How to hire
Start with the licence, because it is the one check the law insists on. Boarding cats or dogs in England is licensable under the animal welfare regulations, and Telford and Wrekin's licensing pages confirm the borough runs that regime [1]. Ask the cattery for its licence number — one Telford boarder prints its number on its own site — and ask which council issued it and how long it runs. National guidance sets the framework councils inspect against [2]. Treat a missing licence statement as a stop sign, not a detail.
Visit before you book, and step inside the pens rather than settling for photos. The national cat charity tells visitors to check the licence, escape-proofing with double doors or a safety corridor, separation from direct contact with other cats, and heating or insulation in the pens [3]. Look at sleeping areas, litter trays, water bowls and exercise space, and watch how staff handle the animals already there. A good cattery welcomes this visit; a reluctant one tells you plenty.
Ask about jabs and health rules before you fall for the pens. Reputable boarders insist on current vaccinations and tell you exactly what proof to bring; one local firm publishes a full vaccination policy on its site. Ask what happens if a booster lapses just before the stay, how medication and special diets are handled and charged, and what isolation exists if a cat falls ill. Agree who pays the vet if treatment is needed, and get that arrangement in writing.
Get the whole stay quoted in writing on your exact dates. The quote should show the daily rate per cat, the sharing price if two cats travel together, any day-care or grooming extras, whether VAT is included or added, and the cancellation and holding-fee terms for short or curtailed stays. Two Telford lists publish their VAT positions, which is the standard to expect. Compare like with like across the same dates rather than judging on headline daily rates alone.
Book early for the weeks everyone wants. School holidays, bank holidays and the Christmas stretch fill local pens months ahead, so send your dates as soon as your own holiday is fixed and ask when the balance falls due. Check drop-off and collection hours too, and agree what counts as a day, since arrival and departure times decide whether you pay for an extra one.
Leave a paper trail at both ends. Hand over the vaccination record, food, medication with written doses, and your vet's details with signed consent for emergency treatment, plus a contact number that will actually reach you. Take home a booking confirmation showing dates, fees and cancellation terms, and keep it with the receipt until the cat is home. If anything in the confirmation differs from what the quote promised, query it before you pay the balance.
Telford and Wrekin runs licensing in-house, so the council's animal licensing pages are your backstop [1]. There is no public holder list to search, which is why the check runs the other way round: the cattery states its licence, and you check the number and issuing council against the booking name. Keep the licensing team's contact with your booking papers in case a welfare worry ever needs the council rather than the cattery.
Map the drive from home before you book, since every ranked pen sits out of town. The woodland site lies near Newport, the small-scale one in Walcot and the all-rounder on Grange Lane, so Wellington and Lawley drivers head one way while Dawley, Madeley and Ironbridge drivers weigh gorge traffic and a cat that may hate the car. Confirm drop-off and collection hours against your route, and ask where to leave a carrier at handover, since rural sites park differently from town streets.
Planning controls rarely touch a boarding booking. The borough names eight conservation areas, including Newport, Wellington, the Severn Gorge and High Ercall, where the catteries in this round sit [4]. Those controls govern buildings, demolition and trees rather than who boards your cat, so read them only if a stay ever turns into a building project, such as converting an outbuilding for home boarding.
A typical booking runs the same course. First contact names your dates and your cat's needs; the visit follows, with pens, paperwork and licence on show; then comes the written quote for the whole stay. Pay the deposit to fix the dates, hand over the vaccination record, food, medication with written doses and vet consent on drop-off day, and settle the balance on the agreed terms. At collection, check the cat, read the receipt against the quote, and raise any query before you drive away.
Keep three papers until the cat is home: the written quote, the booking confirmation showing dates, fees and cancellation terms, and the receipt. If the stay goes wrong, those papers carry the argument: raise it with the cattery first, in writing, with dates and the confirmation attached. For a welfare worry that the cattery will not resolve, the council licensing pages behind the local regime also give you the route to the team behind it [1].
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, the three ranked Telford lists cluster tightly for cats. Expect about £13 to £17 a day for one cat, with two sharing working out less per head than two singles. Day care runs from £20 a day at the woodland site to £30 at the Grange Lane one, while dog boarding at the mixed sites sits around £25 a day. These are published list rates from the businesses' own sites, not estimates, and each list layers its own extras on top [6] [7] [8].
Peak weeks move the price. School holidays, bank holidays and the Christmas stretch often carry premium rates or minimum stays, and one local firm's terms spell out holding fees for short bookings. Medication routines, special diets, baths and grooming add to the daily rate, while two cats sharing one pen usually trims the per-cat cost. Length of stay, arrival and collection times, and travel across Telford and Newport all shape the final bill.
Ask where VAT sits before you compare lists. The woodland site's price list states its rates include VAT, while the Grange Lane list publishes a VAT number, which means tax is in the system even where a headline figure looks bare. Treat any quote that will not say whether VAT is included as unfinished, and get the answer in the same message as the dates.
Get the scope in writing before money changes hands: exact dates, the daily rate and what it covers, extras and medication charges, cancellation and curtailed-stay terms, and the vet and emergency-contact arrangement. Keep the quote, the booking confirmation and the receipt together until the cat is home. Where a list carries an older date with a subject-to-change note, confirm the current figure on the confirmation itself.
Deposits fix peak dates, and the terms around them differ. The Grange Lane list takes a deposit on booking with the balance due on drop-off, makes deposits non-refundable while allowing a transfer with a fortnight or more's notice, and charges every day booked including arrival and departure [8]. Starting-rate menus with minimum stays and holding fees work differently again [7]. Read those lines before you pay anything, and get the deposit, balance date and transfer rule restated on your own confirmation.
Baths and grooming sit outside the daily rate at the mixed sites. The woodland list prices baths and extras beside the boarding grades, while the Grange Lane menu pairs day care with grooming availability [6] [8]. Coat length and condition move the figure, as does bath-only against a full groom, so name the treatment when you send your dates and get it priced as its own line rather than bundled into the stay.
Red flags
Takes a cat booking without asking for vaccination proof.
Shows no animal activity licence and cannot name the council that issued it.
Quotes a stay with no written dates, daily rate or cancellation terms.
Refuses a pre-booking visit to the pens or only shows them on collection day.
Bundles extras, medication and peak-day uplifts into one fixed figure with no breakdown.
Names no vet arrangement or emergency contact process for problems overnight.
Demands full payment in cash up front with no booking confirmation.
Books a peak-week stay with no deposit, no confirmation and no cancellation terms.
Hands the cat back with no receipt and no note of any treatment given during the stay.