Hotels With Dogs: What the Policies Really Say About Fees, Size Limits, Deposits and Leaving Your Dog

Every dog owner who has booked a hotel knows the feeling. The website says dogs are welcome, and then the questions start. How much will it cost? Is my dog too big? Can I leave him in the room while we have dinner? Will they take money off my card? Hotels are often vague about all of it until you are standing at the desk. We spend our working lives asking hotels these questions and reading the policies they write, so this guide answers the ones owners ask most, with real numbers behind each. It draws on the 980 hotels we currently publish assessments for and on a study of 236 written hotel pet policies from around the world.

What a Dog Costs

Most hotels charge for a dog, and a small number do not. Of the 980 hotels we publish, 130 let dogs stay free, which is about one in eight. An earlier study of ours, covering 2,000 hotels, found that 87% charged a pet fee. So you should expect to pay, and treat a free stay as a pleasant surprise and a good sign.

The fee comes in two shapes, and the difference matters more than the amount. Some hotels charge per night and some charge once per stay. Among the American hotels in our data that charge by the night, the typical fee is about $40, and among those that charge by the stay, it is about $100. So for a single night the flat fee is the expensive one, and for a week it is the bargain. Some hotels also charge per dog. The only number worth comparing is the total for your dates and your dogs, so ask for that and nothing else.

Two things about fees surprised us. The first is that the size of the fee tells you nothing about how good the hotel is for dogs, since the best hotels we assess charge much the same as the worst. What does track quality is whether the stay is free: about a third of our highest ranked hotels charge nothing, against roughly one in thirteen near the bottom. The second is what the fee is for. Hotels usually call it a cleaning fee, but when we asked 120 housekeepers, fewer than one in twenty described a dog's stay as a regular source of significant extra work, and many pointed out that people, and children especially, make more mess. A fee is the hotel's choice and not a cost it is passing on.

In the United States there is now a rule that helps. The Federal Trade Commission's rule on unfair or deceptive fees, in force since May 2025, covers hotels. It does not ban pet fees, and an optional charge like this need not be in the headline price, but its nature and amount must be disclosed before you are asked to pay. A fee that first appears at check in is exactly what the rule is aimed at, and it gives you something to point to if one does.

Size and Weight Limits

If you have a big dog, this is the rule that will stop you, so check it first. Of the hotels we publish, 397 have a weight or size restriction and 583 have none, which is two in five with a limit. The most common limit by far is 50 lb, and limits of 25 lb, 40 lb and 44 lb, which is 20 kg, are common too. More than half of the hotels that gave us a figure set it below 50 lb.

To put that in terms of real dogs, the breed standard for a Labrador is 55 to 80 lb. A 50 lb limit excludes every adult Labrador and Golden Retriever, which are two of the most popular family dogs in the world, and a 25 lb limit excludes many spaniels. A hotel with such a limit is not really open to dogs in general. It is open to small dogs, and it would be more honest if it said so.

Where you travel makes a difference. In our data, British hotels are much less likely to have a limit than American ones: about three quarters of the British hotels have none, against a little over half of the American ones. And the better the hotel is for dogs, the less likely it is to care about size, since three quarters of our top ranked hotels have no limit at all. Never assume, and never take "small dogs welcome" to include yours. Give the hotel your dog's breed and true weight and ask for a yes or no in writing. If two dogs are coming, ask whether the limit applies to each dog or to both together, and how many dogs a room may have. Two is the usual answer, and three quarters of the hotels that gave us a number said so.

Leaving Your Dog in the Room

This is the question that decides what kind of holiday you have, and hotels are split almost exactly down the middle. Of the 980 hotels we publish, 476 allow a dog to stay in the room without you, and 504 do not. If the answer is no, you cannot go down to breakfast without the dog unless it is welcome in the restaurant, and as we explain in our guide to eating out with your dog, only about a quarter of hotels allow that. You cannot go to a museum, a wedding or a dinner. Either someone stays behind or you take turns. For many trips that is fine, and for some it rules the hotel out, so find out before you book.

Written policies show how hotels think about it. Of the 236 we read, 101 said a dog must never be left alone. A further 49 allowed it only if the dog was in a crate, and 48 allowed it if you left a mobile number with the desk. Only 17 simply allowed it. Some policies put a price on getting it wrong. One British inn's policy states a £100 charge if a dog is left unattended in a room. One American resort charges by the hour if a dog has to be removed from a room because it was left alone. And many policies say that an unattended dog that is not crated may be removed from the hotel at the guest's expense.

Even where it is allowed, think about your own dog. A dog that has never been left in a strange room may bark, and barking is what gets guests asked to leave. Try a short absence first and listen from the corridor. Hang the do not disturb sign so that nobody opens the door, because a good number of hotels will not clean a room with a dog in it, and a housekeeper and a loose dog meeting in a doorway is how dogs get lost. Our guide to training your dog to travel explains how to teach a dog to be left calmly before the holiday.

Deposits and Card Holds

A deposit is not a fee, though hotels often blur the two. A fee is gone, while a deposit is held against damage and should come back. About one in eight of the hotels we publish takes a deposit for a dog, and most of those charge a fee as well. In our data the American deposits were mostly between $100 and $200, and the British ones between £50 and £100.

The trouble is how seldom hotels explain it. In the written policies we studied, only about one in ten stated clearly whether a deposit applied, while one in five mentioned a hold on your card, and more than nine in ten reserved the right to charge you for damage afterwards. So there are three different things a hotel may do with your card, and you should ask about each: a fee you will not see again, a deposit or hold that should be released, and a charge after you leave if something is damaged.

Ask how much the deposit is, whether it is refundable, and when it is released. A deposit that is not refundable is a fee, whatever it is called. And when you get to the room, photograph anything already stained, scratched or chewed before your dog goes in, which takes a minute and settles most disputes before they begin. Deposits also say something about the hotel. Among the best hotels we assess they are rare, and among the worst, about one in four takes one.

What the Paperwork Looks Like

In America especially, expect to sign something. Of the American policies we studied, 92% required a signature, against about a third of the British ones, and more than three quarters of the American ones included an indemnity, which means you agree to cover any cost or claim your dog causes. Two thirds of all the policies we read allowed the hotel to remove the dog for breaking the rules.

Read it before you sign it, and if it says something different from what you were told when you booked, say so at the desk, with the email in your hand. Most of these clauses are never used, and most owners never hear another word about them. But the agreement is where the real rules of your stay are written, and our guide to your dog's first hotel stay explains what to look for and what happens at check in.

What to Do With All This

The pattern in the numbers is plain. The hotels that are best for dogs tend to charge nothing or charge clearly, set no weight limit, take no deposit and let you leave your dog in the room. The hotels that are worst pile up limits, deposits and conditions. So the policy itself is the best guide you have to the welcome you will get, and a hotel that hedges every answer is telling you how the stay will go.

Ask for the dog policy in writing before you book. Ask for the total cost, the weight limit, the number of dogs, whether the dog can be left, and what will happen to your card. Our guide to the questions to ask any hotel gives the full list, with the answers that should make you look elsewhere. A hotel that answers plainly is usually a good one, and a hotel that cannot, or will not, has told you what you needed to know.

A Closing Thought

None of this should need a guide. A hotel that takes dogs ought to say what it charges and what it allows where every guest can read it before booking. A growing number do, and they are the ones worth your money. Until the rest catch up, the answers are in the policy, and the policy is yours for the asking.