Pet Friendly Room Advice

[Bigbid]

I have gone back and read many posts in the past about the pros and cons of being bet friendly and understand what I could be getting myself into. More and more I get phone calls about taking pets and one of my twelve rooms has its own entrance and if a dog barked, it would be hard for another room to hear it.
Against my better judgment, I am considering making that one room pet friendly. My questions are for those who are pet friendly:
1. What is your per night fee?
2. Do you run a refundable deposit before the guest arrives?
3. Is there a good contract out there for the guest to sign?
4. Do you put anything such as mats, carrier etc. in the room?
5. Anymore good advice such as dog cannot be left alone in the room?
I also just talked to John at ReservationKey (again, switching to ReservationKey was one of the best decisions I have ever made as an Innkeeper) and he told me he will add a feature on my online booking system that when a person picks my pet friendly room, they will get a check box for the # of pets and add the charges accordingly. It will also create another check box just like my normal policy one for the pet contract stating that they have read it and agree to it. This will solve part of my problem.
Thank you for anyone taking the time to help.

 

[egoodell]

I don't take pets, but grew up with traveling pets. I would recommend buying a large dog crate to have in the room. They are not cheap, but would be luxury for the dog traveler (the responsible ones would not have to lug theirs in and put it up, the irresponsible ones would not bring one and having the dog crated will save your walls from anxious scratching while owner is in eating breakfast or out and about.)
I would charge a NON REFUNDABLE fee. You will have to treat the room for fleas. ticks.
I would require a copy of shots be emailed/faxed PRIOR to arrival. Check with your local kennel what they require. You don't need kennel cough but dabsolutely required proof of rabies. I would not let an animal in my B&B without it. Should FIFI bite a guest you'd be in deep doo doo without that paper.
Just thinking of damage and liability. Just google B&B allowing pets and read their policies
RIki

 

[JBloggs]

I feel as a pet owner and pet lover that anyone who brings a pet to a B&B will be responsible for them, so they have their rabies tags, vaccine records, etc ready to show you. If I had some cabins I would take pets, I would make it an all out pet/couples getaway destination. I think it would be really fun!
Having a room with outside entrance for walkies etc would be a boon.

 

[HighMountainLodge]

Early on in our business plan, we decided to be dog friendly. It was a no-brainer, really. We have traveled with our dog and stayed at grand hotels where we actually planned an entrance by getting off the elevator on the mezzanine so we could Make an Entrance walking our dog down the staircase. (Murphy, the High Mountain Lodge Dog, is a very pretty animal.)
The reality is, we have fewer problems (and many more bookings) because we are dog-friendly than because we are kid-friendly.
We have had frantic phone calls at 8 or 9 in the evening from desperate people looking for a room in a blizzard when the passes back to Denver were closed because of avalanches: "We're looking for a room. We have a dog!"
"Is it a nice dog?"
"Well, we sure think it is!"
"Then we have a room."
Our website says, "Dogs with well-mannered owners are welcome at the High Mountain Lodge....." and that's the bottom line, really. Inevitably, it's not about the dogs; it's about the people.
We offer a "doggie welcome basket" that has treats, a toy, and a plenitude of bio-degradable pick-up sacks. We charge $15 a night for it.
Dogs are as variable as the people who own them, and far-less psychotic.
We offer "doggie blankets" to cover the beds, in case the animals are used to sleeping there. We have "doggie towels" in case the animals get muddy (QED) while running around in our pasture.
In neither case do we insist that owners use them. We provide them so that guests will feel relaxed and welcome in our in.
In short, we do everything possible to make people with dogs feel welcome. We don't make guests with dogs feel like second-class citizens. We take note of the breed (and the time of year) and adjust our subsequent-to-checkout cleaning procedures accordingly. (Lordy, do Labs shed!)
But we do everything we can to downplay the work we do to accommodate dogs. We advertise our Lodge as a dog-friendly place.
We have infinitely more misery accommodating families with children than we have with dogs. If a dog inadvertently makes pee-pee in a corner of one of our rooms because his owners had not noticed that his bladder had expanded to the size of a watermelon before it occurred to them to take him on a walk, well, that barely compares with the mess that a toddler can make when it decides to do projectile vomitus all over our dining room, and the child's parents subsequently decide that he's allergic to asparagus and it's our fault we fed him a Deadly Vegetable in the first place.
I'll take dog pee any day.

 

[JBloggs]

It's raining and windy here...as you may have seen the whole eastern seaboard is this way. Our dog refused to widdle outside and peed on the girls carpet. Just reporting in that difference circumstances can affect a dogs bladder.
now their bedroom smells like a nursing home.

 

[EmptyNest]

It's raining and windy here...as you may have seen the whole eastern seaboard is this way. Our dog refused to widdle outside and peed on the girls carpet. Just reporting in that difference circumstances can affect a dogs bladder.
now their bedroom smells like a nursing home.

.

OH that is tooo funny! THe first thing in the am..my cat wants to head outside after being in all night....opened the door to prove to him...he didn't want to go...took one look and decided his litter box will do today