Frequently Asked Questions

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We recognise that vaccination protocols can vary between individual cats and veterinary practices, and that immunity from some core feline vaccines may last longer than 12 months. For cats living at home, particularly those with a low risk of exposure to other cats, a veterinarian may recommend a longer interval between vaccinations.

Boarding environments require a different level of disease prevention.

Cats entering a boarding facility are temporarily exposed to a different environment and a greater number of cats than they would typically encounter at home. This increases the potential for exposure to infectious disease, even with comprehensive hygiene, cleaning and infection-control protocols in place.

For this reason, Australian veterinary and animal welfare guidance recognises boarding as a higher-risk setting.

The RSPCA recommends that cats have received a vaccination within 12 months of entering a boarding facility, while the Australian Veterinary Association identifies upcoming boarding and increased risk of infection as circumstances where a more traditional annual vaccination schedule may be appropriate.

At Noosa Country Cat Hotel, our admission requirement is therefore a current vaccination administered within the 12 months prior to your cat’s stay.

We require protection against the core feline diseases, including Feline Herpesvirus (FHV-1), Feline Calicivirus (FCV) and Feline Panleukopenia Virus (FPV).

Your vaccination certificate must be issued by your veterinary practice and clearly show your cat’s name, vaccination administered, date of administration and veterinary practice details. We cannot accept out-of-date, altered or incomplete documentation as evidence of vaccination.

Timing before boarding

Vaccination does not provide immediate protection. Where a vaccination or booster is required to bring your cat up to date, it must be administered at least two weeks before arrival to allow an appropriate immune response to develop.

Titre testing

We recognise that some owners and veterinarians may prefer to assess existing immunity rather than routinely revaccinate.

As an alternative to vaccination within the preceding 12 months, we will accept a positive titre test report or certificate from your veterinarian, performed within the 12 months prior to boarding, demonstrating antibody levels interpreted by your veterinarian as adequately protective against the relevant core feline diseases.

This provides an alternative pathway for cats whose veterinarian considers revaccination unnecessary, while still allowing us to maintain a consistent health standard for every cat entering the hotel.

Our vaccination policy is informed by current guidance from the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) and RSPCA Australia, with consideration given specifically to the increased disease-exposure risk associated with boarding environments.

If you are unsure whether your cat meets our requirements, please speak with your veterinarian well before your scheduled stay.

Further information

RSPCA Australia: What vaccinations should my cat receive?

https://kb.rspca.org.au/categories/companion-animals/cats/caring-for-my-cat/what-vaccinations-should-my-cat-receive

Australian Veterinary Association: Vaccination of dogs and cats https://www.ava.com.au/policy/vaccination-of-dogs-and-cats

Check out our fees under ‘Accommodation and Pricing’ from the drop down menu for a full rundown. Prices start from $30 per day including food for a single guest. 

Yes, absolutely, we are temperature controlled year round. Each accommodation type has large split system air conditioning which keeps guests cool in summer and warm in winter, while it also maintains consistency of temperature in between. Our air conditioning units are serviced professionally twice yearly they are used that much!

Yes, absolutely! Prior to use of catio’s we do a top to bottom check to make sure no bugs have found their way in while we haven’t been in there. We have never found a snake or any sort of bug/insect that could cause harm, our catnet is designed to keep creepy crawlies out and it does the job fabulously!

What we can’t prevent are small flies and moths entering the catio from time to time, but we’re pretty sure they learn quickly it’s not the place to be! 

There are 12 opportunities each day/night for guests to hop out of their suites and explore the catio or Farmhouse Room. Some guests prefer to snooze in peace (and have a view of the paddock and valley around the clock), so don’t take up all opportunities. For a full rundown of daily routines, check out ‘Guest daily routines’ from the drop down menu. 

Guests will receive as much (or as little) as they desire. We are in the hotel for around 14 hours each day (yes, that’s right, we are with guests more than we are with our own children and pets). This means guests who crave a lap to sit on or companionship will have that on offer around the clock.  

While we would love to show you around, this just wouldn’t be in the best interest of shy and timid guests, or guests staying with us for peace and quiet while their families have their own guests over.

We take our duty of care to our guests extremely seriously and limit foot traffic within the hotel to ourselves only, even at drop off and pick up. This ensures a high level of biosecurity, as well as maintaining a calm, quiet, peaceful and predictable environment which guests thrive in.

Check out our video tour under ‘Hotel tour’ from the drop down menu which runs for 10 minutes and goes through all areas of the hotel! Our Facebook and Instagram pages also have a lot of photos and videos, just search ‘Noosa Country Cat Hotel‘

Absolutely not! Our suites as well as catio’s are professionally installed, tensioned and use high quality cat specific netting to prevent even the most daring of guests.

