Cat hotels in Singapore: What to know before booking

Charlotte Ang, 29, and her husband Royston Shieh, 32, co-founded Kuro Cat Hotel in a Chinatown shophouse after being dissatisfied with offerings available for their adopted domestic shorthair, Kuro. The spaces were often small and operators charged extra for services like CCTV access, says Ang, who used to cat-sit for friends and family.

Opened in January 2026, Kuro has 31 rooms and four room types which cost $60 to $120 a night.

Cats stay there about nine days on average and owners have been known to text her at midnight to check on their pets, says Ang, who has an accounting background. Her husband is an engineer.

A similar dissatisfaction with boarding facilities and a desire to build something of their own inspired sisters Gail and Dawn Low to open & Cat Studio in Kampong Glam in November 2025.

“We experienced the anxiety of travelling while worrying about our cats back home. We would often wonder: Are they eating well? Are they being cared for the way we would care for them? We found ourselves travelling less,” says Gail, 45, a former marketeer and creative who has worked in the pet industry and is a certified feline groomer.

Dawn, 53, is a former corporate executive and public servant who holds specialist diplomas in veterinary wellness care and clinic practices from local polytechnics. She also volunteers with animal welfare groups.

& Cat Studio has seven room categories costing $40 to $140 a night. It also has an isolation room for cats with special care needs, such as those requiring post-operative care or those with feline leukaemia virus and feline immunodeficiency virus, which are contagious and incurable viral infections.

Among its most memorable guests were a pair of cats which, the Lows noticed, preferred to dine on high perches about 2m up during their five-night stay. This meant standing on a ladder to feed them during mealtimes.

In Viola Chee’s case, opening the 19-room Kitnap Cat Hotel in August 2025 was “a weird but wonderful combination of all my worlds”.

Chee, a certified public accountant who worked in real estate investments for two decades, is also a groomer certified by the US-based International Society of Feline Cosmetologists. Her cat hotel in Serangoon Gardens offers three room types from $60 to $110 a night.

“One thing I’ve learnt in my first year is that running a cat hotel is really about understanding people as much as cats. They’re handing over a family member and many feel anxious through the process. If we can give them genuine peace of mind, we’ve done our job,” says Chee, who is in her 40s.

Is the market purring?

With more competition in the feline boarding scene, is there enough catnip to go around?

After all, there are an unknown number of home-based cat boarders competing for customers, although this is illegal. AVS’ Kwok says it has investigated 17 feedback cases of such unlicensed facilities since 2024 and taken appropriate enforcement action where the offences were substantiated.

SPCA Singapore also says the number of animal adoptions has fallen from almost 900 in 2021 to fewer than 300 in 2025. Cats make up a significant proportion of that figure and the decline shows no sign of reversal, it adds.

The limit of two cats an HDB unit also imposes a ceiling that stops residents from adopting more, it notes. The SPCA has had to turn away such adopters and encourages them to consider fostering under a new pilot scheme from AVS (learn more at str.sg/L5Yb).

At the same time, SPCA is seeing many requests from pet owners to rehome or surrender their pets. A “notable proportion” cite financial challenges in the current economy.

However, all six cat boarding operators interviewed are optimistic that there is room to grow.

“We see the growing number of cat hotels in Singapore as a positive sign. It reflects how cats are increasingly regarded as family and how owners are looking for quality, thoughtful care for their cats when they travel or need alternative accommodation during home renovations,” says Gail Low from & Cat Studio.

Lau from Neko Neko, one of the bigger players, sees the growing number of cat hotels as a reflection of increasing awareness and demand for specialised feline care.

“Rather than focusing solely on competition, my goal is to continue raising the standard of cat care through thoughtful facilities, knowledgeable teams and a comprehensive range of services,” she says.

Before you book cat boarding

Jessica Kwok, group director of the Animal & Veterinary Service (AVS) at the National Parks Board, reminds cat owners that they should engage only AVS-licensed pet boarders. Its registry covering cat and dog boarding is available at str.sg/6Bji

Here are top tips from veterinarians and cat owners when choosing a boarding facility.

