I need some advice. We are in an area where people need overnight / short term stall rental. They will bring their own hay and feed, we then provide bedding and turnout to a secluded paddock.
Term could be a simple overnight or up to 3 nights.
What is a fair price for this service?
Thank you in advance
Do you board horses at all? I would take my board rate per day and double it for overnighters. I would also make sure I had stalls that were away from other horses.
You are providing bedding. What about cleaning and feeding the provided feed? Is this a “self care” service or “full care”? Look into insurance costs and factor that into your daily rate.
I think I’d expect to pay about $30/night depending on amenities/services offered.
I used to pay $20/stall per night at a farm where I boarded at. But if there was turnout $30/night would seem fair to me. And I would keep the charge the same if it was for one night or for 20 nights…
I thought about doing it because of our location in proximity to equine travelers and the interstate etc. This is what I came up with so far after many think tanks about the idea.
First of all as Obsidian stated above I had an area picked out that is away from the resident horses. Adding to this that the area would be fenced in as well. They would do the feeding, but I would have to do the cleaning. I am uptight, and in order to know the stall was cleaned to my standards, it is just easier to do it myself. I would also supply the bedding because once again I am uptight and would want strict control over this aspect. This is due to the fact whatever the bedding …ultimately it would be up to me to dispose of it on my farm, so hence the need to control that aspect. I am picky about such things. But that being said I would offer several bedding options. (shavings, pellets, straw, or not depending on the horses needs.)
And I did come to the $30/night figure as well and also without pricing insurance yet. Also I thought about providing overnight camping for the owners as well. This thought came from my being uptight again. When we were on the road with the horses we always stayed at the grounds the horses were stabled at with them. I just could not leave them. Many a time I would get up in the middle of the night to check on them. So yeah we only ever stayed at facilities that offered camping for us as well. Now for other people this may not be an issue at all. I could be just projecting. (side note… some facilities charge for human camping and others do not)
So I have given this idea some serious thought and at this point have not ruled it out. If it happens or not, will be dependent on if I have the time to do it, or if all my other projects come first. But not because it is a bad idea. And Obsidian asked a good question about if you board horses at all. I don’t, but I have in the past. I get asked to board horses quite often. This idea seemed to be much more appealing to me than full time boarding. At least you can decide not to book stalls on the week you decide to go on vacation rather than having to find a reliable dependable farm sitter you can trust to take care of things while your away.
Anywho there are my rambling thoughts on the matter. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!
$20 to $30 a night. Lots of people want to camp with their horses so if you have somewhere they can park their rig and sleep in their trailer, you would probably get better business. Of course you might need bathrooms for that.
$20 to $30 a night.
I think I’d expect to pay about $30/night depending on amenities/services offered.
if there was turnout $30/night would seem fair to me.
not knocking these answers but have you checked what it costs to board a large dog?.. about the same as these expect to pay for a horse
If the business model could only generate $25/$30 per night then I would not do this as one could board about ten dogs in the same area as one horse
I believe my daughter paid $50 for clean, sanitized bedded stall when she brought her yearling in from North Dakota this spring
We do this in BC. We are just off the highway and are in a location that makes overnighting easier for some people. We charge $20 (CDN) for an outside paddock (14 x 36’ pipe panel pens) and $30 for an inside stall (12 x 16’). We charge $5 to clean if they don’t want to but I’m thinking I’ll just add the charge in as no one cleans them they way I want them done and I have to get them ready for the next overnighter.
I have also overnighted on our way to Arizona. Prices seemed to be $20 a night at most places. Some were donation only and others charged. One spot charged for shavings and I wished I had known that it was pavement they were on and I would have increased the bedding as the two boys didn’t lay down all night.
Nancy
A barn I used in NJ charged:
You may also contact nationwide commercial haulers and see if you fit their routes and what they need and pay.
That could provide for steady customers.
More to consider, commercial companies would rather have a place for their drivers to sleep or for them to sleep in their rigs, rather than be close to towns or hotel/motels where drivers could be “easily distracted” and go do other than just rest.
I paid $30 when I hauled my guy across the country. I thought that was very fair. They also had a cheaper option if I wanted an outdoor turnout, but we wanted him inside.
We JUST did this along the west coast from S. California to Vancouver Island! Got back 2 days ago. Wasn’t in S. Cali long enough to do a CoTH meet-up though. even though I thought about it!
3 nights (should have been 2 nights, but…[borders, sigh]) and the prices ranged from $20 to $30 per night. Only the last place didn’t really offer turnout, but it was a sudden situation that we could have left after 1/2 hour or been there for 3 or more days, and I’m sure turnout would then have been offered.
All places offered the clean-up (but we picked the paddock ourselves anyway the first night) and ranged from full paddock to stall and pen to stall.
