Annual Report · 2026
State of UK Dog Boarding 2026
Data period: May 2025 – January 2026 · Published 2026-01-15
An independent analysis of the UK dog boarding sector — licence coverage, regional price variation, star-rating distribution, and the True Price Index. Based on our dataset of council-licensed operators across England, Scotland, and Wales.
Key findings
Data period: May 2025 – January 2026
2,174
Operators in dataset
70
Towns with ≥1 operator
£26
Median nightly rate
900
5-star rated operators
1. Licence coverage
Our pipeline covers council licensing registers from local authorities across England, Scotland, and Wales. Coverage is not uniform — some councils publish machine-readable registers; others require FOI requests or manual extraction. The licensing coverage map at /data/licensing-coverage shows per-council status.
As of 2026-01-15, our dataset covers 70 towns across 2,174 publishable operators. Full coverage data including non-publishable operators and councils not yet in the pipeline is available in the downloadable dataset below.
2. Pricing
The national median nightly rate for boarding kennels in our dataset is £26 per night. Regional medians vary significantly — London and the South East tend to be 20–40% above the national median. Full regional breakdowns are in the downloadable dataset and the UK Dog Boarding Price Index.
3. Star rating distribution
Not all councils publish star ratings under the Animal Activity Licensing framework. Where they do, our data covers the distribution of 1–5 star ratings. Higher standard operators (a separate tier) are tracked independently.
See the star rating map for regional breakdowns. The full distribution table is in the downloadable dataset.
4. True Price Index
The True Price Index measures the observed price gap between direct booking and marketplace-mediated booking for matched operator/service pairs. Full methodology and current figures are at /data/true-price-index.
Methodology and limitations
Data sources: Council licensing registers (primary), operator websites (price observations), operator-supplied data (where consent given), public review aggregators (aggregate only).
Coverage: Our dataset does not cover all UK councils. Councils requiring FOI access or manual extraction may not be fully represented. Sample sizes per statistic are noted in the downloadable dataset.
Price data: Prices are the minimum published rate for a single dog unless otherwise stated. They reflect observations made within the reporting period and do not include all possible surcharges.
Star ratings: As assessed by the local council at time of inspection. Ratings are not updated between inspections and may not reflect current conditions.
Update cadence: This report reflects data collected during May 2025 – January 2026. Individual operator data on this site is updated continuously as our pipeline runs.
Download the dataset
The full dataset for this report — including regional breakdowns, star rating distributions, and price data — is available as a CSV download. Attribution required under CC BY 4.0.
Dataset download will be available from January 2026.
For press enquiries or to request an embargoed advance copy: press@comparedogboardingprices.co.uk