Pet Friendly Homes

Pet Friendly Homes

Choosing to make your home Pet Friendly is a decision (like most related to Holiday Rentals) that you should make with your head, not your heart. If you’re not a Pet person or are not looking to maximise your rental returns, our advice is don’t make your home Pet Friendly. If you are open to the idea, the information below will help you understand our approach to making your home Pet Friendly.  

Pet Friendly Options

As an owner, if you have an enclosed area outside the home, you can choose one of three options re Pets for listing your home:
  1. No Pets - If Guests bring Pets, and we are made aware, we will instruct them to remove the pets immediately.
  1. Pets Allowed - Pets are allowed inside the home and outside.
  1. Pets Outside Only - Guests are requested to keep Pets outside the home. Some Guests may request to bring their Pet(s) inside (to a Laundry, etc) overnight.
It is against the law to deny rental accommodation to guests with assistance dogs/service animals.  Some websites include ‘emotional support’ animals within this framework. If we are in doubt with a booking/query, we can and do seek further details and clarification from guests.

Pricing a Pet Friendly home

Pet Friendly homes appeal to a larger audience, meaning that they are in more demand, book more often, and we can charge a slight premium for bookings. We don’t add a surcharge for bookings where Guests are bringing Pets (that would encourage guests NOT to inform us they’re bringing pets). Instead, the overall pricing of a home across the year is adjusted, to reflect this additional ‘feature’ and demand.

Additional Costs

A Pet Friendly home may incur predictable additional costs, and these are not claimable from Guests. These could include paying someone to pick up after Pets around the yard and the need for carpet (and/or rugs) to be professionally cleaned (from experience we know this occurs more frequently at Pet Friendly homes). These are not costs that can always/often be passed back to Guests but should be expected as part of having a Pet Friendly Holiday Home. 

It is also worth noting that groups coming to stay with pets tend to (on average) represent lower risk groups.  People rarely go away to ‘party’ with pets.  So, whilst being pet friendly can occasionally create additional costs, the broad pattern we see is that the overall picture of costs is very balanced as pet friendly homes have lower average costs for other claims/issues.

Our expectations for Guests with Pets

The communication we send to guests differs slightly if pets are allowed inside or not. Most Pet Owners will do the right thing, however, like all facets of Holiday Rentals, we aren't there to ‘police’ them.

Pets Allowed (inside & outside)

Pets are permitted at the house, both inside and outside. The backyard is secure however we recommend you watch your animals where possible. We would ask you to clean up droppings daily and at the end of your stay. This will ensure other guests, (particularly children) enjoy the space as well.

Other things to remember: 
  1. Pets must have current vaccination and must be appropriately treated for fleas. 
  1. Please respect the local regulations when on the beach. Check the signs. 
  1. We don't allow pets in the bedrooms or on soft furniture. If there is evidence that pets have been in the rooms or on beds and furniture, an additional cleaning fee may be charged.

Pets Allowed (outside only)

Pets are permitted at the house, strictly OUTSIDE only. We ask you to clean up any droppings daily and at the end of your stay. This will ensure that other guests, particularly children, enjoy the space as well.  Please place the droppings in a plastic bag, tie the bag and place in the rubbish bin.
 
Other things to remember: 
  1. Pets must have current vaccination and must be appropriately treated for fleas. 
  1. Please respect the local regulations when on the beach. Check the signs. 
  1. If there is evidence that pets have been inside the home and/or in the rooms or on beds and furniture, an additional cleaning fee may be charged

Damage caused by Pets

If a Pet damages something at your home (inside or out), and the damage/mess is something demonstrably attributable to a particular guest, we will of course pursue them for costs. Like any claim for costs, we have thresholds to meet regarding being successful in recovering funds. Please refer to Claiming Funds from Guests for more details.  Where costs are an accumulation from multiple sets of guests with pets, this is not usually claimable.


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