Let’s be honest, people adore their pets and consider them family members. Even if you’re not an animal lover, you know at least one person who takes their furry friend everywhere, including family vacations. Therefore, property owners who want to maximize their income need to create pet-friendly vacation rentals to drive up demand.
If you take the appropriate steps, there can be several benefits to making your vacation rental property pet-friendly. We will discuss the benefits, and a few ways to prepare your property.
Why Should You Make Your Rental Property Pet-Friendly In The First Place?
There’s a lot of extra profit potential with pet-friendly vacation rental properties, and a lot less damage than you might think!
Across the United States, only 15% of vacation rental listings allow dogs and cats. Since pet-friendly rentals are much harder to come by, listing pet-friendly as an added feature and establishing a clear pet tolerant policy will make you stand out from the crowd and attract more guests all year round.
How Does A Vacation Home Pet-Friendly Pet Policy Increase Revenue?
As many as 85 million families in the country have at least one pet, and half of pet owners travel with their furry friends at least once a year. That’s around 42.5 million potential bookings for dog-friendly vacation rentals!
In addition, pet-friendly accommodations attract higher fees, adding up to $30 for “pet rent” per night to pet owners. So, a party renting without pets would pay $200 per night, but you could charge a renter with a pet $230 per night. Since the increase is not uncommon, most pet owners that travel with their pets have already taken the upcharge into account.
The Biggest Risks Of Being Pet-Friendly
The main risk of course, is the wear and tear on the property and the furnishings. There is also potentially the shedding and the odor that even the cleanest dogs and cats will leave when staying at your property for just a few days. This will obviously increase your cleaning costs but leaving the cleaning to an experienced company with efficient pet-cleaning practices can easily take care of these issues.
What Will It Take To Get Your Rental Pet-Friendly Ready?
Changing your floors should be the number one priority and will be the most expensive and time-consuming project for making your rental pet-friendly. Remove all carpets and replace with laminate, tile, hardwood, or vinyl floor as they are better pet-proof floor options.
The right paint and paint color will protect your home from damage, neutral colors, and semi-gloss paint work well.
Provide security gates in multiple areas of the home so that the renters have options to block off their pet from certain areas of the rental.
Future guests might have allergies to pets, so be sure to give adequate time to clean thoroughly after a guest with a pet when implementing the check-in and check-out times for your rental.
It would also be wise to have an attorney draw up a clear pet agreement that outlines the agreement, any additional charges, addresses cleaning up after pets, no-nuisance policy (excessive barking, crying, etc.) and any fees that could be charged for damages. This will protect you in case you need to charge the renter for damages at the end of the stay.
Whatever your pet procedure is, be sure you are addressing everything clearly on your Airbnb, Vrbo, Ads, social media, or your website, as well as including all pet-agreements and information should be noted in your confirmation emails when they book the stay.
Market Your Property to the Right Pet Owners
Lastly, you will want to be sure you market your pet-friendly stay right. Go into details on the little extra comfort you provide to your furry guests, add images, and do not forget to mention things like dog parks in the area, feeding bowls, complimentary pet food, pet treats, sofa covers, toys, leashes, and waste bags. These are not necessary items, and many times will not be used by the guests, but by adding in a few unexpected extras it will do wonders for the marketability of your pet-friendly property taking it to the next level.
There’s no denying that pet-friendly stays are on the rise, so getting ahead of the curve will only help you overall! It is clear that vacation rentals can make considerable profits by establishing a pet-friendly policy, as the cost of any extra cleaning, furniture repair, and even the odd scratch here and there will already be covered by the higher fees charged.
