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 use booking.com to travel with my dog and never inform anyone beforehand.
Not sure why you need to know? Surely you are or you aren’t?
Id suggest sending an automated message once someone books and then asking them to respond with confirmation of dogs?

We have had this 3 times with booking.com we go to Norfolk every 6 to 8 weeks and book a dog friendly room. Turn up and get bollocking for not saying we were bringing our dogs. The form doesn't ask you to say if you are bringing dogs. The site specifically says dogs are welcome and then the owners get pissy. Now we contact our favourite places directly and pay them. I won't go back or give a good review. You are being very very unreasonable, if you're not pet friendly don't say you are.

Extra charges are common place. Upping your price will make less competitive.

If you can include the additional charges in the description of your business I would do that . Can you not send a “thank you for booking us” email and clearly state your dog friendly policy?

If I booked and the extra charges weren't included when I booked I wouldn't be happy either.

If so many are doing it it suggests a system issue rather then guest.

I'd just charge more on that platform to allow the pet charge.

This^

It is merely AirBnB, but I did learn that people do not read.
I would tell them the WiFi password, include it in the welcome note online and on a note on the table for when they got it. I would then usually get a text asking for the WiFi password.
I had one guest complain that I did not provide it for her before she texted me.
YANBU, but perhaps a little naive.

If you say you're pet friendly and don't give additional information (could you have a photo explaining what it means if there's literally no free text option?) I would assume that you didn't require additional information.

It's not the guests' job to know that your booking system doesn't facilitate any free text or explanation of what you want them to do.

When I worked in a hotel we would ask about pets in advance so we could set up a dog bed if necessary and put a dog welcome set in room. Dog ball and a couple of chews. It was £25 first night and £10 subsequent nights. I wasn’t a fan as they didn’t give us extra cleaning time. Just the standard 30 minutes theresno way there wasn’t dog traces for ages.

What is the diff in price for a dog

Maybe just add that /up the original fee so if was £25ph and 5 extra for dogs make all bookings £30

Rather than say additional charges can you be more specific ie. A £10 fee is payable per night per pet

If 90% of pet owners aren’t informing you then I’d say the issue is your wording. I see you say it can’t be made clearer so not sure of the answer. Surely you can add a description of your property on the booking.com website, can you not put it in the main property description?

I would go to a dog friendly cafe without ringing and checking with them. Never been to a b&b in my life so if I was coming and bringing a dog if I was ringing up and booking I’d maybe mention it, not sure. I wouldn’t be stressing if I hadn’t mentioned it. And if it’s done via Booking . Com I’m assuming there’s no tick box, to say they’re bringing a dog.

I often book pet-friendly B&Bs through Booking.com and I always put a note in the ‘Special Requests’ box to let the hosts know we intend on bringing our two dogs. I agree it’s just common courtesy. And I would expect an extra charge as this is almost always the case. However, I think the problem is with the booking platform as it’s not always clear at the point of booking. Having said that, I’m sure I’ve seen some places showing pets allowed ‘by prior arrangement’ - is this an option? Either way, I usually get an automated message from the host with the accommodation policies once I’ve booked, so I think the best solution would be to add something in here about letting you know in advance about bringing pets and outlining the additional charges. The only problem I’ve ever had is booking a place listed as pet-friendly then finding out they would only accept one dog not two, so we had to cancel. There was no way for them to specify this on Booking.com. Not sure what would’ve happened if we’d just turned up without letting them we intended to bring two dogs - I’m now wondering if this happens to them a lot, as I was surprised to read that 70% of your customers do this!

This is a comms issue from your side. You need to make clear to customers your expectations. Most people will just see 'pet friendly'. I wouldn't automatically tell you and I would hate a 'surprise' fee.

We often travel with our dog and book via booking.com.

Whenever we’ve booked we’ve received a confirmation message through that site outlining their Ts&Cs including pet charges and a request to clarify how many pets.

You also have the ability to message anyone who has booked a stay with you through booking.com, so I’d set up an automated message (or just have a message ready to cut and paste) that is just about pets and charges. At least then people can’t get shitty.

Yeah. Odd way of doing it but would that work?

if it were pet friendly, I wouldn’t assume to say I was bringing a dog unless it made it clear on the booking form that I had to inform owners etc. You can add an option for breakfast in hotels, can you do something similar with pets?

Was just about to say this. I usually get a message from the property when I book through booking.com

Just say "We are a pet friendly property. If you do plan to bring your four legged friend, please let us know in advance. There is an additional fee of £10 per pet per stay payable on arrival in order to cover extra cleaning."

People don’t read thoroughly tbh. They skim it, if that, and then get annoyed when it’s pointed out. I have learned this working with the public for years. I’ve watched people stand in front of a door with a sign bigger than an A4 notebook with large bold letters saying “KEEP CLEAR”. MN is prime example of people not reading.

Pet-Friendly means pets are allowed imo, that’s it.

You’ll have to change the wording to accommodate and even doing so, you’ll still have people who won’t read properly, but hopefully you’ll have a higher % of guests telling you.

If I saw pet friendly I’d assume the charges would be automatically added to my payment when I paid online

Very rude. Don’t currently have a dog but when we did and wanted to go to a dog friendly hotel we’d make the booking by phone, specifying we were bringing a dog, in case the establishment had designated rooms for dog owners.

You need to specify dog friendly room or not on booking platform, I wouldn’t want a smelly room with fur on everything.

But maybe you might get more trade? I avoid "pet friendly" options.

It seems you know where the issue lies, and isn't with dog owners.

If you advertise as pet friendly on a website, no-one is going to double check out of politeness

If it's an issue, and it's a black or white statement on a website, go with 'no pets' ans see what that does to your business?

There are tens of thousands more dog owners since Covid lock down and not enough dog boarders , so people need to take them on holiday.

Does the platform you use allow you to different rooms at different rates? You could list "room" and "dog-friendly room" separately so people have to choose. They can be the same room, just at a different rate. (Like booking.com do for number of people or board type, it's all built into which room rate you choose)

I'd put pets allowed but must be booked in at same time as owners. £X per dog.