On Booking.com you have the option to select “traveling with pets” in your search query. But what does that mean? I was expecting that the search results (aka rooms) would all be pet-friendly. Is that the case?
No! Booking.com will show you hotels, not rooms that are pet-friendly. Confused? I was too! It means that a “pet-friendly” hotel could have a specific amount of rooms that accept pets, but Booking.com will show you all available rooms, also the ones where pets are not allowed!
In other words: The filter “pet-friendly” works on the property level, not on the room level. Not quite useful from a user (aka pet owner) perspective!
If you accidentally book a room that is not pet-friendly you might be up for a surprise. Worst case, the hotel might not even have any pet-friendly rooms left when you arrive there late at night. Very frustrating! This happened to me during my hiking trip in Czech republic (read more here)
So what can you do?
- Always double-check: Carefully read the description of the room, it might mention explicitely if pets are (not) allowed
- Call the hotel by phone! This might be the easiest way to get a rock-solid answer. It might feel as an extra step that makes you loose time – But at least you prevent unpleasant surprises and stress!