Welcome to yet another 'pet-friendly' hotel award deep dive. I love doing these because it's fun to uncover whether the people behind them know what they are doing when it comes to finding the best dog-friendly hotels. In my last award analysis, we discovered that the TripAdvisor pet-friendly hotel awards were completely broken, so I wondered if a national newspaper could do better.

I run these data-driven investigations because most of the existing pet-friendly hotel awards are unfit for purpose in that they consistently fail to identify the best dog-friendly hotels on their own shortlists. When they do a half-decent job, they manage to connect their audience with some good dog-friendly hotels, but when they screw it up as Tripadvisor did, they set their audience up for a bad time.

In many industries, reputable award systems go beyond mere reputation and recognition. They rely on a rigorous process that emphasizes data-driven evaluation. These systems gather comprehensive data and metrics on each candidate, curating shortlists based on quantifiable performance.

Their judges, usually seasoned experts in the field, then analyze this data objectively, ensuring that decisions are rooted in measurable excellence rather than subjective opinion. This methodical approach blends expertise with hard evidence, creating a credible and fair assessment of true achievement.

Unfortunately, the hotel and hospitality industry media machine is not too concerned with fairness; they prefer money. Awards are won by the brands with the most reach or the deepest pockets. Instead of conducting thorough evaluations, many award organizers rely on freelance journalists whose recommendations might be shaped by existing relationships.

The award results are more about influence and exposure than a true reflection of excellence. Yet, hotels effectively leverage these awards to distort the public perception capture attention and eyeballs, which means they make more money.

This does not sit well with me, I have been duped by pet-friendly marketing too many times until I became angry enough to create a certification process that cuts through the pet-friendly noise so that I could find the best dog-friendly hotels.

With that in mind, let's dive into the USA Today awards and see how they did!

The USA Today Pet Friendly Hotel Awards

For the last few months, USA TODAY has been running a reader survey to help them find the top ten pet-friendly hotels in America. The survey allows readers to vote on twenty hotels their panel of experts publicly shortlisted, meaning they took a public popularity contest approach to pick their ten best pet-friendly hotels.

Awards do a good job as long as they connect their audience with some good dog-friendly hotels, and I am pleased to report that USA Today did connect you with some good dog-friendly hotels even if they failed to rank them properly.

USA Today's voting readers probably have only the vaguest idea of how dog-friendly these hotels are, and nobody called or visited these hotels to comprehensively measure their dog-friendly services, facilities, amenities, and policies to gather the data required for a thorough comparative analysis.

I did, though.

I am addicted to gathering granular dog-friendly hotel data nobody else has.

I call hotels and repeatedly ask different members of their staff an exhaustive number of questions until I have satisfied myself that I have the measure of them.

Regardless of whatever I say next, I am pleased to report that Allison Tibaldi, Jacky Runice, Jean Chen Smith, MARLA CIMINI, and Ramsey Qubein did a good job with their shortlist. You would not have a bad time if you went to stay at any of their pet-friendly award shortlisted hotels with your dog for a week.

But that is not what this article is about.

We're here to uncover the true winner of the USA Today contest—not by using reader votes, which favor hotels with large audiences, but through solid, data-driven analysis and objectivity. Let's dig on down into that!

Did USA Today Identify & Award The Best Hotels?

No. They lacked the granular data to judge correctly and an objective benchmark to compare their hotels against. The dynamics of the shortlist process, coupled with an open and unqualified public vote rendered their results meaningless.

By contrast, I use the Roch Standard, an objective, data-driven scoring system that evaluates every dog-friendly policy, service, amenity, and facility to give an accurate picture of a hotel's true dog-friendliness. Essentially, we are comparing anecdotes to algorithms. While their approach relies on stories and subjective experiences, mine is grounded in hard facts—explaining the stark differences between their award choices and my more reliable ranked assessments.

Who Are The Real Top Three Hotels?

1st Place: The real first-place winner is the Paséa Hotel in California, which is a fine example of what a good dog-friendly hotel should look like. Dogs are welcome in their bar, restaurant, patio, and garden, strongly showcasing their canine inclusivity. They provide beds and bowls for food and water, have a dedicated doggy area for quick calls of nature, and even have a pet food menu.

The Paséa Hotel & Spa is also unique because it is the only hotel I know of that has a one-time pet fee policy. Once you pay the $150 fee, your dog can stay at the resort free for the rest of its life. Paséa knows how to nurture long-term loyalty.

2nd Place: The real second-place winner is the Headlands Coastal Lodge. I love this place because of its oceanfront location and the incredible natural beauty around the property. They are a fine example of canine exclusivity, welcoming dogs in their bar, restaurant, and private garden. Headlands Coastal Lodge & Spa even offers organized dog-walking tours, your dog is going to have a blast here.

3rd Place: The real third-place winner is the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin who go above and beyond with their dog-friendly services. They provide beds, bowls, food, and all of the usual amenities, but they also have a private garden you can use and can arrange dog walking and sitting services for when you are busy.

Notable Discrepancies

The Peabody Memphis: USA Today awarded this hotel its number one spot, but we placed it in 7th place. This hotel is far from being the best in their top ten; I have no idea why they won first place, but the data does not support their award, they scored our B+ rank with just 28 points and were not particularly notable.

The Iron Horse Hotel: Although USA Today awarded the Iron Horse Hotel 3rd place, we ranked them 9th, they scored just 22 points resulting in a low B grade. Like the Peabody before them, this hotel has no business in the top three.

The most notable standout discrepancies in the USA Today awards were their 9th and 10th places, The Headlands Coastal Lodge, and the Four Seasons Austin, which ranked 2nd and 3rd consecutively when we measured them. USA Today gave awards to pet-friendly mediocrity rather than dog-friendly excellence.

Conclusion and Analysis

Any critical analysis of the USA Today Readers Choice Pet-Friendly Hotel Awards would always find them lacking. Objective, data-driven evaluations will always reflect reality more accurately than popularity-based contests; that is a given.

Public votes and reviews tend to be inconsistent, unverified, and easily manipulated, resulting in skewed or misleading rankings. The potential for incentivized reviews further distorts the process, making these contests more a reflection of popularity or promotional savvy than genuine merit.

Hotel marketing teams capitalize on these awards to drive substantial business from dog owners, so integrity and fairness in the shortlisting and judging are important. When hotels that excel at canine hospitality and inclusivity are inexplicably ranked 9th or 10th, it’s a clear sign that something is fundamentally flawed in how these awards are determined. The notable discrepancies raise serious questions about the credibility of the USA Today award system.

My reliance on quantifiable criteria ensures that hotels are judged on their true merits, giving dog owners a more dependable guide to the most suitable accommodations. In contrast, USA Today's reader-voted awards offer a sometimes hilariously entertaining rather than informative read for dog owners.

None of this is surprising; the words pet-friendly do not mean anything so you can hardly expect a pet-friendly hotel award to have any substance behind it. The problem with these awards is that they consistently celebrate pet-friendly mediocrity while ignoring real canine hospitality, and dog owners deserve better.

To find the world's best dog-friendly hotels, head over to Roch Dog where are are busy publicly certifying and ranking every pet-friendly hotel on earth. We help you cut through the pet-friendly noise to find the world's best dog-friendly hotels.