Do you take dogs????

[betoulle]

Question for you all - what are your views & experiences on the accepting of dogs on holiday????  We started out accepting dogs & the 1st year had very low bookings & only 1 lot of dogs who were delightful & rebooked to return the next year. 

Year 2 we had 2 other 'doggie' holidaymakers who were both bad experiences in addition to the usual well behaved ones but as a whole our bookings increased.  After 1st bad dog experience (long story - we had to boot them out in order to give us time to redecorate semi-destroyed gite...) we did a poll among our guests & found not exactly an anti-dog feeling, but most would prefer the estate to be a dog-free zone (we have cats - usually well tolerated by guests), so this year our 3rd season we advertised as strictly 'No Dogs' in gites & B&B & have been fully booked for 5 months with so far, 10 weeks of repeat bookings for 2007.  Have continued my poll & virtually everyone has said 'One reason we booked is because you don't allow dogs in the gites - much as we love our pets we would prefer to leave them in kennels & do not want to either share our holiday with other people's dogs or enter a gite that has just been vacated by either a smelly/hairy dog.......'  sadly, this means that we have had to say goodbye to our favourite dogs (& owners) who have now gone elsewhere - they have brought us a lot of custom with their friends & family lthe ast 2 years & am left with the feeling that I might have just shot myself in the foot.  So, what is the general feeling amongst my fellow gite owners as we prepare our ads for the new season????

[Christine Animal]

There was quite a thread on this not long ago.  Did you miss it betoulle?  Someone innocently asked about places accepting dogs and a number of people felt the need to say why they didn't, which had nothing to do with the thread.  Now you have given them their big chance as the previous thread was locked !  Not to worry, there are plenty of French hotels which accept them and certainly not in the lower bracket.  I only happened to mention the Logis de France just yesterday, how funny.

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/689820/ShowPost.aspx

 

 

[Cerise]

Actually betoulle, it is your home and your gite and even if you have a no dog policy there is nothing to stop you taking your favourites unless you have other guests who are allergic to dogs or something.  We have no dogs in the B & B - but I have occasionally made an exception so long as the owners are prepared for the dog to sleep in a dog crate (provided by me) and not loose about the place.

I have my own dogs and that is actually one of the reasons for me not accepting dogs, as I don't wish to referee fights etc., plus I find that many people are not reasonable about keeping animals off furniture. Call me hypocritical if you like because I do sometimes take our own dogs with me when we go away for a night or 2 - never on long holiday though as it is not too much of a holiday if I have to worry about the dogs all the time.  However as a dog owner myself I would never be offended by a proprietor who said no dogs

[betoulle]

Apologies - yes I did read the thread on B&B owners not accepting dogs & I do agree with not accepting dogs into our own house especially as we do not allow our cats to wander around the 'public' rooms - allergies, cat hair on beds etc.  I have stayed in B&Bs where the cats sleep on guests beds & though I am a cat lover can quite understand that guests could object.  However, the gites being 'separate' holiday homes we thought ( all innocence at the beginning) that our guests would treat like their own homes & not allow dogs in bedrooms etc, which was the case with our favourite dogs........but as already stated on that previous thread some have no control over their pets & I dread to think of the state of some peoples homes.  My question really was 'is there a genuine demand for gites that accept dogs' or are we actually increasing business by making it 'No dogs'

[Miki]

[quote user="Christine Animal"]

There was quite a thread on this not

long ago.  Did you miss it betoulle?  Someone innocently

asked about places accepting dogs and a number of people felt the need

to say why they didn't, which had nothing to do with the thread.

 Now you have given them their big chance as the previous thread

was locked !  Not to worry, there are plenty of French hotels

which accept them and certainly not in the lower bracket.  I only

happened to mention the Logis de France just yesterday, how funny.

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/689820/ShowPost.aspx

[/quote]

Strange how you should bring up this up .."............which had nothing to do with the thread" because

the irony here, is that your post has nothing to do with Gîtes and

dogs, which is what betoulle was asking................"....Given them their big chance" !!!

