Dogs allowed - rules!!?

[Kitty thomas]

Hi everyone. I'm a newbie, so might appear on here asking questions for a few weeks.
I have one cottage (just purchased) which I am going to be accepting dogs in. Having been on FB 'dog friendly holiday accomodation' site, it seems guests are 'confused' as to what a 'well behaved dog' should be! Also some expect the dogs to be allowed on beds/furniture etc. So to help them understand I have produced a rather long list of 'rules' on my pmp website, for dogs staying at the cottage, which they the owners have to sign and send to me with a 'just in case' cheque.
What does everyone else do with their cottages if they also accept dogs please?
Do you allow pets on furniture?
Do you all having a set of rules is a bit much?
And has anyone had a booking from that particular FB page?
tia

[Casscat]

I think there are a number of people here who are on the dog friendly FB page Kitty, and they will doubtless be along shortly with guidance. In the meantime welcome to LMH

[Nemo]

Hi Kitty, I'm an admin on the page. That particular thread was unusual; we normally delete most chat threads as they often get out of hand. The group is really about promoting holiday accommodation but myself and the other admin are always adapting things and making changes as it's growing so fast.

Yes I've had bookings; it's hugely successful for many owners. Decide your dog rules and stick to them. I have them on my website; therefore if someone doesn't like them, my properties are not the ones for them.

It's all about how you come across and how you market. There are good marketeers and bad. Hopefully hanging around here, you'll pick up some excellent tips.

[Robin S]

We aren't on that FB page but will be looking into in the autumn.

We ask dogs aren't allowed in upstairs bedrooms and leave sofa covers for when guests are out. We've just had underfloor heating fitted to the downstairs hall for dogs to be left in when wet after winter months and leave an outdoor dog bath.

We don't charge extra above and beyond the £100 security deposit for dogs.

As an aside, what sofa covers do dog friendly owners use? We no get cheap plastic backed picnic blankets but they need replacing and want to get something more durable and washable.

[Kitty thomas]

Thanks folks. Has anyone had any nightmares with dogs staying in their cottages? (maybe I really shouldn't know the answer to this as it may put me off!!)

[jenboyle1959]

Well....I had one guy sleep with the dog which resulted in a lot of dog hair in my nice white bedding.... Either that or he was a very hairy man with alopecia .I also had a couple leave the dog in the flat while they went for a meal,and the dog barked and whined ( so my neighbour told me) but I couldn't see any damage on changeover day.
Apart from that I have a" if you bring a dog" page in my flat information book.I leave some doggy bags, an old towel for drying wet dogs, and offer a dog bed if required. I'm pretty sure I can't police what happens but most owners leave the flats clean and tidy, so if they're jumping about on the couch ( the dogs not the guests...) I see no sign of it.
I think most people are reasonable- they don't allow the dog on beds / /furniture at home so they don't allow it on holiday,

[ianh100]

Hi Kitty,

We used to take dogs but decided against it after a couple of guests ignoring the rules. To be honest we were dog tolerant rather than friendly as our place is quite small and not really suitable in our view.

We stated that dogs should not be allowed upstairs or left alone in the property. The final straw for us was when a guest left a note that the dog had been sick on the bed and we might need to sponge the duvet! I don't know what sort of dog it was (we manage remotely) but the place smelt terrible. We were not taking a damage deposit at the time.....

We took a look at the number of bookings we had taken with dogs and it was about 20% so decided to change our policy, I don't think it has had an impact on us. We never promoted our place as dog friendly, perhaps we would have seen a bigger difference if we had.

We used the filters on sites like HL to judge the number of local properties that would take pets, it is around 25% in Dorset.

[French Cricket]

What constitutes 'dog-friendliness' is very much a moveable feast.

Some of those, for example, on the FB page very scathingly refer to places that don't allow Fido in the beds/on the sofas/in the swimming pool/sitting up at the table eating dinner with the humans as only - bof - 'dog tolerant'. These are the people who have fur babies, not dogs, and IMHO are to be avoided like the plague.

