phatty

Anyone have any experience sneaking your pet into the hotel to avoid the fee? I have a stay at the Homewood in Corpus Christi, and they charge a $100 non-refundable fee. That's almost twice what I'm paying for the room for myself... Any advice?

jefrank

1. Board the dog
2. Stay someplace else
3. Pay the $100

Sneaking the dog in could place you in the unwelcome position of looking for a new hotel in the middle of the night after the Homewood tosses you out for not disclosing your pet.

UALfromMSN

I'd find a new hotel and tell them that their $100 fee is out of line. $25 I can see, but $100? No thanks.

Also, you don't earn points on that deposit, so tell them to pound sand.

limelight

Sneaking animals in... something people seem to be oddly insistent upon doing. For various reasons.

Those who work in the luxury sector in London have more than a few anecdotes about fearsomely rich Middle Easterners who book up the five-star hotels during August, spend like mad, order up room service - then the poor room-service waiter brings in their order, and finds a goat being killed in the middle of the suite. Rather more extreme than a simple overnight with a pet, that. It's happened at the Four Seasons London, amongst other places. And here's the thing - no-one ever sees the goats going up to the rooms. You'd think something like that couldn't be got across a lobby without some kerfuffle. But somehow they manage it.

Anyway, yes. Thoroughly inadvisable to sneak a pet in. A very quick way to get on the blacklist, I'm afraid.

duchy

Find another hotel-the Homewood is doing all it can to discourage dogs -and their owners. Why give your business to a hotel who is so anti your lifestyle ?
Give it to one who positively welcomes you and your canine buddy.

pinniped

I am very disappointed in Snopes.com. Luxury hotel goat-sacrifices definitely deserve a page there, but I can't find it. It has all of the ingredients necessary for the perfect urban legend.

(I'm not calling outright BS on this one - lots of things on Snopes are well-documented as true.)

pinniped

Regarding the original question about a small housepet: I'm sure it's easy to get away with, sort of like it's easy to sneak more people into a hotel room than fire code allows. (I think I've violated fire code at one or two cheap motels in almost every Big Ten college town.)

My only question is: do hotels do an extra-deep-cleaning of a room after a pet has been there? (e.g., is that the reason for the extra fee?) If so, then I'd prefer people didn't sneak pets into the hotel, as I might wind up as the next guest in that room that had a pet but didn't get the cleaning. (In practice, I'm skeptical that they really do a deep cleaning of the room if a small housepet didn't leave a noticeable stench behind.)

BamaVol

Find someplace that welcomes your pet. At least you're not sneaking it into a property that bans pets. I hate discovering an hour after I've checked in to a pet-free hotel room that a previous occupant selfishly disregarded that rule.

BostonJim

I sneaked a pet in once and was caught and fined $200.00.
Now I make sure to find a pet friendly hotel when the cat is traveling with the family.
Jim

mikey1003

You ever think about those of us who are deathly allergic to cats?

cynicAAl

while your selfishness and greed are admirable, I'd prefer to not sleep in a bed that some strange animal was just in without the proper cleaning. Hotels allocate certain rooms for pets. If you sneak one in, you might (probably) be using a "non-pet" room, which is probably not cleaned adequately after you check out.

By their pricing, Homewood has pretty much told you that they don't want pets. It would be nice if you respected that so the rest of us don't get fleas, allergic reactions, etc. There are plenty of places you can go.

AZ_MISMAN

I've always used http://www.petfriendly.com/ as a jumping point for finding hotels that allow pets.

rzyzzy

Yeah, right - they'll spend HOURS cleaning the room.... NOT!

The OP is "greedy"????? sheesh... so much for doing the right thing - I'd bet
tens of thousands of pets are "snuck" into rooms all across the country because of policies like the homewood's. I can see stuffing pet owner's into crummy rooms, but this policy is just counterproductive.

By forcing a pet owner "underground" they run the risk of upgrading someone who doesn't disclose that they have a pet into the oompah-loompah-super-presidential-suite and getting that room stinky.

When I move cross-country next month I guess I won't disclose that I have pets, and I'll be sure and ask for my gold ( probably diamond by then) upgrade.

BTW, how are you booking Homewood's @ $50?????

travelinfoo

Please DO NOT do this. I got a room that I was sure an animal, probably dog, had been in. The room smelled terrible, primarily like wet dog, and something the dog may have done in the room. It had been raining the day before.
This Hilton hotel does not allow pets. So the animal would have had to be sneaked in. And the usual cleaning, which did not remove the smell, was done. I refused the room and moved out as fast as possible.

There is no way to predict what a dog/animal will do to the room. I'm sure this particular room had to be done several times to make it acceptable. Not to mention if the dog "marked" the furniture. If this is the case, I can see why an extra $100 would be charged for pets.

swag

I'm guessing the $100 is per stay? That is prohibitive for a one-night stay, to be sure, but no big deal at all on an extended stay. I paid a $75 fee at a Residence Inn for a 66 night stay with my pup. That's just over a buck a night.