Post by dad2paisley on Jul 3, 2006 10:56:28 GMT -5
In her four and a half years, Molly, an eight-pound Yorkshire terrier, has become one well-traveled pooch, with overnight stays at the Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth, Me., trips to the Affinia Gardens and Regency Hotels in New York, and visits to the Chesterfield Hotel in Palm Beach.
At Little Nell in Aspen, Colo., room service for dogs.
"She loves it there" in Palm Beach, said Molly's owner, Priscilla Braverman, of Newton Center, Mass., who notes that she and her husband opted for a small dog in part because of the travel-friendly size. "That is one of her favorite places. They greet her when she comes in, and she knows just where the treats are kept. It makes me, as an owner, feel really good that they care about her."
Of course, all this love is also big business. Americans spend more than $38 billion a year on their pets, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. The travel industry has taken notice. For pets, and their owners who can't bear to leave them behind, hotels are not only rolling out the red carpet but also offering animal massages, plush beds with fine linens, dog biscuits baked by pastry chefs and even portable pet cabanas for poolside.
Traveling with pets is in some ways the latest status symbol, a sign that travelers have the means to indulge themselves. Sure, anyone can load the family dog into the car and head to a beach house for a week. But checking into a hotel or resort with your pet undoubtedly carries a certain impression of affluence. Flying with a large dog means you've probably spent hundreds of dollars on transportation alone or, in places like Aspen, that you flew in the old-fashioned way: on a private jet.
"It all has become part of the lifestyle — the whole trend of pets as accessory, " said Joel Morales, the marketing manager of the James Hotel in Chicago. "People want to feel welcome with their pets. You've seen that in retail, and now you are really seeing that in the hotel industry." The James opened March with a full line of amenities for pets for a $75 fee, including in-room bowls and a nightly carob "truffle" as well as extra-charge options for aromatherapy massages or bones from the hotel's restaurant, David Burke's Primehouse. The hotel has already had a handful of pet guests, including a Great Dane.
In the eight years since he became a cofounder of DogFriendly.com, a Web site that lists hotels, parks, beaches and restaurants that welcome pets, Len Kain has seen the options for owners traveling with their pets expand. He notes that hotels have increased their size limits on accepted pets, and about half of the hotels he now lists will take dogs of up to 80 pounds. "It used to be just some low-end places like Motel 6 and Super 8 along with a few midrange chains that accepted dogs," he said. "But now you can choose from low- and high-end places, and extended-stay residences. And more now not just accept dogs, but welcome them." Hotels may charge $25 to $125 for having a pet stay in the hotel; the fee typically covers the cleaning of the room and other basic amenities like water and food bowls and cleanup bags.
Chains like Kimpton Hotels, Best Western and W Hotels have long opened their doors to pets, but now hotels of all sizes are kicking in over-the-top amenities. The St. Regis in Aspen has high-count linens on its five-inch-thick dog beds with royal purple covers. The pastry chef at Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe bakes dog biscuits. And the Peaks Resort & Golden Door Spa in Telluride, Colo., operates an on-site "doggie spa" where $60 buys a 30-minute massage.
But it's not always about pet pampering. Hotels are rolling out activities that owners can do with their pets, like, well, drinking thingytails. The W San Diego started pet-friendly thingytail hours in the fall and the Hotel Helix in Washington is starting one this summer. The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples starts obedience classes this summer including a socialization class for puppies 10 weeks to 5 months old.
And the Loews Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego offers dog surfing classes. Yes, surfing. The hotel rolled out a $300 package this spring that includes one night's accommodation, a surfing lesson for the dog (but not the owner), a meal for the pet, and board shorts (seriously) for smaller dogs. "We have sold close to 40 of those packages," said Anne Stephany, the public relations manager for the Loews Coronado Bay. "With a package like that we usually sell five."
THERE are even international options, that is if you can wade through the entry restrictions, which vary by country. The Rome Cavalieri Hilton, for example, has a room service menu for dogs that includes, in proper European form, both first and second courses. The Hilton São Paolo Morumbi has a package called No More Doggy Drama that allows owners time away from their pets with daily dog day care. Las Ventanas in Los Cabos, Mexico, provides dog cabanas and a pet menu that includes shredded braised beef and rice. Pet menus are becoming more common at resorts, but owners may prefer to travel with their dog's regular food rather than risk a digestive disaster.
Still, some owners see no harm in mixing up the diets of their pet, which after all, is on vacation, too. Paul Wade, executive chef at the Eldorado Hotel & Spa in Santa Fe, rolled out a pet menu at the end of May complete with tenderloin of beef, scrambled eggs, chicken and homemade dog biscuits with a touch of lamb demi-glace. "It's all based on brown rice," said Mr. Wade, a dog owner who cooked at other pet-friendly hotels in Colorado including the Little Nell in Aspen, where, he said, he once saw a guest trot through the lobby with an otter sporting a diamond necklace.
An otter in a hotel lobby does seem extreme, but after all, Aspen is the ultimate pet town. The town is surrounded with hiking trails for owners and their dogs. It's not unusual for 40 percent of the guests at the Little Nell to have pets in tow. The St. Regis there encourages guests to check out an Aspen animal shelter program that lends dogs for day hikes or overnight stays. "We've rescued sled dogs that would have been shot when they're no longer of any use, but they end up living in great places," said Seth Sachson, president of the shelter, who has sent pets off in private planes to live with visitors who fell for them. It makes the name of the shelter's pet grooming center, Aspen Wags to Riches, especially fitting.
Most hotels have size restrictions, cap the number of pets in a room and limit the types of pets accepted. "Last year we got a call from a zoo about an iguana who was going on TV in New York," said Jane Lehman, a spokeswoman for W Hotels, which allows pets of less than 75 pounds. "We said no. We don't want to scare our guests."
Often the real barrier to traveling with pets isn't finding a hotel that will accept them but rather getting to the destination. Aside from service dogs, airlines only allow pets as in the cabin that will fit in an airline-approved crate under the seat. Bigger dogs must be checked as luggage, a prospect that turns many owners off.
When Leigh Branch returns to Aspen this summer for an extended stay, she will circumvent commercial flying constraints by traveling by private jet from her home in Sarasota, Fla. "There will be two dogs, two cats, two sugar gliders and a hamster on the plane," Ms. Branch said. Everyone, including the 9-year-old husky she adopted from the Aspen shelter, will be comfortable in the cabin. "But the cats can be pretty loud. I might put them in the bathroom."
