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 don't think I've ever booked anywhere with my dog where it wasn't on the booking form so I would assume the owners would know from that. But if it wasn't on the form I'd email and check as not all breeds are permitted. I've seen 'one small dog allowed', for instance.

Most people wouldn't stay somewhere pet friendly, unless they had pets. Before my dog I wouldn't stay somewhere that has them. Now I would because of.my dog. I'd list yours as pet friendly, so pets allowed. I'd increase your charges by 10 percent for everyone. Problem solved.

I w

I won't stay anywhere that allows dogs so don't just up the price and expect people to rock up with them

Same here, I also actively avoid accommodation that accepts dogs due to allergies so perhaps having designated pet allowed rooms may help you to charge for the extra furries while keeping the pet free rooms available.

I would not stay at a pet friendly place as I am not comfortable with dogs. Maybe if it was not pet friendly you would encourage non pet owners to stay. Just a thought.

But do you not see that your annoyance is aimed in the wrong direction? This is between you and booking.com and maybe you should send them a message as owner feedback that their system isn’t working for you?

Your initial messages were very strongly worded- and whilst you seem to acknowledge that the problem is with the platform you don’t seem to hold any irritation for them.

When you use booking.com can the host not have the option to add pets and number of pets, just like you can add adults and children? Then based on your selection of people and dogs, the price will change.

If it just states pet friendly and it's only in fine print or terms and conditions, hardly anyone ever reads those anymore.

If the majority of your guests are not confirming they are brining pets it would seem it is a site issue rather than a guest issue. I think you will always have a few people who will try to dodge the extra charge but not the majority.

Can you amend your booking platform so they have to specify how many adults, children and pets they have staying there?

also if I was a potential guest I wouldn’t want to stay in a room where dogs had been allowed to stay so I would hope you separate rooms into dogs/no dogs.

they are incredibly cheeky fuckers

The issue is with the booking platform not the guests

@paintingvenice

No, I despise booking dot com and see them as a necessary evil. They are cowboys who don't pay their properties on time (or ever for some poor people) and charge exorbitant commission for doing very little. Their platform is definitely part of the issue.

HOWEVER if our listing says 'pets on request the guest surely needs to 'request' the dog(s) and not just turn up and expect it's all ok. As previous posters have also said, what happens if all our rooms weren't dog friendly?

Bdc's platform is an issue for not letting us add more detail, I agree. But I still think guests should have more common courtesy.

@QueenBean22
No, no option for adding pets on the booking form annoyingly.

Pet friendly on a listing doesn’t immediately suggest “by prior arrangement”?

I think you need to be clearer somehow, either in your listing or in comms after booking.

Please find the exact wording of what our listing has always said.
It does specifically say 'on request'

I have taken my dog to hotels where it said that dogs were welcome and I didn’t inform them before - I didn’t realise I needed to, so wasn’t being rude intentionally.

I have worked hotels and the majority of issues I have had with bookings are ones that come through them (BDC).

Lack of ability to put the full information on, because they want the commission and they know there's people who want to book quickly and effortlessly, unfortunately although you can do this as a customer, their platform and system doesn't make it that easy on the other side to make sure everything is as it should be, plus the fact that people don't read what they're booking a lot of the time either. It's usually the property that get the blame and the crap for it in either scenario, when the issue is either user error or the way BDC works.

BDC are hit and miss to deal with from the other side as well, they take ages to respond to messages and although they do answer the phone, they always have to ring you back as they can't deal with the issue, usually when you've got a raging guest where something has gone wrong and you need to speak to them to establish what has happened, which of course pisses them off even more.

People don't read messages a lot of the time either, I've experienced more than once had people book and the booking is cancelled, by BDC 48 or sometimes 24 hours before because there's been an issue with BDC taking payment. The guest has had a message to tell them that the payment hasn't gone through and the booking is cancelled, but don't read it and still arrive, which then leads to all sorts of problems - obviously the biggest one is if the room has resold in the meantime! One place we had to monitor cancellations and ring those ones, which we shouldn't have had to do because a) the guest should read their messages and b) BDC should be doing the monitoring when they're charging commissions for the bookings that come through them.

Every place would send an auto message to every guest but they inevitably turn up thinking they've booked one thing, not bothered to read their confirmation, or the messages sent automatically, or indeed what they're booking in the first place and then there's hell on.

BDC is great for guests on the face of it, but it's not so great for the properties sometimes and of course that leads to it not being great for the guest - but usually the property gets the blame!

‘I limited number of dogs are usually permitted on request and with advanced booking. Additional charges apply. Failure to inform the proprietor and pay for the dog in advance may result in guests forfeiting their booking.’

Of course they should tell you.

I've taken one of my dogs to B&Bs and wouldn't dream of not letting the proprietor know ahead of time - apart form anything else, some places may have particular rooms that they don't allow dogs in (subsequent guests might have allergies), and we could have been booked into one of those because all of the "dog rooms" were full.

It's extremely discourteous not to inform you ahead of time, particularly if they have more than one dog.

Are you able to warn them on your booking page that if they come with a dog that they haven't booked in, you reserve the right to turn them away and keep a proportion of their charge (say 50%) to cover your costs as you are now left with an empty room that may not be filled at such short notice?

Cross-post @Maverickess

(You have put it much better than I did)

EDIT for spelling

Presumably booking.com have a hotel description. Maybe write something in that, even if you can’t customise the booking part. And presumably you have a website too. You could only permit dogs when bookings are through up your own website / by phone.

Bugger that!

If I'm there without my dogs, why should I be subsiding yours?

In the room rates and payment part can you put X per dog like they might if it was extra for breakfast? Like just put it in several places the charge per dog and maximum amount of dogs allowed. In booking.com it says pets allowed and the charges under the facilities bit, though can't go through to the end to see how they add charges.

From what you’ve said I think you haven’t been clear on your website/terms & conditions when booking?

I think you need to make very clear on your booking page that whilst being pet friendly, canine guests incur an additional charge and must be declared at the booking stage. Reiterate in your booking confirmation email that any dogs that have not been included in the booking will not be permitted to stay - and that a refund will not be offered to those arriving with pets who will then be refused admittance unless they pay a surcharge.

There are potentially higher costs associated with allowing dogs - more wear and tear on the flooring, more thorough cleaning required, covers on chairs etc, so this is not unreasonable.

Everywhere I’ve booked/looked at has a separate charge for dogs, plus a limit of 1 or 2 per room/booking. Charge is usually £20 per night, per dog, with a dog bowl/pet blanket provided and rules regarding the fact that they are not permitted on the furniture etc.

Why do people and accommodation use terms like "pet friendly" when in reality they only mean dogs?
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I asked about taking my cat once to a place which said it was pet friendly and they said no. It was a self catering cottage rather than a b&b.

OP just a small point, but I think all language should specify dogs if that's what you mean.

Can you not set up different room rates?

standard room with breakfast £100
standard room with breakfast and one dog £110
standard room with breakfast and two dogs £120