---
title: The Occupancy Calendar and capacity limits
slug: occupancy-and-capacity-limits
category: Boarding & Reservations
url: https://alaga.io/help/article/occupancy-and-capacity-limits
audiences: business_owner, manager
updated: 2026-08-31
source: Alaga Help Center
---

# The Occupancy Calendar and capacity limits
Sidebar: **Reservations → Occupancy** tab.

The calendar shows, day by day, how many spaces are taken against your limit — filtered by capacity group, or across all of them.

Use it before answering "have you got room over Easter", rather than counting bookings by hand.

## How the count works

Each day counts the reservations that overlap it, against the limit on the capacity group. A dog boarding Friday to Monday occupies a space on all four days, not just the day it arrived.

Groups marked for both boarding and daycare count both against the same limit — which is correct, because the same run cannot hold an overnight guest and a daycare dog at once.

## Occupancy and the Kennel Board disagree

They measure different things and both are right:

- **Occupancy** counts what is **booked**.
- **The Kennel Board** shows what is **physically here**.

They diverge when check-in or check-out has been skipped. A stay never checked out still counts as booked, so occupancy shows a full run that the board shows as empty. If the two drift apart regularly, the fix is the daily habit, not the numbers.

## Holiday peaks

Christmas, Easter and school holidays fill months ahead. Two things worth doing:

- **Look at the calendar before promoting anything.** A holiday offer to a full week annoys everybody.
- **Decide your peak limit deliberately.** Some businesses lower the limit at peak times to keep space for regulars, rather than raising it.

## When you are full

Alaga's capacity limit prevents online overbooking; it does not prevent you from taking a booking yourself. Staff booking from the dashboard can exceed the limit, which is intentional — you may genuinely be able to squeeze in a small dog or a regular, and the software should not stop you.

The consequence is that occupancy above 100% is possible and means exactly what it says. Treat it as a prompt to check the physical space rather than an error.

## If occupancy looks wrong

1. **Check the group filter.** Viewing one capacity group when you expected all of them is the usual explanation.
2. **Look for stays never checked out**, which hold space indefinitely.
3. **Check cancelled reservations are actually cancelled**, not just verbally called off.
4. **Confirm the group limit is right.** A limit set during setup and never revisited is often the real problem, especially after adding runs.