How petty, we all simply offered reasons why we wouldn't take dogs and

the dog lovers screamed unjust...well sorry, reading boutelle's post

and her problems obviously back up why we do not take animals either.

Anyway to answer you betoulle, we do not accept dogs in our gîte, as

one is not in control of them and what they are doing. Over many years

of letting, we believe there are far too many dog owners in our opinion

who think that their "chummy" is so precious, to not only them but to

other people as well. People must accept, that not everyone is a dog

lover. I like them but we do not want them in our properties. I said

before, we had one accident with a dog and that was the end of any more staying.

[Christine Animal]

Sorry Miki, I must have misunderstood betoulle's question, I thought it was "what are your views & experiences on the accepting of dogs on holiday????" and "No Dogs in gites & B&B".

Betoulle, I perfectly understand that people who have rooms with beautiful bed linen and carpets do not wish to have pets in them.  Everyone is free to decide, some do and some don't and as Cerise said I wouldn't be at all offended by someone who said they didn't accept pets and would look elsewhere. 

 

[Dianes]

We are real dog lovers and take our own dog to our house in France, making sure we clean up scrupulously after.  But we made the decision not to accept doggy visitors, mainly because of the extra cleaning that could be involved.  Plus it wouldn't be pleasant for the next visitors to find piles of dog poo in the garden, if the owners hadn't cleared up after their dog.  We don't need the extra hassle.  If I had a friend with a well-behaved dog who I knew would clear up and clean well (the owner, not the dog!! ), I might reconsider.

As I put no pets on the adverts, I don't know how many potential guests I may have lost.

Diane

[Clair]

We used to accept dogs until a family spent a week here with the dog (young dalmatian) tied outside every day for hours on end whilst the family was out.

I used to feel sorry for it/her (the dog!) and take her for a walk...

They did not mistreat her in any way and there was absolutely no damage or undue barking, but I just do not want to see a dog tied to the railing for hours again, so no dogs here.

[Deimos]

I have dogs and think it is totally up to individuals as to whether or not they want to accept dogs. Personally I would go somewhere that accepts dogs, but different people have different preferences.

I believe that you get all sorts of inconsiderate people, and not just a small proportion of dog owners. I'm sure I've read about bad experiences with children, etc. There was a thread recently about dogs on beaches - most owners will clear up and some non-dog owners will leave bottles, opened tins and other dangerous rubbish on the beach so there are many aspects to such problems (i.e. the mess left).

However, one thing that does occur to me is that if you say "No Dogs" on your advertising, you may get bookings from people who really do not like dogs (or as mentioned above by people allergic to dogs) - thus allowing known well behaved dogs may cause some other/following guests problems.

(Now I'll just wait for the all the grief to fly my way).

Ian

[betoulle]

yes quite agree we have found that problem with all the dogs who have stayed in our gites as guests often cannot/will not  take them to museums, shops & even some of the tourist sites have brought in restrictions, so the dogs get locked up in a strange house for hours on end while the owners go out for the day - no wonder our 'problem dog' went ballistic & almost destroyed the place locked in a south facing gite for 13 hrs when the outside temp was 42'C...............it was a beautiful dog & I also felt sorry it - up to a point. The barking did disturb our other guests who complained to us about it every day for the duration of the dog's stay.

[Coco]

I love dogs but I wouldn't let one stay in my house.  When it was a gite we said no animals and now that it is a B&B we still say no animals.  One thing that no one else has mentioned is the smell.  Now before you all scream at me that your dogs are clean and don't smell, I'm afraid that not being a dog owner I find that most DO.  It's like being a non-smoker and being able to detect that someone had a cigarette in that room once, some time last year!  My husband smokes but not in the B&B part of the house for that very reason - even if all the doors and windows are left open while he does it, someone will be able to tell.  Likewise, the only two dogs that I have come across that don't have a doggy smell are those belonging to two friends who are totally obsessed by their animals and wash and groom them EVERY day.  Not many people are likely to do that on holiday.  And of course, there's the allergy thing.  If you're renting to dog-owners and non-dog owners alike you can have the problem of some people complaining if they find (by sight, or by means of their allergy) just a few dog hairs, it's going to cause a problem.