If the cats are not accustomed to dogs, they may remain on high alert throughout their stay, says Geetha Nellinathan, a feline-focused vet from private veterinary practice The Cat Vet.

Being in an environment with the smell and sound of dogs can lead to stress-related symptoms such as a lack of appetite, says Sandhya Nair from private veterinary practice Oasis Vet. It may also affect their immune system and trigger illnesses such as cat flu flare-ups or urinary problems.

She is a certified cat-friendly veterinarian with the Cat Friendly Homes programme by the US-based Feline Veterinary Medical Association.

A good facility should protect cats from both infectious diseases and stress, says Sandhya. Each unit should be separated by an impermeable “sneeze barrier” so cats cannot touch, sneeze on or breathe directly onto each other through mesh.

“Look at the materials too. Surfaces should be easy to clean and disinfect thoroughly between guests,” she says.

Nellinathan says cats should not be facing other cats directly or sharing airspace as far as possible. Bonded cats, who share a close emotional bond, should be housed in the same unit.

Some cat hotels have Fear Free certification from the US-based organisation Fear Free, which offers courses on practices that reduce fear and anxiety to different segments of the animal care industry.

Sandhya says this is a good sign that staff are trained to handle animals with their emotional well-being in mind. But since cats have relatively little handling during boarding, the environment shapes their experience more.

She often sees eye flare-ups after boarding stays as many cats carry the feline herpesvirus without symptoms. The stress of an unfamiliar or noisy environment can reactivate it, leading to red, watery or painful eyes, and sometimes, corneal ulcers.

“A calm, well-designed cattery can make a real difference in preventing this. When choosing a facility, I’d look at its design and how well the staff understand cats, rather than relying on a certificate alone,” she says.

Always visit before booking, advises Sandhya. “Ask questions and watch the cats already staying there. Relaxed cats that are eating, resting and grooming are a good sign; cats that are hiding constantly or look tense are not,” she says.

Avoid operators who do not ask about your cat’s routine, habits, feeding preferences, medical history, vaccination or parasite-prevention records; and do not offer updates during the stay. Cats from different households sharing spaces is also a red flag, she adds.

It pays to prep your cat in advance. Sandhya says: “Most cats see their carrier only when they’re about to be taken somewhere unpleasant, so they learn to dread it. Leave the carrier out at home for weeks beforehand, with a comfy blanket inside, so your cat uses it as a normal resting spot.”

Familiar scents will reassure your cat in a new environment, so pack items that smell of home, such as your unwashed T-shirt or your cat’s bedding. Take along your cat’s usual food too, since sudden diet changes can upset the stomach.

If your cat returns home squinting, with watery or cloudy eyes, see the vet as herpes-related ulcers can worsen quickly, she adds.

Cat owners welcome the wider spread of cat hotels, yet they tend to return to the same ones their furry felines feel at home in.

Having tried several cat boarding places over the past three years, retired communications professional Myrna Thomas says: “There are two different types of cat hotels – those who just run it purely as a business and those who care about the animals.”

The latter “try to understand the animal and ask questions about its routine, likes and dislikes, like where it likes to be petted. They’re very involved. It’s almost like a hotel for people, where they customise what the guest – in this case, the cat – wants and needs”, she adds.

Thomas, who is in her 70s, has one senior cat but used to own multiple cats, as well as dogs, over the years.

She was impressed when & Cat Studio suggested that she take her cat in before her trip earlier in 2026 so it could acclimate as cats are very sensitive to changes in their environment.

“We spent three to four hours there; she walked around and smelled the place. Two days later when we sent her in for the stay, it was not such a strange environment any more.”

Thomas also suggests boarding for a shorter period the first time and choosing facilities that offer 24-hour CCTV access instead of daily video updates for better peace of mind.

Civil servant Junainah Md Eusuff, 46, boards her four cats at PetPat for one to three weeks, up to four times a year, when travelling. She considers the location, cleanliness, grooming services and cost, as well as how gentle staff are, when choosing cat boarding.

She has visited other cat hotels’ open houses, but has not changed her preference so far. “The cats always seem to know which is their cabin the moment they arrive at the location,” she says.