likely know). Checking on any required licenses and registrations is also wise (what is available would vary by state in the USA).
Pet spas should allow you to bring in food your pet prefers as well as toys (again needy dogs :-), most likely, but maybe for some cats too). I definitely would make a visit prior to leaving my pet.
Related: 10 Questions to Ask Your Vet About Cat Medications – Kitten’s Curiosity Gets it Stuck and Mom Comes to Help
I would love to see a kennel that combine with a kitty cafe (also dog petting park). They kennel would have to take extra care to select pets that appreciate it. My guess is in the USA it would be too fraught with potential issues. And certainly letting people not have their pets participate would be an option. But if you pet loved the attention and people wanted to give it and their was a competent staff to make decision it would offer benefits in many ways. Probably the challenges are too much of a pain, but I still think it is a neat idea.
I would also give extra credit to a spa that would train my cat to use the toilet while I am on vacation (though I have a feeling none do – that might be a market opportunity for you pet spa owners out there).