Welcome back to the Hosting Hotline! This is an Ask Me Anything where each week we’ll answer your questions on Airbnb, STRs, real estate, and everything in between.

This week’s question:

What advice and information do you have for hosting pets; specifically dogs?

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions. To hear your voice on the show and send a question to Sarah and Annette, visit Speakpipe.com/ThanksforvisitingAMA

Resources:

• Pet Hair Dryer Sheets

• Pet Microfiber Towel

Thanks for Visiting is produced by Crate Media.

Mentioned in this episode:

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Hello listeners, welcome back for another great episode.

My name is Sarah Karakaian.

I am annette Grant, and together we're--

Thanks for Visiting.

And this is the--

Hosting Hotline.

And we talk about pets today.

Who let the dogs out?

Who?

Hey, good morning guys.

It was so great seeing you last week at InvestHER Con.

I am glad I got to chat with you, Annette.

And Sarah, sorry I didn't get to meet you.

I was thinking of a podcast you guys did about hosting dogs.

I'm looking specifically for the items I need to get, and I can't find it.

So anyway.

Okay.

And then she goes on to give her personal information, so we pausedit.

And she talked to me at happy hour, and Sarah was nowhere to be found.

She's very on brand.

So let's go behind the scenes a little bit.

If you ever see me out, please stop me, approach me.

You can take me in happy hour, but I'm happy to answer

any questions and hang out.

Sarah loves people.

You just might not see her out and about.

I'm behind.

I'm getting work done, that'swhyI'm--

Yeah.

Can I do it one more time?

Who let the dogs?

Okay, fine.

She doesn't like that one.

I like that one.

All right.

This is a great question.

My first thing that I want to give a shout-out to, and we'll put a link, is

I think hosting pets is a great reason to have a device, like NoiseAware.

So if you have someone that brings a pet and the dog is incessantly barking,

that hopefully would help you know if that was happening ahead of time, so

you can get ahead of it depending on how close you are to your neighbors and just

seeing, are they leaving the dog there for extended periods of time unattended to?

And just something that will help you have a pulse on the pet activity.

There is so much dog content we could-- but that's

for lots of different episodes.

But today we're going to talk about what amenities you can leave your guests--

Our fur friends.

Our fur friends if you are pet-friendly, dog-friendly.

And we are going to niche down to dogs, but we want this list to open up your mind

and think about other ways that you could really surprise and delight both your

four-legged guests and your human guests.

With that being said, all of these suggestions come with the caveat

of making sure you either chat with your insurance provider--

Homeowners association if you have one.

Right.

This is obviously blanket ideas for you.

Whether or not they're a good fit for you in your specific business,

make sure you do your own--

We will not be held.

liable for anything in this episode.

We just are liable for great ideas that you need to suss out for yourself.

Okay.

You ready?

Yeah.

Let's do it.

All right.

So we have a list here for everyone.

So something fun that you could provide is a dog bed.

Comfortable and clean dog bed for your furry guests to relax and sleep in.

Now, learn the hard way.

There's also another idea we have here, what we started providing our listing, is

those blankets that are super absorbent.

What are they called?

Blanket or a towel.

A towel.

Super absorbent towel.

The word is--

Microfiber.

Thank you.

Shout-out, Mary Jane, my mom.

Sheuses microfibers for everything.

They make microfiber towels for pets for when they come in from the rain.

And they even have a cute little paw on them so you can display them

and know, hey, these are for the dog, and they don't ruin your normal towels.

But with that, make sure when you add these new amenities,

before you add them, discuss the new systems and processes with your

turnover team and inspection team.

Don't just surprise them with these new things in your rental.

Make sure you have what the new process is going to be to make sure that the dog

bed is clean, and that the microfiber towel is clean and ready to go every time.

Andthere's probably a water dish and a food dish

that are specific for the pets.

So those will also need to be cleaned.

And that was my next idea, was to provide those.

I'm a pet parent, and I sometimes forget those.

Yeah.

I don't want a dog licking out of the same bowl I'm going to eat my cerealoutof.

Theymight do itanyway.

I know, but at least let me live in the idea that everyone's

going to use the dog dish.

So good.

Okay.

Some other things you could include to surprise and let your four-legged

or furry friends, it doesn't matter how many legs they have, a selection

of toys that they can play with.

Appropriate.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yeah.

Another idea is outdoor space, if possible, if you can provide

a secure and fenced-in outdoor area where dogs can safely roam.

One of our rentals, we could dial in the return on our investment of putting a

fence in and making it a place where dogs could go outside and safely run around.

It has catapulted this rentals booking availability and visibility

on the OTAs, which is great.

Mm-hmm.

When they are outside, in the fenced-in arena, you know what we need to give them?

We need to give them the doggy bags, maybe a scooper if he can too.

But providing that and a place to dispose of it would be a lovely.

We made a YouTube video, and Annette refused to say the word poop

bag, so I just want to say right now and make her feeluncomfortable.

