How the world's best dog friendly hotels for 2026 are chosen, and who made it: the seven Canine Hospitality Award winners, the best hotel in each of twenty-five countries, and the eighteen hotels we went back to for The Collection. Measured, not voted.
The Dominican Republic's only Relais & Châteaux hotel, a private Blue Flag beach on the eastern tip of the island, and a house rule that every restaurant and bar is open to the dog.
The old headquarters of Austria's first savings bank, on Petersplatz in the Old Town, where the dog comes to the rooftop restaurant and bar, finds a bed and bowls in the room, and may stay behind while you go to the opera.
A Georgian manor on the site of a medieval bishop's palace, 500 acres of parkland with a canal running through it, and a hotel that puts a bed, bowls and treats in the room and lets the dog into the bar.
A Rocco Forte hotel on the edge of Munich's Old Botanical Garden, ranked A+, where dogs of every size are welcome, take a drink with you in the bar and can rest in the room while you see the city.
Forty acres of Rocky Mountain meadow, a bar that takes your dog, and a lawn where the golden retrievers of Aspen gather for Yappy Hour.
A spa hotel on Florida's Treasure Coast where the Pet Experience Director is a golden retriever, dinner comes on china, and your dog stays free.
The number one dog friendly hotel on earth for two years running, where Wednesday night belongs to the dogs, dinner arrives under a cloche, and the concierge answers to the name Rocco.
A Renaissance villa on the banks of the Arno, fifteen minutes from Florence, where the dog stays free with no weight limit, dines beside you in both restaurants and has a private park to run in.
An 11th century hamlet in the Luberon, now a Relais & Châteaux estate of vineyards, forest and lavender, where your dog arrives to its own bed and bowls, dines from the K9 Sommelier menu and has 42 hectares to walk.
Kit Kemp's colourful Midtown hotel, two blocks from Central Park, where dogs stay free, sleep on their own bed and join you for drinks on the heated terrace.
A beachfront resort on Santa Maria Bay where your dog sleeps on its own bed, eats from its own menu and walks the gardens with you, and where the hotel will walk and sit the dog while you swim the reef.
A nine hundred year old Tuscan borgo among Brunello vineyards, where your dog stays free, sleeps on its own bed and joins you at every table on the estate, from the trattoria veranda to a two Michelin star dinner.
Above the river in the old Samaritaine, a seventy two room Maison where your dog stays free, joins you at the bar and at dinner, and has a Majordome to walk them while you eat.
No Manhattan hotel has a real garden, so this one on Columbus Circle borrows the best in the world. A bed by the window, a concierge who knows the park, and eight hundred acres across the road.
A grand old hotel on the bluffs above the Pacific, with a garden for your dog, a seat for them at the restaurant, and a pet fee that helps rescue dogs find homes.
In the Italian Dolomites, a timber chalet where your dog gets a bed, a seat at dinner in the Bistrot, and a place on the hotel's own guided hikes.
A Waikiki hotel where any dog of any size stays free, the bar and the restaurant are open to them, and a French bulldog called Jack receives guests by the pool on Tuesdays.
On a coast that weighs your dog at the door, an oceanfront resort on Collins Avenue with no weight limit, a kitchen that cooks for dogs, and a sunrise beach where the big ones run free.
Marketers know their customers say dog. The search data says dog. Common sense says dog. Yet they cannot bring themselves to write it, reaching instead for fur babies and furry friends.
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Between 2022 and 2025, US search interest in pet friendly hotels fell 19% while dog friendly hotel rose. The specific word is outperforming the vague one, and the reasons should concern every hotel marketer.
