The minimum worth expecting
A reasonable baseline is an update once your cat has had time to settle — usually within the first day — followed by regular contact across the stay. What matters more than raw frequency is content. A useful update tells you whether she is eating her own food, using the litter tray normally, coming out of hiding and accepting handling. A photograph of her mid-yawn is delightful but tells you none of that. Judge a cattery's updates the way you would judge a report: specific beats pretty, and an honest note that she was quiet today but ate well is worth more than a stream of identical sleeping pictures.
The formats catteries actually offer
Provision varies widely. Some catteries send scheduled photo messages at set times, some post to a private page for owners, and some have webcams in units that you can check yourself. Webcams suit owners who like to look in at odd hours, but remember the view is partial: you may catch her asleep at the back of the unit and worry needlessly, or miss the active hour entirely. Whatever the format, agree it before the stay — how often, through which channel, and what happens if you see or hear nothing by the agreed time. Assumptions made on drop-off day are where most disappointment starts.
Updates when things are not perfect
The real test of an update system is a difficult message. If your cat is off her food, unsettled or unwell, you should hear it from the cattery promptly and plainly, with what they are doing about it — not discover it at collection. State your preference at booking: most owners want to know early even while on holiday, because early news is what lets you agree a vet visit or adjust the plan. A cattery that only sends good news is marketing, not communicating, and that distinction is worth one direct question before you book.
Being a good customer of the system
Cattery staff care for many cats, and update time comes out of care time, so a once or twice daily rhythm thoughtfully done is a fair expectation for most stays; demanding hourly replies will not improve your cat's day. Reply briefly, save the non-urgent questions for collection, and agree a different route for genuine emergencies so a real problem never waits inside a photo thread. If you are travelling across time zones, say when you will be asleep or unreachable, and name who else may receive updates in the meantime.
Keeping the whole conversation in one place
Across a long stay, updates, your questions and the cattery's answers can scatter across texts, emails and app messages until nobody can reconstruct what was said about Tuesday's appetite. Keeping the exchange in one thread attached to your cat solves that at collection and afterwards. KinsLe Messenger works as that per-pet communications hub, so the cattery's photos and notes, your replies and any vet-trip updates from the stay sit together in her record rather than in four different inboxes.