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I do allow pets at my Airbnbs, but charge a one-time $30 pet cleaning fee for all guests who bring animals into the house. I pay my cleaners extra to deep clean after a pet has stayed, to make sure the house is well cleaned of pet hairs for future guests with allergies. I just had someone book who refused the pet cleaning fee because their dog is a service dog, and they said that they never have to pay a pet fee at a hotel or airline, etc.
I can understand not charging a fee for no reason, but if I don’t charge the cleaning fee then I am eating that cost as it does cause extra work for my cleaning staff to have an animal in the house, which I have to pay them for. Does anyone know the legality or Airbnb policy on accepting service dogs and charging pet cleaning fees?
The service dog issue is very complicated in the U.S. You may or may not be required to accept a service dog. But the laws are vague. And if required to accept one, then you cannot charge. Some whole home rentals are not required to accept, but you may open a can of worms for the guest to file a government lawsuit against you.
Airbnb does not go by ADA and Fair Housing Laws necessarily. A quick google search of their policies can be found on their site.
Most people just accept the service dog to avoid lawsuit. There are different rules for places that are considered “public accommodation” versus private housing.
It can take an entire week of reading law interpretations, examples, etc. IT is not a black and white answer at all.
Your county and state laws also may differ than federal law.
Your incoming guest is stating they don’t pay a “pet fee” for their service animal. You are not asking for a pet fee but a cleaning fee which is a different animal. (Oh no…pun alert!)
Hotels are allowed to charge a cleaning fee for a service animal if it is their established policy with pets. Not only are you not a hotel but you also have an established policy of charging a cleaning fee for all guests bringing a pet onto your property. That is what you should go on.
It rubs me raw when guests think they can refuse your house rule…as if they have a right. You can either kow tow to these entitled people or hold your ground on this.
Although it hasn’t been an issue for us yet, we recently added a new house rule;
“No pets including service & emotional support animals due to allergy.”
We say “No Pets” but would accept a registered Service dog. Would not accept an “emotional support” animal, since no one allows me to have an emotional support cobra .
there is no such legal thing as a "registered service dog"
However if you are educated on the requirements, and if you feel they apply to your property, and you wish to abide by whatever ABB is currently enforcing,
then proceed to ask the 2 golden questions: ( and that is all you can ask )
Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?
that is PERFECT!
When you become the test court case, make sure to let everyone know how the judge rules, and if the issue goes all the way to the Supreme Court, we will await the final decision and outcome.
A hotel can not charge an upfront cleaning fee for a service animal.
I believe you are mistaken in this statement.
They can charge for cleaning after the fact in case of damage, but a hotel can not impose a cleaning fee, or any fee, to accept a Service Animal.
I have to clarify your input, as well intentioned as you are, it is not totally accurate. Please note that I am not trying to be disagreeable, nor argumentative. I am providing accurate information so that each person can make up his or her own mind based upon facts.
It is also my Opinion that somebody somewhere, will eventually sue somebody, and the suit will not be random, but will be backed by a deep pocketed organization in order to get a true legal stance on this issue. For now it is an unknown with lots of different opinions and varied laws.
But there are a few factual points.
As we agree, there are 2 questions that can be asked. But an acceptable answer to the 2nd question can Not be answered in a general manner. … and providing Emotional Support does not fall under the definition of a Task.
… on the subject of the 2 questions, here is the correct distinction:
*****What is the difference between a service animal and an emotional support animal?
-------Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. These tasks can include things like pulling a wheelchair, guiding a person who is visually impaired, alerting a person who is having a seizure, or even calming a person who suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The tasks a service dog can perform are not limited to this list. However, the work or task a service dog does must be directly related to the person’s disability. Service dogs may accompany persons with disabilities into places that the public normally goes. This includes state and local government buildings, businesses open to the public, public transportation, and non-profit organizations open to the public. The law that allows a trained service dog to accompany a person with a disability is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
--------An emotional support animal is an animal (typically a dog or cat though this can include other species) that provides a therapeutic benefit to its owner through companionship. The animal provides emotional support and comfort to individuals with psychiatric disabilities and other mental impairments. The animal is not specifically trained to perform tasks for a person who suffers from emotional disabilities. Unlike a service animal, an emotional support animal is not granted access to places of public accommodation. Under the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA), an emotional support animal is viewed as a “reasonable accommodation” in a housing unit that has a “no pets” rule for its residents.
*****What does it mean to be individually trained?
Individual training is the process by which a dog is specifically taught a behavior or task through rewards, praise or corrections. Natural dog behavior such as protectiveness, barking, licking or comforting an owner are not considered appropriate tasks under the ADA, even if those actions help the disabled owner. Examples of individually trained tasks include retrieving a phone, providing deep pressure therapy during a panic attack or providing balance support on a staircase to prevent a fall.
*****What are work or tasks?
Work or tasks are chores or behaviors that a Service Animal performs, on command or cue, to help a disabled person with something that they can not easily do for themselves. Work or tasks must also be quantifiable in some way, such as fetching a medicine bottle for someone who is having a seizure, opening doors or drawers for someone who has physical mobility issues or alerting on glucose levels for a diabetic.
------Examples of some things that would not be an appropriate physical task would be simply providing companionship, licking someone’s face, barking, guarding, protecting or even tasks performed merely for convenience such as fetching the morning paper. While everyone enjoys the emotional, social and safety benefits that a dog’s presence can provide, those benefits do not constitute trained tasks that would transform a disabled person’s pet into a legitimate Service Dog under ADA. This standard means that the ADA does not apply to many dogs that function as therapy, emotional-support and companion animals.
Under the ADA, service animals must be harnessed, leashed, or tethered, unless these devices interfere with the service animal’s work or the individual’s disability prevents using these devices. In that case, the individual must maintain control of the animal through voice, signal, or other effective controls.
Remember ABB is a world wide site and a lot of this so far is US specific.
Service Animals and ESA’s are not considered pets by ABB so any restrictions on pets do not apply.
Generally ABB bookings can bring their Service Animals and ESA’s without issue, you can certainly charge for additional cleaning/damage caused but not a specific fee up front.
Any Host can charge cleaning fees but not for these specifically.
The way I read it is that there are limited questions you can ask about Service Animals but none you can ask about ESA’s.
All very weird, awaiting my first ESA pig, well my dog is anyway. Should be fun.
Should a guest request accommodation for their service dog, I would open my door – and my heart – to both the dog and the owner, and charge no extra fee.
It might well be a pain in the proverbial for any extra cleaning that may ensue, but gratitude for not being in need of a helping animal would assuage my inconvenience.
Not really related to the original question but is the term service dog, American?? I’ve never really heard the term in the UK or NZ. People have blind dogs and I’ve seen a few of the hearing aid dogs (they wear vests) but I haven’t ever come across anything thing like a emotional support dog etc can’t all dogs be called that …
Just raise your cleaning fee $10 for EVERYONE and not extra for animals and eventually it will not only even out, but you will make more money anyhow. The NON animal bringing folks will cover the ones that do and you are ahead of the game. make it simple!
Emotional support dogs are not required to undergo any specialised training and are not recognised in any region of the world as being assistance dogs.
The worldwide body representing assistance dog programmes, ADI, does not classify emotional support dogs as assistance dogs.
As a result, the owners of emotional support dogs are not entitled to claim their dogs have public access rights in the UK under the grounds of ‘reasonable adjustments’ that apply to assistance dogs.
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