To find guests bringing dogs to our B&B without informing us beforehand unbelievably cheeky?

[Woolysheeps]

We run a B&B in a rural area in the Scottish Borders.
We do state we are 'pet friendly with additional charges' on booking platforms.
I would say 70% of our guests bring dogs but of this 70% only 10% actually inform us beforehand and enquire about charges and where the dogs are allowed etc. Most just turn up with their dog and walk right in. Some bring 2 or 3 dogs with them and don't bat an eyelid when I say 'you didn't inform us you were bringing a dog....'. Not a single guest who has brought a dog and not informed us has ever mentioned the additional charges specified online and aren't happy when we bring it up. It is making me want to remove the 'pets allowed' feature as I feel it is being abused.
So, my question is, if our booking platforms say 'pets allowed with additional charges', AIBU to expect to be informed beforehand? Would you inform a B&B beforehand if you were bringing your dog?

I would inform the owners, yes. It's common courtesy.
Maybe you need to be stricter about this in your booking process.

Most people just see “pet friendly” and don’t think beyond that. You need to make the listing more clear: “please enquire about bringing a pet.”

Not everyone is as bright as or has the social skills you’re giving them credit for.

Our main platform is booking dot com though and you can't write your own listing so we cannot make it clearer on that unfortunately. It's an autogenerated description. I had already thought of that as a possible solution.

I would say yes, until I see it says pet friendly, people probably don't assume they need to let you know

Can’t you send them an email after they have booked asking re pets & confirming the extra charge?

Do you specify the actual extra charges for dogs?
Or just say that there will be an additional charge for them?

If 70% bring a dog you'll likely lose that 70% of your trade by not advertising as pet friendly.
I think I'd up my rates slightly then just assume everyone was turning up with a dog in tow.

I don’t think booking.com tells the guest ‘pets with additional charges’ you know. I book through them a lot to bring my dogs and I’ve never seen that. It just says pet friendly or not.
id say if so many arent getting the message the issue is with the booking system.

Unless you state that people need to inquire beforehand, they won’t. Well, at least for the most part.

We used to advertise our place as pet friendly, and I didn’t expect people to let us know. We don’t take them anymore, as we’re not fully fenced in, so dogs could walk off the property if they’re that way inclined.

You will be dealing with people who go to other B&Bs with their pets and who don’t specify that people need to check first.

Good suggestion from @amylou8 re upping rates.

I am not a dog lover at all but if a listing just says ‘pet friendly with additional charges’ I’d just think, cool, I can bring my dog and they’ll charge me. I’d assume you’re expecting dogs and are fine with it.

In fact I’m not clear why you’re not fine with it? What extra prep do you need to do?

Guests are BU to be annoyed about charges though!

It’s not ‘prep’ - the charges are usually for the back end - extra cleaning afterwards when pets have stayed - accidents, dog fur etc, etc, etc.

I have learnt with dealing with the public dont assume, spell everything out you can poissibly think they will ask or do

To me the charge would be at the begining so logic to me would be to mention on booking so I knew the charge beforehand, if it says 'for a charge' (or whatever wording wouldnt it make sense to find out before booking?

When 70% of your customers aren't checking beforehand as you expect them to then then the issue is with your communication.

Oh right! Well yes I’d expect any accommodation to be cleaned to the same level anyway, dogs or not.

Possibly, but personally I never book any type of accommodation that is dog friendly after staying at a hotel where the couch had a very strong dog smell when you sat on it. 🤮

Anyone with allergies also wouldn’t book dog friendly either.

You need to find a way to take the pet payment at the time of booking. If I saw "pet friendly with additional charges" I would assume this is something I would pay for at the same time as the rest of my booking, not something that wasn't mentioned again until my arrival. It would not cross my mind that the onus was on me to let you know in advance if I had no facility to do just that when booking.

If it was on booking.com I wouldn’t be informing you / expecting an additional charge either

I book on booking.com because I assume all things payment wise are dealt with on the platform, so I would assume the additional charge was already taken care of.

And you don’t actually say you want to be informed, you just say there’s an additional charge - which again I would assume was taken care of within the platform.

With platforms like booking.com I don’t expect to have to converse with the owner, that’s why I’m using the platform.

Just had a rummage through booking.com.

If I select pet friendly, none of the listings I have seen have anything that refers to an additional charge for pets until I click right down near the bottom to see the fine print on additional info. There, some of them state an additional charge for dogs.

So thats likely the answer, people assume pet friendly = ok to bring dogs, and don't look past the main listing details. I can see why, if its pet friendly I assume dogs are ok and the charge for the stay includes this unless its made obvious in the main listing.

List without the pet friendly if you'd prefer, put in the fine details that well behaved pets are welcome with an additional charge. Up to you whether that would negatively affect business or not.

Don’t you normally add the dog on during booking and pay the extra cleaning charge at that point?
That’s what’s happened when I’ve booked. We usually stay at the same let and as we always leave it clean, stick to rules, take a dog bed so the owner doesn’t charge us extra cleaning and we get a discount.

In other cases where it says additional charges for dog, I’ve been emailed afterward to ask if we are bringing a dog and to pay £25 cash on departure or sometimes by card in advance.

In any event I always sweep the accommodation as I’m not getting blamed for blankets full of sand (as I found in two different lets, plus a blood stained blanket in one property!) 😳

Could you up your rates and give a refund/ free breakfast at the end of the stay to anyone who doesn't bring a dog?

I normally write a note saying “bringing our two dogs” but much prefer systems where it asks if you want any extras and you can select how many dogs and it adds it to the total at checkout. Just a lot easier than paying for the dogs separately on arrival.

If you say pet friendly people will assume they can bring a dog.

As you are discovering.

Regardless of whether you can change what is written on the sites, a large majority of people do not read in detail when they are looking for somewhere to stay, at least partially because they are skimming a lot of info to compare places.

You are going to get aggro if you have additional charges for pets.

Just put your prices up.

You either allow pets or you don't. I don't think extra charges are usual.

I personally wouldn't book somewhere that says it is pet friendly, as I don't want to stay somewhere that has had loads of dogs. So, I guess that's why 70% of your guests have dogs

With Booking.com you need to send a follow up email asking them if they are bringing dogs and how many, etc - though I don't really see why you need to know