Wag CEO Garrett Smallwood sits down with Yahoo Finance Live to talk about the rise in pet boarding costs as families try to plan summer vacations, the trend of pet-friendly hotels, and the company's SPAC deal.

Video Transcript

- Our next guest joins us with some insights into the business of pet-friendly travel. Wag CEO Garrett Smallwood. Welcome to the show. Good to have you on. So as we saw there--

GARRETT SMALLWOOD: Great to be here.

- Great to have you. So as we know, one in five American households adopted a pet during COVID. But, obviously, we're seeing people now starting to travel. What are some of the best ways to make a strong travel plan if you have a pet?

GARRETT SMALLWOOD: Isn't it crazy? So one in five households in the US adopted a pet during the pandemic. So just to frame that. It's millions of new pet parents who are going out for the first time in years and exploring the US, international, wherever they might be going. It's a crazy time. We recently surveyed pet parents nationwide to understand the obstacles they would face.

We polled more than 1,000 pet parents and found that 81% of frequent travelers are seeking out pet-friendly destinations, things that make their life easier traveling with their pets. We recently also inked a deal with Kimpton, which we're thrilled about, across their 65-plus locations, which allows their travelers the benefits of Wag with Wag Premium and enables them to be able to book on-demand dog walks, drop ins, et cetera to the Wag platform. But in general, it's time to plan.

- Are you finding that a lot of these companies are receptive to more pet-friendly aspects? Obviously, demand isn't a problem. They already have people who want to come and stay in these hotels. Is there a challenge in trying to talk them into making them pet friendly?

GARRETT SMALLWOOD: I don't think so. I mean, certainly not for us. Anybody that's approaching Wag is well aware of the Wag platform. Again, we're one of the largest technology platforms in the US, offering things like dog walking, pet sitting, boarding, training, expert pet advice across 5,200 cities in all 50 states. So people generally are aware of Wag and the benefits of partnering with a platform like ours. And I generally think most brands look at pets as an unlock. They're trying to capture the pet parents and the pets themselves. It's a big audience. It's a growing audience. And it's an audience with a lot of resilience.