Allowing pets vs not allowing them

If I do start allowing pets what are some rules I should put in place? What are things I should provide when a guest has a pet. Any specific rules/process that you feel have saved furniture, damage to hardwood, carpet, etc.

Depends on your price point. We used to accept dogs and it was fantastic but the homeowners’ association mandated against renters having pets.

We didn’t charge a pet fee (depending on the season and local events we’re $120 - $200 per night for a one bedroom apartment).

We provided dog treats, feeding bowls, a dog towel, those collapsible travel water bowls, plastic bags in a container thingy that clipped onto the leash and -crucially - two easy-to-wash throws that I asked guests to put on the furniture just in case. I’d say that ‘I’m sure he doesn’t go on your furniture at home but you never know what he’ll be like in a strange place’.

We are lucky though in that we have tile throughout - no carpet.

Only once was extra cleaning required and that we due to dog hairs, nothing else. We often got doggy people staying and they were grateful to find somewhere.

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Thank you so much for the response and ideas! We are in the $119-150 range for a two bedroom. It’s also a very young area and the community itself has tons of dogs around.

You’ll probably find that it will be very successful, especially if you have a dog park nearby or coffee shops etc. that accept pets. If you can recommend dog-friendly places to your guests, they’ll love it.

We have a separate dwelling for our airbnb and allow pets AFTER CONSULTATION (we’re not IB) We also ask every potential guest if they are bringing a pet. We do this so we can then ask them to confirm they have read and agree to our pet rules, before the booking is confirmed.
Our rules are:

Not on any soft furnishing or beds.
Accompanied whilst in the garden and any ‘mess’ swiftly cleared up.
If wet or muddy paws are cleaned prior to entry into the home.
No more than two pets at one time.

We also establish if they have a dog towell and provide one if not. Also have a bin outside for their poo bags (which doubles up for nappies when needed).

Mostly it works, but you’ll still get guests allowing their pets on the sofas. Very hard to police, but if we see it happening, it gets mentioned and guests apologise, but as soon as we’re gone…! We don’t charge extra for pets.

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This reminds me - I once had a call from Airbnb. This was in the days when we could accept dogs. A guest had arrived in our city but had found that the accommodation she booked wasn’t up to scratch so Airbnb called me to see if I would rehouse her - just for the one night. I agreed to do so.

Only then did the Airbnb person tell me that she had not one but four dogs with her!

Yikes. :dog: :dog: :dog: :dog:

In this moment I can not remember who in here recommended Anti Icky Poo. Thanks to whomever did as it is a life saver. I would grab some to have on hand.

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We do not accept any pets and we don’t have any ourselves. Many of our guests like that. Some have allergies to pets. We don’t have to deal with pet hair, smell, poop or noise. There is a niche market for no pets, too!

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I accept pets, well dogs so far.

You are of course required to accept Assistance Animals so in reality not much difference.

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We accept only dogs. We offer instant book but one of the things I request when they do instant book is to notify me whether or not they are coming with a dog. We did learn that we needed to provide “dog towels” AKA towels that are old, no longer suitable for guests. It rains, there is dirt, pooches have accidents too and I don’t want them being cleaned up with our people towels. We locate them separately but very near our guest towels and have it listed in our information booklet. Our listing is a log cabin with yard space and is mainly used by weekend “un-pluggers” so we find that our guests who travel with dogs have well behaved animals. We have yet to have any problems

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not if you have an allergy to them.

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What if I have a health or safety concern related to assistance animals?
It’s important to be aware of the fact that the assistance animal, whether a service animal or emotional support animal, plays an important role in your guest’s ability to travel. However, if your listing includes a shared space and an assistance animal would create a health or safety hazard to you or others (e.g. allergies and pets who are unable to share space with other animals due to a safety concern), we will not require you to host the guests with the assistance animal. Please be clear and polite when communicating with guests about this. We also suggest you include information regarding any allergies or any safety concerns regarding your pets in a shared space in your listing description in order to better inform prospective guests.

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I am planning to not allow dogs, even though we have one and we are hoping our guests will be ok about some neighbor dogs ocaisional barking. The main reason, is there is no fence and its possible that a coyote would come along and kill a small dog, or a red tail hawk could pick an unattended mini one up. Hopefully a hint in either of those directions will deter dog owners. But then if its a large dog we could baby sit it with in our own fenced area…

We provide poo bags. Dogs are not allowed to be left inside when owners are out. Dogs can be left alone on property upon agreement. Our town is dog friendly so people can take their dogs out with them. I don’t mind hosting dogs as we have two ourselves and I don’t have to worry about them annoying guests when their dogs can also annoy us. Last week we had a dog come in, sit on the lounge and watch TV with us. Very cute.

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Don’t do it!!!

One flea infestation or dog bite and you are toast!!

People are idiots (we ran a private dog park for 7 years).

We have 4 cats and 2 dogs. Facing our own flea infestation now. ARGH!

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Ive been allowing pets and today I came to my apartment after the last 2 guests and their dog left and the place is infested with scabies. Not to mention a bad smell of dog. Luckily I dont have anyone booked for the next 3 days and will do my best to solve this problem but imagine if I did have someone coming tomorrow. Im annoyed. I love pets and I want to accommodate them but I’m really considering not taking pets anymore.

Scabies? Scabies is caused by a mite that you really can’t see with the naked eye- they are infintisimally tiny. A dog with scabies will have bald patches, known as mange.

And dog mites don’t attach themselves to humans. There are also various types of dog mites. Some cause a contagious to other dogs type of mange, and another type that is not contagious at all that infests dogs with poor immune systems.

All dogs naturally have mites, just as humans all have certain bacteria in our intestinal tracks that are beneficial, and we humans also naturally have mites.

Do you maybe mean ticks or fleas?

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Hawks, eagles, owls, vultures, and condors. List any that have a remote chance to be in your area, along with the coyotes (and you probably have black bears, too).