We are planning to allow pets. I’d like some input as to expectations. The room to rent has new carpet. I’d like to insist the dog in the room remain in a crate. Is that possible? What experiences do you have? If you require a pet deposit, how much and say the pet pees on the carpet, do you simply retain the cost for carpet cleaning. Any advice would be appreciated.
We have a lovely large historic mansion with hardwood floors and lots of antique persion carpets. We also have accepted pets, of course always insisting small breeds only, house trained, and not to be left alone in the rooms longer than an hour or two at the most. Nonetheless, my last two guests with dogs, both of whom assured me were thoroughly house trained and well traveled, urinated on my beds. Down comforters, expensive duvet covers (part of my unique listing is my beautiful linens, most of which are antique French sheets), all soaked with urine. Today also had feces stains, muddy paw prints (next to impossible to remove!), and to top it off, some kind of accident on the beautiful silk rug in the room, that the guest had tried to scrub up with tissue, but simply ground the tissue into the rug making it stiff matted. They were the second guest that came with ‘pee pads’ that are usually for puppy’s that are not house trained yet. Unfortunately when dogs aren’t house trained, a fluffy bed is often more attractive than a pad on the ground.
Though a serious pet lover, I have realized why hardly any hotels are taking pets anymore. Owners. Irresponsible, many who work all day in cities, and never bothered to take the time to toilet train their dogs, and let them go inside their homes during their long days alone on pads designed for short term training use. And of course they’re not going to tell you the host that, when they are trying to save pet sitting fees in the city by bringing the dog.
The guest that left today, even turned the feces, mud and urine soiled duvet upside down to disguise the damage. And after all that, they were the most truly unpleasant people ever. The door slamming and stomping going on shook the entire home, and I cringed for our sleeping guests, in shock that people would thump around so heavily, and fling doors so that the bang reverberated through four solid (partially granite) floors. I worried they would send a door off its hinges. Excuse me, but I’m a bit shell shocked right now.
Sandy,
I’m truly sorry that people betrayed your trust and destroyed your things. I will never accept pets after seeing the way my sister’s own little dogs behaved in a vacation rental one Christmas. I hope the deposit can recover some of your costs. Sometimes, people really suck.
Thank you Chicagohost,
Unfortunately nobody in my area charges a deposit for rooms in a house, so I have resisted from doing this for a long time in order to fit in to the area. Of course that changed today. It now means I must show all the photos of the damage (fortunately they tell a very obvious tale), and wait three days before I get a quite likely abusive response through the resolutions. Even still, the $100 I have put down would never cover either a new down duvet or the cover, let alone both. Once urinated on a down duvet is not something I would use in a guest room again…
These are not unusual experiences by the way. I have noticed that all pet owners let their dogs on the beds, which may be ok if you don’t have beautiful linens or mind dealing with stains, lots of shedding, or as mentioned, the inevitable accidents. I have had owners let their dogs off leash to tear around as soon as they enter the house, one of which ran into the kitchen where my husband was and squatted down to do a poop right there on the floor in front of him. Some people after a trip from wherever they have driven from are simply not prepared to put their dogs needs first as a good owner needs to.
Another dog owner assured me their dog was fine left alone (this was before the rule about not leaving dogs alone in rooms). Just minutes after her owner left I heard yelping howling, and the dog trying to scratch the doors down. The owner (out drinking for the night) was suddenly not responding to texts. I had to go in and get the dog out before my doors were destroyed. The dog was also not house trained, and seemed to never have been out of his home before. It was unfair for both of us.
Sandy,
Your guests sound like the guests from "you know where’… Are you sure you don’t have some enemies seeking revenge? The pets are one thing but the slamming doors? Sabotage? Well, you’ve said enough to get me to change my plans…
Believe it or not, some people simply are totally unaware of how their movements within an environment affect others. Our home is over a hundred years old, with a large sweeping wooden staircase, and wooden floors throughout. If you are a heavy footed person, that wears hard soled shoes indoors, it can sound like you are an elephant. Most people are aware and tread lightly in order to not impact others. But get people that thump with every step (coming home late at night and up first in the morning too!), and secondly seem to have no idea that a door can be closed without flinging it from a distance, and it really can sound like a huge argument is going on.
Thankfully most of our guests are not of this type. The same guests were using a shared bathroom, and after their first shower on arrival, I went in to clean up and found enormous wet boogers stuck on the shower walls. I then had to worry about the other nice guests sharing with them walking in to find this greeting them, so spent my time trying to run in after them to clean up the inevitable gifts left each time.
