Flooring for Sunken Living Room in Rental?

Do y'all have any advice for what type of flooring to install in a sunken living room (1970's style) for a rental with ARV around mid 80k? It currently has original shag green carpet (yay!) and paneling. the carpet goes up wall to paneling (sorry I don't have any good pics right now). My contractor suggests laminate, but 1) that's a lil too over-rehabbed for the neighborhood & 2) we don't want to put laminate in our homes due to lack of durability, pet stains, hard to repair etc. Couldn't find the answer using search, so I thought I'd ask my first question :). Thanks!