Scotland

Each year I see more and more people taking their family pet away with them on their annual vacation. I used to only see old age pensioners taking their pet dog with them but now it is just as common to see a whole family with the dog. I don’t know why this surprises me so much as when I was a child we always took our dog with us when we went camping and the only time we didn’t was when we stayed in a hotel. Maybe that is it, maybe these days more hotels and guest houses allow pets? I pondered on this for a while and took a look at some of the many articles on the Internet about so called “Pet Friendly Hotels”. I then decided to begin creating lists of places which allow pets and could therefore be said to be pet friendly.

After only a short time of searching it quickly became obvious that only a very small percentage of accommodation allows pets, I would estimate this to be as low as only one percent of the total accommodation for any chosen destination. In such places as Edinburgh and Glasgow this may give you over a dozen places to look at but when you begin to look at less popular destinations with less hotels the choice begins to become rather limited. Even when I took a close look at pet friendly accommodation in Aberdeen I was shocked to only find 12 hotels and guest houses which clearly stated that pets were allowed but when I came to investigate pet friendly accommodation in Ayr I was disgusted to find only 5 places where pets are allowed!

How upsetting it must be for folk to work their way through over 100 places offering superb accommodation to find that only a small number of these are suitable for their requirements. As most of us are trying to be careful with our pennies these days I would expect more people to consider taking their pets along with them on vacation and pet travel is something of a hot topic at the moment. If you have a dog you will know exactly how expensive it is to place your family pet in a kennel for a couple of weeks. Image if this cash was yours to spend on your vacation. By taking your pet with you it can vastly reduce the overall cost as many places do not charge extra and where their hotel policies state that their may be an extra charge it is either small or they only charge if your pet happens to cause damage.

OK so sometimes it may not be really suitable to take a pet along with you everywhere you go during your vacation but if you take adequate precautions it is often the case that your dog can stay in your car while you visit somewhere. I must point out here that if you do this you should take EXTREME care to ensure your pets comfort as far too many people do such stupid things as leaving a dog in a car in the blazing sun with no water and the windows closed, obviously the car quickly becomes an oven and your dog will not last long under such conditions. You can easily find yourself in hot water with the likes of the RSPCA, so always make sure you park in the shade, leave water available and windows open as much as they can and only ever leave your pet for short lengths of time. Remember leaving a pet in a vehicle should only be done if there is simply no alternative.

I have started to add lists of pet friendly hotels & accommodation on Ezine Articles and have so far written about pet friendly accommodation in Aberdeen, Ayr, Birmingham, Bristol and Blackpool, I am just about to write an article about pet friendly accommodation in Manchester. If you would like to keep an eye on the “pet friendly” articles I am writing at the moment visit http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Andrew_M_Kelly&ecat=Travel-and-Leisure:Pet-Friendly-Rentals where you will find a complete list of those written for that site. Below is a list of the articles written up to this date:

Pet Friendly Places to Stay in Ayr, Scotland

A Dozen Pet Friendly Places to Stay in Aberdeen, Scotland

Pet Friendly Places to Stay in Birmingham City Centre, England

Finding Pet Friendly Hotels in Bristol, England

Pet Friendly Blackpool Accommodation

If you would like to see lists for other places either keep tabs of me using the link above or post a comment/request below and I will create a list then delete your message where suitable.