pet friendly travels

Something interesting I discovered while doing some research was that when we use a search engine on our computer to help us find pet-friendly lodging, we overwhelmingly type in “hotel” as our keyword. Guess what the number two keyword is? No, it’s not “motel”. That was my answer. It is actually “cabin”.
According to AAA, lodging is classified in the following categories: Bed & Breakfasts, Cabins, Cottages, Country Inns, Condominiums, Hotels, Motels, Working Ranches, and Vacation Rental Houses. There are also campgrounds on National Forests and Parks, State Forests and Parks, County Parks, and private campgrounds such as KOA. There are over 13,000 pet-friendly accommodations across the United States. So when it’s your turn to do an on-line search for pet-friendly lodging for your next trip, be very specific about the type of place at which you wish to stay. You will get a more focused list as not all web sites include all of the above keywords in their meta tag. If you are just looking to see what may be available in a particular area, take the time to do searches using all of these keywords. You might find somewhere to stay that you hadn’t even considered before!
Once you’ve made your decision, confirm that the chosen destination is indeed pet-friendly. Facilities are sold and policies can change. Always make your reservations as far in advance as possible. Some places only have a limited number of pet rooms or only allow pets in smoking rooms. Expect to pay a “pet deposit”. Some chains charge a one-time registration fee per pet, some charge a cleaning deposit, while most charge a non-refundable pet fee. At one hotel in which Barnum, Wyatt and I stayed, it would have been cheaper if I had a second person in the room rather than my cats!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 15th, 2010 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Cat Stories, Transport Tales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.