Dog Daycare & Boarding Business Valuation Benchmarks

Business owners, prospective buyers, and industry investors rely on a diverse set of financial benchmarks to assess the value of a business. We have compiled data from current BizBuySell listings and sold businesses to provide insight into the business for sale market and important benchmarks for pricing and evaluating dog boarding businesses relative to industry standards.

See also: Pet Grooming Business Valuation Benchmarks

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Highlights of Dog Boarding Businesses Sold on BizBuySell

Dog daycare and boarding businesses listed and sold on BizBuySell engage in providing a safe and comfortable environment for dogs while their owners are away, whether for a day or an extended period. Services often include social playgroups, feeding, and overnight stays, ensuring pets are well-cared for and entertained. One of the key drivers behind the industry's profitability is a focus on premium services, such as webcams for owners to monitor their pets, tailored activity packages, and grooming services. The majority of businesses in this space are independently owned and operated, though franchises may be included in this data as well.

Dog Boarding Business Transaction Trends

Median sale prices of dog boarding businesses have been mostly consistent, rising and falling with the rest of the market as interest rates and other macroeconomic factors influence values. Prices did fall in 2022 as interest rates made acquisitions more expensive, but they rebounded in 2023 and have held through 2024.

Dog Boarding Business Valuation Multiples

Valuation, or pricing, multiples are financial tools that allow for comparisons between businesses that have different levels of revenue and earnings. They represent the sales price of a business relative to its financial performance, and given enough individual business sales data, they represent what the market is willing to pay for a business given its revenue and earnings.

Valuation Trends

Business values and associated multiples fluctuate over time, influenced by a variety of macroeconomic factors such as interest rates, inflation, consumer spending, and overall economic growth.

Earnings and revenue multiples of dog boarding businesses surged slightly in 2023 after falling in 2022, but returned to the average in 2024.

Earnings Multiples

Earnings multiples represent the value of a business relative to its owner’s discretionary earnings or "cash flow". Arguably the most important valuation metric - as seller's discretionary earnings will often dictate how much a buyer is able to borrow to finance the business acquisition - most business valuations will hinge on a reasonable earnings multiple.

Revenue Multiples

Revenue multiples represent the value of a business relative to its overall sales or revenue. In conjunction with an earnings analysis, revenue multiples are commonly used to value a business based on its overall sales.

How to Interpret These Multiples

Recent Listings vs. Sold Businesses

We calculate and provide valuation multiples from two sources: Current and recent listings of dog daycare and boarding businesses for sale, and our database of "comparable" dog boarding businesses sold on BizBuySell. Multiples based on listing data are generally higher due to owners setting asking prices above what their businesses might typically sell for. This occurs either intentionally as a negotiation strategy, or incidentally due to business owners’ common tendency to overvalue their own businesses.

Multiples based on comparable businesses - "comps" in business broker parlance - are much more useful as they represent the prices at which businesses ultimately get sold. Business brokers and valuation professionals will always turn to local comps when pricing businesses for sale or evaluating businesses for acquisition. We provide both sets of data at the national level to offer general context.

Quartiles, Median, and Average

No two businesses are identical, and as such, valuation multiples exist in a range. We have carved out four common values within this range: Lower quartile represents the value under which the lowest 25% of valuation multiples fell. Upper quartile represents the value above which the highest 25% of multiples fell. Median is the middle of the range, and average is the mean of the set. Mean is almost always higher than the median, driven by a minority of high volume, high value businesses sold at multiples above the upper quartile.

Businesses with consistent financial performance, above average revenue and earnings, demonstrable growth potential, low owner involvement, unique competitive advantages, and a seller willing to finance will command a multiple at or above the upper quartile. Lower volume businesses with thin profit margins, full-time owner involvement, and many direct competitors will trade at or below the lower quartile. Most businesses will fall somewhere in the middle.

Based on this data, half of dog boarding businesses are valued between 2 and 3.5 times their annual seller discretionary earnings, with 25% of well-managed, larger businesses trading above this range, and 25% of smaller, less desirable pet boarding businesses trading below.

Financial Benchmarks

To determine how a business compares in terms of revenue and earnings relative to industry peers, it’s necessary to have some insight into industry standards. "Benchmarking" describes the practice of comparing a business’s financial performance to typical industry standards to determine where a business falls relative to other businesses in the same industry. These benchmarks can help guide owners and investors towards appropriate valuation multiples from the range above.

To that end, we have aggregated financial ranges useful for comparing a dog boarding business to its peers in the market.

Dog Daycare & Boarding Business Revenue and Earnings Trends

Median revenue and owner earnings of dog boarding businesses has been relatively consistent since 2020. Median revenue fluctuates modestly above or below $500k, while owner earnings hovers around a very healthy 30%, or around $150k. Despite some volatility, in general both sales and owner earnings have been on a growth trend. 

Earnings Ranges

Discretionary earnings (used interchangeably with the terms "cash flow" and seller's discretionary earnings or SDE) is often the crux of business valuations, so it is important to benchmark it relative to other businesses traded on the market. Below you will find discretionary earnings ranges of dog boarding businesses sold over the past five years, as well as recent for sale listings.

Revenue Ranges

Sales volume plays a large role in business valuation, as it measures the size of the potential income opportunity for new ownership. It's not uncommon for buyers to select an earnings multiple range based on overall revenue. The table below includes revenue ranges of dog boarding businesses sold over the past five years, as well as recent for sale listings.

How Revenue and Earnings Level Affects Business Values

Clearly higher levels of earnings lead to higher valuations, even given the same multiple. However, valuation multiples also tend to rise with business sales volume. Businesses that generate higher sales (and maintain high profit margins) tend to sell for earnings multiples on the higher end. So, a dog boarding business consistently generating sales over $700k annually may sell for an earnings multiple of 3.5x or better, where a dog daycare business with sales below $300k might sell for an earnings multiple closer to 2.

This tendency for higher sales volumes to fetch higher valuation multiples is largely driven by the economics of business acquisition financing. Higher volume businesses give buyers more cushion to cover debt service obligations and still have enough left over to pay the new owner a reasonable income.

Sector Comparisons

For a more complete understanding of the market and valuation standards, consider comparisons within the broader service sector when benchmarking dog boarding businesses. The chart and table below include key metrics from sales of select service businesses on BizBuySell between 2020 and 2024.

Compared to other businesses in the service space, dog boarding businesses are valued above the average, and based on typical revenue and earnings, they receive a slight premium. Consistent demand in a niche area makes these businesses appealing to investors and business buyers.

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