Basically, it obviously boils down to personal choice as to whether you allow pets or not - I wouldn't, Christine clearly would.  As for whether or not you will lose or gain from saying no dogs, I think you will probably gain but then someone's got to allow them in!  Again, I can liken it to last year when we had some horrendous children staying in our B&B and I was on the verge of saying no children but was worried about losing business.  Several people responded by saying that to them it would be an attraction to them if they saw on a B&B website that they didn't accept children.

Incidentally, all the little darlings we have had this year have been delightful - must have been a bad year for kids last year[;-)]

[Christine Animal]

No, Saint Amour, Christine clearly wouldn't... accept badly behaved dogs, children or anything else in her home, because it is her home.   [:P]  When I see all the different problems you all seem to have with how many times the washing machine is used, how many toilet rolls are used, guests who do this, guests who do that, I really don't know how you do it !

 

[alnmike]

I'm sure some of you on the forum are psychic as I was only talking about this to friends yesterday!! My broher in law observed that dogs would probably cause less destruction that his 5 children - I couldn't possibly comment. But it did set me thinking as we too do not allow pets. And I was wondering if we would get more bookings out of the main season if we did accept? Perhaps someone who does accept pets could comment? I think the points made above are spot-on, as it only takes one bad experience/inconsiderate owner to spoil things for others.

[Wendy]

Yes, this is one of those topics where feelings usually are black or white. We accepted dogs here twice, the first because we were new to the place and the second because the poor doggy was jammed into the back of a hatchback between the luggage and window and I felt so sorry for it. Both dogs left stains, hair and a mess. Pretty much like humans do come to think of it. However since animals can also carry parasites and worms, etc, there is a difference so we dont take them anymore. Dogs that is. A french family snuck one in last year but the OH caught them out and quite an incident followed. They left in the end. The Americans who come here tend to express disgust that dogs are allowed in hotels and dining places here so that is a market you could lose by taking animals. But that is just what we've found. Maybe it would be a good idea to have a room that is light on furnishings and carpet where a dog wouldn't do too much harm because I think it is good that people take Rover on holiday too and not leave him to fend for himself at home like so many careless people have done. 

[nimportequoi]

I accept dogs, which I make clear on the French version of my website and less so on the UK version! If I didn't accept dogs, I would lose quite a few of my French bookings because they often like to take their dogs away with them. I have only had a few UK guests who have wanted to bring pets - one of those is a regular who travels with their dogs from Spain to the UK, my in-laws and a couple who were rescuing a cat they had found the year before and needed somewhere to stay where pets were accepted. You also have to remember that if you accept animals, it will put some people off booking with you, namely those who a) don't like animals b) assume that the place will be dirty if pets are accepted and c) suffer from cat/dog hair related allergies.

 

[Quillan]

I think that apart from personal feelings there can be an issue with people who have allergies. I know of a person who can go in to a room that has been very well cleaned and left empty for about a week only to start sneezing and their eye water because they have a strong allergy towards dogs and cats. I have never been in this situation but there is a chance that a person could rent your gite (or stay in your B&B) and within hours have to vacate it because of this sort of problem. The question would then be would you be happy (perhaps not the best word) to give them a refund if they had booked lets say a two week stay, after all it would not really be their fault?

You could of course say that because you advertise (hyperthetically that is) that you take dogs then people who have allergies should twig that fact and not stay with you but then for all you know there could be a party of 4 people wanting to stay with you but one has an allergy so none of them do and you don't have any other booking for that period. So I suppose the best thing to do is not to run the risk and not take dogs or animals.

As a matter of interest I was wondering how many brits now take their dogs (or even cats) on holiday staying in a gite or B&B here in France. Could I be right in thinking for instance that you are more likly to get them turn up in northern France being nearer the ports and driving distance from the UK. I ask this because few people drive down to my neck of the woods, they fly and hire, so are unlikely to bring animals. We have had three French people ask to bring there dogs this year but thats about it.