Generally speaking this is quite confusing for your cat, so we don’t advise it. We also have lots to do each day at the hotel and have routines to fit it all in within our day, so a visitor outside our normal arrival/departure hours will take away from the care we need to provide. 

We stock the following:

Whiskas wet and dry food 

Friskies dry food

Fancy Feast wet and dry food

Fussy Cat wet, dry & raw food (excluding ‘Luxe’ range)

Aldi Cachet wet and dry food 

Aldi Silversters Wet food 

Dine wet food 

Dine treats

Temptation treats

Greenies treats

YumGuard treats

Yes, absolutely - we encourage you to BYO food if we don’t supply the specific brand or flavour of food your cat eats… this keeps tummy’s happy and provides a sense of familiarity and comfort while away from home. We will match what your cat eats at home as precisely as we can if it is something we stock.

When registering your cat for their stay you will be asked what brand and flavour food your cat eats so we can do this.  We however cannot serve foods which don’t meet Australian Standard AS5812 (that is, things like raw meat from a butcher etc). Heat treated meats are absolutely fine however (cooked chicken, cooked mince etc) and we can of course serve packaged, branded raw meats from the likes of Proudi, Fussy Cat and Organic Paws to name just a few of the wonderful, balanced raw pet food brands out there!

Discounts aren’t offered for self supply of food, our fee structure is more focussed on the attentive, around the clock care provided to each guest rather than minimal cost of food.

Yes - as long as the raw meal you provide your cat meets the Australian Standard (AS5812) for pet food, that is, it’s a branded, packaged raw food labelled for pet consumption.

We cannot accept or serve butcher or supermarket style raw mince, chicken, offal etc to your cat due to the absence of documentation of processes and procedures, procurement and traceability of ingredients and the maintenance of detailed production and distribution records.

The AS5812 ensures regular testing and validation of ingredients to verify safety and quality, meeting defined specifications, free from bacterial contaminants, keeping your cat, other cats, ourselves and our environment safe!

Bacterial contaminants like E-coli, Clostridium and Salmonella can be deadly, they are taken really seriously by us, so we only serve pet foods intended for raw consumption to reduce the risk of illness (or worse) to all.

Yes, absolutely - cooked meat bypasses a lot of the risks associated with non-pet food branded raw foods, so this is no problem! Please just make sure to pre-prepare it, portion it and store in snap lock freezer style bags or containers for us to easily thaw and serve. 

Yes, absolutely! We have extensive experience in administering tablets, ointments, creams, insulin injections and even subcutaneous fluid injections.

This however mostly depends on how willing your cat is to accept medication from someone other than you in an environment other than home.

While most cats will take a tablet, others will use defensive techniques to avoid taking that tablet (or injection) creating an element of risk for us with a scratch or bite, and stress to your cat. Before booking, please contact us and provide some details of how you feel your cat will accept medication administered by us. 

We charge a minimal daily fee for added care needs your cat requires. 

Unfortunately no, sorry! Our Farmhouse Room is off-limits to the public while we maintain a level of biosecurity as well as keep it calm, consistent, quiet and predictable for guests in care. Multiple visitors each day would cause stress to many of our shy/timid guests which could impact their stay, or worse. We do all the settling in and are really experienced in this, it’s what we do! 

For us to be offering a discount we would need to somehow discount the amount of work we do or extent of care we provide, this just doesn’t happen.. our duty of care to your cat is around the clock and absolutely prioritised, we work incredibly hard every day of the week year-round, so discounts just aren’t a thing around here sorry!

Long stay guests are offered a range of accommodation types during their stay for the base price, as well as coverage of all flea/tick/worm medication and matched food, no matter the brand. Long stays are considered anything over the 3 month mark.

Absolutely - as long as your cat is comfy for us to be close by and is showing signs of being relaxed, happy and welcoming of the interaction + our time permits! (Amy usually posts photos twice a week - at the start of the week and end of the week) 

For nervous, timid, shy, defensive or aggressive cats we will naturally struggle to capture photos, so we don’t place any pressure on your cat (or ourselves) to capture photos, instead we place heightened emphasis on meticulous care, as it should be! 

Please know photos and videos are based on our availability to capture them too since we don’t have staff to do this, Amy handles the lot and she’s no robot!

While we know photos and videos are lovely to receive, we prioritise care, cleanliness and overall happiness of our guests first and foremost before grabbing the camera. 

Peak holiday periods like School Holidays will see less photos and videos being taken and less time on technology posting them, we’re just realistic about our increased workload during these times while also juggling being parents to young children and having lives outside of our business that need to be lived too! The only aspect of our roles here that can be safely reduced during really busy times are photos and videos and the time spent on social media uploading them… so that’s how we have ‘time off’… since this is a 24/7, 365/year gig!

