The Questions to Ask Any Hotel Before You Book With a Dog

The words dog friendly on a booking website tell you almost nothing. They can mean a hotel that puts a bed and a bowl in your room and waves your dog into the bar, or one that charges you a hundred pounds and confines the dog to the bedroom. The only way to find out which is to ask, before you pay. We ask hotels about dogs for a living, and these are the questions that matter most, why each one matters, and what a bad answer sounds like. Ask them by email, so that you have the answers in writing, and keep the replies until you have checked out.

Can You Send Me Your Dog Policy in Writing?

Start here, because everything else depends on it. A hotel that takes dogs seriously has a written policy and will send it to you before you book. A hotel that tells you it is "pet friendly" but cannot produce anything in writing is telling you that the rules will be decided by whoever is on duty when you arrive. That might be someone who loves dogs, or it might not, and you will not know until you are at the desk with your bags.

When we studied 236 hotel pet policies from around the world, only two of them documented all five of the practical things a guest most needs to know. Those are whether bowls are provided, whether dogs can use any shared indoor space, the fee, whether there is a deposit, and how many dogs are allowed. Having a written policy is the first hurdle, and having a useful one is rarer still, which is why the questions below are worth asking even when a policy exists.

What Will the Dog Cost for My Whole Stay?

Do not ask what the pet fee is. Ask what the total will be for your dates and your number of dogs, because a nightly fee, a flat fee and a per dog fee produce wildly different totals over the same trip. A good hotel gives you one number. A hotel that answers "there may be a cleaning charge" or "fees are applied at check in" is not being straight with you. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission's fee rule expects a hotel to disclose an optional fee like this before it asks you to pay.

Ask at the same time whether there is a deposit, how much it is, and when you get it back. A deposit is a different thing from a fee, and many hotels take both. In our policy study only one policy in ten stated clearly whether a deposit applied, while one in five simply mentioned a hold on your card. Any charge described as a deposit that you do not get back is really a fee and should be counted as one. Our guide to what hotel policies really say explains what is typical, so that you can tell a fair charge from an unreasonable one.

How Many Dogs, and How Big?

Two dogs per room is the most common rule by a distance, in our assessments and in written policies alike, but plenty of hotels allow only one. If you travel with more than one dog, ask directly, and ask whether the fee is charged per dog. A family with three dogs will usually need to ask for an exception or book two rooms, and it is far better to settle that by email than at the door.

Then ask about size. Two in five of the hotels we publish have a weight or size limit, and the most common limit, 50 lb, rules out every adult Labrador and Golden Retriever. The breed standard for a Labrador is 55 to 80 pounds. Give the hotel your dog's breed and real weight and ask for a plain yes or no. "At the manager's discretion" is not a yes, and neither is "we are sure it will be fine", which has a way of turning into a problem when a different manager is on duty.

Can My Dog Stay in the Room if I Go Out?

Of the 980 hotels we publish, 476 allow it, so the answer is no about half the time. If you plan to go to dinner, a show or a wedding without the dog, you need to know whether that is allowed, whether a crate is required, and what housekeeping will do while you are out. Some hotels allow it only if you leave a mobile number at the desk, and some charge if the dog disturbs other guests. A hotel that has not thought about this has probably not thought about much else.

Be honest with yourself as well as with the hotel. A dog that has never been left in a strange room may bark or scratch at the door, and that is the commonest reason dog owners are asked to leave. If your dog is not used to it, plan a holiday where it never has to be left, or practise at home first, as our guide to training your dog to travel describes.

Where Can My Dog Go Apart From the Room?

This is where you learn whether a hotel welcomes dogs or merely tolerates them. Ask whether your dog can sit with you in the bar, the lounge, the restaurant or the terrace. Among the hotels we publish, the lounge is the most commonly open space and the restaurant the least, and in the written policies we studied the restaurant was banned far more often than it was allowed.

Local food hygiene rules sometimes limit what a hotel can do indoors, which is fair, and a good hotel will explain that and point you to an outdoor space instead. Our guide to eating out with your dog explains what the law allows in each country. What you are listening for is whether the hotel has an answer. A dog confined to the bedroom for the whole stay is not really on holiday with you, and a hotel that offers nowhere else has not understood why people travel with their dogs.

What Will Be in the Room, and Where Do We Walk?

At the very least you should expect proper bowls and not a paper dish. We treat real bowls as a basic requirement of being dog friendly, and 695 of the 980 hotels we publish provide them. A bed is the next thing to ask about. Whatever the answer, it tells you what to pack and what to leave at home, and a hotel that lists what it provides without being pressed is usually one that looks after its canine guests.

Ask too where your dog can relieve itself and where you can walk. A dog needs somewhere to go first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and it is surprising how few hotels think about this in writing. Only one policy in five that we studied named a relief area at all. Ask where the nearest grass is, whether there are bags, and whether the hotel can suggest walks nearby. A good concierge will have a route ready, and in a city that knowledge is worth a great deal at six in the morning.

What Happens if My Dog Gets Ill?

Ask whether the hotel keeps the number of a local vet, and ideally an emergency vet that opens at night. Only 189 of the 980 hotels we publish told us they keep one. It is the question owners forget to ask and the one they most need answered at two in the morning. A hotel that has the number ready is a hotel that has thought about your dog as a living creature and not as a risk to its carpets.

Whatever the hotel says, look up the nearest vet and the nearest emergency vet yourself before you travel, and save both numbers in your phone. Our guide to what to do if your dog is ill or hurt on holiday explains how to find one in a place you do not know, and how to tell an emergency from something that can wait until morning.

Reading the Answers

Taken together, these questions tell you far more than any label on a booking website. A hotel that answers all of them clearly, quickly and in writing is almost always a good place to take a dog, whatever it charges. A hotel that dodges them, or answers every one with some version of "it should be fine", is telling you something too, and you should believe it.

The most common evasive answers are worth learning to recognise. "We are pet friendly" is not an answer to any of these questions. "Please speak to reception when you arrive" means the rule is decided on the day. "Subject to the manager's discretion" means no rule exists. And "we will let you know at check in" means you will find out when it is too late to go anywhere else. When you do find a hotel that answers well, keep its replies and take them with you, because they are what you will rely on if anything is disputed at the desk. Our guide to your dog's first hotel stay picks up from there.

A Closing Thought

None of this should be necessary. In a better world every hotel that takes dogs would publish these answers where any guest could find them, and owners would not have to question a front desk before booking a holiday. Until then, the email is your best protection. The hotels worth staying at will be glad you asked, and the way they reply will tell you most of what you need to know about the stay to come.