As the Innkeeper there are several factors to consider and rules you need to put into place so your canine guests enjoy themselves too. A happy dog means a happy dog owner/guest!
Some B&B’s, AirBnB’s, and Inns have a “No Pet” policy in place. That’s unfortunate, since pets can be pleasant traveling companions. Many guests enjoy traveling with their entire family, and that means bringing along the family dog. We noticed a huge increase in guests wanting to bring along their dogs with them to stay with us during, and post COVID.
The first thing to consider is what room or rooms will work out well on your property to be dog friendly. For us, we decided the three rooms in the Carriage House would be dog friendly since they all had their own private outdoor entrances. We kept the five rooms in the main house of our Inn as regular guest rooms.
As an Innkeeper, you may want to charge a pet fee per night or per day as well as your normal nightly rate for the dog friendly rooms. As an example, our dog fee was $30 per day to cover the cost of additional cleaning and laundering that is required when the guests checked out.
What facilities will you provide for the dogs to go to the bathroom? Dog owners are great at walking their dogs in the neighborhood, but having a place on your property for the dogs is a bonus your guests will appreciate. If you own a dog you know sometimes your dog wakes you up in the middle of the night and has to go out. It’s convenient for the guest to have a place nearby. On our property, we added a fenced-in dog run behind the Carriage House complete with its very own fire hydrant and poop bag station. Guests really appreciated having a dedicated place/garbage can to deposit their bags in once they were back from a walk with their pup.
How do you make the dog feel welcome? In one of our last Blogs we talked about greeting guests. That begins when the guests pull in your drive. Greet the dog too! Have the guest room set up for the dog as well. We provided a welcome note to the pet, dog bowls, dog beds with the monogram of the Inn, a toy ,and our house-made dog biscuits. (Recipe for Lady Amber’s Afternoon Biscuits is in our Cookbook Volume 1).
A wonderful resource for Dog Friendly Inns to utilize is Bringfido.com. Guests can search an area by location and read reviews left from previous guests. Bring Fido also has Annual Awards that we proudly had hanging in the foyer of the Inn! We were honored to be a Fido’s Favorite!
As dog owners and lovers we understand the importance of having your dog with you when you travel sometimes. It may not be possible in all establishments, but if it is possible, it will add to your client base. We are available to help you determine if this is right for you and help you set things up.
If you are already a Dog Friendly establishment, what helpful hints do you have for others?
We were always treated as family by Nick and Carey, and our doggie boys were too! It meant the world to us to be able to not worry about them when we were on vacation and they were spoiled beyond measure. Also we appreciated the separate lodging for guests with pets both when we brought ours and when we chose a per-free visit for just us. The best of either/or options for a couples’ time away or trips with the pups. It was so very special to have been able to not miss important time from our old man CJ during his last years with us and I love that he experienced such a beautiful and loving time in his senior years when he was blind and frightened in new places. You could tell he knew Carey and Nick’s presence and could navigate his home away from home. And then our new little guy got to get some of his puppy socialization practice with friendly innkeepers and other guests, although we count Nick and Carey as two prime instigators of Cooper’s now ingrained spoiledness!
This guest experience is a wonderful one to offer at an Inn.
We loved having the chance to know CJ and then Cooper at the Inn! Having such great pups and people fill the house was one of the very best perks of our jobs!