If you have two or three cats, the first question a cattery will ask is whether they should share a room. The honest answer is that it depends on the cats, not on the saving — and the cats who live together happily at home are not always the ones who board together well.
Here is how to think about it before you book.
Why sharing usually works
Most multi-cat households that have been stable for years do fine sharing. A familiar companion in an unfamiliar room is a genuine comfort: a known smell, a known body to sleep against, and one less thing that has changed.
Cats who groom each other, sleep touching, or share a bed at home are strong candidates. So are bonded pairs who came from the same litter, and kittens raised together.
The practical benefit is real too. Sharing is usually cheaper than two separate rooms, and you only have one check-in to manage.
When separate rooms are the better call
Watch for a quieter pattern at home. Plenty of cats coexist peacefully in a flat without actually being bonded — they tolerate each other because there is enough space to avoid each other. Take that space away and the tolerance can go with it.
Signs worth taking seriously: one cat consistently eats first and the other waits; one guards the litter tray or a doorway; they occupy different rooms by default rather than by choice; there has been any hissing or swatting over resources in the last few months.
Three other situations point to separate rooms. A cat on medication that the other might eat. A cat with a very different feeding schedule or diet. And any pair where one is markedly more confident than the other, because boarding tends to amplify that gap rather than soften it.
A stressed cat will often take it out on the nearest cat, and the nearest cat in a shared room is the one it lives with.
The middle option people forget
You do not have to choose between one room and two unconnected rooms at opposite ends of a building.
Interconnecting suites give each cat its own space with the option of being together — they can see and reach each other, but either one can withdraw. For cats who are mostly bonded but occasionally need a break, this is usually the right answer, and it is what we recommend most often for pairs we have not met before.
Our chateaus work differently: they are multi-level rooms with skylights, built for cats who climb, and they take up to three cats from the same household. Vertical space changes the maths considerably, because two cats who would crowd each other on one level can share comfortably when one can be above the other.
You can see both on the suites and chateaus pages, or in person on a tour.
What we do when we are not sure
We would rather start separated and merge than start together and separate after an incident.
If a pair is new to us, or you are not confident, tell us at booking. Interconnecting suites let us open things up on day two if they are settled, and keep them apart if they are not. It costs nothing to be cautious at the start, and it avoids the situation where two cats spend a week not sleeping properly because neither will relax first.
Whichever way you go, pack for both cats individually — separate pre-portioned food, and ideally something familiar for each. Our packing list covers what is worth bringing and what is better left at home.
One thing that catches people out
Cats who have boarded together happily before can still have a bad stay if something has changed at home — a new cat, a move, a recent illness, or one of them having been to the vet recently and come back smelling different.
That last one is more common than people expect. A cat returning from a clinic can be treated as a stranger by its own housemate for a day or two. If that has happened in the week before boarding, mention it. We will plan around it.
The short version
Bonded, mutually grooming cats usually share well. Cats who merely tolerate each other at home often need their own space. Interconnecting rooms are the safe middle ground, and vertical space in a chateau solves more crowding problems than extra floor area does.
If you are not sure which applies to your two, book a tour and talk it through with us before you commit to a room type.
