Posts tagged "pet-friendly"

Be honest, your (human) sweetheart isn't the only true love in your life. If you're taking a special trip Valentine's weekend, why not bring your precious pooch with you?

Kimpton's Vero Beach Hotel & Spa in Vero Beach, Fla., is offering a new package that's sure to get your dog's tail wagging: The Pooch n' Smooch package, which, for the Valentine's Day weekend, starts at $368 per night. (For non-holidays, peak season rates begin at $288 per night and off season rates begin at $198 per night. The package will be available through December 22, 2010.)

While the hotel property is always pet-friendly, the Pooch n' Smooch package makes your "ménage à paw" extra special by offering a Pampered Pooch Picnic at the Dog Park (with a basket that includes a picnic blanket, two wine spritzers, organic treats for mom and dad, dog treats, ball, collapsible dog bowl, and a clean-up bag); turndown amenity of Champagne and homemade doggie treats from local pet boutique Hearth & Hound; and a $5 donation to Indian River County Humane Society.

If that's not quite enough, you can purchase upgrades including a photo shoot with your pet on the beach ($75) and two Kimpton bathrobes and a dog bed ($300).

If this package doesn't quite tickle your fancy, don't worry; there are lots of pet-friendly hotels available for you to choose from!

Ah, college. All those tough classes, the crazy parties, the dog walking, the flea-collar-purchasing...

That's right. Florida's Stetson University has tapped one of its dormitories to provide the first pet-friendly housing on campus starting next fall, reports WESH News in Orlando, Fla. School administrators say they believe that students bringing along pets will help relieve the stress of living away from home for the first time. According to Dean of Students Rina Tovar, "If they can bring Fido, or one of the Fidos, the family pet with them to school, it's going to help with that transition and really help with them feeling comfortable."

Stetson's Director of Housing and Residential Life, Justin Williams, tells Paw Nation that the pet-friendly housing will be found in Nemec Hall. 36 of Nemec Hall's rooms will be included as part of the program, allowing residents to share space with hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, mice, rats, cats, and dogs under 30 pounds. The building will even feature a dog park just outside its walls. A pet council will deal with any problems that may arise -- the animal residents fighting like cats and dogs, maybe? No word yet on whether the rooms will be connected by hamster tunnels or plain old human hallways.

Now that we're married, Anna and I are almost ready to start looking in earnest for a pooch. But first we have to find a new apartment. You know the song: "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes an apartment run by a landlord forward-thinking enough to allow dogs."

We're ready to say goodbye to our tiny apartment in Hoboken, because it doesn't have nearly enough room for all the loot we acquired at the wedding our future canine friend. We also want to be closer to Anna's work, a solid 30-minute drive outside of New York City. Suburbia, here we come!

Some landlords and real estate brokers we've come across aren't too keen on pups. Plenty of desirable apartments don't permit pets, or else only permit cats. (If anything, I'd think they'd be less likely to allow felines, as cat pee is absolutely impossible to get out of carpets and floors.) One broker said that if we want a dog we will have to settle for a "bottom tier" place.

Hogwash! According to a study commissioned by the Pet Savers Foundation a few years back, it turns out that people with pets actually make for ideal tenants. They stay longer, are willing to pay more and don't cause nearly as much damage to units as, say, children.

New York City is the place to be for fashion, theater, fine dining -- and, it turns out, is also a pet-friendly city. The housing rental website Rent.com recently released a list of the top 10 pet-friendly cities in the U.S. The Big Apple takes the top spot, with cities from North, South, East and West rounding out the list.

Rent.com president Peggy Abkemeier told Paw Nation that her company combed through thousands of pet-friendly rental listings to find cities with a significant percentage of cat- and dog-friendly pads for rent. "Of the Rent.com listings in Charleston and Austin, 98 percent are pet-friendly," Abkemeier told Paw Nation. Next, she and her team looked at other pet criteria such aspublic parks, doggie daycares, pet-friendly restaurants and off-leash beaches.

Abkemeier said that these days, the rental climate is pretty welcoming to pet owners around the country. "In fact, 80 percent of our national inventory is pet-friendly," she added. And as property owners deal with vacancies linked to the economic downturn, some are becoming even more flexible in their pet policies, she said.

Unfortunately, not all landlords are as charmed by our four-legged friends as we are. Abkemeier offered some tips for sweet-talking a potential landlord and landing the perfect pad.

• Ease landlords' worries by ensuring that your rental insurance will cover any pet-related damages.
• Show landlords recommendations from your current landlord or neighbors who can vouch for your pet's good behavior.
• Offer up written evidence of vaccinations and obedience training, so your potential landlord knows your dog is healthy and won't keep the neighbors up all night.
• Introduce your potential landlord to your pet. Abkemeier says that landlords often bend the rules when they see how sweet and well-behaved your pooch or kitty is in person.

To make things easier for cat- and dog-lovers, Rent.com lets you search a list of more than 20,000 apartments and homes where pets are welcome, and not just in the cities that made the top-ten list.

Did your hometown make the list of the most pet-friendly cities? Take a look at the top ten, then let us know what the pet climate is like in your neighborhood!

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