As of right now we do not allow pets. I tried letting pets come and have pee stains on the rugs, so I stopped allowing them
I have replaced the floors in 3 of my home to waterproof vinyl planking, so I am now considering allowing them again.
Please help me decide Pets or No Pets- Tell me some of your findings with pets.
How much extra do you charge per pet? Do you have them sign an agreement? If so tell me about it.
Thanks
TBH a question like this is probably better suited for a place like community.withairbnb.com or community.vrbo.com or one of the many Facebook groups dedicated to VR hosting rather than this forum, which is mostly for questions about how to use OR software.
Personally, I accept pets everywhere I can and firmly believe it's a huge net-positive for me. My background:
-been in the business since 2017
-9 units owned and/or managed
-all units are 2 or 3 bedroom condos
-HOA rules allow renters to have pets at 5 of those units
-all units have carpeted bedrooms; one has carpeted living rooms
-my average stay is about 3 days, and most of my units see roughly 230 nights of occupancy a year
-I've hosted ~1200 guests since the last time I checked.
I have never really done a scientific study of numbers, but all of the units that accept pets are my top-performing units. I've never had any serious problems (in the many dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of guests who have brought pets, I've only ever had one issue with urine, and I've never had any guests complain about pet smells).
I do have a fairly extensive pet addendum that I have them sign as part of the rental agreement. I ask for details about the pet (name/sex/breed/weight) and specify that they must be up-to-date on vaccinations and treated with flea/tick repellent prior to arrival. I also require them to be crated whenever they are left alone in the property. I don't actively enforce that, but putting it in seems to screen away some of the more irresponsible pet owners. I also periodically do a survey of what other owners charge for pet fees, and most in my market charge somewhere around $25 per pet per stay, so that's what I keep my pet fee set at. (I tried increasing it once upon a time to $25 per day, but I found that lowered my occupancy, so I reversed course after a month or so.)
If you have halfway decent place , No pets. Aside from peed rugs, you will find scratched door frames and window sills, hair on the bed coverings, and chewed furniture. The amount you charge per pet will not alleviate stress of having to remediate damage between turns. I am a pet owner myself but I will not allow pets in my rentals.
