Pet deposit, yes or no

I am curious about how others handle a pet deposit. I am surprised airb&b does not have a space for that deposit in their mark up, especially considering they could make their percentage. Our second guest since joining did not tell us they were bringing a dog and it has caused some issues. We have all been congenial on both sides, but we are seriously considering eliminating the pet acceptance. How are others who do allow pets paid? What types of issues have they encountered…

I allow pets, it is an additional fee per pet per night of $12. In practice I discount for mulitiple pets and or multiple nights. I have only had one pet incident. A dog had an diarrhea accident in the room on the carpet. The owner messaged me about it and offered to pay for professional cleaning. She paid right away via PayPal, we did not involve Airbnb. Airbnb is not helpful in any way for those accepting pets so you are entirely on your own if you want to allow them.

Overall I feel I have gotten many additional bookings and the additional money has more than covered the overall wear and tear and additional cleaning. For me it’s a win but I wouldn’t advise it for everyone.

Airbnb deposits, insurance, etc don’t cover pets. If someone doesn’t admit their pet caused damage and agree to pay for it, you’re out of luck.

3 Likes

Yes, I have a pet fee for dogs. $15/ night /dog to help offset the cost of carpet cleaning. If the guest stays 30 days or more, I charge $200 dollars = cost of carpet cleaning & furniture shampoo.

No cats short term. If 30 or day or more rental $200 non-refundable pet fee per cat in case they decide to use my couch arms as a scratching post.

I like traveling with my dogs so I’m emphatetic to others who want to travel with dogs too. I try to keep my pet fees comparable to local boarding fees.

The pet fee is mentioned in my unit description. I charge it as an extra fee for services.

1 Like

I charge a flat fee of $80 for a stay, and if I decide to accept more than one dog I don’t charge per animal. I worked out the price on what I would be prepared to pay so I didn’t have to find someone to look after my dog.

Travelling domestically I always want places that will take my pooch and I am pleased it is becoming more mainstream in Australia. Some large, well known hotel chains now have dog friendly rooms. Unfortunately they are always booked out when I want to stay, so I turn to Airbnbs or local motor ins that accept dogs. I was looking for somewhere for last night but “schoolies” have taken over Oz and I haven’t been able to find the pet friendly filter on booking.com so we stayed home.

Yes I do charge a pet fee for dogs and they must be on a flea program and not left unattended in the suite, I also provide a kennel should they have to leave their dog to go for dinner etc. ( I let them know just for a couple to hours), and we have a fantastic boarding kennel should they go away for longer periods fishing or whale watching. I have sewn a simple cover for the sofa cuz I know the little pooches will be on the furniture! Personally I cannot accept cats due to allergies.
As K9KarmaCasa mentioned I feel I get many additional bookings, & I also have dogs so I am delighted to have a host that will accept the dogs.

Why is this, do you think? Too complicated and too much headache?

I also charge a daily fee per dog - $10 .

I waived that for the guest that just booked last minute and leaves tomorrow. I think it was a good move.
I have been boarding 3 dogs and day training 1 dog for the past 8 days. The guests were bringing their shitzhu and I admitted up front that while I would do all I could to ensure that their dog wouldn’t be bothered by my dogs or my ‘client’ dogs during their stay (their dog is unneutered and they say he gets hassled by other dogs — effing neuter your dog then!), that I couldn’t GUARANTEE zero dog interaction. But that none of the dogs was known to be aggressive.

Also, 2 of these dogs were Large breed dogs and wow, do they ever make a lot of noise when they are above (just chewing their bones I thought that someone was using power tools upstairs!).
So, I believe offering them a waiver of my dog fees circumvented a negative review in my eyes! But let’s not hold our breath this soon…

I had a contract written up at one point but to be honest, other than eliciting a subtle threat response, that type of contract is worth less than the paper it’s written on.

My biggest “competitor” is the only one in my immediate area that also hosts dog travellers. I am certain it has been an integral part of my supplemental AIR income. People that want to bring their pets on holiday are gonna bring their animals on holiday no matter what.

No, if I leave out a comma it’s an oversight or I simply don’t know if it goes there or not. :wink:

Seriously, I will need to know what you’re referring to in order to respond.

I will never waive the fee because there is too much extra cleaning and other work, even for the best behaved dog. However, the guest dogs and mine rarely mix. Sometimes they say their dog is friendly with other dogs or I even offer to watch their dog for free while they go out but no way I’d do that for hours. It makes me too nervous.

I seasonally add some wording to my listing around July 4th and winter break as these are when I’m busiest. I’ll have 9 dogs here plus my 3 so I put in the listing that I would have more than usual and if noise would be a problem choose a different place. I could just block off my place for the holiday but then again I get many travelers going to and from home for the holiday and many are taking their pets. Why leave money on the table. I just make it clear that this is what they get, I don’t give a discount.

Hahahaha! I think I meant that I was curious why Airbnb washes their hands of pet issues/fees? You think they would be all over collecting additional percentages from us charging daily fees for dogs yet all I have read is that collecting pet fees is forbidden.

Do you ever get pushback from guests over fees? I would be falling over myself to throw 12 bucks per day at you, yet just today I got “but you already charge a cleaning fee” and “hes a well trained small dog” and “hes housebroken”. How would you craft a thoughtful yet firm response? Everyone seems to think their dog is a hairless, odorless angel!

No. It’s not forbidden. They just don’t support you if there is damage. [quote=“Icklemiss, post:8, topic:27949”]
Do you ever get pushback from guests over fees?
[/quote]

No. I’ve probably had some who balked after I told them how much it would be total with multiple pets or multiple days. I honestly never had anyone I recall. Good riddance if so.