Question about a holiday cottage

[NettleTea]

Im taking over running MILs holiday cottage.
It will be completely redecorated as, although the building and location are wonderful, the interior design has dated
But thats not my question
Im wondering about allowing dogs. Under strict rules like not allowed in the bedrooms or on furniture, and not to be left alone in the house at any time.
Ive read that it can really boost your bookings, as more and more people have dogs, most often small dogs, and out of season in an area surrounded by countryside (we are on a farm with good footpaths) it may pay well.
Obv damage deposit for mess/damage and flooring/furniture considerations to allow deep cleaning between doggy and non doggy guests
any feedback? The place I read said 1 dog increases bookings by about 20%, 2 dogs by around 57% that is quite significant

I used to work for a holiday booking company

There were some horrendous traumatic tales from owners of furniture/bedding abuse, whatever conditions visitors had “agreed to”

I’m sure most owners are thoughtful & sane, but some aren’t

Most dog-owners I mean!

We have two holiday cottages on our farm and don't allow dogs in the cottages. We can provide outside dog accommodation free (warm straw bedded stable) for people with outsidey dogs but it doesn't get used very often.

Although we get a lot enquiries from dog owners, not accepting dogs doesn't appear to have a huge impact generally and indeed we get a lot of bookings from people who want dog free accommodation as many of our competitors have bought into the 'must accept dogs' mantra forgetting that not everyone who likes holiday cottages likes dogs.

Thanks for all the feedback
We are in the South East near Battle- on a farm up a mile long track with public footpaths, plus about 7 miles from the sea 1066 country.

We run a glamping site and we dont allow dogs there, and do a pop up campsite in August which we are considering allowing dogs into.

Floors are wooden throughout and had wondered about 2 sets of throws for sofas - doggy (to be washed alot more regularly) and non doggy. There is space under the stairs where a dog crate could go - we may even have one as FIL has gun dogs - and had considered a dog bed.

what are you looking for in a rental. We can get 6 people in, there are 3 bedrooms. was thinking 2 double beds and then another room with 2 singles

there is an enclosed garden area and a patio outside the back door, with french doors.

summer is probably pretty likely to be busy anyway as we are in a tourist area, but Im keen to try to get off season going too

I want it to look as nice as my house. It's very disappointing to turn up and find that everything is old and worn out and the TV has been there since the 70's. It's good to have enough of everything, 6 people do not need 6 plates, they need 12 plates. And easy to use appliances are a must, no one want to spend the whole week trying to work out how to use the induction hob or light the log burner. Good luck, I've been on holiday in the area and it's lovely.

We have a holiday cottage in Llanbedrog, North Wales near Abersoch and we allow dogs. We do ask that dogs aren't left alone uncrated and that they don't go upstairs and we haven't had any major issues with dogs. We charge a dog fee even on Airbnb bookings and use that to professional deep clean at least once a year.

We also leave a doggy welcome basket like others suggested.

The beach near us is dog friendly all year so it makes sense for us. Good luck with your venture :-)

Beautiful cottage you have there Pennant

@JiltedJohnsJulie many thanks - such a lovely area - I had all the same queries as the OP but most dog owners are lovely and great to deal with.

ultra dog friendly These people are not only super dog friendly they give 10% to Many Tears dog rescue. I think they are usually fully booked. We stayed in their Dorset cottage with our elderly Staffie. The stairs were too much for him so no problem with the bedrooms, but there were wooden floors and the beds were quite high so I doubt dogs would have lept up onto them. They had leather sofas which were bought with a distressed finish and lots of covers for you to put on. We really enjoyed our stay, it was such a relief to stay somewhere where we knew they loved dogs and it certainly didn't smell of dog.

We allow one medium dog at our cottage. Our booking agency specifies our dog house rules - not unattended, not on furniture, not upstairs so it's the same for every cottage on their books, along with a fee of £30 per dog, per week. So we're definitely dog tolerant rather than dog-friendly! I get what people upthread say about that being neither fish nor fowl, but I think accepting only one dog and having lots of rules in place would go someway to reassuring non-dog potential guests that the cottage is unlikely to smell 'doggy'.

I do provide a dog gate as that is the one 'rule' I'm most keen for people to follow as we have carpet on and throughout upstairs (hard floors downstairs). However, I fully realise it's not enforcable (though have never seen any evidence that dogs have been upstairs). We have a distressed leather sofa (and I've noticed a few claw marks so I know dogs have been on there and that does not bother me; they wax out easily enough). I'm not fussed about dogs being left unattended per se - owners know if their dog is destructive or distressed (barking) when left, so I assume only those who know their dog will be fine alone would leave them (I've left my bombproof dog alone in a holiday cottage when going out for a meal, so would have no problem with someone doing likewise).

We're not a million miles from you OP (although in a village centre location) and approx 1/3 of our bookings are with dogs. If we took more than one, I expect that percentage might increase, but we're pretty much fully booked as it is, so don't feel the need to revisit this. To date, we've never had any damage from a dog, and I can not tell when cleaning which people have had dogs and which haven't (I think the dog people tend to hoover before they leave, so if anything, the cottage is cleaner).