KennelStackAI receptionists for pet businesses
Checked 11 Nov 2026
An AI receptionist answers your business phone around the clock: it takes messages and answers common questions, and on plans and integrations that support it, books appointments too - all while you are mid-walk or with a dog on the table. Marlie is the first one we looked at, because it publishes a pet-care product and a Time To Pet integration. Here is what its own pages say it does and what it costs.
The short version
What an AI receptionist is for
- The problem it solves: new client calls often arrive when you cannot pick up - at a client's home, mid-walk, or hands full - and many callers do not leave voicemail. An AI receptionist answers every call, 24/7.
- What it does on the call, per Marlie's pages: answers with your custom questions, takes messages, texts callers a link (for example your booking page), screens out spam and robocalls, and emails or texts you a summary after each call.
- On higher plans it goes further: checks your calendar availability in real time, books and reschedules appointments on the call, and transfers calls to your team.
- It sits alongside your software, not instead of it: your booking system stays the system of record, and the receptionist feeds new clients and bookings into it.
Fit with your software
The Time To Pet connection
- Marlie publishes a dedicated Time To Pet integration. Per its integration page, it qualifies new clients on services and pets, books meet-and-greets into your Time To Pet calendar, captures pet and home-access notes, and creates the client record in Time To Pet automatically - "within seconds of the call ending," via the Time To Pet API, with no coding.
- For everything else, the connection is generic: Marlie lists 137 CRM and data tools, calendar and email connections, and Zapier, so most setups would work through notifications and Zapier rather than a direct sync.
- What we could not find: published integrations with the other pet platforms we track (Gingr, MoeGo, PetExec, DaySmart). If you run one of those, ask Marlie directly how client records would reach your system before counting on it.
- These are Marlie's own claims from its integration pages. We have not run the integration ourselves, so treat them as vendor-reported and untested.
The money
What Marlie costs
- BasicAnswers and takes messages 24/7 · 250 min included, then $0.35/min · no call transfer$49/mo
- StandardAdds automatic booking with calendar sync and call transfer · 500 min included, then $0.35/min$99/mo
- Pro and PremiumHigher volumes and more capabilities · full tier details on Marlie's pricing page$199-399/mo
Prices from Marlie's pricing page: 14-day free trial, cancel anytime, no long-term contracts. Minutes beyond the included allowance are billed at $0.35/min on Basic and Standard. Base subscriptions before taxes and add-ons.
Before you try it
Worth knowing
- Booking needs the Standard plan: the $49 Basic plan answers and takes messages but does not book appointments, transfer calls, or take custom data fields - so the plan that "books jobs automatically" starts at $99/mo.
- Minutes are the real cost driver: 250 included minutes is about 4 hours of calls a month; busy lines will spill into per-minute billing, so estimate your call volume first.
- If you already use Groomify, note it sells its own AI receptionist add-on (from $109/mo) built into the same system as your booking - a different trade-off from a standalone service that syncs in.
- Everything on this page comes from Marlie's own website. We have not tested the product, and call quality - how well the AI handles a worried pet owner - is the thing to judge in the free trial, ideally with test calls from a friend.