Questions · Straight answers
Hotel Dog Breed and Size Restrictions
Common, frequently unpublished, and not supported by the damage data.
The short answer
Most hotels that accept dogs restrict which dogs. The two usual instruments are a weight cap, commonly somewhere between 25 and 50 pounds, and a breed list, commonly described as excluding "aggressive breeds" without naming them. Both are frequently absent from the booking page, and a meaningful number of properties operate restrictions that appear nowhere in writing at all.
The rule that exists nowhere
The sharpest version is the unpublished one. One guest was evicted from a chain hotel in the middle of their stay because their dog was a breed the property quietly refused, a restriction that appeared on no page they had seen. The chain backed the property, citing local restrictions that had never been published.
An unwritten rule cannot be checked before booking. That is the point of leaving it unwritten. It also means a guest can do everything right, read every page, and still be turned away at the desk with a car full of luggage and a tired dog.
What a weight limit actually excludes
A 25-pound cap excludes a Labrador, a Golden Retriever, a German Shepherd and most family dogs. In other words it excludes the dogs most families actually have, while the property continues to advertise itself as pet friendly.
The published damage research does not distinguish by size at all. There is no evidence that a 60-pound dog does more damage than a 20-pound one, and the largest studies of pet damage do not break results down by weight. So the cap is not risk management. It is a quiet refusal, expressed as a number, disclosed late.
The risk being priced
It is worth knowing what the damage research actually found, because it is the usual justification. The Pet-Inclusive Housing Initiative found that 9% of pet-owning residents reported their animal ever causing damage, while property managers in the same study estimated 28%. When damage did occur it averaged $210, against $223 for damage in homes with no animal at all.
A survey of UK letting agents found pets caused damage in 85.3% of cases, adult humans in 84.7% and children in 54.9%. The risk a dog represents is close to the risk of admitting anybody.
How to find out before you pay
Ask in writing, by email, and keep the reply. Is there a weight limit, and what is the exact number. Is there a breed restriction, and which breeds specifically. Does the property apply any restriction that is not published on its website. Does the answer apply to this individual hotel or to the whole chain, since policies vary property by property even within one brand.
That last question matters more than people expect. Guests report the same brand being generous at one property and highly restrictive at another, which means a chain-level answer is not an answer.
Service animals are outside this
Breed and size restrictions do not lawfully apply to an ADA service animal in the United States. Guidance is explicit that a service animal "may not be excluded based on assumptions or stereotypes about the animal’s breed". Exclusion has to rest on the actual behaviour of that individual animal.
The full argument behind this. The Hidden Trade-Off is one of the seven patterns this site documents. Read it as a dog owner → · as a hotelier →
You are not the only one. Guests describing this in public, every source named. Read the complaints →
Sources
- Guest account of a mid-stay eviction over a breed the chain did not publish. Reddit, r/dogs.
- TripAdvisor Q&A, DoubleTree Flagstaff pet policy: first-floor pet rooms only, $300 if found elsewhere, banned from lobby, restaurant, bar and pool (named).
- Pet-Inclusive Housing Initiative, 2021 report on reported pet damage rates and repair costs. Full report.
- Propertymark, "Renting with pets" survey on damage by pets, adults and children. Propertymark.
- US Department of Justice, ADA Service Animals FAQ. ada.gov.