The Seven Sins of Pet-Friendly · Sin 06 · For dog owners
The Worst Room
Dogs are allowed, but only in the rooms nobody else wants: ground floor, beside the bins, next to the lift, the tired ones that smell of the last hundred dogs. Same nightly rate as every other guest, and the worst room in the building.
The room nobody wanted
The welcome was real, up to a point. That point is the room. Dog guests are routed to the property's weakest inventory: the ground floor by the service door, the one beside the lift shaft, the wing that has absorbed every previous animal. You are not given a room. You are given the room, the one the hotel struggles to sell to anyone with a choice.
Why the pet room smells
These rooms carry the evidence of their own use. Ask any owner and the refrain is the same: pet rooms smell, because segregating every animal into the same handful of rooms concentrates exactly what the segregation was meant to contain. The hotel created the problem by clustering, then hands you the result at full price.
The penalty for straying
Some chains enforce the confinement with money. Published policies restrict dogs to designated floors and threaten a charge, sometimes hundreds of dollars, if the animal is found elsewhere in the building. You are not a guest with a room. You are a guest with a perimeter, and a fine for crossing it.
Full rate for the worst stock
None of this comes with a discount. You pay the same nightly rate as the guest upstairs in the quiet, refurbished room with the view, and receive the one the hotel keeps for the bookings it does not value. The pet fee, if there is one, sits on top of that. You are charged a premium to be housed in the discount.
The room tells the truth
A property's real attitude to dogs is written in the room it gives them. A hotel that genuinely wants your dog does not quarantine you by the bins. Where you are placed is the honest version of the welcome the website advertised, and it is worth reading before you book, not after you unpack.
You are not the only one. Ten years of guests describing this, every source named. Read the complaints →
The other side of this page. Hotels are being told what this costs them. Read the hotel version →
Sources
- Guests on whether "pet rooms" smell, and why they do. Reddit, r/marriott.
- TripAdvisor Q&A, DoubleTree Flagstaff pet policy: first-floor pet rooms only, $300 if found elsewhere, banned from lobby, restaurant, bar and pool (named).