dogs

[figgyx]

At the motel I work at we do accept pets. we charge 20 bucks extra a night for one or 40 if there is more than one. Having said that - we do get our share of sucky customers.

We only usually allow pets in certain rooms. This does not stop people from checking in without informing us they have a pet. This means we get dogs in rooms we would not put dogs (like our jacuzzi suite)

We get dogs that bark and disturb other guests.

We get dogs that do damage. Just the other day this woman's dog actually chewed the corner of the nightstand in the room - and she was charged 175 dollars to replace it.

We get people who try to bring dogs into the breakfast room. Sorry, that is a violation of the health code - unless the dog is a service dog.

We are the only hotel in the area that takes dogs so we get quite a few.

[bhskittykatt]

I hate it when they don't inform us. At the Resort we have specific pet-friendly rooms, both for convenience of the housekeepers and the guests (most are on the first floor with easy access for when the pets need out).

Even when I worked at the motel though, and we were 100% pet friendly with no pet fees, I STILL NEEDED TO KNOW. Because housekeeping needs to know for when they deep clean the room. And there was an incident with an unregistered pet that was particularly quiet and was left in the room unattended, so when housekeeping knocked and heard nothing, they went in, the pet went out, and the poor housekeeper actually chased the dog for almost three miles before he lost track of it. It was a mother and her two little kids and they were heartbroken their pet was lost.

If we'd known there was a pet in the room, then they would have taken more care opening the door and checking for it in the room before they started cleaning.

(The motel was fun, b/c they took dogs, cats, iguanas, bunnies, cockatiels, pythons, pot-bellied pigs...I just about saw it all. There was even a goat once....)

[mathnerd]

There's a large chain that's 100% pet friendly that I'm pretty loyal to, as I've done a lot of traveling with a Mastiff, and most hotels that are pet friendly won't take giant breed dogs. I'm curious if that's the motel you worked at.

Anyway, your last story reminded me of a time in Phoenix, AZ, when I opened the door and Baxter darted out. My son chased after him, and as the floors were tile, the kid was wearing shoes and the 140 pound dog was having trouble getting traction, was able to catch up with him in just a short bit. My kid decided the best way to catch the dog was to jump on him, which sent them both skidding down the hallway. Imagine those cartoons where the animals legs spread out underneath them and they start spinning on ice or something like that. This is what it looked like. I really wish I could have gotten the hotel security footage, because it was hysterical.

[Mriswith]

At the hotel where I work we also charge $20 per pet per night (sometimes we will work with the guest on this, but not always). However, we also have a line on the registration card that the customer must initial acceptance of that states "Undeclared pets will result in a $50 fee per pet per night. This fee is non-refundable.". The manager added this after people kept trying to reverse the standard $20 pet fee we were charging them when we found out they had a pet. You might recommend your manager do the same. It has really cut down on the undeclared pets we have to deal with.

[LillFilly]

I remember at my old hotel during a stretch of weather in the negatives that I found a dog left out in a car. It had food and water, but it was -10 out! I think the people assumed that the hotel wouldn't allow pets, but never bothered to ask (or read the big 'pets welcome!' sign at the front desk. They even refunded the deposit of the pet didn't do any damage! I left a note on the vehicle telling them the hotel was pet friendly and to please bring the dog in due to the cold, but it was left out there for the 2-nights of their stay. The car wasn't registered, I only worked nights and there were no cameras so no way to track down owner. It was a long haired dog, but I still felt bad for it; I was young and didn't even think about calling the police for it.