How to score points with dog lovers | No surprises at check-in
Our office dog Nelly loves luxury! 
Our office dog Nelly loves luxury!
The holiday season is drawing to a close, and recently I was out walking with other dog lovers. Only one dog had stayed home, looked after by acquaintances, while the others had either been to a kennel or came along on holiday. My family and I, along with many other dog owners, choose to bring the dog along whenever possible. Finding a destination that works with a dog, however, is a challenge. We always rent a holiday home, and for hotels along the way we often use Booking.com; there, at least, you can indicate that you’re looking for a hotel or holiday home where dogs are welcome. What it actually costs per night, though, remains unclear there too. A blog by Marjolein van Spronsen on how to communicate transparently about welcoming dogs and how that can help you to score points with dog lovers.
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Tell people dogs are welcome!
With holiday homes, it’s already like looking for a needle in a haystack to find out whether dogs are welcome. There are even separate websites dedicated to collecting dog-friendly holiday homes, that’s apparently how hard this information is to find. On Airbnb you can simply tick a box for this, and in the description you can also find, for example, whether the garden is fenced, a handy detail for dog owners. That’s how you can score points with dog lovers! If you book through Booking.com, there’s at least a handy ‘pets allowed’ filter. Great! Until you read further and get only this cryptic line: “there may be costs associated with your pet’s stay.” May. Perhaps. Who knows.
Besides that you book a room, without the possibility to tell you’re travelling with a dog. So I always send the hotel a message myself: we’re travelling with a dog, mentioning the breed and, if there’s a maximum weight listed, sometimes that too. Only then does an actual amount come to light. And the difference can be huge: most of the time you pay between 10 and 40 euros per night, but we’ve also once paid 50 euros a night. And on a rare occasion, we didn’t have to pay anything extra. What about luxury hotels with all their extras? There too, only a small proportion state what the costs are. Here too, you have to ask yourself.
This is despite the fact that more and more hotels and restaurants are finding ways to earn extra money precisely from your dog’s stay. We recently published a round-up article on ‘pet-friendly hospitality’, featuring plenty of examples. Think dog menus, puppuccinos, spa treatments, a dog-walking service, and even a resident four-legged Chief Happiness Officer. Makes sense too, since ‘the dog’ has long stopped being an afterthought and has become a serious target audience.
A call to dog-friendly hotels | How to score points with dog lovers
My call to hotels and holiday-home websites: state on your website whether dogs are welcome, and include the dog-related costs right in the basic information. Not only after three searches and a private message. It’s fair enough that costs are involved, but be transparent about them. It saves guests a surprise at check-in. Until then, I’ll keep doing it the old-fashioned way: sending a quick email and checking the price. My dog, meanwhile, is just hoping for a pat and a dog biscuit!
Our office dog Jimmy loves luxury!
