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?

Nearly every time I have booked accommodation on booking.com, it has followed up with an auto message from the accommodation with usually extra details and the like. Could you set up something like that? So as soon as they get booking confirmation, they get a message informing them that you need to know in advance of any pets and setting out the charges?

I always call first when booking somewhere to make absolutely certain dogs are allowed and dog specific room is available (particularly important with hotels where you get assigned a room).
And I always expect to be charged extra for my dogs.
For you particular circumstances, could you intercept each booking and contact them with a list ? (welcome, can't wait to have you, towels are included blah blah hope you have a nice stay plus terms of service for pets asking for number of pets and stating the charge and a pay link to pay by card).

Yes they are fairly common. I know this because I make a point of not booking hotels which are dog friendly so I always take care to read the hotel policies list on booking dot com to see if it’s dog friendly or not, and quite often when it is it states there’s a charge.

It’s possible people can miss this info though so as pp have said the obvious answer to this is to send out an automated email letting them know if they’re bringing dogs a fee of X is applicable and that they should let you know.

EDITED : just seen Op’s update about starting the automated email. Sounds like a good solution to the problem

I book pet friendly through Booking regularly. I do usually let them know just in case and so they can put dog beds in the room etc but mine always state the charges, usually £30 a dog per night. I think I’m more likely to call a hotel as they have pet friendly and non pet friendly rooms so you make sure they assign you. A B&B id assume all rooms are the same. I think you’re not being clear enough, say what the prices are in the original text, or you could just be making it up.

We always paid extra charges for our dogs. I find it is standard.
I find it odd some pet owners don't expect a charge.
There should be a charge, for additional cleaning, potential damages, supply of dog items in some cases(water bowls?)

We went to a hotel in Eastbourne in 2022 advertised as dog-friendly, and when we arrived the hotel owner said ' Where is your dog?'!

I wouldn’t inform you either, you say you are pet friendly.

I have usually paid pet charges as a standalone payment on their card machine where people have this policy- no need to have anything prepped on the ‘back end’. Just take payment when they arrive.

if you want notice, you need to set up a booking.com auto message upon people book.

I’m one of the (seemingly few) that always rings ahead. I would assume that, even if it said “pet friendly” there might be rooms where pets were allowed and some that were kept pet free (so you would need to know numbers) but it seems I’m in the minority.

That said, however much it frustrates you that so many dog owners are not paying you the basic courtesy of letting you know before they come that they will be bringing a dog, you can’t change them, only the way you communicate what you want in advance.

I would also say that sometimes I travel with my dog and sometimes without. I have, on one occasion been in a dog-friendly rented cottage which had one room that stank so badly it was almost unusable. I guess someone had had a really revoltingly smelly dog there recently. I’m not allergic, so can’t speak for those people, but on every occasion where I’ve used a hotel (no sofas in any of the bedrooms) it would have been impossible to tell if there had been a dog there or not.

Good luck with whatever you’ve decided.

Additional charges for bringing dogs is definitely the norm and it's lovely to see places that don't! I personally always leave places as immaculate as I can, i bring throws for the sofas, always wipe dog's feet when we get in, strip beds before leaving, go round with a sticky roller if needed etc and I do judge whether I want to stay based on how reasonable the cleaning charge is accordingly, as I genuinely don't believe that I am causing any more cleaning to them than a non-dog owner guest. Appreciate that some dog owners must leave the place in a very different state though, and that you can't possibly know before we leave.

I stayed in a booking.com last month and remember telling the owners I was bringing a dog - possibly in a free text box about any special requirements? But I do remember I had to go out of my way to work out how to let the owner know I wanted to bring a dog, so it doesn't surprise me that some people don't.

I always do, because what if they had changed their policy but not uodated that website, or their own dogs had come down with an infectious disease and they needed to temporarily close to dogs, I would need them to have a chance to be able to tell me, because being turned away after I had driven for hours and arrived in the evening would be stressful to say the least!

A bit off topic but I kind of had the same problem of people not announcing dogs except in this case it was the B&B not letting guests know. I went to a B&B in Hastings that had “pets not allowed” listed on their policies. I only book places which do NOT allow dogs so I was like great!

As soon as I entered I was absolutely flabbergasted to have two yappy dogs run full pelt towards me. I told the owner to keep the dogs away from me and asked why someone had brought dogs which is against their policy. Apparently they were the owners dogs 🙄

It was so rude that they didn’t make clear there are pets on the premises , because it’s reasonable to assume “pets not allowed” means the owners don’t have their pets on the premises either. What about people with allergies?

A follow up automated email stating dogs are present would have sufficed. Or at the very least they could put the dogs away during check in, and check with guests if they’re ok with dogs being around them instead of just letting the dogs run at people coming in.

I didn’t come down for breakfast during my stay because the dining area downstairs is where the dogs were and I could smell them all downstairs and don’t like eating in places where dogs are. I felt a bit misled and definitely wouldn’t go back there!

