Pet Friendly Airbnb
We were thinking about our experiences running a pet friendly Airbnb. We realized that people ask two types of questions. Potential guests have questions about bringing pets to an Airbnb. Potential hosts have questions about hosting with pets.
We host spare rooms in a pet friendly Airbnb and we have pets of our own. This post will tell what we found about Airbnb’s pet policy. It will answer questions guests and hosts ask about pets. Finally, it will tell our story of hosting our spare rooms when we have pets living here.
What Is Airbnb‘s Pet Policy?
I thought it would be easy to find Aibnb’s pet policy with a simple search online or in the Airbnb help section. Boy was I wrong. Airbnb doesn’t put all their information about pets in one place.
I did find a section on how to tell if a listing allows pets. This means that some listings allow pets and others don’t. It says to me that Airbnb lets hosts decide one way or the other.
I also found an article titled “What is an assistance animal“. It refers the reader to our “non-discrimination policy“. The only official policy I found that mentions pets is the non-discrimination policy. Under ‘Disability’, it requires hosts to accept assistance animals and not charge any additional fees for them. The only exception seems to be if the animal is a hazard to the host’s family. It mentions a host having an allergic child as an example.
Looking at listings provides more clues. Under the heading “things to know,“ is a section called “house rules“. Some listings show “Pets are allowed“ and others show “No pets.“ So hosts can set up their own policies for pets.
Airbnb has a guide titled “What do you need to know about hosting families and pets“. It talks about updating your house rules on pets.
Airbnb Guest Pet Questions
Can I Bring A Pet To An Airbnb?
The short answer is it depends whether the Airbnb host allows pets. As mentioned in the section on the Airbnb pet policy, Airbnb doesn’t allow or disallow pets. It allows Airbnb hosts to decide whether to allow pets in their places. You can find out if pets are allowed by checking the listing host rules or by asking your host.
Does Airbnb Charge For Pets?
Airbnb doesn’t charge for pets but they allow hosts to charge a pet fee or adjust their cleaning fee for pets. Details are in Airbnb‘s guide titled “What do you need to know about hosting families and pets“. You can find out if a host charges for pets by checking the listing host rules or by asking your host.
Airbnb Host Pet Questions
Can Airnb Hosts Have Pets?
When we got started, we wondered if we could even have pets and run an Airbnb. Luckily, Airbnb doesn’t have any restrictions against hosting with pets. The reason we wanted to host was to make enough money that we could stay in our house. Staying in our house meant that we could provide a place for our two dogs and two cats. Since this is why we wanted to be Airbnb hosts, we were happy that Airbnb allows it.
When we did a research about hosting with pets, we found that most hosts who allow pets charge guests a pet fee. This fee is to compensate since pets do cause extra work. We found this to be true.
When we first created our listing we checked the option for. “Pet(s) live on property” and added “2 small dogs and 2 cats”. To enter this information go to Listing details. Then look for Things guests should know.
In our house rules we include a pet policy that describes that we have pets and that we charge a pet fee. We allow one pet per room and charge $10 per night extra if you have a pet.
There is quite a bit of extra work involved with pets. The extra cleaning time varies depending on whether the dog sheds or not. We have to be very careful to make sure we remove all pet hair. Just finding any hair in your room is a sure sign you’re going to have a bad review. We have pets, and we love them, but we do know that having them requires extra work.
In our pet policy we ask that guests keep their pet in a kennel if the pet is alone at our place.
Sometime later, we had guests arrive unaware that we had pets. We pointed out where we said we had them in our listing. That didn’t matter to these guests, they still gave us an unsatisfactory rating.
We wondered what we could do. We decided to add pictures of our pets to our listing. We learned that some guests read the listing and others look at pictures. Not everyone does both. After adding pictures we had less surprises but we still had guests arriving unaware that we have pets.
The next step we took was to add to the questions we ask before guests can book our place.
Hosts can set conditions and allow guests who meet those conditions to instant book. It means that guests can book our Airbnb rooms without having to contact us first.
Airbnb has a welcome message where hosts can ask questions of guests who instant book. It helps hosts ensure their safety. If the guest doesn’t give good answers, the host can cancel without penalty. If they are Superhosts, it doesn’t effect their Superhost status.
Some guests instant book and others request to book. It depends on whether they meet our instant book requirements.
We added the question “Are you aware that CATS and DOGS live here?“ to our welcome message. We ask about cats and dogs so there is no confusion. We capitalize to draw attention to the words. Everyone who instant books sees the question here.
We ask our welcome message questions before we approve a guest’s request to book.
By asking in either case, we try to make sure guests are aware of our pets before they get here.
If guests don’t mention cats and dogs, we ask them again in a separate message. I do my best to make sure no guest arrives without having explicitly responded that they are OK with pets.
This solved the problem. We haven’t had any more guests arrive without knowing we have pets.
Later we spoke with the guest who told us that many of her friends choose the rooms they book based on the price. If they see a picture that looks good, and the price is right, they book. She pointed out that, depending on what device you are using, you may only see the first picture.
This suggested that we should put pets in the first picture. We weren’t willing to do that because it would seem we were advertising our pets, not our spare rooms. We did put a collage picture of our four pets as the second picture in our listing.
We still get guests who only find out about our pets when we ask. If they object to having them around, they are free to cancel. Some do, and we lose those bookings, but it’s better than having guests arrive unaware and giving us bad reviews.
As you can see, you can host with pets but it is challenging. We think this is the best that we can do. If you have any suggestions of other ways to make hosting with pets easier, please leave us a comment.
Should I Allow Pets In My Airbnb Spare Room?
As we said in the “What is Airbnb’s pet policy” section, you have freedom to set up pet rules in the listing for your spare room.
There are pros and cons:
- If you are a pet lover, as we are, allowing guests to bring pets is an opportunity to meet and enjoy guests’ cats and dogs.
- Allowing pets means more cleaning work for you.
- You can charge a pet fee, which allows you to make more money.
- You could have an issue if one guest has a pet and the next guest is allergic.
If you don’t have pets of your own, you might want to think twice about allowing guests to bring theirs. Because we are pet lovers, our house is set up to make having pets easier. We have flooring that is easy to clean so if a pet makes a mess, it’s not a big deal. If you have carpets, that could be more of a problem.
Even the best behaved pets sometimes will make a mess when excited. They are often excited when introduced to new places and people.
Should I Charge A Pet Fee?
As a host, you decide how much to charge for pets in your spare room. Because of the extra work, we charge a guest fee. Most guests who have pets are happy to pay a little extra for their pet to stay with them.
We find most guests with pets consider $10 per pet per night reasonable, which is what we charge.
What you can charge will depend to some degree on the area you live in. You might want to keep your pet fees in line with what pet friendly hotels in your area are charging. You might also consider what nearby kennels are charging.
You can set your pet fee to whatever you like. But keep in mind, if you set the fee too high, your guests will not be willing to pay and will find other accommodations.
Questions
Our goal is to help you succeed at Airbnbing your spare room. We would love hear from you with other questions you have for us to answer. Please contact us or comment below with your questions.