---
title: Late pickup fees and grace periods
slug: late-pickup-fees
category: Boarding & Reservations
url: https://alaga.io/help/article/late-pickup-fees
audiences: business_owner, manager, staff
updated: 2026-10-23
source: Alaga Help Center
---

# Late pickup fees and grace periods
Sidebar: **Business Settings → Payment Settings → Booking Policies** tab. Look for the **Late Checkout Fee** card.

## Set the fee

1. Open the **Booking Policies** tab and find **Late Checkout Fee**.
2. Choose how the fee is worked out:
   - **Use Daily Boarding Rate** — one extra day at the stay's nightly rate. This is the default.
   - **Flat Fee** — a fixed dollar amount.
   - **Percentage of Daily Rate** — a share of the stay's nightly rate, up to 100%.
3. Optional: fill in **Late pickup grace period (hours after the dog is ready)**. Use 0 to 24 hours, in half-hour steps. Leave it blank to turn the grace period off.
4. Press **Save Settings**.

Only owners and managers can change the grace period.

## How "late" is decided

**With no grace period**, a pickup is late if you check the pet out after its scheduled checkout time on the stay.

**With a grace period**, the clock starts when the pet is ready:

1. When the pet was marked **Ready for pickup**, or
2. If not, when its linked groom or bath was completed, or
3. If neither happened, the scheduled checkout time.

The pickup is late once the grace period has passed after that time. For example, with a 2-hour grace period, a dog ready at 1:00 PM is late after 3:00 PM.

## Marking a pet ready

A pet counts as ready when:

- Its linked groom or bath reaches **Ready for pickup** or is completed. This happens on its own.
- Staff press **Ready for pickup** on a checked-in stay. Use this for stays with no groom.

The stay then shows "Ready for pickup since…" with an **Undo** button. The first time stamp wins.

## At checkout

When the pickup is late, the checkout summary shows a **Late Checkout Fee** line. It names the fee type and says why it is late, for example "Ready for pickup Sat 1:00 PM, 2 hours grace: late after Sat 3:00 PM."

- Owners and managers see **Waive fee (manager override)**. Tick it to skip the fee.
- A stay only ever gets one late fee. Opening checkout again does not add a second one.
- If the stay already has an open invoice, the fee is not added to it for you. Alaga says so. Add the fee to the invoice first if you want to collect it.
- Undoing a checkout removes the late fee that was added.

## Common questions

- **The fee did not show up.** The pickup was not late under your rule, or the stay already has a late fee, or the fee would land on an open invoice (see above).
- **A dog was charged while it waited for a groom.** Turn on a grace period. Then the clock starts when the groom is done, not at the scheduled checkout time.
- **The fee looks wrong.** Daily-rate and percentage fees use the stay's own nightly rate. Check the rate on the stay.