This sits in the same honest-range territory as what a dog walker costs — a wide spread, driven by a handful of specific things, with no single number that actually applies across London.

Two different products

Daycare means your dog goes somewhere during the day and comes home that evening — a solution for a long working day, not an overnight absence. Boarding means an overnight stay, either in a larger facility or with a host family taking your dog into their own home. They solve different problems and are priced on different logic, which is worth being clear about before comparing quotes across both.

What drives daycare price

Group size and staff ratio matter the same way they do for a group dog walk — a smaller, better-supervised group costs more than a larger one for the same reason. Full-day versus half-day is priced differently, and most providers offer a meaningful discount for booking a multi-day package or a standing weekly slot over a single ad-hoc day.

What drives boarding price

Home-boarding with a family tends to sit at a different price point than a larger kennel-style facility, and neither is automatically the better option — it depends on what your specific dog actually does well with. Peak periods, especially school holidays and the run-up to Christmas, push prices up across the board and book out earliest, which is worth planning around rather than discovering a month before you need it.

What to actually ask before booking either

Are they licensed? UK local authorities require boarding and daycare establishments to hold a licence — asking to see it is a completely normal, reasonable question, and a real provider will have no issue showing it.

What's the staff-to-dog ratio? For daycare specifically, this is the single number that tells you the most about how much actual attention your dog will get during the day.

What's the plan in a genuine emergency? The same question that matters for a dog walker matters here — a specific, thought-through answer is worth more than general reassurance.

Can you visit beforehand? For boarding especially, seeing the actual space your dog will stay in — not just photos — tends to settle more nerves than anything described over a phone call.

The bit that's still separate

Whatever happens during a daycare day or a boarding stay, it's its own thing — a walk you take together before or after doesn't become less of a walk because part of the day was spent somewhere else. Hapoo counts what actually happens on your own walks, independent of anything else going on around them.