FAQs for chicken boarding guests
Chicken, or hen boarding, is just the same type of service as checking your dogs into a kennel when you go on holiday. Instead of a kennel, you’ll be booking your chickens into a Chicken Hotel.
Betsy is a new service where you can find local chicken boarding. Just like Airbnb, you can search your local area for Chicken Hotels and choose the one you like the most. Unsure about how to transport your chickens? Read the blog.
The basics include having dedicated guest coops for your chickens that are cleaned regularly and always between guests. The owner of the Chicken Hotel must also be comfortable handling your chickens. (When you look at a listing for a Chicken Hotel, it’s always a good sign if you can see a photo of the host holding a chicken.)
Betsy is like Airbnb for chickens. We’re creating a highly trusted database of Chicken Hotels in the UK to look after your hens when you go away.Â
Betsy’s CEO is David Roberts, founder of the original Chicken Hotel in Cornwall. You can read David’s founder story here.
Booking a stay for your chickens on Betsy is just like checking yourself into a hotel. Select your dates for ‘chick in’ and ‘chick out’ and then browse your local hotels. You can decide on the one that looks most fun, best value or more luxurious!Â
All the Chicken Hotel managers on Betsy are highly experienced chicken keepers. They know the care and attention that they have to give your pets, and things to look out for. Twice daily visits aren’t a problem when your Chicken Hotel manager has your guests in their garden. You don’t have to worry about leaving them for extended periods or if the weather gets terrible. Our hosts will be happy to take top notch care of your flock under all conditions.Â
So this isn’t so much a question as a common feeling among chicken owners. Not to worry, our Chicken Hotel managers might be strangers to you, but they aren’t to us. We carefully interview everyone who wants to list on our website to make sure that they have the expertise, experience and facilities to offer the very best chicken care available.Â
Good question! Some hotels on Betsy accept cockerels, but not all. When you search on Betsy you can select whether you need a property with roosters.
FAQs for chicken boarding businesses
If you love chickens and have an entrepreneurial streak, creating a chicken boarding business might be an egg-sellent way for you to earn extra cash and meet fun and interesting people along the way. Apply here to be a Chicken Hotel Manager.
You may be surprised to learn that there are now almost 1.5 million UK households with chickens, a number growing at 200,000 households per year. Our beloved hens now outnumber hamsters 5 to 1 in the UK! Everyone needs someone to care for their chickens at some point, whether that’s because you’re visiting relatives or taking a well earned break.
People can do, but not everyone has trusted people close by who can provide the expert care chickens need. It can be a lot to ask for someone to visit twice a day to take care of your hens, especially in winter. So owners prefer to have the peace of mind of leaving their chickens with responsible, experienced chicken owners who provide excellent service at a reasonable price.
You can make around £1500 a year from one spare coop! This is based on an 80% occupancy rate, charging £5 a night. You can obviously charge whatever you like, the average rate is between £5-8 per coop. Then on top you can offer other paid-for services like a pick-up and drop-off service.
Plastic coops, like the Omlet Eglu, are probably the best for Chicken Hotels. They are super easy to clean and leave no place for mites to hide. They can be expensive to buy new, but you can find them second hand. Wooden coops can be a lot cheaper but in the long run it’s perhaps a false economy when you consider the extra time and effort it takes to clean, the problems with infestation and the natural deterioration of the wood over time.
If you advertise your chicken boarding business yourself you would be responsible for any chicken losses (through ill health or fox attacks etc.). However, if you use Betsy to list your chicken boarding you will benefit from our Betsy guarantee and Betsy protection. This insurance covers you for any losses and even gives you additional protection should a customer cancel at the last minute.
No, you do not have to accept roosters. This is a common question, and it’s why we put this option on the first page of our booking site. When a customer puts in their search criteria they can select the number of chickens and roosters. If you do not want to offer rooster accommodation then you will not pop up in Chicken Hotel search results.
As a Chicken Hotel, listing your premises with Betsy costs you nothing. Not a penny. All you need to do is select the amount you want to charge and you will receive the entire amount after the guest chickens have stayed with you. So how does Betsy make money? When a customer completes their booking they will see their final accommodation cost and then our service fee.Â