Hoping that the situation is over for you now. I'm going to throw this out there, take it or leave it. I think the way you have written your policy online is aggressive and negative. It may be that the guest who came to the door looking for a fight had read it and it rankled. If you want to redo it, I would take out the parts where you say you are required by law to do this. It just screams, 'I don't want you and your animal on my property but I have no choice in the matter so be prepared!'
If you don't want to redo it, skip this message!.
Madeleine said:
Hoping that the situation is over for you now. I'm going to throw this out there, take it or leave it. I think the way you have written your policy online is aggressive and negative. It may be that the guest who came to the door looking for a fight had read it and it rankled. If you want to redo it, I would take out the parts where you say you are required by law to do this. It just screams, 'I don't want you and your animal on my property but I have no choice in the matter so be prepared!'
If you don't want to redo it, skip this message!
I don't have a stated service animal policy. Just no pets PERIOD. I'm not sure what you mean by being aggressive and negative.
"Regretfully, we cannot accommodate pets. No exceptions. We do not accept guests who plan to leave their pets in the car during their stay. Should you arrive with a pet, you will be turned away and forfeit your full reservation. We have made special arrangements with XYZ Animal Clinic for our guests to board their pets."
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When you first posted the thread about having to accept service animals your policy page included a statement that you were required by law to take service animals. That seems to be removed now. That's the statement I meant. Because you then went on to state that if that animal caused problems or damage the ADA stated you could make the guest pay as long as that was your stated policy for any guest.
It just seemed like a lot of anger. And that is perhaps because I was reading your opinion here as well.
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Madeleine said:
When you first posted the thread about having to accept service animals your policy page included a statement that you were required by law to take service animals. That seems to be removed now. That's the statement I meant. Because you then went on to state that if that animal caused problems or damage the ADA stated you could make the guest pay as long as that was your stated policy for any guest.
It just seemed like a lot of anger. And that is perhaps because I was reading your opinion here as well.
Actually, I was really pissed when I put that up. We're being forced to do something that we're not comfortable with and have no recourse. DW encouraged me to remove the bit about Service Animals on the off chance it might encourage more like we had this weekend. I would hope that if someone saw that we had a strong NO PETS policy that it would encourage them to look elsewhere.
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What you don't know is how many of them did look elsewhere. If your pet policy states something about the inherent dangers of the local wildlife (to pets and small children, rather than adults) that would scare off people who rely on their dog to provide a life-saving function. Why would they want to take the chance?
(Were you ever able to determine what service the dog provided? I'm just curious about that.)
In our case I would hazard a guess that guests who need the services of the dog might want to stay someplace less 'intimate' so they don't have to deal with us and other guests in a small space.
I took ASL classes for a few years and was in contact with service animals during that time. Most of the people who had the dogs really had no use for hearing people. They preferred their own community and tolerated the rest of the world. To go to a B&B where they would be in close quarters with hearing strangers is not what they would prefer. It's one reason why I don't think we have a lot of service dogs showing up.
Then, too, there is the innkeeper who is blind. Her dog is at the inn all the time, in the kitchen and everywhere.
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