Dealing with Unauthorized Pets in Your Vacation Rental

Hello hosts! It seems like one of the most common issues we face as vacation rental owners is when an unauthorized pet shows up at our unit. And I get it, I’ve dealt with it before. What can be more annoying than when you feel like your guest has blatently broken your rules? So how do you prevent this, avoid poor reviews, and/or collect the pet fees that they’ve skirted? Today’s video is designed to help you navigate through this issue like a pro and provide you with some advice on how to tackle this issue. 

Let’s get into it.

Use Pro-active Pre-arrival Information

Even before the guest arrives to the property, part of your pet ‘prevention’ policy should start from when they make a reservation at your property. There are three places to make this readily available in points of contact with your prospective guest.

1. When describing the amenities of your unit on your OTA (Airbnb, VRBO, etc).
2. In your first communication directly with the guest. When you send your guest confirmation of their booking, you can contact them directly, including clear wording that your unit is pet-free.
3. Remind them close to the arrival date. Whether you have your guests sign an electronic form or send a list of your access and house rules, reminding guests that your unit is pet-free, and applicable costs for failure to comply helps to reinforce your message.

These steps will stop most people who are coming to rent your short-term rental. So what else should you be doing?

Don’t Monitor Their Every Step

There are always going to be some people who try to skirt around your rules. Whether it makes them feel better about themselves, or they just want to avoid pet fees, it’s unclear why some people feel it’s necessary to hide their pets from your unit. They probably have gotten away with it at other places, but that doesn’t excuse their behaviour. 

However, lack of trust does not give you an excuse to monitor their every step. Don’t review the camera for no reason, as you will end up disappointed by someone eventually. It’s a waste of your time and energy, and you could have spent your time doing much more productive things and it just adds unnecessary stress that you don’t need.

If You Do Find a Pet Has Been In the Unit, Remain Calm and Collected

For example, let’s say you live next door to your vacation rental, and you see a dog come out of the back seat. What are your supposed to do, and how are you supposed to approach the guest? You might feel the need, want, or desire to call out the guest right away while you’re angry and have a lot of emotion, but I do not recommend entering the situation in this state of mind. It’s important that you take a moment, calm yourself down, and recollect your thoughts before approaching the situation. Going in angry will just escalate things, and nobody wants that. You’re also just asking for a poor review by entering the situation angry.

So you’re going to approach the situation calmly with an effort to de-escalate, gently reminding them of the pet policy, and allowing them to respond. 

It’s also possible that there was a misunderstand. It may be that they are actually travelling with a service animal, not a pet. Service animals are not considered pets, and they have different rights that emotional support dogs, therapy dogs, and other animals don’t have and are usually covered by federal law.

If A Pet Damages Your Unit…

If there’s evidence that an animal went to the toilet on your carpet or caused some sort of damage to your STR, you have the right to request compensation for damages to your STR if an animal has caused damages. Take pictures and submit clear supporting documents to show damage. You can submit a claim to Aircover, for example, or directly to the guest.

And most importantly…

Do NOT Fear Poor Reviews!

One of the main reasons why owners are afraid to deal with pets in their pet-free accommodations is for fear of poor reviews. However, this mindset is a bit silly – you should never fear a poor review. If a guest writes back with a big list of complaints or are demanding compensation after you’ve told them that you’ll be charging them for pet fees or damages, that’s a huge red flag and you should report them to the site they booked on right away.

VRBO, Airbnb, and other OTAs have clear content guidelines expressly prohibiting extortion and threatening language from hosts and guests. If you feel that you’re the victim of an extortion attempt, it’s important that you report that as soon as possible. Even if the guest is still staying in your unit and threatening you with a poor review, most websites will allow you to submit a report ahead of time. They will usually pro-actively monitor your listing for any retaliatory reviews from the guest. Some will even remove the review before it even ever goes online.

So those are a few quick tips to dealing with unauthorized pets in your unit. I don’t think many people really actually enjoy dealing with confrontation, but as hospitality professionals, sometimes we need to step up and call out inappropriate behaviour. Have you had to deal with this issue before? Let me know in the comments, and, as always, happy hosting!