Most of my guests are professionals from NYC. Many are couples in their thirties, and many older. Unfortunately you just can’t tell who is going to be totally inconsiderate of others. These particular guests had hosted themselves three times their own apartment in the meat packing district of NYC (very trendy area) to good reviews, but upon arrival I found the woman immediately hostile, unwilling to engage at all, even enough to be shown around, or shown her keys. When I did try to introduce her to the home, her eye caught a laminate introduction paper, that she ignored me to read, and suddenly she laughed in my face and said in a tone as if she thought I was ridiculous ‘haha! What’s THAT about?!’, referencing something regarding consideration towards other guests staying. That was the first red flag. When her much more friendly (but very uncomfortable) boyfriend asked about the restaurant they were going to that evening and I gave him a good review, he happily told his charming girlfriend who pushed passed us and mumbled ‘I already know that I read it on the internet’. Of course I quickly retreated and left them and their house trained dog to it, regrettably.
I have no idea what I could have done, despite the alarm bells going from the beginning. How to you get these unpleasant people out, once they’re in? They are perfectly polite, promising the dog is an angel, and that they will be totally respectful, and on arrival, act as if you’re an annoying bellboy just for trying to show them the house and let them know the basics. I knew then and there that we had a problem, and that they wanted us out of the way because they were concerned about what was really going to happen with the dog. People don’t want to get all friendly with the people they are about to do over. This is not the first time that people with dogs have acted as though they just wanted to quickly close the door and not be introduced to where everything is. And each time, those dogs did damage.
We have had some nice people and sweet dogs by the way. Just more unpleasant experiences than positive ones.
I’d also add that people have begun to form bizarre relationships with their pets and don’t discipline or train them at all. My sister doesn’t have well house-trained dogs but she insists on bringing them on vacations because she treats them like children. When these dogs are in a new environment, they are stressed and even more likely to go in the house. I think it’s repulsive that she tolerates her little dogs occasionally peeing in her own home but she just laughs when it happens in a vacation rental, and says, “uh oh!” as is it’s cute and funny that they’re being bad.
My sister and her husband both have advanced degrees and live in a million dollar home – there are no indicators that they would allow their dogs to do gross things in other people’s homes. They are not generally inconsiderate people but when it comes to the dogs, they have no perspective and they roll their eyes at me and say I’m over-reacting.
It’s true CH. it’s a bit disturbing. I’m a dog owner myself, and I admit, she’s a surrogate baby. But my goodness, she is trained thoroughly. She doesn’t ever need to be on lead, because I trained her not to leave my side as a puppy, and consequently she sticks to me like glue, and is obedient to my every word. As I mentioned earlier, her needs are always met before ours, meaning, the dog is always taken for a walk first, no matter how long the drive and how much we might want to just wash up or sit for a minute first. Dogs need to go to the bathroom after a long drive, too. It’s no wonder the first ‘accident’ happens the second the dog arrives.
Unfortunately people that will bring their pet that they know is likely to soil in someone’s home, and promise them otherwise are purely being selfish. Just because they are ok with urine and poo all over their home, it doesn’t mean other people will, especially if they specify house trained only. Your family members behavior does not at all seem in line with someone that is considerate of others property. It is my feeling that many people that use airbnb have a disconnect that these are people’s home’s. Somehow the paying for it part makes them feel like it’s some kind of hotel to be left in a mess for a nameless maid to sort out.
As an ending to this weekends saga, the unpleasant woman just paid what I asked to replace the items. She left no response to my message. Just agreed to the resolution. She knew what happened. It’s pretty obvious she thought her turning the duvet upside down would mean I wouldn’t notice what had happened on the other side. It’s hard not to feel a little bitter about that kind of treatment, especially when I’d gone to such an effort to make the room beautiful in all the many ways I do (ironing the linen sheets so the hand embroidered design pops out, setting out vintage carafe and glasses etc). Now I have to wait and see if she leaves a review that makes me out to be the bad guy. It will be our first negative review…
I also had a wonderful dog who I took to vacation rentals and I also convinced a stickler landlord to allow him to move into his vintage 150 yr old building for 3 years. I gave him a $4000 security deposit, not because I could afford it, but because I was absolutely certain that my dog would not damage his home in anyway.
But it’s impossible to distinguish between people with well-behaved, predictable pets and people like my sister who will outright lie to a homeowner on the phone and plead that her gross little dogs be allowed into a rental. She goes as far as contacting people who specify “no pets” and asks for an exception. So I guess I would say to anyone who will accept pets, to assume the worst-case can happen and have a hefty deposit on hand. I ask for a much higher deposit ($500) than average for my low-rate apt ($110/night) but I don’t find it to be a deterrent to people booking. I want guests who are comfortable with leaving large deposits because they already know they aren’t going to thrash my place.
