52% of pet owners travel with their pets - what improvements could Airbnb make?

[Alexandra316]

52% of pet owners travel with their pets, so what improvements could Airbnb make to improve the booking experience for guests? This is clearly a huge market segment. 

If you travel with pets, what has your booking experience been like if you're using Airbnb to find accomodations?

I was trying to book a summer getaway last week. I have three dogs, all on the large side.  I used the filter for pet-friendly accomodation. So far, so good.

Here's where it got messy: 

- Many hosts have a limit on the number of pets or the size of pet they will accept. In most cases it's one or two dogs, and often there is a weight or height limit. 

- Many hosts have a limit on where the pets can go, like they're not allowed in the bedrooms or onto the furniture. I've also seen restrictions like dogs have to stay in the garage or yard. 

- Many hosts require crating of dogs. 

- Many hosts put the information on what's allowed in a random location: buried in the main listing text, on photos, etc. so you have to look very carefully at every listing to determine if it might be a fit. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. 

- Some hosts don't clarify their pet rules in their listings at all, so I contacted a number of hosts for clarification and was told there were conditions that I couldn't meet. 

I think it would be really great if hosts had more check boxes for pets so guests can filter results. Some suggestions would be:

- Size catergories allowed;  

- Types of pets allowed (dogs, cats, reptiles, ferrets, birds, etc); 

- If crating is required; 

- If pets can't be left alone; 

- If there's a fenced or unfenced outdoor space available for pet use; 

- If there's a pet fee, and if so, what it is. As a host, I would love to see a pet fee finally added to the fee structure, but that's been requested for a long time and still hasn't happened. In the meantime, it could be clearly disclosed on a standardized spot on the listing. 

I sorted through over a hundred listings before I was able to find a fit. The good news is that I did find a great looking place to stay, but it would be really handy and could save guests and hosts a lot of time if there were more filters available. 

Some other nice-to-haves would be filters for pet friendly attractions or experiences. I've never seen a pet friendly experience, but it might be an interesting catergory. Walking tours would be an obvious fit. After you book, you get shown a bunch of suggestions of things to do, but they're not really relevant if you're travelling with pets. 

[Lorna170]

@Mark116   Don't misunderstand hosts that request that pets be crated.  I allow pets, and I only ask that the pet be crated when the guest is away from the cabin.  A dog who is in a strange environment will be calmed by their familiar crate, will wait patiently for their owner and will not bark their heads off.  Most of my guests who are travelling with their pets have them with them while they are out and about, rarely leaving the pet alone -- they might leave the pet crated when they go out to dinner for a hour or so or when running to the grocery store.

Pet owners who take a dog on vacation and crate it for more than a couple of hours should have kenneled their pet.  

[Brian2036]

@Alexandra316 

Along with a convenient pet fee arrangement, it should be prominently noted that all pets must be clean, groomed, fully vaccinated and treated for internal and external parasites.

This is required by professional groomers and they are risking less than hosts are.

People who travel with animals should have enough sense to do this without being told but we really can’t make that assumption.

Of course people will lie but it would be easy enough to require them to upload proof from a veterinarian or licensed groomer.

Being pet-friendly opens hosts up to complaints by professional refund seekers who claim that they “saw a flea” or suffered an asthma attack due to pet dander.

 We used to accept children and ban pets. After several terrible experiences we reversed positions.

Since then most of our guests have brought dogs and there has been no damage that wasn’t voluntarily reimbursed with an apology.

[Sergei--and--Larina0]

Alexandra should be in Airbnb management team-everything  she posted is so straight to the point.Why Airbnb is not implementing it?

[Catherine1257]

I agree with so many of these points. Just being able to have a sub-filter on what places accept cats would save a huge amount of time and effort on the part of both guests and hosts. And all the other details people have mentioned would certainly be useful as well.