My county, with no dates and no filters has 233 listings on Air. When I filter it to “pets allowed”, that number drops to 118. I know from studying the ones most similar to my property that the vast majority of those limit it to one dog, only one or two that I know of will allow two dogs, and most say “small” or “under 30 lbs”. I believe I am the only person in the whole county who will host more than two dogs with no size limits. The fact that someone actually expected that rare commodity for free was somewhat astounding.
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Last time someone complained about my pet fee he snarkily said he could just stay at the hotel he was already at cheaper. I immediately offered to let him have a refund. But he messed around, actually arrived and then cancelled. After all that I was happy to take some of his money.
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Out of curiosity, what would it cost someone to board three dogs with you for three days? Ballpark?
Edited to add, it’s been a long time since I’ve had to take my dog to day care but I seem to recall it costing me nearly $40 a day. That was for day care, not just boarding, when I was working really long hours and she was young and needed to not be alone in a house for 18 hours.
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That would be around $200 here cash price for boarding. On Rover.com it would be more plus fees they charge. I discount for 3 dogs.
But I rarely get 3dogs from one family due to expense. It’s cheaper to have a housesitter.
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I believe my rate is fair. $15 per pet per day, capped at $45 per pet per week. Not that I’ve ever had a week-long booking. Maybe next summer!
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With us we are a traditional listing. So they use building code, rental code and all kinds of lists, to come up with unsatisfactory issues. We tell them now, the time to cancel is before they stay, because they will grift AirBnB for anything. We got blamed for a broken Kindle, that we never saw. They tried to get a new one from AirBnB insurance. Probably 85% of the indigenous youth in our area do not have Kindle’s. Much less living standard homes. We actually helped the airbnb’s in our area, set up. And they don’t provide half the amenities we do. And they rail us. Like we are a hotel. Bottom line, complaints get the refund and they want to stay for free. They even complain about the 15$ listings in many areas. Just to get a free 15$ stay.
I’m sorry but $15 is not enough money to put up with people’s … people-ness.
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I had people staying for exactly same time frame. I am very close to airport. Sometime they have layover for 10 hours. Instead of sitting at airport they come here , take shower and sleep for 6-7 hours.
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@KKC is correct. I will 
There are 3 dogs in one of our apartments right now. And 2 dogs in another one. They aren’t going to use the shower, the Wi-Fi, the electricity, the toiletries or drink the beverages so I didn’t charge them any extra.
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That’ll be me then 
in fact, I even suggested it to the guest!
Mother and daughter coming down from up north for university interview and arriving at 7:45am very nicely asked if we could store their luggage until check in time.
Apartment was empty and ready to go so, rather than have to deal with them twice in one day, I suggested we get them checked in and it’d give them an hour or so for the daughter to prepare for interview in comfort.
Days work done by 8:30am, happy guests, all is good in the world.
JF
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Yes this is a trend. I allow bag drop only. I even tell them no exploring the home, no eating, making coffee or showers. They can do that after check in at 3pm. I ask point blank “will you need to use the bathroom”? I do not give them directions to their room till after 11:00 am. I let them use the potty but no showers. Also never rent to a local! You will get theses types of people a lot.
The next time someone wants free accommodations for their pack, I will be sure to refer them your way.
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I tell guests if they want to check-in early (really early), they need to book the night before. I can’t kick a current guest out just bc another guest wants to check in early. That’d be silly.
I had a guest book 2 nights, but wanted to check in at 6 a.m. after the first night. I treated it like a really late check-in.
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As long as you review about it (assuming canceled on check in day) and it shows up before she books w me I could decline her. Otherwise I would let her stay with her 3 dogs. But it would definitely NOT be free!!!
Oh, and I am NOT near TX, either.
Mine would be minimum $324 if not military or a prior customer and not puppies and not special handling and not holiday. They would be better off to pay my $195 sitting fee plus $0.45/mile round trip (assuming they were close, and I am not in TX.
I charge $15 or $20 per night per pet fluoride trained and $25 or $30 if not. I do discount it the same 5-20% I offer for long term stays. However I have now changed that discount to a refund when they check out with no issues. I specifically did not say no pet issues, to leave room for it to cover/prevent other issues as well. I do not advertise the long term pet discount/refund. I often get 2-3 petswith their guests and sometimes 4 or 5.
Well then you are just leaving money on the table and taking more time to clean up afterwards 95% if the time.
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Honestly, my guests with dogs leave the apartment spotless 95% of the time - cleaner than my guests who don’t bring dogs. These are good dog owners who are grateful to stay in a very nice and very clean apartment with a huge fenced in yard and dog amenities for no extra fee so they actually clean up better than the people without dogs. I think this is my experience for a couple of reasons. I vet guests with dogs for how they take care of/with their dogs. I don’t accept guests with dogs who sound like they don’t know how to travel with their dogs. Also, I mentioned this earlier, because of my location, I tend to get “city dogs” that are used to traveling with pet parents that are used to cleaning up after them all the time because they live in apartments. I myself have lived in NYC with a big dog in a tiny Manhattan apartment and sweeping up dog hair becomes a daily habit like brushing your teeth, you just do it automatically. Anyways, I know everyone has a different situation and will have different experiences but this has been mine. I do remain with some control over it because I have in my house rules that dogs must be pre-approved and I do turn down guests who don’t seem reliable with their dogs.
No. Letting my guests book at the big hotels downtown who no longer charge a pet fee and who no longer have a size limit and also give free dog amenities instead of my apartments, that would be leaving money on the table. This may be unique to my market, but it is working for me.
As a side note, I don’t allow infants/kids for various reasons, but not the least of which is that infants stay for free and I don’t have control over that, I can’t pre-approve them and they use the utilities/linens and make noise and make messes for sure. So, I have the same astonishment about hosts who allow infants (though I realize some don’t really have a choice).
Sounds good. Based on my current policy of max 24 hours per night then they would need to check out by that time instead of by noon. However, if it saved me time and I had already been up and awake and presentable and capable and available, I might not make them leave before normal check out time. However, I do NOT do luggage holds. They can check in with it and check out with it. I just don’t have space or time for that.
Yes, definitely a different market then. Glad it all works for you, and sounds like it works out even better than not allowing pets then!
As far as having no control about infants staying for free…this is not exactly true. I don’t allow infants (or children) in the private room at my farm but I do at my whole house listings. However, I DO CHARGE the same additional person fee for those infants because I have put it in my House Rules. Although I can’t pre-approve (or even disapprove) infants I CAN charge for them with some extra work.
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I think this is incorrect.
This is Airbnb policy:
“Infants (children under 2 years old) aren’t counted as guests when you’re booking a reservation and don’t incur any extra costs. Some hosts count children as guests, which can add an additional guest fee to the reservation.”
You can put it in your rules and you can charge and if the guest goes along with it, you’re golden. But if a savvy guest complains Airbnb isn’t going to back you up, are they?