If you are traveling with a dog, you know just how important it is to have access to dog-friendly hotel rooms. After all, many hotels absolutely forbid dogs from staying in their rooms. Some hotels are dog friendly and allow dogs to stay but charge a fee. However, luckily it is pretty easy to find hotels that allow well-behaved dogs of all sizes to stay in non-smoking accommodations.
There are a lot of hotel and motel chains that you will always be able to find that are very dog friendly. Some of these common chains include La Quinta Inn/Suites, Motel 6, Holiday Inn, Best Western, Choice Hotels, Sheraton, Westin, Red Roof Inn, Studio 6 and Novotel.
The Internet has a lot of great pet travel resources that can help you easily locate hotels and motels all over the country (and in some cases, even internationally) that are dog friendly. All you have to do is search by your destination, and extensive lists of dog-friendly accommodations will show up. Some excellent resources include Pet Friendly Travel, DogFriendly.com, PetsWelcome.com and Bring Fido.
A dog-friendly hotel is a hotel that allows guests to have a dog, cat or other type of pet stay with them in their rooms. Before you book your hotel room, however, you should check whether other types of pets are allowed to stay as well. Some hotels only allow dogs and will not permit cats or other animals to stay in the room. Also, it's smart to make sure beforehand whether the hotel has a weight limit for your pets or not. Some hotels do not accept very large dogs.
Some hotels charge fees for allowing dogs to stay. Some hotels do not charge any type of fee at all. Hotels that charge extra fees for allowing dogs to stay in the rooms will either charge a per-night pet fee or per-stay pet fee. In general, these types of fees are non-refundable.
Hotels and motels generally prefer to allow well-behaved dogs, for obvious reasons. If a dog at a hotel barks excessively or in other ways disturbs guests staying at the hotel, they often expel the animal from the hotel. Also, if you are a non-smoker, you should be aware that most hotels will restrict dogs to rooms that are smoking rooms. Some hotels also have specific pet rooms.
