Elmtree Luxury Pet Hotel

I’ve just picked up my doggy after her two week stay at Elmtree.
My dog is a nervous one at best and with her slightly neurotic tendencies I was looking for somewhere for her to go that was a bit more than the norm. She usually stays with my in-​laws, but they were also galavanting, so I had to find another option. After some research online I found Elmtree. I went over all the reviews I could find and couldn’t find anyone with a negative word to say about them. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to check out the place before hand, so I was going wholly on these reviews.
The run up to her stay was very smooth. They answered all my emailed questions efficiently and kindly. I changed my mind about a few things and they were very accommodating. I was planning on getting her picked up and dropped off, but when the invoice came it was £72 each way and I decided that was just too much on top of everything else.
We dropped her off the morning that we flew, it was a particularly hot and sweaty day and we’d got lost trying to find the place. Thanks, Google Maps. (Don’t walk through the cemetery, unless you know where the gap in the wall is.) I was a bit stressed because of the heat and the impending ‘leaving my dog with strangers.’ When we arrived the lady at the front desk was awesome; very friendly and welcoming. She called through for someone to come and get my dog once all the incidentals had been looked at, like her vaccinations card and they also asked whether she’d been spayed. Then a lady came and got her.
That was pretty much it and I have to admit, I was a little bit .well I think shocked is too dramatic a word to use, but. for want of a better one…
I had arrived early hoping to get a look at where my dog was going to stay and she what she would be up to, I thought that seeing as they allowed people to drop in that it wouldn’t be a problem. When I asked the lady if I could come too, she said that it wasn’t really convenient and started to walk away with my doggy. I started to cry and was like. can I just say good bye to which, of course, the lady happily stopped and I gave my doggy a hug before she was taken down the corridor.
When I came to pick her up there was a similar situation. The lady came and dropped her off and was lovely enough, but I think had I not probed for questions about how my dog had been during her stay then I don’t think I would have had any feedback on the last two weeks and that kinda aggrieved me somewhat.
I *know* that I’m an oversensitive pet owner (this is my first dog,) but I think that probably comes as standard for someone who forks out over £500 for their pet to be boarded over two weeks.
When I first left her with my in-​laws I had written four sides of A4 for them to be aware of all her little idiosyncrasies — so yeah — a little overboard, I know — but I felt that Elmtree knew nothing of the dog they had just taken to look after. I know that this is what they do, so they have experience of all kinds of doggy behaviours, so perhaps it’s not really for their info, but just perhaps more from the owner.
My friend’s dog goes somewhere similar on a day basis when she can’t work from home and at the end of the day she receives a little card to say what her dog had been up to what she had eaten, etc. It’s the personal touches that make it — especially for this neurotic dog owner.
The only other thing I feel I should mention is that my dog is quite a bit thinner on her return. As to how grams I’m not sure at the moment, but she is visibly more boney than she was when she went in. I know for a fact that she was fed a lot because the lady who dropped her off remarked on how much she ate — so I think that it probably has a lot more to do with the constant play with other puppies for two weeks, but it’s so noticeable I thought it was worth a mention.
Overall I am happy with my dog’s stay at this place and now that she’s been there and returned a happy looking chappy, I would happily board her there again. I think there is a good chance that I turned up at too busy a time, but if you’re hella neurotic like me be prepared to probe a bit to find out the information that you want.

I, like many a crazy cat lady before me, am somewhat precious about my cat. She is the sweetest animal alive, but she is dim. Very, very dim. Because of this, she tends to get rattled fairly easily. Understandably, this made me very nervous to board her. We are going to visit family for two weeks over the holidays and need to send her off some place. I figured we would do a trial run while we were away for four days in October.
I found this kennel via Google. I’ve since found others that also look great. But Elm Tree was polite and lovely to work with the entire way through. Setting up the reservation and payments were very simple and handled over the phone. The person I dealt with was very friendly.
The biggest testament to their service was how unfazed Winnie was when she returned. I expected a rattled and distraught cat, but she settled back in fairly quickly and didn’t seem starved for attention the way she does if we’re away for a night. She was clean and healthy and herself. I’d recommend them to anyone.
The only pitfall land reason that I’m giving four stars instead of five is that the person collecting Winnie was late. We were given a two hour window and he arrived about 30 minutes after the specified time without phoning to say they’d be running late. This was the only hiccup in the whole process. It wouldn’t have been as big a deal if my partner didn’t have somewhere to be that afternoon, but he had scheduled his day around the agreed upon pick-​up time.
Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for Unilocal!), the ‘luxury pet hotel’ was already fully booked for the holidays as of beginning of November, so we’ll be boarding her somewhere else over the holidays.

This is a pet hotel. Not a cattery. We take our cat here whenever we go away (and now especially after we took him one other place and he came back scared). At Elmtree, your cat doesn’t have an outdoor space so need to let you know that right now. What they do have are two rooms to themselves and in the winter, the cat even has a heated floor! They provide a scratch post, food (you can provide your own if your cat is picky like ours), litter tray and the facilities are very clean!!! I can’t say much about the dog space, but the times we’ve been there with our cat and people have brought in the dogs, they seemed happy to be there. In fact on one visit, the dog brought in by a couple, seemed happy to be there and ran over to the people working there as if they were his best friends. They are not located in London so you’ll either need a car to get your pets there OR even better, and we’ve used a couple of times, they offer a pick-​up and delivery service!!! I highly recommend this place mainly because the facilities are clean, the staff are caring and your pet will come back as if you’d never been away.