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I have an idea and I thought about sharing it with you.
So, last week I was upset because a lady canceled a week long reservation she made a month in advance because I have cats.
I sent her instructions how to get in the house - this is the place where I live not the extra house; that is pet free - and I told her my cats will be around.
She cancelled saying she was allergic. I replied and told her the cats are mentioned in the description and appear in one of the pictures.
She replied that I have 25 pics and she only looked at 2 on her phone (!!!) and read the first 2 paragraphs of my description. Yes, the cats were mentioned toward the end.
So, lesson learned. I changed the name of the listing to be āhouse of catsā! Guess what! I now get request every day from people who love cats, who are working in the area and miss their pets etc.
I am astonished, so Iām thinking about ācatifyingā my house, aka building shelves and stuff where they can climb and hide and featuring these on ABB. I just need to go on you tube or something for inspiration and find someone to build them for us (the cats and I). What do you think?
I wish I thought about it earlier, because when I travel, I try to select listings with cats wherever I go. My instagram account has only cat picsā¦ I absolutely adore cats. I like dogs too but never had one and they would destroy my stuff if they had to stay at home alone while Iām at work. And also I donāt understand what they want. One time I went to a coworkerās party, parked the car on the driveway, opened the car door and boom, the hostās dog jumps in my lap. And we are talking a big, brown, dog that is as big as me if he stands on his behind legs. I was like what do you want?
I will let you know about the catifying progress.
What a fabulous lemonade-out-of-lemons story. People PAY cash money to go hang out in ācat cafes.ā
Maybe this could be an airbnb experience. Play with cats, lecture from cat psychologist, yoga with cats . . .
I board dogs in my home and when I started Airbnb people came into my part of the house (now they are separate). I had to emphasize the dog boarding and I did attract some people who specifically booked for the dogs. It was a different situation then as I was working and had to leave the house and it was quite the juggling act. What I have now is far superior. But it can be done and in the case of people with cat allergies itās a great idea.
I love to stay in places that have animals, especially dogs. Sadly there isnāt a filter for that so I find when people put it up front in their listing itās helpful. Iāve been disappointed more than once when people include a dog in pictures but then tell me in the caption that the dog isnāt included in the rental.
Brilliant! Iām going to do more to ācatifyā my house and put my Bengal catās photo up in the top 6. Itās the second thing I say to potential guests: āThere is a friendly Bengal cat. Is this a problem for you?ā So far, so good! I keep her out of the guest room (well, sheās a Bengal, keeping them out of anywhere is a struggle) and guests have had fun playing with her.
Good luck and where are you located? I need a holiday!
@dpfromva, Iām going to think about this. So far the selection of cat shelves at amazon is astonishing. My babies will be spoiled rotten. @KKC i stayed in houses that had both dogs and cats and I petted them. But cats sense who is a cat lover. In one house in Philly the owner was not home so the cats and us had the whole house. We played with the cats, they sniffed all our belongings and they slept on the suitcases. It was hilarious. With dogs, I donāt know. For example, my coworker from the story above absolutely forbade me to feed his dogs. AT that party I gave them everything i ate, cake, hot dogs etc and apparently they had stomach problems. So with cats I can give guests treats to throw to the cats and they chase them and jump after them, but can you trust guests to give human food to your dogs? @casailinglady I absolutely love Bengal cats. I live in Pittsburgh, PA. I wanted for a long time to become a foster cat mom, but lack of time sort of made me postpone it. So, Iām thinking about doing it now and share it with my guests. I lived all my life with cats. I rescued them, fed little ones with tiny bottles of milk, they are adorable.
I stayed in one private room where they had pics of the dog bed and amenities in the common areas but stated dog would not be at the house while a guest was. I told him not to remove the dog and I love dogs but he did and I was sad (even more so because the reason I chose his place was the hot tub and it didnāt work while I was there). He actually didnāt respond to my message about the dog at all where as if he had said the dog was not good with other people or ANY response really, I would have preferred it.
A splendid idea! After similar problems with non readers, my second photo was of Sophie, Duchess of Guston, encaptioned āHead House Keeperā, but I still had the odd idiot, including those who knew about the cats but hadnāt realised we also lived here. More than compensated for by those guests who adored the pair of them, particularly George the Thieving Clown, whom I often found coming out of guest bedrooms in the morning.
We will be bringing two Norwegian Forest kittens home sometime in July and are told they climb. A lot. Building a frame, rather than buying one, will be much more fun until they can go out safely.
@Joan, I have some guests coming tonight specifically to play with the cats. they are form India, rent where they are at and miss cats. Iām also thinking about framing some pics of my cats. Iām not skilled to be able to build my cat shelves but if you are, so much the better.
(Norwegian cats are so gorgeous!)
Iām not sure I understand theses sentences. If I tell someone not to do something like feed my dogs and that person just does as they please by giving them all kinds of inappropriate human food then I would take some appropriate actions like making sure I never invite them to another party and otherwise making sure I have as little to do with them in the work environment as possible. However, how I deal with self-centered co-workers isnāt the same approach as with paying guests.
I never trust humans with the guest dogs initially. So if I invite human guests to mingle with canine guests I am there supervising. The guest woudnāt be permitted to do anything I didnāt want them to do. Thatās one reason why I had few guests my first year of hosting, I had to be here with the guests.
I always supervise the guests with my cat. Sheās very friendly and I want her to stay that way. If the guests are interested in playing with her, Iāll take them to her toy box (yes, she has one) and show them how she likes to play. When Iām not home, sheās locked in the master suite (bigger than some apartments Iāve lived in!) until I get back. One couple admitted that they tried my door because āwe wanted to see if Bella would come and play.ā Theyāre lovely and I thought that was funny. They were very sheepish and cute about it.
Iām new and put way up front in my listing āDo not book if you donāt like dogsā and then list my dogs info and warn them that the parrot is the most dangerous of the bunch. Iāve only been hosting for a month, but have had guests ask to meet the dogs, and have someone that says they booked because of the dogs and expect some dog time. Some people like hotels, and Iām learning some like AirBnB because they donāt like hotels. And some like dogs. There was a huge reddit pic that someone that came to their AirBnB and found a dog on their bed. Everyone went crazy thinking it was a great thing (huge upvotes).
So Iām glad I disclosed the dogs. It doesnāt seem to have hurt, but then again, people donāt write and say I would have booked if you didnāt have dogs.
@KKC I fed the dog at that party and after that the owner forbade me to ever feed them again. Apparently they had him on a strict diet or something and I, who knew nothing about dogs, couldnāt resist his begging. Had he told me before the party I wouldnāt have done it, of course. I simply canāt eat when a dog is in front of me and looks intently at my food wagging the tail! Since then I was still invited at his parties but tried to eat when the dogs werenāt paying attention to me (very hard)! Itās good you donāt trust the guests with your dogs. Iām dog illiterate, I admit. I can talk to cats, communicate with the most adverse ones, shy or angry ones but Iām clueless with dogs.
