(ANN/CHINA DAILY) – As the Spring Festival approaches, households across China are bustling with activity, adhering to the age-old tradition of cleaning and tidying in preparation for a prosperous new year. This custom has extended beyond homes to include furry family members, leading to a boom in pet grooming and sitting services.
“My shop has three staff members, including me, and since 18 January, we’ve been washing 10 to 15 dogs and cats each day—double the usual workload,” said Yan Jie, owner of a pet grooming business in Beijing’s Chaoyang district. “We also offer services such as styling, nail trimming, and ear cleaning.”
The growing demand has also driven up prices. Yan revealed that bathing and grooming a cat now costs CNY160 (USD23) per cat, nearly double the usual rate. For dogs, prices range from CNY120 to CNY300, depending on their size.
“Even with the price increase, bookings are pouring in,” Yan added. “This week, we’ve had to skip lunch or dinner just to keep up with demand. Many customers aren’t concerned about the cost—they simply want their pets to look beautiful and adorable for the coming festival.”
Falling on Wednesday, Spring Festival this year is an eight-day holiday, beginning Tuesday — Chinese New Year’s Eve. Because of the long vacation period, during which many people will return to their hometowns for family reunions, pet sitting services are also in great demand.
Chen Yunhan, 24, booked a pet sitting service for her cat before returning to Yunnan province on Saturday.
“Pet boarding and pet sitting are the two main ways we care for our pet when we leave the house for several days. Pet boarding costs more and requires the cat to get used to the boarding houses. Pet sitting is a more economical choice and is better for the cat,” Chen said.
She said her requirements are simple — cleaning up the cat’s mess and feeding it. This only costs her CNY50 each time she requests the services.
“I prefer female cat sitters for safety reasons, and I have household monitors. The cat sitters will send me videos of their services as I require,” Chen said.
Thirty-one-year-old Zhang Mengqi, a social worker and part-time cat sitter in Beijing, said that bookings started to increase in mid-January, and she’s had three to four people call her about cat sitting services every day in recent weeks.
“Most of the customers have concerns such as whether their cats will feel lonely or if I can take good care of them during the weeklong vacation. I’ve taken orders from a very cautious female customer, and I signed online contracts with her to help her feel more assured,” she said, adding that she is a “cat person” who charges roughly CNY50 per cat.
“I’ve also accepted a very interesting but somewhat challenging booking from someone who has many pets such as cats, a rabbit, a parrot and a tortoise at home.”
Pet grooming services are all part of the burgeoning pet economy in China.
A recent report by the China Pet Industry Association, the Chinese Veterinary Medical Association and pet economy analysis platform Petdata.cn showed that the domestic pet economy was valued at over CNY300 billion last year, and pet-related expenses by urban residents exceeded CNY300.2 billion yuan.
Third-party data analysis agency iiMedia Research in Guangdong province predicts the market scale of China’s pet industry will increase to CNY1.15 trillion by 2028.
