Now Boarding

Since all of these reviews are about dog boarding, I thought I would take a moment to review their cat boarding facilities. I know most people don’t board their cats, and this is going to make me sound like a crazy cat lady, but my kitty doesn’t do so great when «her human» is not around. The main thing is that she doesn’t get along with my roommate’s dog. So although my roommate is cool with feeding and keeping an eye on her when I’m away on business or vacation, having to take care of her own dog makes it complicated. It’s better for all parties if I remove my kitty from the situation when I’m away for extended trips. I’ve used Now Boarding about 6 times during the past 1.5 years and they’ve all been positive experiences, though some have been more positive than others.
To be fair, I haven’t tried other places as there aren’t that many places in the Twin Cities that take cats. The number one pro to them is convenience. They are reasonably close to my house and of course the airport. It’s great that I can get off the plane at 8pm, pick kitty up, and head home. No other place in the twin cities that can match this level of convenience. Service-​wise they are pretty good although I’ve noticed that sometimes they are more attentive than other times. Let me explain:
Our first visit was a little over a month after I adopted her from the humane society. I think my cat thought I had «returned» her as she regressed a little. The only reason I know that is that the 2^nd morning of my 5 day trip, I got a call that kitty hadn’t eaten since she arrived the morning the day before and they wanted to know if it was ok if they gave her wet food. After okaying this, I received a call from them every 3 – 4 hours for the rest of the day. («didn’t work, can we try tuna», «she’s eating again but no BMs», «she acting normal again», etc). Then they called me every day just to let me know everything was still ok. All without me prompting them which I thought was pretty cool. Made me think that if something went medically wrong, they would be very attentive.
Kitty is still not the social butterfly of the place as she prefers undistracted 1:1 attention and needs to be coaxed a bit, but giving her the calming treatment the first day seems to help her adjust a lot. This «not eating» thing has not happened since but I can definitely tell that sometimes kitty gets more attention than other times because her report card always reflects it. If I get an undistracted, cat loving kennel attendant, her report card will say that «kitty was shy the first day» but once she realized «what nice head scratchers» they were she turned into a cuddlebug, which is the personality I know her to be.
If I get a distracted employee with little cat experience, her report card will say that kitty was a sad antisocial soul who never came out of her kennel. To me this is only marginally better than her getting into fights with my roommate’s dog if she had stayed at home. :/​To be fair, this has only happened 2 of the 6 times but it makes me think that kitties aren’t really their priority. If there were a more options, I might try other places, but I think this would be the case at any place that also boards dogs so its not a deal breaker, it’s just my reason for only giving three stars.
Facility & cost-​wise, they are the best value. It’s hard to get my kitty into her carrier so they always escort me back to get her myself meaning I’ve seen the setup of the whole places a few times. It’s always super clean and calm. The kennels are a good size and well maintained. The kitty play area is a pretty good size too. And their cost is fairly comparable to other places. (I think in my internet searching I only found one other place that was cheaper for cats and it would have involved an hour’s drive each way with a yowling cat). So for now, I’ll keep coming back but I really would love to see other options for cat boarding.

I love Now Boarding, and the staff there clearly loves animals.
My husband and I leave our dog and one of our cats at Now Boarding when we travel. Typically we take advantage of the parking option.
Trixie is always happy and alert when we pick her up, and she doesn’t show any anxiety when we leave her there. We always go home with report cards on how our girls did while we are gone, and I love that they are staffed ²⁴⁄₇. It’s pretty clear that our girls are NOT starved for attention at Now Boarding.
Maybe it’s pricey, but you get what you pay for. Now Boarding gives us peace of mind when we travel.

Updating my previous review — we had a chance to use both of our preferred boarding facilities within a couple of weeks of each other with travel over Thanksgiving and the first weekend of December.
Upon observing our dogs after each boarding stay its clear that our dogs are happiest at Now Boarding.

At the other place (not Now Boarding) our dogs came back with some behavioral issues: Tofu had reverted some to his scared, submissive self (a lot of cowering when ever we were standing near him, submissive urination when we would ask him to sit, and a serious avoidance of his crate). But when they both came back from Now Boarding, it was clear that they were happier — they seemed like the well-​adjusted dogs that we had dropped off.
We’ll be going here first from now on — and making our reservations early enough that hopefully we’ll be able to get in.

