Peer-to-peer vacation rentals: Any dog-friendly ones?
Remember when VRBO was kind of edgy? When you wondered whether it was really a reliable way to make your vacation plans? VRBO and HomeAway now feel like solid, dependable resources, and their sites reflect their maturity. Among other things, you can search for properties using a variety of parameters (including whether a property is pet-friendly) to narrow your choices. To find edgy now, you need to look at a new crop of sites offering couch space, floor space, rooms, and apartments and homes for short-term rental (or not so new — CouchSurfing, for example, has been around for over ten years).
Photo by donjd2
Prompted by a recent New York Times article (“Europe Without Hotels”) about “peer-to-peer hotels” or social B&B networks, I took a look at all the peer-to-peer sites I could find to see how easy it is for a traveler with a small dog to locate pet-friendly places to stay. The short answer? It varies. Your best options are Roomorama, Second Porch, and Airbnb.
Here they are, in alphabetical order. Have I missed a favorite resource/site? Let me know in a comment, and I’ll check it out!
Airbnb — Find a shared room, private room or apartment/home in 150 countries. No way to search for pet-friendly properties, but you can see if a property you’re interested in is pet-friendly by clicking on “Amenities” and seeing if “Pets Allowed” is checked or barred out.
CouchSurfing — Find a couch, or just share a coffee or a drink with a host, in countries around the world. No way to search for pet-friendly properties, but the listings typically say whether the host has a pet or not, and you can ask if yours would be welcome.
Crashpadder — Find a sofabed, a room or an apartment/home in 64 countries. No way to search for pet-friendly apartments, and pets aren’t typically mentioned in descriptions. Contact the owner directly. [7/21/10 As you'll see in the comments, Stephen from Crashpadder suggests that you send an e-mail to hello [at] crashpadder [dot] com asking for a list of dog-friendly options in the location you’re interested in.]
HouseTrip — Find a holiday apartment in…well, where? The site lists seven “top destinations” (Paris, Berlin, London, Rome, Barcelona, Lisbon, and Prague), but does not offer an easy way to browse other locations. I tried searches in San Francisco and Stockholm (nothing), Munich (one property), and Vienna and Amsterdam (several properties), so it is possible to use HouseTrip to visit other cities. There is no way to search for pet-friendly properties, but individual listings sometimes state that dogs are unwelcome (click on “See more details,” and then look under “Suitability”). If pets are not mentioned, contact the owner with your query.
iStopOver — Find a room or an apartment/home in cities around the world (as with HouseTrip, there’s no easy way to browse all of the available properties; look at the bottom of the iStopOver home page for “featured destinations,” or type in the city you’re interested in). There is no way to search for pet-friendly properties, but in a property’s description (under “Amenities include”), you’ll sometimes see a note saying that pets are not allowed. If pets are not mentioned, contact the owner with your query (this site, at least, makes it easy to contact the owner).
Roomorama — Find a room or an apartment/home in cities around the world — all of which, glory be, are listed and browsable from the home page. You can search for properties that are pet-friendly (really, I’m loving this site) by starting with a basic search (say, all available properties in Paris) and then refining your search (click on “Pets Allowed” under “Amenities” in the left-hand column).
Second Porch — Find vacation homes for rent or trade across the U.S. You can search for properties that are pet-friendly by starting with a basic search on the home page (e.g., “New York”), and then using the “Advanced Search” button at the top of the resulting page to request specific features (check the “Dog friendly” box under “Property Amenities”).
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Hmmm … for me, it’s one thing to have a bit of a vagabond adventure. Taking a dog along? I think I’d be too nervous to risk an “alternative” source of lodging.
I hear you, Roxanne, though it might be nice at times to get Chloe’s take on people. (What am I saying? She loves everyone. She’d be useless.) Take a look at the offerings, though — CouchSurfing is still pretty couch-y, but the rest all offer apartments that you can have to yourself, and for darned good prices….
We do have a number of dog-friendly properties on Crashpadder.com and are looking into ways to make these more searchable (any advice to hello@crashpadder.com would be appreciated!) – in the meantime you can pop us an email with your requirements and we’ll send through a list of suitable Crashpads.
Roxanne, I totally understand your reservations of using one of the sites listed here when travelling with a pet, but do think of the upsides. If you stay with another dog-owner you find out the best local walks, pet stores and, whilst one hopes it won’t be needed, the local vet. Who knows – you and your dog may make new friends!
Thanks so much for your comment, Stephen — and for the suggestion that people who want to find dog-friendly Crashpads contact you guys by e-mail! I will indeed send an e-mail with my thoughts about making the site easier to search — it’ll urge Crashpadder to take the same approach Roomorama and Second Porch (and VRBO) take, which is to offer an Advanced Search option, with parameters you can check to narrow down your choices.
Great list of sites to try! I always have trouble finding places to stay that will accept my pomeranian, but I try and use sites that specifically state a pet policy of some kind so nothing is left to the imagination! There is another website I’d like to add to the list of peer-to-peer sites and that would be: MetroFlats.com”
MetroFlats.com has a really strong presence in New York, but I know they have listings in Florida, Georgia and a few other areas. Their search feature is really fantastic and the usability of the site seems great!
Great, Tiffany — thanks!! I’ll check them out right now. [Time passes.] Okay, I’ve taken a look and MetroFlats.com does seem like a promising resource for U.S. vacation rentals. Not easy to browse locations — you need to type in your desired destination, though you can (slowly) get an alphabetical list of destinations by starting to type “a,” or “b,” etc. — and no way to search for pet-friendly locations BUT individual listings do indicate whether dogs are welcome or not.