Pet cafés are booming in Vietnam — and the drainage challenge nobody talks about

The pet café model is one of the fastest-growing F&B trends in Vietnam. But behind those charming spaces lies a range of operational challenges that not every owner anticipates — and drainage is one of the most overlooked from the very start of the design process. 

Key highlights

• Context: Vietnam's pet café market has grown 45% since 2023 — Ho Chi Minh City alone now has over 300 operating venues.
• Problem: Pet cafés need far more drainage points than standard cafés, but most operate in leased premises where floor drilling is not permitted.
• Solution: SFA Sanivite and Sanispeed allow multiple washbasins and pet wash stations to be installed in 2–4 hours, with no structural works required.
• Conclusion: The practical drainage checklist below helps pet café owners plan correctly from the start, avoiding costly surprises during fit-out or expansion.

Vietnam's pet café market: the numbers

Since 2023, the number of pet cafés in Ho Chi Minh City has grown by 45% with no signs of slowing. The city now has over 300 venues in operation — from cat and dog cafés to exotic pet and aquarium concepts. Hanoi, Da Nang, and other major cities are following the same trajectory.

Several forces are driving this growth: a younger middle class that increasingly treats pets as family members, rising demand for experiences beyond a standard cup of coffee, and the explosion of pet-related social media content. A cat café can fill its booking calendar for the week off the back of a single viral post — something many traditional F&B formats spend months trying to achieve.

But rapid expansion also means many owners enter the market without enough operational experience — particularly in technical areas like space design, hygiene standards, and drainage infrastructure.

Stat to remember: Vietnam's pet café market grew 45% since 2023. Ho Chi Minh City currently has over 300 venues in operation.

Running a pet café: far more complex than a standard café

From the outside, a pet café looks like a café with animals. But operationally, it is a hybrid between F&B service and animal care — with hygiene requirements far higher than a typical café.

A standard venue needs to maintain simultaneously:

• F&B standards: equipment washbasins, staff handwash basins, kitchen sanitation
• Animal care standards: pet bath stations, spray hoses in the animal area, grooming tool washbasins
• Guest service standards: customer handwash basins at the bathroom, floor cleaning stations after operating hours

These are not optional — they are the baseline conditions for maintaining air quality, preventing odours, and delivering a good guest experience. A cat café without a proper bathing setup or insufficient drainage in the care area will start appearing in negative reviews long before the owner notices the root cause.

Why drainage becomes a bottleneck when opening a venue

The majority of pet cafés in Vietnam operate in leased premises — and this is where the bottleneck appears.

Traditional drainage requires large pipes embedded beneath the floor, flowing by gravity toward the main drain. Adding a new discharge point — a pet bath station in a far corner, a grooming washbasin away from the existing drainage stack — means drilling through the floor to run new pipes. Most commercial tenancy agreements prohibit exactly this.

The result: many owners end up designing the space around the existing pipe infrastructure rather than around the actual needs of the business model. The pet wash station gets tucked into an inconvenient corner. The grooming washbasin gets dropped from the plan. And hygiene issues begin to accumulate quietly.

SFA Sanigrey solution: flexible drainage without floor drilling

The Sanigrey product range from SFA is designed to solve exactly this problem — allowing new drainage points to be added anywhere in the venue without touching the floor structure.

Rather than relying on gravity, the pump creates active pressure to push wastewater through slim 22–32mm pipes running along walls or false ceilings to the nearest existing discharge point — up to 100m away.

The two most commonly used models in pet café applications:

• Sanivite: a compact unit that mounts behind a washbasin or beneath a pet bath station. Suitable for grooming stations, staff handwash basins, and customer WC areas.
• Sanispeed: heat-resistant up to 75°C for 5 minutes, with 4 inlets — ideal for brew areas requiring hot water discharge from espresso machines or steam equipment.

Each installation point is completed in 2–4 hours. The venue does not need to close during installation.

Read more: Effective drainage solutions for cafés with Sanispeed

Drainage checklist for pet café owners

Before signing a tenancy agreement and beginning fit-out works, confirm the following:

• Number of drainage points required based on layout (pet bath stations, washbasins, brew area)
• Location of existing drain points on the floor plan
• Distance from each new drainage point to the nearest existing discharge point
• Tenancy agreement clauses regarding structural floor modifications
• Wastewater temperature at each point (to determine Sanivite vs Sanispeed)
• Concealment plan for discharge pipes (skirting boards, false ceiling, small service duct)

If the tenancy agreement prohibits floor drilling — or you are not yet sure — SFA Sanigrey is the most practical default solution.

Get drainage advice for your pet café

The SFA Pumps Vietnam technical team has experience advising on drainage solutions for a wide range of F&B and pet café formats across Ho Chi Minh City — from product selection to technical drawings and on-site installation.

→ Contact us today for a free consultation tailored to your pet café.