Before we got our dog, we took our cat here multiple times. They reported that she wouldn’t eat, which I guess is understandable. Our cat is not aggressive, and is aloof but friendly and loves greeting new people. The staff were almost never able to remove her from her kennel when we came to pick her up as she was hiding in the back cowering (but not aggressive). My husband and I would have to go into the kennel room and get her into her carrying case. It’s concerning that she was so uncomfortable, and I’m concerned she had little to no human interaction during her stay. Beyond that, the front desk staff were never very friendly to either us or our pets when we dropped them off, but as the facility was nice and conveniently located, we continued to go there.
More concerning are the experiences we had with our dog. He’s a highly social, energetic, play-​focused pup. The first time we boarded him, he came home with what we realized was a large scab on the edge of his ear. They didn’t report this to us, and it seems like it must have bled quite a bit when it happened. It would have been nice to know about that.
The last time we took him we were leaving to go out of the country just a few hours after dropping him off. It turned out he had a medical issue that the staff felt was communicable to other dogs (based on the information our vet gave us, we were not aware it was a boarding concern). As we were about to leave for the airport, we received an incredibly rude and condescending call from their staff saying our dog couldn’t stay there. I can absolutely respect that due to medical issues some dogs might not be able to stay at a boarding facility. However, the manner in which the staff dealt with the situation was pretty rude/​ridiculous. Despite the fact we were about to miss our international flight, the staff took a good 20+ minutes to retrieve our dog and cat from their kennels (we eventually had to go in and get the cat ourselves). Having a resource sheet available of in-​home pet care services would have been beyond helpful to us in that moment, but no resources were offered. All but one of the staff were blatantly rude to us or ignored us as we were rather frantically waiting for our pets to be brought out and trying to figure out what to do with them. The lack of customer service in this uncomfortable situation was pretty astounding. We won’t be going back.

My first choice in boarding when I have to travel for work (which is pretty often).
Why my first choice?
* 24 hour access, I like that they pro-​rate
*Closest to the airport. Super convenient for me.
*New, clean facility
*Easy to book appts online
*Frequent stay program to save $$
So… why not 5 stars?
*I feel bad to say this, but the front desk staff has never been overly happy or personal to see my girls. It has been a rather cold check-​in and check-​out experience for me. (Service means a lot these days!)
*If i want weekend boarding I have to book like 3 weeks + in advanced.
*They just changed their AAA discount.
*They just changed their parking program. I think now you need 5+ days of boarding.
All in all — — as I said earlier, this is my first choice for boarding my girls. I save money here versus other places, and I really like the convenience (when they aren’t full).

We use Now Boarding for daycare. The location is great for travel but our dogs are not kennel trained and so we felt the condo model for boarding would not be good for them (we board them somewhere else — feel free to message for who we use)
We do enjoy using them for daycare. Out of the daycare facilities we have seen, this one is the most modern and clean, plus large in size with a variety of dogs. It is pricey to use them for full day for 2 dogs so sometimes I’ll do half days, but they have a ton of fun and are typically very worn out at the end of the day. The employees/​volunteers are great and seem to enjoy working with animals.
I definitely recommend for daycare — I love the recurring option and the option to do a lot of business online. They do take counts seriously which I don’t mind — its no fun for anyone to be too crowded. So when they are full, they’re full!
Edit ⁶⁄₂₉: After reading the owner comment I realize I probably implied that NB is pricey. I meant it more as — for myself and the budget we set for dog care a month, it gets expensive since I do have two dogs. (I also don’t have kids, I know human day care is 239 283 times more expensive).

Now Boarding is the ONLY place I will take my dog when I leave town. He LOVES it there, and the staff is amazing with him. He is usually skittish with people, but he has come to love each of the staff members at Now Boarding and runs to greet them when we arrive. They do an excellent job managing reservations (and I make A LOT of them), and the staff is always very accomodating. The absolute best feature is that they are open 24hrs, which means no more getting charged an extra day if your plane arrives late, and no unneccessary time spent away from 4-​legged family members. Now Boarding is the best pet boarding facilitry around!

24 hour access and close to airport a huge plus, but that wouldn’t be enough if they didn’t take good care of the dogs. Our 4-​year old vizsla has boarded there at least 6 times and is excited to go every time. She knows when its time to go — our suitcases are a tip-​off and can barely contain herself. When she comes home, she’s excited to see us, tired, but appears to have had a great time.
Are people seriously concerned that their dogs have to pee when they are excited to see them after boarding?

*Not Boarding*
PRO:I enjoyed the big fireplace in the lobby.
CONS: If you like the idea of a sterile and heartless pet compound then bring your loved ones here. You’ll enjoy the $$ «king suite» despite your confirmed (over the phone) reservations. The new client signup takes forever (three separate online forms plus a printed signed contract?)
I didn’t like waiting a long time to get my black lab back.
Also, she didn’t just whimper because she was glad to see me. It turns out she must have been injured at some point and now can’t climb steps or jump without a lot of pain and Unilocaling (no mention of anything when I picked her up.) Hopefully, she just had too much fun outside and won’t have to go the vet tomorrow.
There are so many other good boarding kennels!

