Re: Accepting pets

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:03:24 GMT

We keep getting people that want to bring a dog. We advertise that we are not pet friendly but when they ask I often relent because when my family uses the cottage they bring their dog which is why I am always torn. We charge $100 for one week with a dog. But that is based on the real cost of extra cleaning. I would look at what your real costs have been/could be, then charge them. We have had one dog jump through a screen through a particularly harrowing rain storm. We also had a stain on a rug that caused us to replace the rug. Of course we were about to change it anyway, but the stain put us over the edge. So you might want to figure out how much a new rug might cost and put a really high secruity deposit and a low weekly/monthly payment. Pam

Pam Prosch home 773-935-9324, cell 773-451-6577

Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 17:23:24 -0500

From: community@homeaway.com

To: pprosch@hotmail.com

Subject: Re: Accepting pets - Re: Accepting pets

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Re: Accepting pets

created by sliver2907 in Pet Policies - View the full discussion

Ok, so here is the story of what happened. Since we decide to go pet friendly we received 2 calls. One from someone who wanted a 4 month stay with his Labrador, and a maximum $12,000 budget. (I charge $3000 a month). This left me with no money to pay state taxes, no pet fees, no pet deposit, no cleaning fee, just a take or leave it $12,000 rent. Told him our pet fees in addition to the rent, which he said were too high. Never heard from him again. Second story: a person writes, they want to bring their 2 small dogs, and they are fine with the rent, taxes, deposit, cleaning fee. When they got to the part about the costs for the dogs which I had set at $25 per day for BOTH dogs, not per dog, plus a non refundable pet deposit of $125, they said “unreasonable”. On a 6 month rental, this came out to quite a lot, I admit myself. Now, if you read through VRBO suggestions, they are the ones who suggested $25 per day for pets, (per pet) as well as my lawyer who said that is about what he was charged when he rented a VRBO with his dogs. I am finding from the comments that I am getting from my query, that people are charging a lot less for pets than what VRBO recommends. I went back, checked and calculated the following: after they leave, I would need to clean the house, fumigate front and back of yard for fleas, fumigate house, professionally clean the area rugs and the sofas and cover my increased homeowner’s insurance. Recalculated it came to $13 a day, cut the dog fees in half, and this is for both dogs not just one. Answer back...unreasonable. Renters have now advised me they have found other options that work for them. Two days later received email...oooops, we find your price reasonable, we are interested again...ok, so I book, send a payment request....2 days later...another email....we have found another house that meets our needs we are not in need of your house again. Not really interested in dealing with these people again for obvious reasons.Now, really, would people simply show up at a neighbor’s house, or a relative with their dog in tow? Yet from my small experience with this issue, people feel that their dogs must be accommodated at my home free of charge. Yes, I once had a dog, a wonderful dog, who, in her 12 years, chewed up a friends leather handbag (that was an expensive lesson), dug a huge hole in the carpet while we were out, to escape a thunderstorm, peed in various parts of the house, left hair everywhere and yes, had a flea problem now and then. ( A part of living in South Florida). Not a problem, I just need to replace the items that are damaged, or could be, and leave the house in perfect repair for the next renter. People need to accept the fact that dogs rub against walls (repaint), don’t know how to use a toilet, and so sorry...they carry fleas. (NOT MY LITTLE FLUFFY!!! SHE WOULD NEVER HAVE A FLEA ON HER). This costs money. Anyway, I am looking for a happy medium for charges, since I don’t want to turn away a third long term rental. Please...I have heard from 3 people, thank you so much, and would like to hear from more so I can come to an average of the industry.

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Accepting pets

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:16:22 GMT

We originally said no pets on our profile. But everyone who wanted to rent said they had a wonderful dog and could I bend the rules. Since we use the property on occasion and have a dog ourselves, it seemed like we should change the policy and we did.

So my question is what special requirements do you ask for if someone wants to bring their dog (we are not accepting cats).

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