We're dog friendly ... but I know our set up won't work for all dogs. We don't have an enclosed garden - our land just opens up onto kilometres of woodland and pasture; we don't allow dogs on furniture, even with throws. In a nutshell, we expect dogs that come to stay to be 'proper dogs', if you know what I mean! We make everything very clear, and have a dedicated page on our website written for dogs to read . It works, because we get quite a lot of bookings with dogs - mainly country dogs used to hills and sheep and cows who are embarrassingly well trained; we usually fall in love with them and want to dognap them before they leave.

So - as with anything else in the world of holiday lettings - the thing to do is to sit down and decide where you sit in the market, what's appropriate for your particular rental, how many dogs you'll accept, and what kind of boundaries you want to set for your four legged visitors. Then convey all that clearly to prospective renters, and you're away!

If you're going to major in dog owning guests then you might want to provide various things for the dogs too - we provide a doggy welcome pack with various food treats and a ball, and have all sorts of things available like poop scoops, a spare plastic basket, leads, bowls, old towels etc etc. We also give dog owners a (returnable!) collar medallion with our address and phone number on it.

My experience of having dog owners to stay is that they're usually incredibly responsible and lovely people.

[greenbarn]

Based on position alone, your market should overlap a fair bit with ours.
We get a lot of people wanting to bring their dogs and it's a major part of our market. We take our own dog if we ever manage to get away, and our expectation is that she would not be allowed on furniture or in a bedroom (unless it's a hotel, where there's not a lot of alternative to being in the room!) regardless of what we do at home. We've been to hotels where they ask you not to leave the dog unattended in your room while you go for a meal, so it's a case of eat in the bar or put the dog in the car and eat in the restaurant. I don't have a problem with that idea - why would I?

The vast majority of dog owning guests respect your property and respect the fact that you allow them to bring their dogs; it's become easier to find decent accommodation that will take dogs, but conversations with our guests show that they still have to search. We have our rules which are realistic and for the benefit of incoming guests with or without a dog, the welfare of the dog itself, and for the benefit of sensible dog owners - if people observe realistic rules, we and many other places will continue to be dog friendly. If guests don't want to observe our rules, we don't want them - simple. On occasion we bend the rules based on discussion - prior to booking - with the guest; guests who provide up front information and ask questions about bringing their dogs are generally good news. Coincidentally we have our first booking through the FB page arriving today.

There's an "interesting" mix of dog owners on the FB page, and on the few occasions when any discussion develops now that there's a welcome firm hand on the tiller, it's the minority with their rabid views who make their voice heard over the silent majority of common sense dog owners. In the same way that some weird parents believe their revolting, noisy, spoilt precious little brats should be free to do exactly what they please wherever they are, so with some weird dog owners. Most parents manage to ensure their children are reasonable; a considerably higher percentage of dog owners are highly aware of their responsibilities.
But every prospective guest has a "well behaved" dog.

I could go on but I'll get boring! And our dog wants her second cup of tea...............

[anya752000]

We take dogs and market ourselves as dog friendly.

I would not be too worried about the posts on the facebook page, as others have already posted most guests with dogs are perfectly reasonable and used to looking after and cleaning up after their dogs.

The cleaning does usually take a bit longer there's no getting away from that and occasionally you will get guests who let the dogs on the (pristine white) beds ggrrrrr!!

I have taken a couple of bookings through the facebook page with no problems. Most people don't treat their poor dogs as small babies but as beautiful and loving dogs!

[zebedee]

I've sent you a PM
I do agree with comments that you need to be clear in your own mind about what is practical in your accommodation re dogs - this will vary from one property to another in the detail from a simple starting point of do you do your own changeovers?

If you are relying on others to clean after dogs have been in your property you will not so readily know if there are any problems.