My wife and I boarded our dog at Now Boarding on Christmas Eve and found the quality and service to be good. I thought their daycare cost was affordable and the facility itself to be very clean.
PROS: Clean facility. I liked the way the kennels were designed. The kennels are arranged so that dogs can’t see each other, which helps reduce anxiety and barking. I found it suprisingly quiet inside. I also thought their prices were fair. I don’t really have a frame of reference for pricing but we paid $ 25 and thought it was a good deal.
CONS: I had a similar experience as one of the users here — when we picked up our dog later in the evening he had to urinate almost immediately when we walked out the front door. This was our dog’s first boarding experience, so the stress of being left alone for most of the day could’ve played a part in him holding it in. He was also pretty thirsty when we got home, which was odd because I know each dog suite has a refillable water bowl. Again, these things aren’t necessarily the fault of Now Boarding, merely observations.
Overall I would say that our experience was pleasant. One thing I wish they would do is to offer a brief tour of their facility for new clients. When we dropped off our dog I simply checked in and someone came to get my dog. It would’ve been nice for them to show me where exactly my dog was staying for the day. It wasn’t until 2 weeks later that I went back and asked for a tour.
*UPDATE ½/​13*
One new observation with Now Boarding is how difficult it is to get reservations for day care services. They were booked solid through the summer of ’12 and also through fall/​winter ’12. I know I should plan in advance but I found it a little ridiculous not being able to board my dog when an emergency arises. It’s hard to plan for unforeseen events and given their close proximity to my house they’re naturally going to be my first pick. With that said, call ahead for day car availability.

So the first time I did this review, it got filtered out. I’m not sure why, but I believe that as a customer who has utilized their boarding AND day care more than fifteen times it deserves to be published so I’m trying again…
We’ve boarded our 2 dogs (a goldendoodle and a lab mix) here twice over the past year for long weekends, and neither experience has been very good.
To make a long story short: Both times we have picked the dogs up they had to desperately go the bathroom as soon as we get outside. They clearly had not been out in a long time as our dogs are used to holding it for 10+ hours during the day while we are at work. Additionally, during this last visit, one of our beds was never provided for the dogs as when it came time to leave, the staff couldn’t find it and had to go in the back and took several minutes before coming out with it all folded up and crinkled (mind you its a rather large and expensive bed). I don’t know where it had been for the three days they were there, but obviously it wasn’t in their suite so my dogs had to share a bed.
Another con is that play time is not included — during this last stay, I had requested play time each day, but was told after we picked them up they could only have it one day due to day care being filled the other days. So basically for two of the days the dogs were stuck in their suite the whole time — not a very fun experience for them!
Additionally, our goldedoodle used to go to doggie day care here about once per week over the winter, until she caught kennel cough. She was vaccinated, however the vaccine doesn’t cover all strands, so I understand it is a risk. However, Now Boarding knew that other dogs had kennel cough and still allowed day care to continue as normal. When I called them after our vet visit to notify them of her diagnosis, I was told that it was «going around». However, owners weren’t notified until several weeks later when a mass email/​newsletter went out. So, I’m sure some more dogs were needlessly exposed and more owners were out a couple hundred for the vet bill/​medications.
We had tried to give this place one last chance because it is super convenient (5 minutes from our house and open drop-​off/​pick-​up times) Unfortunately with the bed debacle and the lack of bathroom breaks, and legitimate play time the convenience is not worth the worry and the poor care! We’ll be finding another place from now on and I would suggest you do the same!

Our 3-​year-​old Vizsla LOVES Now Boarding, and so do we. We’ve tried a handful of other doggie daycare/​boarding facilities and have had the best experience here. Let me try to list all the reasons we’ve been regular clients (daycare 2x/​week) of Now Boarding for over 2 years:
— Staff is friendly, professional and gives our dog great personal attention
— Facilities are clean and they limit the number of dogs they’ll take for daycare (we’ve been to other daycares that don’t have a cap on the number of dogs per day, and our pup came home smelling like urine and bleach)
— Their hours are SUPER accommodating — staffed and open 24 hours
— The COUPLE of times that something has happened while our dog has been there (a nick on his ear that wouldn’t stop bleeding, e.g.), the staff handled it beautifully
— They’re affiliated with the Humane Society, for which we’re more than happy to pay the REASONABLE $ 26 we spend each day for daycare
All in all, I can’t imagine taking our pup-​kid anywhere else.
…The only thing that would make me love them even more would be if they added a webcam — not because I don’t trust the team at Now Boarding, but because what’s a better distraction at work than watching a bunch of dogs run around like preschoolers?

