STR Pet Guidelines/Fees

[Josh Ball]

We've started a new condo in a vacation town a couple of hours away. We're allowing pets (with a $75 fee) to pass along to the cleaners. After this recent guest, the pet hair, pet debris from a dog that was clearly walking in grass & brought in the unit has caused for a deep clean of our unit. We knew that by allowing pets, we would need to schedule deep cleanings every so often but we had dog hair everywhere, mud marks on the door like it had been scratching to get outside, paw marks on the rugs, sheets, etc. 

I'm thinking about adding a message to guests who book with a pet that "no pets can be left unattended in the unit" to try to reduce the people bringing pets just to avoid boarding costs.

What do y'all do in this situation? This is our first guest who has left a good bit of hair/debris from their dog.

[Lauren Kormylo]

I charge a $150 pet fee for one or two dogs, and $30 of that goes to the cleaners.  I think your $75 to the cleaners each time is excessive for ordinary stays. 

I had a problem with a dog being left unattended in a powder room, and it scratched the door, jumped up and bit the blinds, and broke off a toilet paper holder.  So I bought a large dog crate and set it up in the master walk in closet (the only place I had enough room), and I tell guests ahead of time that it is there for their use.   I bought 2 pet blankets from Amazon to cover the beds when dogs will be up on there.  My cleaners only leave them out on the beds when the guest is bringing a dog(s), I send the cleaners the dog info with the bookings.  They wash the blankets in between guests.  I also have a small basket of microfiber cloths in the laundry room, labeled "Cleaning Rags, if you use these please wash and return".  Guests can use them to wipe muddy feet.  I supply brooms, a vacuum, and everything needed for guests to clean up after themselves and their dogs.

I haven't had a lot of problem with dogs tracking in grass because I have a beach house, but maybe you should look into some larger door mats, inside and out, that will help grab the grass and mud off their feet as they come in. Some door mats are scratchy and hard, but you need a softer one, more like carpet, so the grass sticks to it. The farther a dog has to walk on it, the more grass and dirt will come off, so larger is better.  Google mats for dogs' muddy feet and you'll see some.