It's disgusting.

Dodo sac.

Oh my gosh.

Okay.

I'm getting loopy here with this pet episode.

Who let the dogs out?

AD MARKER

Next one, and this is our idea of the microfiber towel, is the doggy cleanup

station or the pet cleanup station.

Set up a designated area, like Annette said, with waste bags and disposal

bin for easy cleanup after walks.

Also the towel.

What else could you provide for them?

Maybe there's, I don't know, a detangler spray.

That's what I put on my dogs.

The caveat with all of it is making sure that you leave it so

people can read exactly what's in all of-- if you're leaving something

like that, they know the ingredients.

I mean, a leash.

Let's leave a leash just in case they forgot theirs at home.

You could potentially do that.

There's grooming supplies that could be a part of that doggy cleanup station that

include dog shampoo, uh, like we said, towels for handy guests for cleaning

up the dogs after they need them.

Maybe a dog-friendly brush or a pet-friendly brush.

And listeners, this is above and beyond.

Trust us.

Because there's a lot of these things that we don't leave, but we're just

giving you all the things today.

But we don't want you to feel pressure that these are our must.

I'm pressuring you.

No joking.

Okay.

Also, here are some non-physical amenities you can leave your

guests, is a list of nearby parks and trails that are pet-friendly.

Oh, I like that.

So provide information about nearby dog parks, trails, and

pet-friendly attractions in your area.

I mean, how nice of you to do that for your guests.

They don't have to Google those things.

And bonus points if you can go out and make sure these places actually are

what they say they are, or make sure the reviews are positive, so you're

not sending your guests on a wild goose chase or to something that's not great.

Another idea is local pet services.

So share information about local dog groomers, pet sitters, and

veterinarians in case guests need any assistance while they're in your space.

A 24-hour vet.

Yeah, I would love that as a pet mom.

Yeah.

I mean, besides building the dog house, I think we got it covered.

Well, last but not least, this ties in with the nearby parks and

trails, but dog-friendly recommendations, provide a list of nearby restaurants,

cafes, and shops where dogs are welcome, making it easier to explore

the area with their furry friends.

So they're not leaving them home alone.

Something that the doghouse just brought to my-- what if you

made some really cool doghouse?

Remember Paris Hilton built that dog condo for her dog and--

Right now.

It's okay.

I don't care.

Our listeners know what I'm talking about.

But great question, and again, start with the basics, and

you can always add on later.

Absolutely.

Being pet-friendly does change the game.

It really opens up your exposure to more people, but you have to be prepared not

just with the amenities you leave them, but also with what happens when you

turn that place over so that if the next guest who comes stays with you, they

don't want to be a part of a pet-friendly space, can you reset the stage to a point

where it can still serve their needs?

The guests who come check in next, you need to make sure you're communicating.

I've had guests appreciate that we say that we're pet-friendly because that way

they know that place is not for them.

Right.

Let's just do one little bonus point on this episode, Sarah.

There was a problem recently with pet hair in beds.

How have you combated that?

Because that was an issue for a while.

We do want to be honest with the guests, some things that

come along with furry friends.

Yeah.

That's a whole other-- how much time you got?

We tried a few things, listeners.

So we tried a sign on the fridge saying--

Yeah.

I'm not a fan of that though.

Your pets are not allowed to sleep in the beds.

And then we went a little bit of a less aggressive route, and we had a

cute little 4 by 6 picture frame that just reminded our guests that we prefer

the pets not to sleep in the bed.

We also have in our house rules that if you want the pets in your

bed, to bring your own linens.

But here's the moral story.

They're going to go into your bed anyway.

And here's what worked for us, is, obviously, we charge a pet

fee, and that's a whole other conversation, but we don't do it the

way Airbnb tries to have us do it.

We have our own system for collecting pet fees because one

flat fee, one-size-fits-all, it does not work for our business.

So knowing that we have extra funds to work with to get these linens to

where they need to go, but in a easy to explain, we lint roll the bed

before we take the bedding off the bed.

So we remove as much hair as we can.

We wash it by itself.

Make sure it gets washed by itself.

If you send it out to the laundromat, make sure it gets sent out by itself.

And then we use-- what does work, and what I'll link to in the show notes, are these

dryer sheets that are made to collect more pet hair, because Annette's referring to

one instance where I stripped a bed that had a dog on it, and Iint rolled it off.

As you couldn't get it all off, we washed it separately, and I could

still see some hair on the bedding, and I put it in the dryer anyway,

and I put it with those dryer sheets.

I took it out.

Nothing.

It was awesome.

It was good to go.

So those are my tips.

That's what works for me.

If you have any more tips you want to add to that, let us know.

Yeah.

Pet-friendly places, reach out.

Let us know.

All right.

With that, hopefully that's helpful.

I'm Sarah Karakaian.

I am Annette Grant, and together we are--

Thanks for Visiting.