Airbnb and Service Animals

[Jake DeAtley]

I am an Airbnb host and am concerned about getting taken advantage of when it comes to service animals. I have reviewed the Airbnb policies and they state that hosts generally cannot deny guests with service animals, but we also cannot request documentation to verify the authenticity. I have a serious concern about this policy due to the nature of short term rentals and having various guests that may have allergic reactions. Does anyone have any personal experience with this? I personally think its ridiculous that as a host we cannot deny service animals and also cannot verify if the pet is in fact a legitimate service animal. I understand the policy is similar with long term rentals, but that's not as big of a deal to me as you dont have to worry about a new guest freaking out about allergies.  Thanks in advance for the input! 

Key words: Airbnb, STR, Olympia, Washington, Thurston, VRBO, Tumwater, Pierce, Lewis, Bed and Breakfast