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I am building a guesthouse specifically for STR and am considering allowing dogs, so no carpet for sure, hardwood maybe? For those that allow dogs if you were building from ground up what would you do? I do not want tile, it is too cold for a mountain cabin IMO. Also what about furniture? What would you NOT use? What would you use? I am thinking about doing a pre-check in blacklight (videoed) inspection and having it in the rules that if doggie pees on the throw rugs or furniture they will be charged full replacement value. What rules work for you about dogs? The nightly rent will be about 125 plus $45 cleaning fee, I am thinking a pet fee of $45 as well. I was recently at a hotel that allowed dogs and saw they charged a $50 fee so this seems reasonableā¦ What do you all think? @KKC ?
If I were building from scratch I would go with wood look tile with in floor heating for the most dog proof floor. If you refuse to do that then the next option is a wood floor like my friends in Indiana have. Itās matte finish and itās distressed. It already scratched in muliple directions. It has knots and multiple colors. It has very tight seams. If you use laminate and dog pee gets in a seam and gets under the floor it will lift.
For furniture in a mountain cabin I would go with as much metal as I could. Metal table and chair legs, bedframe/headboard. Ironwork look is what I picture but you could probably also use that āindustrialā look thatās popular now. Used, secondhand stuff can sometimes be found inexpensively and it looks good. But I wouldnāt want a mismash just to save money.
If you think you will attract a lot of dog people and have an appropriate place for one you might consider installing a baby gate. For example if I had a mud room Iād put a baby gate in the doorway.
My pet fee is $12 per night per dog but I do vary/discount if there is more than one dog or more than one night. I think $60 is the most Iāve charged anyone in pet fees. Iāve only had one incident and that is where a womanās pup had nervous diarrhea in one spot. She cleaned it as best she could with just paper towels and notified me right away. She offered to pay for professional carpet cleaning and she paid same day. We went through Venmo, not Airbnb. And I was happy to book them in on their return trip two months later. I buy cheap $3 fleece throws for people to spread out on the bed or use on the floor. Then I tell them to take them with them because getting the dog hair off of them is more work than itās worth. I also provide dog waste bags, and a dog treat. Keep in mind I donāt have a whole house or even a large suite. Itās a small bedroom 10x11, a short hall and a small bathroom.
Oh, Iāve also got some light dog scratches on the inside of the entry dog. I donāt know which dog or dogs did it. So if you can paint the inside of the door with very durable paint, Iād do so. Next time I paint the inside of this door Iām going to spray paint it with appliance epoxy.
Another thing is people with dogs love to think leather is a good choice. Itās easy to clean dog hair off of but for anything else, itās not great. Dog pee on the leather surface can soak in and be there forever. The products that treat pee keep dogs from smelling it but in my experience once a dog has peed on a surface itās marked forever.
I love leather, but it scratches as well so I am not going there in this unit. I like the idea of metal table legs and chair legs, Ikea will be my friend this time around. I have already purchased my forced air heater so underfloor heating not an option. I am looking at a distressed Hickory flooring with a 50 year finish on it that may be the solution. I had not thought about pee getting under a laminate. I was really considering one of those real thick commercial vinyl floors and still not ruled it out. Much to consider here I want to get it right. Thanks Dusty @KKC
No, I have to buy some at Walmart where the standard price is $2.50 but sometimes clearance for $1 each. But if you have access to IKEA get the Vitmossa throw, sometimes as low as $2 if you are an IKEA Family member.
I agree with much of what @KKC has suggested. My guest house (built 3 years ago) has āLuxury Vinyl Plankā flooring in the living room, kitchen, bedroom (and Porcelain Tile in the bathroom). VLP comes in many designs; comprised of strips of heavy vinyl in lengths and widths similar to wood floors. Mine is adhered atop a concrete floor. It very durable, waterproof, easy to clean. Iāve had many guests ask about it. It is much more forgiving than any hardwood and would be easier to replace a portion if it somehow got damaged. Very pet friendly. Pic attached:
I like the vinyl plank as well, and it really looks amazing; theyāve really come a long way with this stuff. Not sure there would be anything better with dogs.
