Published by Ultimate Games S.A. and developed by Games Incubator, ‘Pets Hotel’ is a simulation game that puts players in charge of a hotel looking after various pets. Pets Hotel was originally released on PC in 2023 and is now available on Xbox Series X|S.

In Pets Hotel, players can start from scratch with a small building and expand their business or start with a pre-made building with facilities already included. Starting small is ideal to slowly get acquainted with the game and everything it takes to run a pet hotel business.

As your business grows, you can take in other types of pets, add new facilities and hire staff to share the workload. Players will need to look after dogs, cats, rabbits, turtles and fish who all have their own individual needs.

The overall game is similar to other simulation games about running a business like ‘Rollercoaster Tycoon’, ‘Two Point Hospital’ etc. and although Pets Hotel isn’t the first game of its kind, it aims to stand out from the rest.

The game comes with helpful tutorials to teach you the tools of the trade. Players can customise their building with a variety of options provided they have enough funds of course. If they play their cards right, they can go from a simple building with the basic necessities to something that looks and feels like paradise.

There is much more to it than just looking after people’s pets, as players will need to tend to their individual needs, feed them the right food, entertain them, bathe them, clip their nails, clean up after them and more. Players will need to manage stock, funds, phone calls, customer service and staff on top of all of that.

The game is played from a first-person perspective which feels okay on a PC with a mouse and keyboard but doesn’t feel as smooth on an Xbox controller, especially when trying to customise your building. The first-person perspective also becomes a detriment because you’ll see all the outdated graphics up close with people’s expressionless faces, pixelated textures and graphical glitches.

It’s hilarious to see a dog’s face sticking into someone’s backside, but obviously that wasn’t the intention. Seeing pets up close, however, is always nice especially when they’re excited to see you, even if it looks like they’re made of plastic. The graphics are very outdated, like it’s a game from the early 2000’s.

When pets need to be entertained, bathed or have their nails clipped, they act like minigames which are simple and straightforward. They feel more like mundane tasks, but it’s better than being needlessly complicated. When things become too much for a single person to do on their own, hiring staff helps divide tasks amongst everyone and keep the business running smoothly, especially when that damn phone rings.

As the game progresses, players will be answering the phone more frequently, although they can reject customers if there are no vacancies or if they just don’t want them, but that also means less money. After answering a call and accepting a new pet, players will need to input their details into the system which has its own issues.

You’ll need to remember the pet’s details correctly, including the correct spelling of their name, but in case you forget, there’s no way to call them back to double-check. Thankfully Xbox players can capture their footage and look back, but having to put their details in just feels unnecessary for a video game and if it accurately simulated real life, you’d be inputting the customer’s details while still on the phone with them and confirm everything before ending the call.

The overall style and presentation of the game have a bright, colourful, warm and cozy feel, even if the graphics are incredibly outdated as mentioned above. The soundtrack has simple upbeat piano music to add to the friendly atmosphere. Unfortunately, even with the lively pets that come in, the overall game feels lifeless.

Running a pet hotel would be a dream job for many and this does an okay job to recreate that experience, but there are better alternatives out there. It’s clear to see that the Xbox Series X|S version is inferior compared to the PC version as the mechanics are much more suited to a mouse and keyboard than a controller. The graphical glitches can be distracting, and the outdated graphics makes everything except the pets feel lifeless. Pets Hotel is a solid effort but has too much going against it.

Written by: Sammy Hanson