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.

[Andrew Steffens]

Hey Josh - this sounds like a case of bad luck.  I think about 60 of our 65 units are pet friendly.  We have had similar issues (and some even slightly worse) but never bad enough to make us reconsider our policies.  $75 seems a little low, we are at $150.  This could be market dependent but maybe charge slightly more to help cover extra cleaning and wear and tear.  About 40% of our guests in pet friendly units bring pets so it is not only a revenue source, it is an occupancy getter too.