<p>Is anyone familiar with any good websites/forums for people who travel with their pets (more specifically, dogs) that would be useful in finding accomodations that accept pets, good spots to stop, necessary travel supplies, etc.? </p>
<p>With my H’s impending retirement, we will be spending more time at our vacation home and would like to take two of our dogs with us. The trip is long enough to require a stopover for one night. </p>
<p>I’ve done a bit of ‘googling’ re: pet friendly hotels but was hoping that there might be someone here who would know if there’s a good forum for pet-related situations that may include a travel sub-forum.</p>
<p>Try city dash data dot com (substitute an actual dash for the word with no spaces); they have an extensive pet subforum that was of great use when we traveled with our cat last winter. Look under General then Pets then Dogs, then search “travel” in the subforum. It doesn’t necessarily list pet hotels; I found all of ours by googling; but if you tell us the route some of us might have specifics.</p>
<p>I received great advice from people on CC when my D traveled with her dog from Florida to the midwest. I also got hotel recs from people on CC when H and I drove the same dog to Ca from the midwest. Marilyn was a great source.
I also used Trip Advisor. For the cities we wanted to stop in I put in allows dog in the search engine. I also read reviews and many were from people traveling with pets. I think it is easier if your dog is small.</p>
<p>Edit- adding Drury hotels are all pet friendly</p>
<p>Just quickly: the easiest hotel chain for dealing with dogs is La Quinta, which has a “pets welcome” policy. They usually allow two dogs per room for no cleaning fee (but charge $250 if you smoke in the room).</p>
<p>The AKC website (AKC.org) has a surprisingly large amount of information buried in various places. AKC dog shows take place all over the country and involve a lot of traveling dogs.</p>
<p>I travel with my dogs to dog shows most weekends. “Everyone” knows which hotels welcome dogs and which bang on your door if your dog barks once. People who show their dogs in any kind of dog sport (conformation shows, agility, obedience, nosework, tracking, hunt tests, lure coursing, terrier trials, etc.) all travel a lot and we share the information around. As an agility trial organizer, I can promise a hotel 15-20 rooms get rented over the weekend if they will welcome dogs; since trials often take place at county fairgrounds, we are a boon to the local economy, eating in restaurants, using otherwise-unrented hotel rooms, etc. </p>
<p>So my advice to you is: find out which of your friends spend most of her weekends competing with her dogs and tap into her network of information. She’ll know (or know who knows) all the dog-friendly hotels within a three to four hour drive of your house. I know most of them from my house in a six hour radius…</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone. I’ll have a look at the information you’ve all kindly provided. Our route from Toronto to SC is down 79 through PA and WV to 77 through VA and NC. It will likely be somewhere in southern WV that would be the area we’d be looking at. Within a three to four hour drive from home isn’t going to do it. :)</p>
<p>So I gather you have seen [Dog</a>, Cat & Other Pet Friendly Hotels at Petswelcome.com](<a href=“http://www.petswelcome.com%5DDog”>http://www.petswelcome.com) ? I found that website very helpful. They provide the neat capability of defining your route and identifying all pet friendly hotels along the route. The only problem for me was their definition of pet friendly, which includes any hotel that does not have a strict, “no pets, no way” policy, so they include hotels that charge $75 for a room + a $100 nonrefundable pet fee and no, the pet does not get his own room. </p>
<p>However, the website did bring Red Roof Inns to my attention. The hotel chain allows pets with no fee. We stayed at one in Pennsylvania, and it wasn’t too bad.</p>
<p>TripAdvisor lets you limit your search selection to pet friendly. Also be sure to check with the hotel directly on their pet policy - we talked to one hotel whose pet fee was lower than the web site because they had their own steamer. We stayed at a Red Roof with our cat and it was adequate but I wouldn’t do it again. Sorry I don’t know anything about hotels on your route!</p>
<p>So you’ll be traveling the same route every time? So you could have a regular hotel that you stopped at, where you got to know the management? In that case, figure out which town you want to stop in, call the manager and explain the situation, and see if you can negotiate.</p>
<p>Do you have large dogs or small ones? Make sure you read the policies carefully. Our dog is too big for La Quinta (I think their policy is under 50 or 60 lbs).</p>
<p>I’m also going to add the standard information contained in the dog agility premiums about hotel stays. Pick up after your dog, don’t groom in the hotel room, don’t bathe the dog in the tub, and bring your own sheet to put over their bedding if the dog sleeps on the bed. And if you are going to leave the dog in the room, best advice is not to leave them loose, but rather in a crate. You wouldn’t want the maid letting the dog out accidentally.</p>
<p>I have not done hotel stays with my dog in a long time. I do a lot of agility – at least one trial and sometimes 2-3 per month. Luckily, in my area, there are more trials within 2 hours drive than I can possibly compete in!</p>
<p>njres and jazzymom, thank you for those links. I’ll add them to my list! Marilyn, I spent a few minutes having a look at tripadvisor and will investigate further. I often use it for info for trips and reviews so am at least familiar with the set-up.</p>
<p>dmd, yes, and we’re hoping that that will work to our advantage. Ideally, we’d like to find a spot that works well and where we can stop going both ways. It’s not how we would typically time our stop (without dogs) but we thought it might be worth it to give the same hotel the business if we can find one that is a good match. :)</p>
<p>romani, the two that will be going with us hover around the 50 lb. mark so I’ll have to keep that in mind when I’m doing my research. </p>
<p>cnp, thank you for that but none of those things will be an issue, I can assure you. Other than bringing a sheet to cover the bedding, it’s somewhat amazing that people need to be given the rest of that advice!</p>
<p>Alwaysamom, PM me! Or anyone else if I can help.</p>
<p>We are currently travelling all year (on sabbatical) with our standard poodle. I have gained a ton of insight from the experience. It has required a lot of logistics, but we kind of enjoy the puzzle of it all. Some countires are easier than others (we could go anywhere in the world and narrowed it down due to the pooch), some airlines and other transportation more easier than others. Although finding pet friendly accomodations has not been an issue AT ALL (we use hotels.com and they have an option to click ‘pet friendly’). We have also rented houses and villas for long stretches from VRBO, homeaway, tripadvisor, and all give the option to narrow by ‘pet friendly’. We fly only direct and so far Lufthansa, which has been fabulous. The biggest issue is the dog crate-- and then needing rental cars that hold it. </p>
<p>We are currently in Paris…extremely dog friendly when it comes to restaurants, but not so when it comes to going into parks. Then there are other issues…but I can explain. </p>