Business | Tourism
Pets vacation in style
Plenty of US hotels ready to offer treats such as massages and grooming services for furry friends
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 August 7, 2010
- Image Credit: Supplied
New York: Airlines may charge a small fortune to transport animals in noisy cargo holds, but pets vacationing with their owners are finding that when they deplane, there's a room with a treat waiting for them.
"It costs $200 [Dh734] one-way to transport your pet as checked baggage," said Genevieve Shaw Brown, senior editor at Travelocity. "On the other hand, there are plenty of hotels that are pet friendly." Sixty one per cent of pet owners travelled with their furry friends last year, according to a survey of 1,200 US travellers by the travel website TripAdvisor.
Fourteen per cent said they thought bringing their pet was more cost-effective than boarding them in a kennel, according to Brooke Ferencsik, of TripAdvisor, who has taken his two Labrador retrievers on many road trips throughout New England.
Pet-friendly means more than throwing the dog a bone.
"Some hotels have pet sitting and pet walking services, grooming and even pet massage," Ferencsik said. "But that doesn't mean they stay for free."
He said pet surcharges can run from $25 to $100 a night.
Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, a nationwide chain of 50 boutique hotels, prides itself on extending hospitality to all companion creatures, great and small.
"We've had penguins at the Alexis hotel in Seattle, Washington, a kangaroo at the Monaco in Denver, Colorado, and a pot-bellied pig at the Muse in New York City," said COO Niki Leondakis.
"We stock the room with welcome treats. We will babysit behind the front desk," she said. "Non-human guests are greeted by a director of pet relations — usually the general manager's dog." Leondakis said pains are taken to keep the tails of their non-pet-owning guests wagging as well.
"We have a deep clean methodology. We never, ever get complaints. We've sort of got this down."
Only one per cent of TripAdvisor respondents with pets cited air travel as the most pet-friendly form of mass transportation. Nevertheless 15 per cent brought their pawed pals onto a plane last year.
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