Pet-Friendly Hotels Leave No Paw Unpampered

Alison Stein Wellner

As hotels and resorts compete to provide guests with ever more luxurious amenities, a growing number are realizing that they've been neglecting a certain subset of their clientele: the kind with four legs -- or feathers, or scales.

Some 29 million, or 14%, of U.S. adults brought the family pet with them on at least one trip in the past three years, according to the Travel Industry Association.

Most travel with a dog (78%), while a few hardy souls traveled with cats (15%). A few folks even travel with birds, ferrets, rabbits or fish. As the number of non-human guests is substantial, luxury hotels are catering to these animal guests in ways that many people won't experience at more budget-friendly accommodations.

Since most pet people travel with their dogs, it stands to reason that the most pet-friendly hotels are prepared to cater to canines.

	The Lap of Luxury

The Wyndham in Orange County, Calif., provides the broad outlines of what you and your dog can expect when you're traveling deluxely. When you book their "Paws and Claws" package, a "Pet Care Manager" will get in touch with you three days before you arrive to find out what exactly Fido will require for his stay.

Waiting in the room on check-in will be your choice of dog snacks (rawhide chews, Milk-Bone treats, dog cookies) a plush pet bed (which will be turned down at the same time the people-bed is turned down each night), a directory of pet-sitting services and maps for great dog walks, plus pooper-scooper bags and lint brushes.

On Saturdays and Sundays, you can pay extra to join the Paws and Claws Breakfast, where you and your dog dine on a patio and the dog eats on special china. A donation of $5 per room per night is made to Greyhound Pets of America.

As with all things in high-end accommodations, pet hospitality is heading straight over the top.

Take the amenities waiting for your dog in the room. That plush pet bed, for instance, won't just be any plush pet bed at Esperanza in Cabos San Lucas, Mexico.

There, each bed is fitted with an orthopedic pad, topped with a down-filled cushion, and then fitted with luxury linens by Italian Rivolta Carmignani, that are changed daily.

Welcome gifts go beyond a snack at Arizona's L'Auberge de Sedona, where each dog is outfitted with "a fashionable bandana".

The Rome Cavalieri Hilton strains at the leash further, and upon request provide white cotton robes for pets and cashmere doggy jumpers with the pet's name written in rhinestones across the front. The garments are made by Odilia Prisco Dog Haute Couture Atelier for the hotel.

One hopes that the dog won't ruin the rhinestone jumper while tucking into the room service at the Cavalieri Hilton, which is served in a Gucci dog bowl on an actual golden platter.

Speaking of which, like any human vacationer, pets will want a decent meal or two while they're away. At The Inn at Perry Cabin in St. Michaels, Md., Chef Mark Salter's "Canine Guest Menu" includes a Succulent Casserole of Boneless Lamb Shank with Steamed Carrots and English Peas, and Osso Bucco with Seasonal Vegetables, each priced by weight: eight ounces for $16.00; twelve ounces for $18.00 sixteen ounces for $20.00.

At The Regent Berlin, pets enjoy a treat prepared by the chief patissier of the hotel's two-star Michelin restaurant, Fischer's Fritz. The James Hotel in Chicago offers a dog menu, but also does not discriminate against cats, who may dine on smoked salmon lollipops, salmon and tuna tartar tower with creme fraiche or chicken paillard with liver "snaps." (The cat will surely need the after-dinner mint provided to all pets that order room service.)

At the Biltmore in Phoenix, Ariz., both cats and dogs are invited to enjoy "Zen Yo" from the room service menu, which is a "hearty vegetable stir-fry with poached eggs & steamed rice, developed especially to help pets adjust to jet lag and altitude, this dish is easy to digest and helps to re-hydrate travel weary dogs and cats."

No matter how luxurious the food offerings, though, travelers at this level often have their own idiosyncratic requirements. The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago reports that several guests have requested Bling H20 for their dogs to drink. (Bling H20 bottles are hand-decorated in Swarovski crystals and run upwards of $20 each.) Another guest requested fresh tripe for doggie, which the staff purchased from a local butcher.

There's more to vacationing than eating, though. What sort of a trip would it be if your pet was marooned in the room all day long?

At the Raffles L'Ermitage in Beverly Hills, the staff routinely arranges for pets to hang out at The Club, an upscale day-care mansion with private suites with Frette sheets, a dog whisperer, spa treatments, yoga and so on. The hotel arranges a private car service that delivers and picks up the pet so they will be waiting upon the guest's return to the room.

For the social pet, the Peninsula Beverly Hills staff can arrange "pet play dates", while New York's Muse hotel offers "Hers and Furs Pet-icure," side-by-side spa treatments for you and your pet.

For ambitious pet owners, there are also hotels that offer what can only be described as resume builders. The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples Florida location offers "Petiquette" classes, which is like obedience school.

The Loews properties go for the extracurriculars. At their Nashville property, there's "The Hound of Music," in which a dog is limo'd to a professional recording studio, with a voice coach, to "howl along with a musician or bark to their favorite karaoke beat," with the results preserved forever on a CD with a personalized CD case.

At the Coronado Bay property there's "Su'ruff Camp" (yes, that's surfing lesson), while the Denver property has "Outward Hound," a two hour on-and-off leash guided hike with a personal trainer.

For more relaxed pets (and their owners) that would just as soon get by on their looks, the Gansevoort South in Miami Beach offers a pet happy hour on Sundays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The dogs run around, the owners have discounted cocktails.

If all of this sounds like a great deal of fun, but you happen to lack a four-legger, there's no need to despair. At the St. Regis Resort in Aspen, the concierge will arrange for you to borrow a dog from the Aspen Animal Shelter for you to hike or hang out with during your stay.

If all goes well, you can adopt your new travel companion -- and acquire the need to investigate more pet-friendly accommodations on future trips.

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