Dog Friendly Hosts - What do you have for four legged guests?

Oh I know I have missed bookings because I do not allow dogs, and I still likely will not allow them in the 3 bedroom, too much to clean and too many nice area rugs.

The worst thing a kid has done was smear a booger on my fridge.

RR

I had an ADULT smear booger’s on the wall behind the headboard of a twin bed.

I meant you having children personally. High risk, high reward…it’s how I feel about dogs.

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I was pretty sure it was the toddler in my case, it was at toddler height!

RR

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Best decision I ever made:)

Mine dented the fridge

RR

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Allow dogs and it will also be a great decision. I don’t know you well enough to rank it but it will be okay.

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I haven’t had any problems with my dog owning guests, most have been cleaner than the non dog owners. But I also would not leave out fancy area rugs when dogs are coming - I chose mine because they could be washed in case of an “accident”. I check them with a blacklight after each stay and haven’t had a problem yet, but still…

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One other thing I have is a tie out. Airbnb guests rarely have use of my back yard. If they do it’s usually in the morning as they are packing up I’ll offer to let their dogs in my yard and I’ll watch them. If they are friendly they might get to play with another dog. But in front I have a cable tie out attached to my wrought iron fence. It’s long enough for the dog to relieve itself on the Astroturf and keep an eye on the owner going in and out while they re-pack their car. Even if you have a yard if a dog is a jumper or digger it could be useful. I would just add a warning at a whole house listing that it’s for temporary use only, not for them to tie up the dog and leave for the day.

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I do sort of wish we could accept dogs, but we have two of our own. They are beautifully socialized with people. They’re quiet and gentle. They’ve met hundreds of guests and are great ambassadors of their breed (greyhounds). They’re not, however, all that welcoming to extra dogs. They tend to bark if other dogs are around. Not great for an Airbnb.

So we don’t. And it’s a shame. We know a lot of people who travel with their dogs (we were pet photographers for years). Many of them have asked us if they could stay here.

I used to have guests come into my home and then I remodeled to give them a separate entrance. The prime reason was so I could open up more dates. It has exceeded my expectations. People like sharing but they love privacy. They love being able to come and go late at night with no worries about bothering the host’s household.

I just couldn’t have guest dogs mixing with strangers unsupervised. My only 3 star review was from the time I let guests check in early before I was off work and they didn’t like the dogs barking at them from behind the baby gate (that and they had trouble with the key box code).

I don’t know if you have the layout or interest to create a suite with a separate entrance but that might be an option to create a dog friendly listing and a non dog friendly one. Maybe you could package up a dog photo experience to go with it. I’ve been really surprised at how well my dogs, including the guest dogs, have adapted to the guests, guest noises and guest dogs.

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Our house would require major, major surgery to create a separate suite. Really not possible for us.

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One never knows what will happen.

The way you are using it is obviously really practical and totally makes sense to me but I would add the warning that even that kind of tethering is illegal in a lot places. In some places, like my hometown of Austin, it would hit “Nextdoor” in a matter of minutes and a combo of neighbors and cops will show up. I’ve watched it go down :woman_shrugging:

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It has to be regulated in the extreme due to abuse. I know what you mean but people can thether their dog in my flower bed with a leash or I can provide one. I feel a lot better about that than the folks walking around with their dogs off leash.

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Definitely. And I know you’d be around to set them straight if they left the dog there otherwise. But I was thinking that it might not be a great idea for some hosts, especially those off-site, to provide a tether because it’s just something else that guests might use inappropriately to get the host in trouble and rile up the neighbors.

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That’s not something I though of, for sure. I guess assuming people who travel with their dogs are in a different class is unwise.

Probably is unwise though I tend to assume too.

I’m currently hosting my first bad dog-parent guests. They leave tomorrow and it’s not soon enough. :angry:

Edit to add: The review will be honest as much as it pains me. It’s people like them that make it so hard for responsible people to travel with dogs so I hate to even admit they exist.

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I think having a fee helps. Maybe add a fee and donate it to a rescue.

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We do a lot of volume with dogs. On any given night there’s at least one dog in the building and this is the first time that the owners haven’t been excellent guests (or good dog owners for that matter). Overall, the guests who bring dogs have been better guests than the ones who haven’t - better communication, more appreciative and respectful and leave the place cleaner so I can’t really see charging them more. I prefer guests with dogs.

We don’t charge extra for dogs but ultimately our prices usually reflect our dog-friendly ways. For instance, the troublesome couple I have now paid a very high rate and wouldn’t have blinked at a fee. I had a cancellation and when I went to re-list the dates, there wasn’t much in the way of pet-friendly so I hiked them up a lot. I guess it’s a good reminder that there’s basically a fee in there for the extra trouble but what irks me the most is that I just really don’t think they have any business owning a dog. They are really not good with the dog. Dogs deserve better. I vet guests who want to bring dogs and this guy said all of the right things and he’s very polite, but ugh, I got tricked.

But maybe I’m misinterpreting where you’re coming from about the fee? How do you think it helps? I would consider it maybe. I like the idea of it going to a rescue :slightly_smiling_face:

Nice new avatar/icon/logo!

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