Your Dog's First Hotel Stay, From Check In to Check Out

Taking a dog to a hotel for the first time is a little daunting. You do not know what you will be asked at the desk, what you are expected to sign, whether the room will be ready for a dog, or how yours will behave in a building full of strangers. The good news is that it nearly always goes well, and that the things which make it go well are simple. This guide walks through a stay from the front desk to the morning you leave. It covers what happens at check in, what to do in the first hour, how to behave in the shared parts of the hotel, and how to be the guest a hotel is glad to see again.

Before You Arrive

The easiest check in is the one where nothing is a surprise. Make sure your booking confirmation mentions the dog, and ideally the dog's breed and size, so that the person at the desk is not learning about it for the first time as you walk in. Bring the written replies you had from the hotel about fees, deposits and rules, which our guide to the questions to ask any hotel explains how to get. Bring your dog's vaccination record as well, on paper or on your phone, because some hotels ask for it. In the written hotel policies we studied, almost four in ten required proof of vaccination.

Walk the dog before you go in. A dog that has just spent three hours in the car wants grass and not a lobby, and the first impression it makes on the staff matters more than you might think. A calm dog on a short lead at the desk tells the hotel that it has nothing to worry about, and people who are not worried are generous.

The Paperwork

Many hotels will ask you to sign something when you arrive with a dog, usually called a pet agreement, pet policy form or waiver. How likely this is depends very much on where you are. Among the American hotel policies we studied, 92% required a signature, against about a third of British ones. American agreements are also far more legal in tone. More than three quarters of them contained an indemnity or a release of liability. In plain terms that means you are agreeing to cover any cost or claim your dog causes, and that the hotel is not responsible if something happens to your dog while you are there.

Read what you are signing, because this is where the real rules of your stay are written. Agreements commonly say that the dog must be on a lead in all public areas, that you must clean up after it, that it may not go on the furniture, and that you will be charged if it causes damage or noise. Some go further. One American resort agreement we read says that any noise complaint from another guest will be charged to the dog owner at the cost of the complaining guest's room for the night. Two thirds of the policies we studied contained a clause allowing the hotel to evict the dog, and sometimes the whole party, for breaking the rules.

None of this means you should worry. Most of these clauses are never used, and most dog owners never hear another word about them. But if something in the agreement contradicts what the hotel told you before you booked, raise it at the desk there and then, with the email in your hand. The same goes for money. The fee and any deposit should match what you were told, and if a charge appears that you were not told about, ask politely what it is for and point to the written answer you received. A reasonable hotel will usually correct a mistake at once. If a deposit is taken, ask how and when it will be returned, and our guide to what hotel policies really say explains what is normal.

The Room: Check It Before the Dog Does

When you get to the room, leave the dog in the corridor with someone for a minute, or on a short lead by the door, and have a proper look round first. Photograph anything that is already stained, scratched or chewed, particularly carpets, bed bases and the bottoms of doors. It takes thirty seconds and it settles almost every damage dispute before it starts.

Then look for the things the hotel promised, such as bowls, a bed, a mat and bags. If they are missing, call the desk now and not at bedtime. It is also worth noticing where the dog could get into trouble, such as a minibar at nose height, an open balcony, or a gap behind the bed where a ball will disappear. Move anything chewable out of reach, and check that the windows and the balcony door are shut before you unclip the lead.

The First Hour

Give the dog a chance to explore the room calmly, on or off the lead depending on how settled it is. Put its bed or blanket down somewhere quiet, away from the door, and put water down straight away. Familiar smells help enormously, so bring the dog's own bedding or a blanket from home even if the hotel provides a bed. A dog that finds its own blanket in a strange room understands at once that this is where it sleeps.

Then take the dog straight back out and show it where it can relieve itself. Ask the desk where the nearest grass is if you do not already know. Finding that spot on the first evening saves a great deal of stress at six the next morning, when you are half awake and the dog is in a hurry. Walk the route from the room to the door a couple of times, so that both of you know the way.

Housekeeping and the Staff

Decide how you want to handle housekeeping before you go out for the first time. Many hotels will not clean a room with a dog inside, and some will not enter at all, so either arrange a time when you and the dog will be out together or hang the do not disturb sign and ask for fresh towels at the desk. About a quarter of the policies we studied specifically asked owners to use the sign whenever the dog was in the room alone, which is a sensible habit even where it is not required.

It is worth knowing that most hotel staff have had no training in looking after guests with dogs. Only 72 of the 980 hotels we publish told us that their staff had received any such training. The person on the desk may well know less about the hotel's dog policy than you do, which is exactly why it helps to carry the written answers with you. Be patient, be clear, and ask for the manager if something important is in dispute.

