How to Stay at Hotels With Your Pet Without Paying Thousands in Pet Fees

“A service dog must meet the public access standards of behavior, which is a level above Canine Good Citizen [a skill test from the American Kennel Club], and be trained for a task specific to the handler’s disability,” says Ann Brown, 70, a clinical psychologist and licensed professional counselor. Brown works with CertaPet, a therapist referral site that evaluates a person’s medical need for a service dog or emotional support animal. Your dog must perform a task that will help you with your condition, such as initiating pressure by sitting or pressing against you for comfort or grounding you by calming you down while petting them, she says.

When traveling with a service dog, the owner can prevent a stressful situation by calling the hotel in advance to reduce questions at check-in. This is also a good rule to follow when booking airline tickets, as there are no fees for service animals on a plane. (Airlines may require documentation from the Department of Transportation.)

Check with the hotel before making your reservation to see whether there are any breed or size restrictions.

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Call the hotel before booking online

Hotel websites may have inaccurate information about pet fees. If you don’t call, you may accidentally choose a hotel with a $100 pet fee rather than one without a fee or with a minimal one. “They can change by the week,” Thompson says. “Always call the hotel first and ask them exactly how much you’re going to have to pay in pet fees,” which can include both pet fees and extra security deposits to cover potential damage to the room, she says. They also may not allow dogs over a certain weight or breed. For instance, Hilton’s pet-friendly properties typically allow dogs up to 75 pounds without any extra security deposits, but some individual properties may allow larger dogs. 

“The reason I started the site was not the pet fees; it was the size issue,” says Thompson, who’s always had dogs over 100 pounds. “I call ahead because if they say ‘pet-friendly’ but [don’t] specify online what size dogs they accept,” she could show up and get turned away if they only allow dogs under 20 pounds, she says. “With a nonrefundable room, I’d lose the full cost of the hotel room.”

Hotels that are listed as pet-friendly may not accept cats. The Roch Dog collected data on more than 2,000 pet-friendly hotels. It found 12 percent allowed cats. “Cat owners hate the word ‘pet-friendly’ because they know it doesn’t [generally] mean them,” says Guise Bule, founder of The Roch Dog.