@Grimchmas i agree with you on not believing I create “that” much more cleaning with my dog. I don’t mind a cleaning charge- but some hotels charge £25 per night which when you stay with them for a week becomes ridiculous! There’s no way my dog requires £150 worth of extra cleaning.

for me it’s the difference between dogs tolerated (because you make up 70% of our bookings and we have to have you here), and truly dog friendly (which for me is me and my dog get a warm welcome-which is what any guest would expect)

It is a lot cheaper for guests to pay the supplement that you charge than pay for kennels so they shouldn’t be complaining.

The people who are grumping about "well I would never stay somewhere that takes dogs" are hilarious. You always get them in threads about dog-friendly accommodation. Thank you for your contribution to a thread about a place that you would never stay, and when 70% of their business is dog owners and they are it seems in an ideal location for dogs to be walked, I don't think this business owner is likely to take your sound business advice to stop allowing dogs 😏

I can't think of anywhere where I haven't paid extra to bring my dog - they are always self catering type places/cottages though. Usually £15 per dog per night. I've always paid at the time of booking or as part of paying for the full thing before hand.

A couple of places have asked to email and check - wanting to know breed and age of dog before accepting the booking.

The hotel local to us charges £30 per night per dog.

Hope the automated message works well. I would look into charging at the point of booking, and given such a large percentage of your guests bring a dog - make all the info about dogs more prominent on the booking site. I would definitely want to know exactly what the charges are before booking.

It's really the platform that's causing this problem. If the owners have to go out of their way to enquire about the dogs then they're not going to. It wouldn't occur to me to actually, you usually get told by the owner. If it says dogs allowed then I'll bring my dog and await further instruction, not my job to chase that up imo.

Use a different platform where owners put in how many dogs they have, I've had some ask for the breed.

This is on you I'm afraid.

If 70% are not telling you, why?? You need to look at ways of making it clearer rather than assuming people know what it means for you.

Do you list the additional charges or are people turning up and you're hitting them with them?
Charges need to be made explicit.

Hi OP if the booking platform is the issue, can you use a different one? You could look at Bed and Breakfast nationwide - they have a listing and booking engine and you can always direct people to your own website/Facebook page.

Is there no way to say on booking.com that you are pet friendly but need people to contact you first?

It seems bizarre that people just turn up and don't talk to you about which animals they are bringing first! You might only be able to accommodate one (small) dog per room - I can't understand the pp who asked why you'd need to know in advance - so they don't bring four? Most B&Bs have three guest rooms, so imagine if all of them brought three dogs each with them? Of course the owner needs to know.

I disagree with the pp who said extra charges are not usual - they are, because it's clear that you might incur expensive cleaning charges if a dog poos everywhere. (and before someone says toddlers can do that too, a lot of B&Bs don't allow children at all or under a certain age).

It's all very well telling the OP to use a different platform, but the opportunity cost for not having a listing on booking.com is HUGE.

If you do need to know beforehand for the needs of the working farm, then your automated message is not enough - it needs to say not only that there will be an extra charge, but that they need to let you know in advance. You can even just say "This is a working farm, your dogs are welcome but just let us know in advance so we can be prepared and there will be a £5/day cleaning surcharge."

I like many people on here would have thought that pet friendly with additional charge meant "you can bring your dog but we'll charge you extra if you do". No mention of advance notice means I won't give you any advance notice unless you specify you need it.

I very much doubt that non dog friendly places are empty 70% of the time - they just attract a different clientele.

Personally I hate those "extra charges for pets" on booking.com because i have to either contact the owners in advance and delay booking or book/reserve and then find out. It does my head in. Either it's pet friendly or it's not. If it's pet friendly i don't need to say I'm bringing a dog unless I'm specifically asked. If it's not then i don't book.

You can easily make it part of your welcome email.

As soon as I entered I was absolutely flabbergasted to have two yappy dogs run full pelt towards me. I told the owner to keep the dogs away from me and asked why someone had brought dogs which is against their policy. Apparently they were the owners dogs

I've had similar at a garden centre near Dartmouth - it has a cafe but the owners have two dogs who are allowed to go into the cafe and beg at the tables. It was so annoying.

I just checked a Booking.com listing of a hotel that I know takes dogs in some rooms.

Under Property facilities they have a section labelled Pets saying "Pets are allowed on request. Charges may be applicable " Get that added to your listing, and send the message about pet charges after booking and you should be sorted.

Please also remember to ask for the extra money, it won't be top of your guests minds although they will expect to pay it. We stayed in a pet friendly B&B and it was meant to be £10 extra for a dog, but they never asked for it and we forgot.

Those of you who don't think you need to tell an owner you are taking dog(s) with you - would you not bother telling them how many people were turning up either?

Totally bizarre attitude.

I’m not sure that’s true. If I see “pet friendly” on a listing, I avoid it as I know it will be full of dogs.