What Hotels Worry About

The quickest way to understand what a hotel wants from you is to read the rules it writes. In those 236 policies, the same concerns came up again and again. Nearly all of them, 93%, required dogs to be on a lead in public areas. More than three quarters had a clause about noise, and the same share required owners to clean up after their dogs. Almost half banned dogs from the furniture, and about one in five banned bathing a dog in the room.

It is worth noticing what is not on that list. Hotels are not, on the whole, worried about dogs. They are worried about a few specific things that go wrong when owners are careless, which are barking, mess, damage and other guests being made uncomfortable. Deal with those and you will find most hotels far more relaxed than their policies suggest.

It may reassure you to know that the people who clean hotel rooms are, on the whole, not bothered by dogs either. When we surveyed 120 housekeepers for an earlier study, fewer than 5% described dog stays as a routine source of significant extra work. The most common observation was that people make more mess than dogs, and that children create far more work than any canine guest. So the bar is not high. A dog that is house trained, calm in a room and kept off the good furniture is already a better guest than many humans.

In the Room

Bring your dog's own bedding and put it down, even if the hotel provides a bed, because a familiar smell helps a dog settle and keeps it off the hotel's bed and chairs. Bring an old towel for wet paws and muddy walks, and use it before the dog comes through the door, not after it has crossed the carpet. If the hotel does not allow dogs on the furniture, a sheet over the bed or sofa is not a loophole, so keep the dog off.

Do not bath the dog in the bathroom unless the hotel says you may. Dog hair in the plughole is an easy way to undo all the goodwill, and some hotels have a proper dog wash or can point you to one. Pick up any food, chews and toys before housekeeping comes in, and if you know there has been an accident, tell the desk and offer to pay for cleaning. Honesty about a small problem is remembered far more kindly than a problem discovered after you have left.

In the Shared Spaces

Keep the dog on a short lead and close to you in every shared space, even if it is perfectly well behaved at home. Hotel corridors are full of things that surprise a dog, such as trolleys, luggage, children and other dogs coming round a corner. In a lift, stand the dog in a corner facing away from the door, and if someone looks uneasy, offer to wait for the next one. Not everyone likes dogs, and some people are truly frightened of them. A hotel that welcomes dogs also has a duty to the guests who do not, and a considerate owner makes that easy.

The bar, the lounge and the restaurant are where the privilege of travelling with a dog is most visible, and most easily lost. Among the hotels we publish, 603 let dogs into the lounge, 368 into the bar and 234 into the restaurant, so you will often be able to sit with your dog while you eat or have a drink. Take the chance, but keep the dog at your feet, on a lead and out of the way of staff carrying trays. A dog lying quietly under a table is a pleasure for everyone, while a dog wandering between tables, begging or barking at another dog will get the policy changed. If a member of staff asks you to move or to leave the dog in the room, do it graciously, because they are almost always dealing with a complaint you did not hear. Our guide to eating out with your dog has more on good manners at the table.

Barking

Noise is one of the most common causes of complaints about dogs in hotels, and it usually happens when the owner is out. If your dog is not used to being left in a strange room, do not leave it on the first evening, or leave it only for a short time and listen from the corridor before you go. Leave a television or radio on quietly to mask noises from the corridor, and leave something to chew.

If you do get a call from the desk, go back, because that is the whole point of leaving your number. A hotel will forgive a dog that barked for ten minutes while its owner hurried back from dinner. It will not forgive one that barked for three hours while the owner's phone was switched off. If your dog cannot yet be left, our guide to training your dog to travel explains how to teach it, and until then, plan evenings that include it.

Outside, and When You Leave

Clean up after your dog everywhere, including in the hotel grounds, on the edge of the car park and in the flower beds by the entrance where you might think nobody will notice. Staff notice. Use the relief area if the hotel has one, and ask where it is if you do not know. Keep the dog away from children's play areas and from the pool.

When you leave, thank the people who helped. If housekeeping has cleaned a room with a dog in it for several days, leave a little extra and a note saying thank you. If a member of staff was particularly kind to your dog, tell the manager. Hotels that welcome dogs well usually do so because a few people inside them care about it, and a word of thanks makes it far more likely that they will carry on.

A Closing Thought

The first stay is the hardest, for you and for the dog. After a night or two most dogs settle into hotel life remarkably quickly, and owners who do it once usually find they do not want to travel any other way. Arrive prepared, read what you sign, check the room before the dog does, and keep your dog calm, clean and close in the shared spaces. Every hotel that has stopped taking dogs has a story behind the decision, and every hotel that has become more welcoming has one too. In a small way, each of us is writing the next hotel's policy.