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We love pets and have several of our own. That has made us gullible in one sense and willing to take risks that have been costly. We’ve heard it many times - our pet is well behaved, he/she will stay in their kennel, they won’t be left alone in the room, it’s quiet, etc. etc.

Questions to ask yourself when choosing to allow pets:

• If necessary, can I afford to make repairs for damage done by pets?
• Have I required an adequate deposit to perform needed repairs and cleaning?
• By allowing pets, can I afford to loose business due to allergy issues or downtime for extra cleaning?
• Can I afford to loose business by not allowing pets?
• What portion of my guests will be traveling with pets?

I can’t make this decision for you and I don’t think that one way is better or worse than another for your particular rental. We have decided not to allow pets for the following reasons:

• Pets are not problem free. There will need to be additional maintenance.
• We do have guests with allergies that will not be able to stay with us.
• We do not have enough rooms to designate one as ‘pet friendly’ and the other not.
• In certain seasons, our schedule is too tight to accomodate emergency cleaning if necessary.

Although it is addressed on our website, we frequently have inquiries. We include the following when we talk with potential guests. We tell them that:

• we love pets and have some of our own.
• we would like to accomodate them, but can’t accomodate their pets.
• we don’t have the facilities to designate some rooms as pet friendly and others as not.
• some of our guest have allergies.
• there are several local boarding facilities in the area if they would like to check into that option and that their rates may be similar to what other vacation rentals would charge for having pets.

I hope this is helpful. It may seem like common sense and I guess that it is.  But I encourage you to think carefully, make a decision and stick to it knowing that you have your reasons for whatever you choose.  I would like to hear from you. Please send me your experiences and how you have addressed the ‘pet friendly’ issue with your vacation rental.

kj

You can learn the hard way or the easy way. The hard way is through experience.

The good news: Learning through experience is usually the most memorable for many of us. We make our own mistakes and hopefully learn from them.

The bad news: Learning through experience can be a steep learning curve. For the vacation rental home owner it can be a costly one.

The best news:  We can learn from each other by sharing our experiences!

kj