Tips and tricks to find dog-friendly places to stay while travelling.
Travelling with your dog is a great way to bond, and you don’t have to feel bad about leaving your dog at home while you go out on an adventure.
Finding dog-friendly places to stay can be really hard to find. I once was told a hotel I stayed at was dog friendly, but when I arrived, they had a cage in a dark room where we were told the dog needed to stay. I would call that dog tolerant rather than dog friendly.
On the other hand, I have also found some amazingly dog-friendly guesthouses on my 2month road trip from Shanghai to Guizhou.
Wan Xiao Ban Chong Wu
This app was designed to help pet owners find dog-friendly hotels and guesthouses. It is a game changer and makes planning a vacation for the whole family much easier. This app works better if the destination is searched in Chinese as the whole app is in Chinese. There are many options for all kinds of vacation types. According to the laws not all hotels have the permit to accept foreigners, so I still contact the hotel to confirm they accept both dogs and foreigners.
Search 玩小伴宠物 on WeChat to access this mini program
Airbnb
I usually use Airbnb when I am travelling with my dog. Here I can easily search for places that are pet friendly. I always message the host before booking to tell them a bit about my dog. I will them they are well behaved and potty trained or other important information so they know that my dog will not destroy their house. I do this to confirm that dogs are in fact allowed. I have had a few experiences where I’ve messed a listing under the pet-friendly section, and they did not allow dogs.
So, save yourself the headache and message multiple hosts and confirm they are dog friendly.
This is my main way to find places to stay with Hugo while we travel. I have had hosts leave us dog treats and water bowls. I have not had any bad experiences, dog-wise, using this filter on Airbnb after discussing with the owner and ensuring they are dog friendly. People have gone out of the way to give us directions or places nearby that are dog friendly and good areas we can walk our dogs.
C-Trip
Ctrip has a pet-friendly option as well. However, this is how I ended up at a few hotels that were in fact not dog friendly. One hotel wanted our dogs to stay in a dark room in a metal crate. The other hotel had no problem with our dogs, but they weren’t allowed in the rooms. When we asked where were they supposed to stay the worker told us just to leave them outside……. No way!
If you’re going to have a crate in a dark room, I’d say your dog tolerant. Making us keep our dogs outside is not even dog tolerant. If you choose to use Ctrip I would make sure to contact the hotel before booking to ensure it is dog friendly, and what they mean by dog friendly.