This is all within our Terms & Conditions, available for all to see via the drop down menu on our website, as well as visible and signed at time of booking and included (via link) within confirmation emails.

In a nutshell, a 20% non-refundable, non-transferable deposit is due at the time of booking, with the remaining balance due 14 days before arrival.

Late payments after 2 x attempts from us in writing may result in cancellation of the stay… we don’t muck around, we’re only interested in welcoming folks and their cats to our property who respect us as a small business and family, and understand we are small scale without an abundance of accommodation for all.

Cancellations less than 2 weeks (14 days) forfeit their payments in full, meaning a credit will not be available. We understand unexpected things happen, however cancellations without adequate notice can have huge impact on us as a very small business.

Our cancellation policy is in place with no exceptions and is applied consistently which ensures fairness and sustainability.

For those who cancel with adequate notice, we will gladly offer a credit of fees paid in excess of the 20% booking deposit (the 20% booking deposit is non-refundable and unable to be used as credit). 

Definitely not. While we understand some cats get along with others, the vast majority simply don’t… 

We will never risk a swat, scratch, bite, chase or any form of harm caused by another cat to your cat, simple as that.

Hard barriers are in place between guests at all times, including between suites.

The only interaction your cat may experience with another would be between or Farmhouse Room Catio and Farmhouse Room where a pet mesh door separates the two, however this is closely monitored and a solid door accompanies this to create total visual separation.

We understand cats can be good at visual bullying without swats, swipes and bites, so we take this factor into consideration at all times too. 

Yes, absolutely! We are one of the rare facilities on the coast here who offer long stays (stays over 3 months). Feel free to reach out to us and ask how we facilitate these successfully!

These guests are charged at the minimum daily rate while being offered a range of accommodation (including our exclusive styles) to keep enrichment levels high.

(We have had guests stay with us for over 12 months in the past, these guests, like all our guests are loved and cared for around the clock like our very own)

While we are all-inclusive, this sadly is just one of those behaviours we are unable to cater for as a home based hotel, sorry!

Maintaining a clean, pleasant, hygienic environment for our cats in care (as well as ourselves as a family and our family home) is critical to avoiding illness. 

We suggest trialling your cat with a large litter box and a range of litters prior to booking, in most instances cats will opt for a litter tray to keep their environment clean also, but we need to know this will be the case prior to booking so we aren’t faced with constant heavy lifting on our end to clean urine and faeces from our surfaces.

The same goes for cats who spray… we don’t like to say no, but cannot accept cats who spray sorry! 

We promote and encourage the safe and responsible keeping of cats, so would encourage you to trial a period of strict indoor (or indoor/outdoor within a secure catio/enclosure) prior to booking to ensure your cats stress levels won’t be heightened when bound to enclosed areas here at the hotel. 

There are lots of enriching things you can do for your indoor cat like providing cat grass, toys, puzzle feeders, music, interaction, play, scratch towers, cat trees, baskets, different textured mats and rugs to laze on, access to a window or area indoors for sunshine etc. Indoor cats live long, happy and healthy lives without harm to wildlife or risk of disease or injury to them… interestingly we typically find indoor cats much more affectionate, easy going, relaxed, pleasant to care for (and far cleaner) than cats who roam too!

Yes, absolutely… Amy caters to all temperaments, in fact she loves sitting quietly with shy, timid, nervous first time guests to build trust and create a beautiful first impression and experience! 

Our suites in our standard accommodation are larger than the industry standard, they’re designed with guest comfort, safety and security in mind and are 2.2m tall, 1m wide and 95cm deep. 

Enclosed spaces can make cats feel safer by providing a sense of comfort and control, acting like a protective hiding spot. A properly managed, enriched space with vertical levels can reduce anxiety by protecting them from the "clamour" of large, open areas.

The best environment is one that feels secure, which usually means they have a place to hide, the ability to jump to a higher level, and, if in a group, limited contact with other, unfamiliar cats, including avoidance of direct eye contact for visual bullying.

All our standard accommodation suites face the valley or paddock in a large ‘L’ shape, meaning nobody looks directly onto one another. We have used expert advice in the layout and design of our group-style accommodation as a best-practice, award winning boarding facility. 

In short, Yes… but keep them to a minimum, i.e. a small blanket, or a small toy. We have everything here to make your cats stay feel like home and truth is multiple different household items increases the risk of a biosecurity issue for our guests as well as our own home and family members (think mites, lice, ticks, fleas, spiders and nasties!)… 

If we don’t stock the litter your cat uses we encourage you to BYO to ensure loo habits remain the same as home, but please be environmentally mindful, we discourage use of litters with silica, dust and toxins, we also discourage use of litter which tracks easily (small particles) which can turn a tidy hotel into a messy one, fast!