Oh – and Sandy – I’m so glad that she paid what you asked. Was it higher than the security deposit?
Unfortunately I agree CH. and I say this sadly, as someone who travels extensively with my dog, and who could be impacted by putting the word out about how terrible pet owners can be. But my experience with allowing people to bring pets into my home has been disheartening. But hefty security deposit should cover it, unless you have carpeted floors. I just think that is just far too unhygienic to think of allowing pets that may not be house trained into. You really can not get all the urine out of the underlay of a carpet once soiled. The smell remains, and will recur on hot days.
Yes, the payment was almost three times the security deposit I now have on the rooms. So that’s something. I would still prefer not to have had them stay! For me it’s more about feeling disrespected in my home. I knew she was lying to me as soon as she arrived. You know that thing called your ‘gut feeling’, except at that point it’s too late, because they’d already lied their way into your home? I have a hard time sharing my home with people that are being outright rude to me in it, and that I also know are breaking my rules are very likely damaging it. It causes me a lot of stress and emotional distress. It makes me feel I’m not cut out for airbnb because more and more, we have people that come to our home and act like we are an inconvenience just because we live on the premises (on our own floor upstairs with private back stairwell to kitchen - not shared).
One more thing to consider: What if one allows pets. You hit it off so well with the guests. Everything ELSE was just perfect BUT the pet goofs up and you have to charge them their deposit. That would be a negative on the WHOLE experience.
Although as a responsible pet owner, I have to say that if my pet ever did anything in someone’s home to cause damage, I would pay to compensate and not hold any negative feelings towards the host – in fact, I’d feel very apologetic and mortified about the damage even when paying for it.
Very true Teak. Two guests that bought pets with them seemed very nice, but it was also plainly obvious that they knew it was likely their pet would ‘goof up’ by their nervousness. I liked them a lot, but felt a mixture of angry and resentful that I ended up having to feel like the bad guy by asking them to pay for damages, in the case of the one that the goof was on the bed (this was not this weekends of the same type who was NOT a nice person). The accident from the other pet happened on the floor and I didn’t even mention it to them.
What I do know, is that a well travelled and properly house trained pet never goofs up if it’s needs are being met. My dog, now 14 years of age, hasn’t had an accident anywhere, since she was a puppy. She has spent months in France, traveled overseas numerous times, and all over the US. If you take your dog out to go to the bathroom when it needs to, there will be nothing to goof. Unless it’s a marker, in which case, you will already have seen this happen if you have taken it out before. If you haven’t, then you must be lying to me when I ask you if your pet has traveled with you much before and you say yes. Unbelievably, in the case of the nice people whose dog pee’d on the bed, my husband had noticed they were harried after their trip with their toddler, and actually offered to take their dog for a walk, which they declined! They simply took it upstairs with them after a 10 hour drive, and seemed surprised saying ‘oh! This has never happened!’.
On the case of feeling bad about it, I guess they do as both have paid damages (or they know airbnb will rule in my favor due to my very good comms before arrival and photos). But they don’t feel bad enough each time, including the ‘nice’ people not to try to hide it.
If my dog suddenly developed a bladder infection and it did occur, I would be mortified and notify my host immediately - which is what you are saying CH, and I agree with. I truly think some people are traveling with pets from NY because pet minding fees are expensive, and a $20 cleaning fee to bring your pet with you is a better deal. This is very different than to why I bring my pet. These are also people that leave their animals in little apts all day long totally alone, often with a ‘pee pad’ because they never took the time off to properly house train them.
I also had $500 damage deposit. I let a family with a dog to stay in my apartment. The dog was not well-behaved or properly trained for an apartment (guests did not informed me). owners of the dog did not bother about what their dog does either. They let it on the bed after taking him for a walk…the dog barked when left alone. neighbours complained to the condo management about loud barking and door scratching. The dog scratched the hardwood, it damaged the rug fringe. The rug stinks dog, the cushion stinks dog and it is as dirty as if it was in the trash bin… the bed mattress cover had traces of dusty paws ingrained in it. The bathroom sink was left badly clogged… Guest declined my request to compensate the damage for the hardwood scratches, fixing the rug, and unclogging the sick (no wonder. they did not want to pay the dog fee either. a young family with a 2 yr old kid). Airbnb supported the guest who trashed my apartment. I received nothing as a compensation. Looks like it’s within reasonable wear and tear according to Airbnb. So, be careful and write very precise rules for pet owner when you let them in. I feel unfairly treated by my guests and Airbnb. These guests were problematic from the beginning and Airbnb new that. What is a reasonable wear and tear? It has not been identified by anyone.
This thread is just too old to be relevant. I’m closing it for now.