What actually makes a hotel "pet-friendly"
The phrase "pet-friendly" is unregulated. Booking.com, Hotels.com and Airbnb all let properties self-tag as pet-friendly without verification — which means a "pet-friendly" listing could be anything from a five-star with a dedicated pet concierge to a hostel that grudgingly accepts a dog after a £40 deposit. Our role is to filter the noise.
A genuinely pet-friendly hotel — by our standard — meets at least four of these six criteria: pets accepted in standard rooms (not just a single "pet-allowed" room), no breed or weight discrimination beyond reasonable safety norms, a reasonable fee (€0-€30 per stay or per night, not £100+), water bowls or pet beds available on request, no requirement for the dog to be left in a kennel during the day, and proximity to off-leash green space (under 500 m walking distance).
These criteria sound simple but they eliminate 60-70% of "pet-friendly" listings on Booking.com. The hotels we list across our 85 destination guides have all been audited against this checklist before being included.
✅ The 6-point pet-friendly hotel checklist
- 1Pets accepted in standard rooms (not segregated to one specific room)
- 2No breed-specific bans beyond local PPP/dangerous-dogs law
- 3Pet fee under €30 per stay (or under €15 per night)
- 4Water bowls or pet bed available on request
- 5Dog can stay in the room while you go out (no kennel-during-day rule)
- 6Off-leash green space within 500 m walk