Kip Happy Stays

Excellent care, until something went wrong — then no accountability PLEASE READ BEFORE BOARDING WITH KIP We boarded our dog Lily with Kip Hunter Valley for 35 days (roughly $83/day) while travelling internationally. This isn't a cheap option for pet boarding, and at that price point, you'd reasonably expect a higher standard of care and attention when something goes wrong.

We chose Kip specifically because of their strong reviews and because Hunter Valley offered a quieter, calmer setting than the Sydney locations, which mattered to us since Lily is a rescue and came from an abusive background.

Up until the final day, the experience was genuinely excellent. The daily video updates of playtime were a huge comfort, and Lily clearly looked happy and well cared for throughout her stay.

Unfortunately, the end of her stay was a serious failure. Lily was returned via Kip's transport service in a state of medical distress, covered in vomit and diarrhoea, with her bed ruined. She was dropped off with my emergency contact (I was landing from a 21-hour international flight) and the driver simply said Lily had been "a little carsick," handing over her soiled bed in a plastic bag. I collected Lily and had to rush her into the University of Sydney Veterinary Hospital ER, where she was diagnosed with Acute Hemorrhagic Diarrhoea syndrome and hospitalised overnight on IV fluids and medication. The vet bill came to $2,167.44.

Given Lily was reportedly the last dog dropped off, the driver would have had multiple stops and opportunities to notice her condition and failed to report it to Kip's team at any point, before or after drop-off. Kip only learned the full extent of what happened because I called them myself, since the driver hadn't reported any issue with Lily, during the drive or after drop-off, to anyone at Kip.

I provided all the documentation Kip requested from me right away. The overall process, from the incident on July 21 to Kip's final response on August 6, took about two and a half weeks, with the bulk of that time spent waiting on paperwork to move between the parties involved before Kip could complete their review. Once they had what they needed, Kip responded within a day or two.

When the response finally came, Kip's own findings confirmed that Lily had shown signs of illness before she left their care and that those signs were never escalated or communicated, not to their site team in real time, not to me, and not to the neighbour who received her. Kip acknowledged this communication gap and said they are updating their transport handover procedures and driver training as a result.

Despite confirming all of that, Kip's final position was that nothing about their handling of the situation warranted compensation for the vet bill. Their one offer was a 15% discount on a future stay, which does not come close to reflecting what actually happened to Lily or the cost I was left covering.

I wanted to leave an honest review because the day-to-day care was genuinely excellent. But when something went seriously wrong and it was, by Kip's own admission, a failure of communication on their end, they did not take ownership of it in any meaningful way. For a service at this price point, that's not good enough. I can't recommend Kip on that basis, no matter how good the daily experience was.