RDU Pet Resort — Local services in Raleigh

RDU Pet Resort took care of our young golden retriever, Rosie, over Christmas for a week. It was great to find a service over the holidays, but I would not board her again.

As an initial matter, our dog came home having lost visible weight, and having contracted kennel cough. These are not positives.

Secondly, only leave your dog here if you are absolutely 100% comfortable not knowing anything about what the facility does with your dog. RDU Pet Resort has no cameras, and does not provide updates of your dog during his/her stay at the facility. The only “update” you are guaranteed is a “report card” given to you at the end of your dog’s stay. The “report card” is comprised of handwritten, one sentence long paragraphs about your dog’s day.

When we dropped our dog off, we asked that various “extra” services be provided (i.e fetch, “cuddle time,” treat-filled Kong). As other reviewers have mentioned, RDU Pet Resort provided no proof that any of these services were actually performed—no pictures, videos, or anything beyond a handwritten, perfunctory note. When I asked for proof that my dog received the extra services for which we paid, RDU Pet Resort’s response was: “we do not routinely take photos during the activities.” Whether RDU Pet Resort actually provides these extra services is anyone’s guess.

RDU Pet Resort has no discernible policy on sending photos of your dog during its stay. If you’re lucky, RDU Pet Resort may upload a photograph of your dog to its Facebook group. However, RDU pet resort does not post daily, and we did not find any pictures of our dog until her time at the facility was almost over. Despite the capability of doing so, RDU does not upload photos of your dog to your customer account page on its website.

When we dropped our dog off, we were told that we would receive all the photos that were taken of our dog during her stay as part of her “report card.” I assumed that RDU Pet Resort actually would fulfill this promise as a means of proving it actually took care of our dog. Instead, we received four (4) photos clearly taken on a single night that had already been posted on the Facebook page. Maybe these were the only photos taken of our dog during her stay. Other than contracting kennel cough and losing weight, it is unclear what our dog did for the remaining six (6) days she was present at the facility.

We chose RDU Pet Resort because we wanted the best possible experience for our dog. We were drawn in by promises that our dog would be treated as “family,” that she would be “closely monitored,” and that the facility was a kind of “resort” for dogs. Maybe RDU Pet Resort did everything it told us it would do, maybe it didn’t. Because RDU Pet Resort does not provide any proof that it does anything with your dog at all, we will never be sure whether our dog received the care and treatment we were promised.

There are many, many other boarding services in the Raleigh-Durham area that have cameras where you can watch the dogs play, and charge less than RDU Pet Resort. There are also providers that will upload daily report cards of your dog (with photographs) to your customer account page. If you have an interest in checking in on your dog while you’re away, check out those...

RDU Pet Resort is one of the worst places in the area to board your pets. I had my two dogs scheduled for boarding recently. The day I go to drop off my dogs I learned my reservation had been switched by them to another location over 30 min from where I live. Originally my dogs were scheduled to be boarded at their facility in Raleigh but was apparently changed to their Wake Forest location without a phone call notifying me.

As I go to drop off my dogs to the Raleigh location they inform me that I should be dropping them off at the Wake Forest location which would be over a 30 min drive to get there. I explain to them that my reservation was made for the Raleigh location and it appears they made a mistake by booking me for the Wake Forest location. The manager explains to me that unfortunately they cannot allow me to drop off my dogs at the Raleigh location since the location was fully booked. The manager then suggested I take them to the Wake Forest location as there was nothing she could do to help me.

I explained to her again that they messed up my reservation and changed it without notifying me with a phone call. I asked if they would be able to have an employee shuttle my dogs to the Wake Forest location as I was going out of town and was going to be late for a reservation that was non refundable. The manager was very rude and unprofessional. The manager kept saying she didn’t have a solution for me and could not help me. After arguing with me for about 25 min the manager finally decided they could find room for my dogs at the Raleigh location even though she had previously kept telling me she couldn’t help me.

The day I go to pick my dogs up from boarding I find that they are extremely dirty and we’re not bathed. When I dropped them off it was understood that they would get an exit bath however this was not done at all. My dogs were returned to me dirty and unbathed. When I questioned the staff about why they were not bathed they advised me that they could not accommodate me and actually canceled any future reservations I had with them. I explained that it was very unprofessional of them to acknowledge a service such as the bath would be provided then not honor that at all. I also explained that it was not fair for them to cancel my future reservations because of the mistakes they made by switching my reservation on me. The staff did not care and had nothing to say.

BOTTOM LINE is beware of boarding your dogs at RDU Pet Resort or their sister company Paws at Play as you run the risk of dealing with unprofessionalism and rudeness should you encounter a problem with the company. I am disgusted with how they treated me and my girlfriend throughout the entire experience. I hope my review saves someone else from...

BEWARE: A full transparent Review of boarding at RDU PET RESORT. The good and the bad - Make sure your dog is safe and you're not getting scammed.

THE GOOD: Staff seems friendly and the facilities do appear clean. It's clear the pups going in for daycare enjoy the play time. The temp test before boarding was nice to make our little guy feel comfortable. Our dog returned clean and freshly bathed with a cute bandana They attempted to correct clear wrong doings

THE BAD: We provided food for every meal + one meal incase we returned late to pick him up. We also provided clear instructions on the portal and in person on how much food to feed and how many times a day. When our belongings were returned there were just over 5 meals left! Meaning our boy missed an entire meals worth of food every day.

-We paid for 8 extras: 3 nature walks, 3 fetch sessions, and 2 cuddle sessions. Prior to boarding we were told twice that we would be provided photos of the puppy’s sessions along the way. WE DID NOT GET ANY PHOTOS OR UPDATES… The portal they provided wasn’t filled out and when we brought this up in person they had 2 responses.

1. They don’t have the time to take photos with the dog… Frustrating as its literally 15 minutes one on one with your dog and a picture takes less than 5 seconds. If you don’t have time to take the photo during a 1on1 cuddle session to prove the time is spent with the dog… don't offer the service 2:) They use paper report cards to log the time spent with the dog… I waited for them to produce the card and they were unable to produce it - They assured us that the digital follow up report card would have the details logging who did each session, what time, etc. The digital report card we received had no details regarding any services done with our pup. (BOTTOM LINE: they could not show that any of the additional services purchased were actually provided)

Here's the thing - They knew they were in the wrong and refunded money for add-ons. My dog is alive - If you are looking for No Frills Boarding with less than stellar business practices then use RDU Pet Resort. If you are looking for a boarding facility that spends the time with your dog or one that feeds your dog the right amount of food you bring I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND.

I would also love an opportunity to discuss business practices with the owner and the rest of management. I will openly respond to any comments from Management or answer any questions from future...