Honestly, this is both my and my dog’s FAVORITE daycare in the cities. She’s an elderly pug and they give her a ton of attention and love. I always know she’s well taken care of… Plus the facility is awesome and the staff are great. A++

Cons: Kind of cold and impersonal. We’re used to boarding at Golden Valley where we know the employees and they know our dog. Here, our dog was carted away by someone who didn’t even greet us… I was nervous because our dog was dog-​aggressive and this stranger didn’t get any info beforehand since I was in the process of filling out the intake form.
Pros: Frosty Paws!!!
Ultra-​Mega-​Pros: I got a call late in the afternoon that my Dad had a heart attack and I needed to leave town within a couple hours, Golden Valley was booked up so we called Now Boarding. After I explained the emergency situation, they let us come right in with our dog even though you’re supposed to fill out an online form first, etc. I’m SO grateful for that!

We brought our 8.5 month old boxer to Now Boarding for an overnight stay while we were in a wedding. We needed someone last minute to watch her, so we were somewhat limited in where we could take her.
Chloe really seemed to enjoy her stay. She came home excited to see us, but tired. and she slept the entire morning after we picked her up. It takes a lot of play to have Chloe that tired, so we were grateful for that!
I love that Now Boarding is open 24 hours a day — it was helpful when we were calling late at night to find a place for her to go. We didn’t have to do any odd hour drop off/​pick up, but I can see myself appreciating this in the future.
I didn’t see her actual kennel/​personal space, but the website photos look great. The check-​in process was great, and incredibly fast. When my husband left after dropping her off, he could see her running in the outdoor play yard — I love that they have this!
When we picked Chloe up, the staff gave us a «report card» — which to some might sound ridiculous, but I was so grateful for it! I love hearing how Chloe did away from us and it saved me having to ask a bunch of questions about how well she played, if she sat when asked, how much food she ate and… etc.
I wish they had webcams — that was the one thing that had my husband hesitating to use Now Boarding — most of the other doggy daycare/​kennels seem to have that. Adding these would be a huge bonus — I hope they do so in the future.

I’ve never kenneled my dogs at Now Boarding but I take my lumbering yellow lab to doggie daycare all the time and he loves it.
The play area is big and spacious, the outside area is way bigger than Downtown Dogs and the peeps are very friendly. Daycare prices are pretty reasonable and you can do a half day which is nice.
The application process is somewhat rigorous (what I imagine its like getting your kid into daycare) but you feel better knowing that they do a good job screening the other dogs since you plan to leave your precious pooch in their hands.
Thumbs up for day care at Now Boarding!

Certainly the nicest boarding facility I’ve seen in the southern Twin Cities. The outstanding services include online reservations, ²⁴⁄₇ operating hours, convenient location next to airport, monitored day care and a friendly staff.
The rates are slightly higher than some of the other boarding facilities in the area, but considering the quality /​convenience, it still has a far superior value for short stays. Due to the high price, however, we leave our dog with Skyview Kennel in Farmington for extended boarding.

Biggest benefit is the 24-​hour access to the facility, which anyone who’s boarded a pet before should realize is invaluable. Open lot parking and shuttle to and from the airport are pretty convenient, too. The place is brand-​spanking new and the public facilities at least look nice — have no idea what the kennels are like, though.
That being said… it’s overpriced for what you get. The outdoor areas are lame — the front yard is a smallish fenced-​in area with no tree cover whatsoever. The indoor play space is spacious. It’s good to have the dogs able to socialize and play, but it costs extra… which is not the case at other kennels like Camp Bow Wow. Also, they’ll charge for a half day if you pick up just one hour after a 24 hour interval, which is a total rip-​off.

Very spacious and bright facility. Kind, attentive staff. Newly built so equipment is shiny and new. My dogs stayed there today and seem to have had a great time (tired now from all the free play in the romper room).
²⁴⁄₇ operating hours allowed me to not worry about flight delays and pick them up at 9pm — impossible at most dog boarders.
Convenient shuttle for $ 14 parking fee. Prices are comparable to most doggie daycares (I typically use Downtown Dogs).
I would def go to Boarding Now again!

Great addition to the area, as it seems most doggie day cares /​boarding places are too far away for us to use them. Not only do they board pets overnight, but they have a deal with the airport, so you can park your car there (for a fee) and take a shuttle to the airport after you drop your little buddy off! Get it…“Now Boarding.”
We’ve been taking our dog for doggie daycare, and they do a great job with our very shy dog. There’s a big open playroom, and access to a small fenced in area where they take the dogs throughout the day. Staff are very friendly and helpful, and clearly care about the animals. The price for a 10-​visit package is very reasonable, and they offer other services like grooming, though I thought the price for that was pretty high. There’s no doggie webcam, which is kind of a bummer. But, I’m sure my employer is grateful that I’m not watching my dog hang out there all day (which I’d probably do if they had cameras.)
My understanding, too, is that Now Boarding is run by the Humane Society, so much of (if not all) profits go to benefit animals in need. Nice!