I have a normal AirBnB guest only space about 70% of them have dogs. It has (old scratched) wooden floors, area rugs and normal furniture (bought on Ebay so cheaper than it looks). I would consider not having area rugs when there are dogs as guests will generally clean and wipe accidents on wooden floors but even with a special spray vac Iām not sure they properly clean the rugs (which I do professionally 4 times a year). But Iāve never had any problems with wear and tear on furniture though I provide a blanket and ask guests to use it if they are sitting on furniture. I donāt charge extra for pets and I donāt think most other people do as well. Maybe I should? Let us know how that goes!
One rule I do have is to ask guests on arrival to walk their dog on the front lawn before it comes in so it knows where to go. In my experience people who carry their dogs from the car to inside are the ones who arenāt good on doggy discipline.
@Poppy How does that compare to your nightly rate? I am conflicted about this I intend to keep the new place booked a lot, I think it will make more than the main cabin because it is less expensive. I do not want the cleaning fee plus pet fee to nearly equal the rent! Maybe I will drop the cleaning fee and up the dog feeā¦ That way those that use the most pay the most. I have time to work it out it likely will not be finished until after the new year.
The nightly price varies hugely. For advance bookings itās $360 a night on the weekend, $290 during the week, and $460 for peak seasons like Christmas and Easter. The cleaning fee is $80, the cleaners usually charge me $60 but I figure the little extra on the cleaning helps cover the cost of products and the wear and tear on the linen etc.
Friday and Saturday nights we are booked out well in advance as we are special occasion places. We do a lot of wedding nights, proposals, anniversaries and birthdays so people like to lock those dates in advance. Filling up the gaps mid week takes a lot of fiddling with the prices, I find Monday night the hardest to fill. About two weeks out I start dropping the price $5 or $10 a day until I get a booking, if itās same day I will go down as low as $150. We are pretty well booked all the time, we generally have 2,sometimes 3 vacant days a month. As our guests are generally under 30 they do everything last minute. This Monday I was looking at a fairly empty calendar this week from Tuesday to Friday and a few hours later all the days got bookings.
As I said the $85 dog fee (I decided not to take cats for fear of the furniture being scratched) is just based on what I would be prepared to pay. We have only had dog damage once in 4 years and it was very early early on where the guests locked the dog in the bathroom when they went out and it scratched the back of the door. The guests were lovely and paid for it to be repainted. We have had issues with hair everywhere so I am choosy on the breeds I take as it is so hard to clean it all up.
If youāre referring to the āPergoā type laminate flooring, I would agree with you; that product has a tapping sound. However what I was referring to are vinyl strips (that donāt have any wood or particle board that would cause that echo) ā¦ For this product, think of something like rubber (that is used on gym floors or playgrounds) but much thinner. Very quiet, with no resonance, so Its actually quieter than wood floors or tile. Very resistant to scratches. It has some texture, so it would conceal any slight damage that might occur. Since its waterproof, its great for dogs and, in my situation, I have people coming into the guest house from the pool which makes it an ideal product.
I recently had tile put in my home to dog-proof it. Iāve wondered if I shouldnāt have gone with vinyl planks. I was just unsure about things that are one thing but designed to look like another. During my life things in that category donāt last (butcher block formica or vanity tops that look like marble but arenāt, for example). Iāve also had bad luck with vinyl and dogs in the past. But yours looks so good. Maybe if I live long enough to have another floor?
I am hopeful for this product. That being said the whole cabin will be just 600 sq ft so about $2000 in materials and I install it. If it goes bad in a few years I will nail down 3/4" hardwood right over the top of it. It would make a good underlaymentā¦
@KKC, I couldnāt agree with you more. I usually avoid replicas or faux finishes. In this case, I happened to buy a house, that had a guest house with this type of flooring and have become very impressed (with it). But I tend to think that the current trend of āwood-lookā porcelain floors will be this decadeās shiny brass trend of the 90ās.
Your comment did remind me of another product Iād recommend for pet friendly spaces, especially for those who want to get creative beyond āwood lookā ā REAL Linoleum. This is not the 60ās, 70ās vinyl linoleum; this is the natural product of the early 1900ās. Its made a bit of a comeback because of its āgreenā qualities and offers an infinite number of colors, and applications (sheet, tile, planks) Architecturally it works great for midcentury homes, and turn of the century restorations, since it was commonly used in those eras.
In my previous home I experimented using it in a large walk-in closet and adjacent laundry room. Attached is a picture of the closet where I used brown linoleum with a beige linoleum border. It was very durable, easy to clean, quiet, waterproof, soft underfoot.
Hard to find these days but here is a manufacturer.
