The Street.com’s Alison Stein Wellner has a report on how (high end) hotels are going over the top to make their hotels doggone good for guests’ traveling with their quadripeds.
Ms. Wellner notes while quoting the Travel Industry Association that “Some 29 million, or 14%, of U.S. adults brought the family pet with them on at least one trip in the past three years. Most travel with a dog (78%), while a few hardy souls traveled with cats (15%). A few folks even travel with birds, ferrets, rabbits or fish. As the number of non-human guests is substantial, luxury hotels are catering to these animal guests in ways that many people won’t experience at more budget-friendly accommodations”.
Hostelries around the country are chomping at the bit to cater to pet toting customers whose demands range from standard, if extravagant requests such as a bed that “is fitted with an orthopedic pad, topped with a down-filled cushion” to the nearly farcical. The seemingly absurd includes something called “The Hound of Music,” in which a dog is limo’d to a professional recording studio, with a voice coach, to “howl along with a musician or bark to their favorite karaoke beat,” with the results preserved forever on a CD with a personalized CD case”! Competing offerings include the Arizona Biltmore’s “Zen-Yo” where both cats and dogs get to order from the room service menu that has a hearty vegetable stir-fry with poached eggs & steamed rice, developed especially to help pets adjust to jet lag and altitude”.
The article does not indicate whether any of the hotels covered has a customer feedback process.