But dogs tend to bark a lot when they are kenneled in a strange place. I like quiet when I sleep. Dog feces make me gag so cleaning a dog kennel would be a real problem for me. Horse manure or cat litter is fine. Depending on your state you may be subject to inspections. There are a lot more vaccines you need to check for- mostly state mandated. Zoning may prohibit a boarding kennel but allow livestock boarding. In my state you are sometimes not subject to county zoning laws if you are agricultural.
Most of the time for dog boarding you would be expected to handle the dog- either walking or moving to a play yard or at least going into the kennel to clean it and feed them. You need to be pretty dog savvy to board dogs. Because of course Fang would never bite anyone- as he stands there and snarls at you- isn’t he so cute? Dog are normally boarded since the owner isn’t available so you get to handle them.
With boarding horses for travelers it is like short stay self-care. Owner primarily feeds and handles their own horse. Therefore you are less likely to be bitten/kicked by the boarder since you won’t need to do anything with them. If that were something I would consider offering when I had my boarding farm I would have the owner clean while they are there and strip the stall once they leave.
If you are starting from a stripped stall each time you have a boarder… how many bags of shavings are you putting in, or how many wheel barrows of bulk shavings does it take to make a stall? I couldn’t do a stripped stall for $30 unless I just put a skim of shavings down. I used bagged shavings, because my horses are not in enough to make bulk shavings practical. Bagged shavings around here are close to $5 a bag and I use 4-5 bags per stall just to provide a nice depth, not any banked on the wall.
With that said, the last time (a few years ago) that I boarded for a few nights, it was $20 a stall a night. One place you could turn out in pastures if you wanted, the other place only had a small grass paddock (round pen sized) that you had to share with the rest of the group that was visiting. The place with pasture turnout was a feed/clean yourself place. The place with the small paddock turnout had a person you could pay to feed and clean your stalls ($10 a day, 2 feedings).
Oh and in my minds passing thoughts if you did set up for this, you need to think about if you will take stallions. When we were on the road we usually had stallions. We never had any issues finding a place but some places would rather not deal with stallions. We also met other people on the road that were traveling with stallions, so I don’t think it is entirely uncommon.
This is a really tough question. In all honestly, it is totally not worth it to provide overnight temporary board for horses for $20 or $30 per night.
First of all, you need to be there to meet people who are arriving and that could be any hour of the day or night, or even a different day than expected. You need to check health papers, collect payment, and in some cases deal with the awkward situation of turning someone away who has no health papers, an obviously sick horse, a destructive or dangerous horse, or who for some reason doesn’t have their method of payment on hand. Secondly, temporary boarders are VERY hard on a facility. Unsettled horses can be very hard on stalls or paddocks. Short term clients who aren’t going to be around long don’t really care if they break something. Thirdly, short term clients tend to require more supervision or assistance. They might bring badly behaved dogs or children with them, they might run over landscaping or park in inappropriate areas. They can leave doors or gates open. There also can be security issues such as theft of feed, hay or bedding, or theft of smaller items from around the barn.
I’m speaking from my own experience–I used to provide short term services and I found it to be not worth my time. In every instance, when I calculated up my time and wear and tear on the facility, I lost money. It makes me sad to say this, because in many instances I have traveled with horses and really enjoyed staying at lovely places where I felt that my horses and I were welcomed and I have felt extremely grateful for those people who generously provided those facilities. I believe it really is a labor of love vs. a real moneymaker.
In our area it runs $40 to $50 per night for an empty stall (no bedding). You provide all care, feed, bedding etc
My how the times and cost of things have changed. When I moved my horses cross-country twice in five years and needed overnight lay ups, the fees ranged from $8 per horse to $15 per horse. The cheaper fees were for open air turnouts and all of them included hay & water.
But that was between 1998 and 2003.
The OP might want to go to horse motel.com, click on her home state and see what folks are getting for overnight lay ups in her area, to get an accurate picture of what is fair and reasonable where she lives.
FWIW this won’t be a money making venture.t
I think it depends on what sort of business you are seeking. If you are talking about Pony Club, 4H, JNAFHC, Field Hunter Championships or other organized events $25-$30 seems very fair, you could probably go up a little. Those people will probably have more reasonable arrivals/leaving times and will (hopefully!) be on best behavior since they will want to come back and are representing whatever group they are with. Their horses will also probably be seasoned travelers.
If you are thinking of accepting overnight transports and other random shippers I would think more like $50 to begin to compensate for the headaches and inevitable expenses. This may make you uncompetitive, but I can’t imagine anything less is worth the liability and trouble.
Just a quick comment on insurance. You usually need to buy a policy for an entire year, and pay for it up front. So you need to break down the cost of the policy (or any increase if you already have general liability insurance) into the amount per day that you expect to have the stall rented out.
So if you expect 100 rentals per year, divide the cost of the policy by 100 to get your rate per rental to recoup the cost of your insurance.
Do you have trails nearby? As you could just offer your facility for large groups. For insurance you could get temporary event permits and not need year round insurance.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
